A week ahead of the MLB trade deadline, conversations -- the sort that will turn into a deluge of deals in the coming days -- started to pick up around Major League Baseball on Monday. With the MLB draft complete and the All-Star break passed, teams are finally turning their full attention to trade season.
The expectation, according to more than two dozen front office personnel members, is that while this deadline lacks a top-of-the-industry player, the openness of the playoff picture will compel a wide swath of teams to add from a limited pool of players.