Should the Twins continue to hold onto first place well into July, and Corey Kluber is unable to return from a broken pitching elbow, there is the belief that Cleveland could look to trade Trevor Bauer. After all, the Yankees were rumored just this past offseason about potentially acquiring the 28-year-old right-hander.
Currently sitting just 4.5 games out of first place in the AL Central, the Indians are still very much in the thick of a two-horse race — especially when you consider the baseball season doesn’t genuinely begin to take shape until Memorial Day.
Thanks to the advent of the second Wild Card, many teams, some unworthy, stay in the hunt for the Postseason until August, thereby putting a premium on trades this season — now that the post-July 31 waiver trade period has been wiped away.