TROT COFFEY: July 26, 2024.
A repository of responsibly reported rumors as the trade deadline bears in on us. The clock is ticking.
Are the Rangers the team that has won four of its last five series and 12 of 16 games, with Josh Jung, Tyler Mahle, Cody Bradford, Jacob deGrom, and Evan Carter poised to return (Dane Dunning is now back), one of the weakest schedules in the league the rest of the way, and a 2.5-game division deficit that’s its smallest since mid-May?
Or the team fielding an arrhythmic lineup dominated by underperforming veteran hitters from top to bottom, and with too many other teams to pass to get into the Wild Card group, making its only realistic path to a playoff spot the pursuit of the red-hot Astros (and floundering Mariners)?
With the July 30 (5 p.m. Central) trade deadline approaching, it’s go time, one way or the other (or the other).
I expect we’ll continue to run a new one of these out there each day, time permitting. Here we go, with what’s being reported up to the minute: