{"id":723631,"date":"2026-06-24T18:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T18:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/723631\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T18:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T18:50:14","slug":"fifty-players-on-the-trading-block-plus-buster-posey-do-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/723631\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifty players on the trading block. Plus: Buster Posey, do better"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Windup Newsletter \u26be | This is The Athletic\u2019s MLB<\/a> newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive The Windup directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Our Trade Deadline Big Board (1.0) has arrived! Plus: Buster Posey comes up short in San Francisco, Pete Crow-Armstrong was called out in a way I\u2019ve never seen before, the Phillies had a wild comeback and MLB players let us know where they do (and don\u2019t) want to play.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Levi Weaver \u2014 welcome to The Windup!<\/p>\n

Trade Deadline: Big Board 1.0 is here<\/p>\n

I\u2019m mostly going to post the link and get out of the way here, but\u00a0version 1.0 of our Trade Deadline Big Board<\/a>\u00a0is out today,\u00a0featuring our top 50 trade targets, starting with No. 1 Tarik Skubal.<\/p>\n

Red dots mean a player is unlikely to be traded, green means they\u00a0are\u00a0likely and yellow \u2026 look, you know how colors work.<\/p>\n

You might see a lot of yellow dots next to AL players. As we\u2019ve said here on a few occasions, the AL is so bad this year that a lot of sub-.500 teams are still very much in the wild-card chase. So \u2026 yellow dots.<\/p>\n

That\u00a0should change in future editions of this Big Board, as bad teams keep losing and a few go on hot streaks. For now, this is a snapshot of the players we think make sense to highlight right now.<\/p>\n

Alright, I\u2019ll leave you to it<\/a>!<\/p>\n

More deadline:<\/p>\n

Middle Relief: MLB players rank orgs<\/p>\n

Today, we have\u00a0another edition of our Players Poll<\/a>, in which we asked big leaguers about franchise reputations. Here\u2019s an excerpt:\u00a0<\/p>\n

As part of our\u00a0annual player poll<\/a>, we wanted to know: Which organizations have good reputations among uniformed personnel? Which organizations have bad reputations? Players were allowed to offer multiple responses to each prompt and were granted anonymity in order to speak candidly.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the results of the latter question, which was posed to just over 100 players from 23 teams across the league.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, few of the players we polled were eager to answer this prompt.<\/p>\n

One American League pitcher answered this question with a question. It sounded rhetorical.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich,\u201d he said, \u201care the ones that are cheap as f\u2014?\u201d<\/p>\n

On Opening Day, each of the aforementioned teams had one of the majors\u2019 10 lowest payrolls. Given their lack of on-field success, it came as no surprise that the top four \u201cworst\u201d clubs in the graph were viewed as the organizations with the poorest reputations: The Rockies, on the heels of a historically awful season, received the most mentions with 28. They were followed, in order, by the Pirates, A\u2019s, White Sox and Angels, who continue to have a decent-sized payroll but seemingly little direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have no idea how to make anyone better at anything,\u201d another pitcher said of the Angels. \u201cAnd that\u2019s from guys who worked there. They have no idea what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

For years, many have said the same of the Rockies. Now, first-year president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta is\u00a0tackling baseball\u2019s most unique challenge<\/a>\u00a0with the aid of first-year general manager Josh Byrnes, an alum of the Dodgers\u2019 front office. The difficulty level at altitude is as high as ever. But the bar, in Denver, is low.<\/p>\n

\u201cColorado has been bad for a long time, but it sounds like they might be improving now with some new people,\u201d an AL hitter said.<\/p>\n

For the rest, including the good reputations and some city-by-city quotes,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Baseball Questions: Posey\u2019s answer comes up short<\/p>\n

You could make the argument that president of baseball operations is \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s right there in the title \u2014 a job that involves making\u00a0baseball\u00a0decisions. Signing free agents, trading players, making an outside-the-box manager hire \u2026 you know,\u00a0baseball\u00a0stuff.<\/p>\n

That sure seemed to be the line Posey took yesterday when addressing the media. Knowing the Giants\u2019\u00a0Pride Night caps controversy<\/a>\u00a0would come up \u2014\u00a0the commissioner wrote a letter, after all \u2014\u00a0Posey started with a statement that \u2026\u00a0acknowledged\u00a0the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that there\u2019s strong feelings on this topic,\u201d Posey said. \u201cThere\u2019s differing perspectives and out of respect to everybody involved, it\u2019s not something I\u2019m going to revisit. I understand some fans are upset and frustrated. I can promise you this is something that we\u2019ve talked about a lot internally and will continue to do so. Our focus is on the team right now, the upcoming draft, the trade deadline and trying to win games. Anyone who has baseball questions, I\u2019m happy to take baseball questions right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tl;dr: People are mad, so we\u2019ve talked a lot about it, next question.<\/p>\n

Except he didn\u2019t answer the next question.\u00a0Or the next. He just kept repeating that he was only going to answer \u201cbaseball questions.\u201d Eventually, Giants PR threatened to end the media availability.<\/p>\n

