Top 5 questions for the second half of the MLB season

Major League Baseball is ready to follow up an exciting All-Star weekend with a playoff race involving nearly two-thirds of the league’s teams. Here are the top five questions for the second half of the season.

Which teams are looking to trade?

MLB’s trade deadline is just two weeks away, and one trade has already been announced since the All-Star game. The Pittsburgh Pirates sent infielder Adam Frazier to the Kansas City Royals on Thursday, July 17, in exchange for infielder Cam Devanney.

About 8 10 teams could be off-loading players at the deadline. Every other team is still within four or five games of the playoffs, so there may not be much movement in terms of impact players. 

Teams in the middle of the pack will garner the most attention. The Boston Red Sox and Milwaukee Brewers were two of the hottest teams in the league before the break and may want to add some help to their rosters. The Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks are also on the fence. Their results in the next 10 days may determine whether they are buyers or sellers. 

As for the bona fide contenders, a lot of those teams seem set. Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Chicago Cubs believes his team is one of them. 

“I feel confident going into the second half with what we got right now,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I don’t see any issue with doing just that. I don’t expect any moves. I expect to keep playing the same baseball we’ve been playing.”

Who will be the American League MVP?

The race between Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees and Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners has tightened significantly in the past month. Raleigh, the Home Run Derby champ, is single-handedly carrying the Mariners’ offense and leads baseball with 38 homers, putting him on pace to break Barry Bonds’ record of 73.

Judge has cooled slightly since a hot start but is right behind Raleigh with 35 homers. He also leads the league in batting with a .355 average and in RBIs with 81. The deciding factor could be the market each plays in. Fair or not, New York and Seattle get decidedly different levels of national exposure.

Will the Tigers remain ‘best in baseball’ for now?

The Motor City Kitties finished the first half with the best record in baseball at 59-38. They boast a top 10 offense and a top 10 pitching staff, plus six All-Star players. They are led by Tarik Skubal, possibly the best starter in baseball. However, Detroit has not won a World Series since 1984, and the chase for another title comes with intense pressure.

If the Tigers can stay healthy and shore up a bullpen that has ranked 26th in the league since June 1, they’ll be in it to win it this fall. All-Star outfielder Riley Greene is in a group of Tigers who are not well known nationally but have played together for a long time. 

“I don’t think we realized how special that would be now that we’re here,” Greene said. “Me, Tork, Dingler who we played with, Kerry Carpenter. We came up together, and it’s pretty cool to be on the team and also be winning baseball games, too.”

How many games will the Rockies lose?

On the opposite end of the spectrum: the Rockies. After a horrible start, they have not improved much, prompting The Denver Post to publish a weekly a “futility tracker.” The Rockies start the second half at 22-73. No team has lost so many games before the All-Star break since 1933.

They are on pace for a 38-124 record – enough to break the mark set by the 2024 Chicago White Sox, who finished with an MLB-worst 121 losses.

The “good” news? Since June 2, the Rocks are 9-9 on the road.

Can the Dodgers repeat?

Yes. And no. Yes, because Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and, when healthy, Mookie Betts are still the best 1-2-3 hitters in baseball playing in the same lineup. The boys in blue are just a game behind the Tigers for the best record in baseball and should get several players back from injury in the second half – starting pitchers Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell among them.

That said, the Dodgers won just three of their last 10 before the break. Manager Dave Roberts knows they can’t just show up and expect a win.

“It’s just kind of putting things together,” Roberts said. “Any manager will say the same thing: winning a big league ballgame is tough. You still gotta pitch well, you gotta catch it and you still gotta take good at-bats. So, if all three of those don’t line up in one night, it’s hard to get a win.”

Those are the top five questions, but the answers to many more will be revealed over the next 76 days before the MLB playoffs begin. With so many teams in the mix, it promises to be a great race.