10 teams with the prospects to make major moves at the Trade Deadline

With the Trade Deadline just about a week away, something big is brewing across the Major League landscape. The big question on everyone's mind: Who is going to pull off the blockbuster move? Which team is going to part with its best, young, cost-controlled future talent(s) to go for it all right now?

On the latest MLB Pipeline Podcast, Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo -- along with host Jason Ratliff -- discussed which teams are best positioned to make such a deal. The criteria to make this list broke down to a couple of factors: the first was teams with the ability to make these trades. You can't have a blockbuster without the pieces in place, so a farm system with top prospects was crucial for this discussion. The next was desire. Only teams with a clear path to the playoffs in front of them and a realistic shot at a World Series run would be considered here.

So, with that in mind, our gurus narrowed the list down to 10 teams and then ranked them according to how likely they thought the team will be to go all-in and make that big move to carry them deep into October.

Here is how it broke down:

Cubs

Callis: The Cubs are the team with prospects to trade and the desire to make a trade. This is a franchise that hasn’t won a playoff series since 2017. They haven’t made the playoffs in a while. They're fighting the Dodgers and the Brewers right now for the best record in the National League. And they also have a backlog of prospects, who don’t have a place to play.

In Triple-A alone, they have Owen Caissie, Moisés Ballesteros and Kevin Alcántara, who are all on our Top 100 Prospects list. And, they don’t have outfield openings in Chicago. Ballesteros, who’s a catcher, is still learning to catch, so he’s not ready to catch in the big leagues. So, because they have these guys that are kind of spinning their wheels at Triple-A, and they are also very motivated to make the playoffs and try to make a run. I would be very surprised if the Cubs don’t make a significant trade or two, to perhaps add a starting pitcher or get some bullpen help. Matt Shaw is not hitting great as a rookie, maybe someone to bolster third base? It’s not going to be 'everybody must go,' but they’re going to be ready to listen to just about any trade proposal and are going to make something happen.

Mariners

Mayo: Jerry Dipoto has a long and storied history of a willingness to make trades in every direction. So, I would be surprised if they don’t do something to bolster their big league team.

They have eight Top 100 players -- a lot of them are still at the lower levels -- but, Lazaro Montes is at Double-A, Michael Arroyo is now at Double-A, Harry Ford is in Triple-A. Harry Ford is an interesting one, because in a lot of ways I think you wouldn’t want to trade a guy who is only 22 and hitting very well in Triple-A, but he’s really only caught. They only just started playing around with him playing some outfield, but that hasn’t taken hold. But I’m sure there are a lot of teams that wouldn’t mind an upper-level, close-to-the-big-leagues-ready hitter and see how it looks behind the plate. He’s not going to catch in Seattle with Cal Raleigh there, so he's a guy I would kind of circle from this group. But, you’ve got all these Top 100 guys and it’s a pretty deep Top 30 too. So there could be something for everybody from the Mariners.

Phillies

Mayo: You’ve got Dave Dombrowski in that front office and he has never shied away from a Deadline deal or trades of any kind to help build a winner, and this is a team that expects to go deep into October. They're not gonna trade Andrew Painter, they still have designs on him helping out in Philadelphia at the end of the year. I don’t know if there's anybody else at this point who they wouldn’t consider trading. Aidan Miller's value is a little bit dinged right now because he’s had a rough year, but he's still very talented. Justin Crawford, if you're a rebuilding team, and you can trade for a Justin Crawford, you probably bring him up and let him play right away. Mick Abel has touched the big leagues, and again, on a rebuilding team you let him start the rest of the year.

This is an interesting farm system. They’ve got some guys further down who are intriguing. But, I think a lot of times rebuilding teams are looking for prospects who are at the upper levels so that they can get them to the big leagues sooner rather than later, show a return on investment and hopefully turn things around at the Major League level. And the Phillies do have some interesting pieces that fit that bill.

Tigers

Callis: I think the Tigers aren’t just looking to make the playoffs. I think they’re looking to make a deep run. The thing that is a little tricky with them, I don’t think they want to trade Kevin McGonigle or Max Clark or really even Bryce Rainer, their top three prospects, which makes it a little bit more difficult. It is a good farm system, I do think it’s top-heavy. They have Josue Briceño, Thayron Liranzo; those are two interesting guys. Hao-Yu Lee, Jaden Hamm, I could go on and on.

I don’t know, is there a blockbuster out there to be had? I don’t know that there is a guy out there that’s going to shock us. So, I don’t think they’re necessarily going to give up one of their big guns, but they do have some very interesting guys and I do think they’re in a position where -- not that they’re going to make short-sighted moves like Kevin McGonigle or Max Clark and go all in -- but I do think they’re in a position where you can realistically see them winning the pennant and potentially the World Series and so they should be aggressive.

Dodgers

Callis: I’ve lost track of how many injured pitchers the Dodgers have, but they’ve played well. Even though they have one of the best records in baseball, Freddie Freeman is in a slump, Mookie Betts hasn’t had a great year, a bunch of pitchers are hurt, they could use some reinforcements. They always seem to have a deep farm system, and they do again.