Man, what a cop-out.<\/p>\n

Even if Posey wanted to keep his personal thoughts on Pride Night private, he still could have done better than clamming up. Because here\u2019s the truth: This\u00a0is\u00a0a baseball question.\u00a0The commissioner (of\u00a0baseball)\u00a0specifically said the Giants failed to properly communicate with their players.<\/p>\n

Relationships, communication, motivation, chemistry and the team\u2019s relationship to its fans could all be classified as off-field stuff, but they absolutely\u00a0affect what happens on the field.\u00a0Communication with players is one of those \u201cbaseball operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Posey wanted a job that didn\u2019t involve these things, he could have applied to be the bullpen catcher. Instead, he took the front-facing job that requires delicate diplomacy on a lot of things.<\/p>\n

No, it\u2019s not fun. But it\u2019s all part of the same gig,\u00a0and\u00a0Posey utterly failed at it yesterday<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More \u201ccommunication\u201d issues in San Francisco:\u00a0Rafael Devers said he\u00a0apologized to manager Tony Vitello<\/a>\u00a0after the pinch-running fiasco, then blamed the media for blowing it out of proportion because he didn\u2019t talk to them enough. So that\u2019s going really well!<\/p>\n

More Pride Night:\u00a0MLB\u2019s stance has changed during Manfred\u2019s tenure. Is \u201criding it out<\/a>\u201d really the best they can do?<\/p>\n

More \u201cwhat front-office members do\u201d:\u00a0This week\u2019s mailbag gave readers a chance to\u00a0be GM for a day<\/a>, and hoo boy, a whole lot of people think GMs have way more power than they really do.<\/p>\n

Never Seen This: PCA\u2019s wild ride<\/p>\n

In the top of the seventh inning of last night\u2019s 7-1 win over the Mets, Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong attempted a steal of second base. But the pitch to Michael Busch was ball four, so Armstrong was automatically safe \u2026 right?<\/p>\n

Not exactly. Here, take a look:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But wait. Isn\u2019t it a dead ball after ball four?<\/p>\n

Nope. Here\u2019s a hypothetical to make (slightly) more sense of it. If ball four was a wild pitch and PCA had rounded second, he would clearly be fair game to tag out. So once he touches the bag and then comes off of it, it\u2019s sorta \u2026 game on? I guess?<\/p>\n

So, in watching that GIF,\u00a0it\u2019s not the first tag that does the job, it\u2019s the second one\u00a0\u2014 on the red sliding glove \u2014 since it came\u00a0after he touched the bag he was entitled to, then came off it.<\/p>\n

You see something new every day in this game.<\/p>\n

More Cubs:\u00a0The last thing they need is more pitcher injuries; Edward Cabrera\u2019s\u00a0hamstring\u00a0and\u00a0adductor strains<\/a>\u00a0aren\u2019t going to help.<\/p>\n

More Mets:\u00a0Francisco Lindor should return today, but Juan Soto left last night\u2019s game with lower back pain, and it appears they\u2019re\u00a0losing patience with Kodai Senga<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wild Win, Wilder Loss: Phillies stage absurd comeback<\/p>\n

It was just\u00a0yesterday<\/a>\u00a0we showed a win probability chart, pointed at it and went \u201cpretty wild, right?\u201d Well, that was nothing.<\/p>\n

Look at\u00a0this\u00a0one (courtesy of Baseball Savant):<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

It\u2019s basically touching the 100 percent line! That\u2019s because the Nationals led the Phillies 8-6 in the top of the ninth \u2026 with two outs \u2026 and a 1-2 count on Trea Turner.<\/p>\n

But then Turner singled, and Brandon Marsh homered to tie the game. Aaaaand the Phillies went on to score\u00a0six more runs\u00a0to take a 14-8 lead.<\/p>\n

The Nats (41-39) scored one more in the bottom of the ninth, but\u00a0it was nowhere near enough<\/a>; they lost 14-9. The Phillies (43-36) are now just 5.5 games back in the NL East.<\/p>\n

More Phillies: Jayson Stark makes the case that Kyle Schwarber is the best-hitting free-agent signing of all time. I know, I know. Barry Bonds, right? But\u00a0Stark makes a convincing argument<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Handshakes and High Fives<\/p>\n

Curious what the league\u2019s new draft proposals mean? Ken Rosenthal has a\u00a0great in-depth explainer here<\/a>\u00a0with the potential implications.<\/p>\n

If baseball players can have sunflower seeds, why can\u2019t they have Blow Pops? Anyway, if\u00a0Aaron Boone\u2019s quotes are any indication<\/a>, Jazz Chisholm Jr. won\u2019t be doing it again.<\/p>\n

Fabian Ardaya tells us how the Dodgers are\u00a0putting the \u201cold\u201d in \u201cGold Glove.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

An update on MLB\u2019s inquiry into Dr. Neal ElAttrache: The league says he has been\u00a0cleared of any wrongdoing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you have between $3 million and $5 million, you could\u00a0buy Aaron Judge\u2019s debut jersey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most-clicked in our last Windup:\u00a0The footage of Jason Benetti narrating Jazz Chisholm\u2019s\u00a0prodding of a Dirt Cam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Love The Windup? Check out\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Windup Newsletter \u26be | This is The Athletic\u2019s MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-723631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}