{"id":6113,"date":"2026-07-16T04:33:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T04:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=6113"},"modified":"2026-07-16T04:33:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T04:33:54","slug":"expanded-playoffs-make-it-hard-to-predict-whether-skubal-chapman-gray-get-dealt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=6113","title":{"rendered":"Expanded playoffs make it hard to predict whether Skubal, Chapman, Gray get dealt"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>PHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 Expanded playoffs make it harder to predict whether Tarik Skubal and other choice acquisitions will be dealt before the Aug, 3 trade deadline.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=6111\">New places to try during Downtown Raleigh Restaurant Week<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Twenty-three of the 30 teams are within four games of a playoff position heading into the season\u2019s second half, which opens Thursday with the back-in-contention Philadelphia Phillies hosting the woeful New York Mets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve got a lot of really good teams that were on the bubble that have gotten in and kind of made it,\u201d Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper said. \u201cAnybody that has an opportunity to get in, anything can happen and that\u2019s what makes our sport great.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Skubal, a two-time Cy Young Award winner who can become a free agent after the World Series, is the most prominent possible trade bait. The 29-year-old left-hander is 2-3 with a 3.62 ERA in six starts for the Detroit Tigers since surgery on May 6 to remove a loose body from his pitching elbow.<\/p>\n<p>He returned to a big league mound on June 13 after Dr. Neal ElAttrache operated with a NanoNeedle scope 2.0, a miniaturized, flexible version of the traditional arthroscope. <\/p>\n<p>Detroit was 22-38 at the start of June \u2014 at 16 games under matching the 1914 Braves (12-28) as the most under .500 of a team that rebounded to reach the postseason, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Tigers are 22-14 since and trail by 3 1\/2 games for the last AL wild card, needing to overcome six teams. Their performance in 16 games before the deadline will help determine whether they are buyers or sellers.<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota\u2019s Joe Ryan and the Mets\u2019 Freddy Peralta also could become available. The Mets also could deal left-handed relievers Brooks Raley and A.J. Minter to contenders and San Francisco may try to jettison second baseman Luis Arraez.<\/p>\n<p>Baseball\u2019s only division leads of more than three games are held by the Los Angeles Dodgers (11 1\/2) and Milwaukee (five).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are some middling teams that are potentially going to finish stronger and some teams that are front-running right now that might fall back to the pack,\u201d Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. \u201cIt\u2019s what the fans wanted. It keeps everyone involved through September, as many teams as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Just seven teams of the 30 teams are more than four games out of a wild-card berth: the Athletics (6 1\/2), Cincinnati (eight), Kansas City and the Los Angeles Angels (10 each), the Giants (10 1\/2), the Mets (12) and Colorado (13 1\/2).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think having more teams involved and more fan bases feeling like there\u2019s something to play for later in the season is always good,\u201d said Toronto pitcher Dylan Cease, the All-Star Game winner.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=6110\">Lionel Messi delivers again for Argentina, defending champions reach another World Cup final<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Phillies rebound after Mattingly becomes manager<\/h3>\n<p>Philadelphia fell to 9-19 when Rob Thomson was fired on April 28 and replaced by Don Mattingly. The Phillies are 44-24 since and trail NL East-leading Atlanta (55-40) by two games.<\/p>\n<p>Harper thinks a key to the turnaround was when Zack Wheeler rejoined the rotation on April 25 after surgery last August for thoracic outlet syndrome. Wheeler is 10-1 with a 2.13 ERA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce we got Wheels back, I think everybody kind of took a deep breath,\u201d Harper said. \u201cThat helped a lot of our other starting pitching kind of just fall into place.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Red Sox hottest team going into second half<\/h3>\n<p>Boston fired Alex Cora after a 10-17 start and the Red Sox are 36-31 under Chad Tracy, ending the first half with their first 9-0 road trip since 1977.<\/p>\n<p>Despite a 46-48 record, the Red Sox trail by just a half-game for the last wild card in an AL that has just five teams with winning records.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve done a much better job overall with our approach,\u201d Tracy said. \u201cWe\u2019re taking more pitches. We\u2019re seeing more pitches against starters. We are getting starters deep in counts earlier in games. We\u2019re scoring runs in the first five innings of the game and letting our starting rotation pitch with a lead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If the Red Sox struggle in the next few weeks, closer Aroldis Chapman and starter Sonny Gray could get dealt.<\/p>\n<h3>First-round byes at stake<\/h3>\n<p>Three of the four teams that had first-round byes last year advanced to League Championship Series: Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Seattle and Toronto. Among the teams emerging from Wild Card Series, only the Dodgers won their Division Series.<\/p>\n<p>Having the bye allows teams to reset their rotations and assure opening the Division Series with their best starters.<\/p>\n<p>Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler thought back to New York losing the AL East title and the bye to Toronto on a tiebreaker last year.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=6108\">Running back Alvin Kamara has a new deal with the Saints for 2026, agent says<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery game matters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 Expanded playoffs make it harder to predict whether Tarik Skubal and other&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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