They have six guys on our Top 100 prospects list right now, four of them are outfielders. So, theoretically, you could trade a couple of those guys in the right deal, and they have outfield depth beyond that group. They have Alex Freeland at shortstop at Triple-A who hasn’t really had an opportunity to play in the big leagues. Jackson Ferris is one of the better lefties in the Minors, who’s not having his best year. They’ve got a bunch of super young talent, they have depth, they have upper-end talent, they obviously have the money to take on salary in whatever deal might be out there. So I would think that they're poised to pretty much go get whatever player they want to go get.

Mets

Mayo: I'm curious to see what they do, all six of their top six prospects are in Double-A or higher with varying degrees of success. I can't imagine them trading Jett Williams or Jonah Tong, although they don’t feel untouchable. Carson Benge is in Double-A now and he’s had a really good first full year. He could be interesting to a lot of teams. Nolan McLean is in Triple-A; I think they may be more likely to bring him up than trade him. Brandon Sproat has been a little bit up and down. I think if he had been a little bit better he’d already be in the big leagues or at least more of a trade commodity. If you go down their Top 30 a little bit, Drew Gilbert in Triple-A, Blade Tidwell has touched the big leagues, Jacob Reimer has had a nice year for them. These are all guys who have touched the upper levels for them and have been productive but don’t have that untouchable feel. I could imagine the Mets could put any of these guys together in a package.

Brewers

Mayo: Who will they be willing to part with? As we discussed before, they may have the sneakiest best farm system in baseball. But they’re not trading Jesús Made; they’re not trading Jacob Misiorowski. I don’t think they’ll trade Luis Peña. Even though those guys are far away, just given the success that they’ve had in that pipeline of aggressively moving their international signees to full-season ball at a super young age and having success, I don’t see that happening.

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Then you start getting down to Cooper Pratt, Jeferson Quero, Logan Henderson, who actually pitched well in the big leagues. They have some other guys beyond the big, big names, that I think can be used, maybe not in a big splashy blockbuster type trade, but to bring in some help for them to make a push and win the NL Central.

Yankees

Callis: The Yankees are always active at the Trade Deadline. I don’t think they’ll move George Lombard Jr., who’s their best prospect, but everyone is always looking for young pitching and they have a ton of young pitching.

Carlos Lagrange, who we just added to the Top 100 prospects list, Cam Schlitter isn’t far behind him and he’s in the big leagues. Ben Hess, Bryce Cunningham, Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz and Griffin Herring were all drafted last year. They're not gonna just clear out all those pitchers, but the Yankees feel very comfortable with their ability to find pitching and develop it, and I don’t think they're afraid to trade pitching because they feel like they can go out and find more of it. So, I think Spencer Jones is a guy who doesn’t have a place to play in New York right now, an outfielder who's tooled up and interesting, so he’s another potential trade piece. They do have a bunch of guys who I think they'd be willing to part with in the right deal.

Reds

Mayo: It’s a deep system, they're a little lower on this list because I’m just not sure who they would be willing to part with. Guys at the upper levels: Rhett Lowder is still working his way back from injury, Chase Petty has struggled lately, so it would be tough to trade from their pitching depth. Sal Stewart just made it to Triple-A. I would be surprised if they dealt him; I think they see him as their future third baseman. Maybe a guy like Cam Collier can be had, but he’s coming off of an injury. Edwin Arroyo has struggled this year, so his value is down. But they do have some middle-infield depth guys who are a little bit further away. You’ve got Sammy Stafura and Tyson Lewis, who is just absolutely raking in Rookie ball. So, maybe one of those middle infielder types could be had just because that’s where they have some depth in the upper third of their Top 30.

Red Sox

Callis: They’ve been busy. They’ve already traded Rafael Devers to the Giants, although that was trading a player for younger players and a veteran. The Big 3 coming into the year: Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell and Marcello Mayer, would have all graduated. I know Campbell is back in Triple-A, but they’re not going to trade him. They have a nice little collection of position prospects and they’re not going to have places for all these guys to play so will they trade them in the right deal? Franklin Arias and Jhostynxon Garcia, "The Password," are both on the Top 100 prospects list, they just got James Tibbs III in the Devers trade, who was a first-round pick last year, but they have a crowded outfield. Mikey Romero, Justin Gonzales are younger guys; Justin Gonzales would be interesting because I bet he gets asked about a lot as a guy who is just in A-ball and is only 18 years old.

I mentioned when we were talking about the Draft hauls, they’re trying to accumulate pitching so I don’t necessarily think they would trade a guy like a Payton Tolle or a Brandon Clarke, who are two lefties they drafted last year who have really emerged. But I do think they have all kinds of position-player talent and maybe not as pressing because the guys aren’t knocking on the door like the Cubs. But if you plot out what the lineup is going to look like in the future, there’s not enough places for all those guys to fit at Fenway Park.