MLB power rankings: Giants, Cardinals, Indians surging before trade deadline
By Sean Sears
4. Atlanta Braves, 60-43, 1st in the NL East (ranked 4th last week)
The Braves are one of the teams involved with the Royals for reliever Jake Diekman, who reportedly is expected to be moved shortly with Kansas City “working” on the trade as of Friday morning. However, it does sound like the Dodgers are the frontrunners for the talented lefty. But, in terms of the Braves right now, they haven’t been doing so hot going 4-6 over their last 10 games against the Nationals, Brewers, and the lowly Royals.
But after a few ugly losses for the Braves, it seems they are committed to adding more bullpen help and possibly another starter if the price is right. But for a young team that has quite a few injury issues, adding more depth to their pitching staff isn’t a bad idea. The Braves hope they won’t have to move someone like Ender Inciarte to acquire pitching, but they haven’t totally ruled out the idea.
3. New York Yankees, 66-36, 1st AL East (ranked 5th last week)
The Yankees are interested in almost all the starters on the market as they attempt to improve their rotation. Ideally, they’d love to add Mets starter Noah Syndergaard but it’s easy to see the Mets asking the Yankees for more in return or just not make a deal with the Yankees because they’re the Yankees. They’d also love to add Trevor Bauer from the Indians or Madison Bumgarner from the Giants but who knows if either team will part with their ace.
The Yankees also lost shortstop Troy Tulowitzki this week, who retired after 13 seasons in the MLB, but after only playing five games in a Yankee uniform dealing with health he decided to hang up his cleats. But New York hasn’t been missing Tulowitzki’s bat, winning seven of their last 10 games and fielding a middle infield duo of Didi Gregorius and Gleyber Torres, the Yankees are doing just fine. The Yankees could stand as is and likely have enough to make it out of the American League but their constant search for another starter makes it hard to envision GM Brian Cashman not landing one of these guys at the deadline.