Last year there were only four trades that happened in June across major league baseball while over twenty took place in July. I know in the case of Jay Bruce the Mariners wanted to unload him to give younger players a chance to play, which backfired with the injuries to Braden Bishop and Mitch Haniger.
Bishop was expected to start in center against lefties and be a defensive replacement coming off the bench against righties. We would see Mallex Smith in left field, Haniger in center and Domingo Santana in right field when facing righties.