The Los Angeles Angels find themselves in a peculiar position as the July 31 trade deadline approaches. The team entered Sunday just four games back in the AL wild-card race with close to a dozen players headed into free agency on the 25-man roster.
Among those players nearing the end of their contracts are right-handed relievers Bud Norris, David Hernandez and Yusmeiro Petit. "All are making relatively low salaries and probably wouldn’t clear waivers next month, so if the Angels become sellers this month, it would probably behoove them to swap that trio before the deadline," writes Buster Olney in his blog.