What to watch for in MLB's second half: All eyes on Shohei Ohtani, Angels at trade deadline
SEATTLE — All-Star week is over, the trade deadline is around the corner and these next two weeks will provide a line of demarcation between contenders and surrenders.
The second half will be filled with compelling storylines, and the biggest and boldest will captivate our attention right until the postseason.
It really starts (and ends) with Shohei Ohtani, but there are 29 other teams, 30 GMs and 780 active players we will be monitoring.
Let’s break down the five most compelling storylines, starting with the man who dominates the headlines every single day:
Shohei Ohtani's future
Will the Los Angeles Angels trade him? Will Ohtani flee from Anaheim to Los Angeles? Will he actually consider staying?
Ohtani will be front and center on everyone’s minds until the last remaining seconds at the 6 p.m. ET trade deadline on Aug. 1.
The Angels are telling everyone they are keeping him.
Well, at least for now.
The Angels have lost 13 of their last 17 games, are five games out and chasing six teams in the wild-card race, and will be without three-time MVP Mike Trout until late August.
If their free-fall continues, do the Angels go ahead and move Ohtani to restock their farm system?
Or do they keep him, no matter how dire the playoff picture may look, knowing that if they trade him, he’s not coming back as a free agent?
Who wants to become the Harry Frazee of this century – 103 years after the Boston owner sold two-way star Babe Ruth?
The heavy betting money is that Ohtani stays, at least until the final out of the World Series, where he hits free agency and likely receives the most lucrative contract in North American sports history.
Yet, until the trade deadline ends, all eyes will be on baseball’s greatest star.
The underachievers
We can’t keep our eyes off a car wreck.
We slow down, yell as traffic starts crawling, and then take a look ourselves, curious just how nasty it is and whether anyone is hurt.
Well, we’re doing the same with the San Diego Padres and New York Mets.
The Padres may have more star power than any team in decades.
The Mets will have dropped a half-billion dollars on this team factoring in luxury taxes.
Yet, here they are with losing records entering the second half, with neither team closer than six games in the wild-card race, and scaring the daylights out of their peers that teams will take their foot off the spending pedal to avoid a head-on collision.
“I think you want teams that spend money to do well," Dodgers Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw said Monday. “As a player, that’s what we want. So, the Mets and Padres, we need to have them back where they belong. They’re playing better, both of them, so I think they’ll be there.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of young talent, and that’s great and all. But ultimately, teams that spend money hopefully are rewarded in this game.’’
If they don’t start off strong in the second half, they could create a tidal wave in the trade market, open to trading everyone from Juan Soto to Max Scherzer to Josh Hader.
And if neither team reaches the postseason, it will be debated all winter which team is the greatest underachieving team in baseball history.
The first-half surprises
What’s was the biggest surprise of the first half?
The Arizona Diamondbacks, who have gotten by with just two veteran starters and no closer, sitting in a first-place tie with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West?
The Cincinnati Reds, with a starting rotation that is yielding an ugly 5.69 ERA, but have gone 23-7 since the arrival of Elly De La Cruz?
Or the Miami Marlins, with Sandy Alcantara barely resembling his Cy Young self and Jazz Chisholm spending most of the first half on the injured list, holding a National League wild-card spot?
They have been traditional sellers at the trade deadline, but suddenly, they are buyers. The big question is just how aggressive will they be?
Could they possibly reverse course, dig into their farm system and trade away prized prospects to go all in?
Or do they stay conservative, pick up a reliever or two, and grab a back-end starter?
Logic tells us they’ll be conservative, with the D-backs the most likely of the trio to reach the postseason without being ultra-aggressive, but we’re about to find out just how big of a gamble they’re willing to take.
“We’re going to be willing to make trades," D-backs GM Mike Hazen said last week, “but there’s a difference between being aggressive and being reckless. I don’t think it serves the organization short- or long-term to be reckless. I do think it serves the organization to be aggressive.”
We’ll see.
Dodgers' postseason drive
It’s crazy that the Dodgers are in a first-place tie with their team ravaged by injuries.
They have 12 players on the injured list, with every single starter in their rotation going on the IL, losing Dustin May for the season, ace Julio Urias for six weeks, Tony Gonsolin for April, Noah Syndergaard in June and now three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw.
Yet, they are alive.
“I guess there’s always room for improvement," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters. “Things could be worse, right? I think our best baseball is ahead of us. Considering all that we’ve gone through, no one has wavered.
“We’re right in the thick of things.”
So now what?
They did precious little in free agency, trying to squeeze under the luxury tax to save money for Ohtani.
They hate the idea of giving up prospects from their fabulous talent pool, but in recent years did get Yu Darvish, Manny Machado, Max Scherzer and Trea Turner in deadline blockbusters.
Do they dare go big at the deadline or wait to woo Ohtani this winter?
Bronx bummer
Yankees GM Brian Cashman, showing urgency, and perhaps desperation, fired his hitting coach, Dillon Lawson, in midseason for the first time in his 25-year career, hiring MLB Network studio host Sean Casey, who has never coached a day at the professional level.
He keeps telling everyone to stay patient until reigning MVP Aaron Judge returns, believing that the return of Carlos Rodon will fortify the rotation, but what if nothing changes and the Yankees somehow miss the playoffs?
And if the season ended today, the Yankees would be out.
The Yankees’ offense has been so miserable that Judge hasn’t played a game since June 3, and still leads the team with 40 RBI.
Their pitching has been so pitiful that All-Star Gerrit Cole is their only pitcher who has an ERA better than the American League average.
“It’s going to be on us to adjust, and continue to get better,” Cole said. “We do need to get better, that’s for sure.”
And if they don’t, will owner Hal Steinbrenner start acting like his dad?
Will Cashman keep his job? Does manager Aaron Boone go?
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