2025 MLB trade deadline preview: Passan's intel on every team - ESPN

Eight days out from the 2025 MLB trade deadline, nearly three-quarters of major league baseball teams reside within 5½ games of a playoff spot. The downstream effect of expanding the postseason to a dozen teams becomes abundantly apparent every July, when the teams looking to offload players survey the landscape and see a market tilted decidedly in their favor.

This is a moment of discomfort for nearly every team in baseball. Getting talent in a trade can help win a World Series. It can also cost players who might have helped win one in the future. Acquiring players can revitalize a farm system. It can also go sideways if the talent acquired doesn't pan out. Front offices are always trying to bend their organizations toward the most certain thing. The trade deadline is uncertainty personified.

At the same time, with the 6 p.m. ET deadline on July 31 rapidly approaching, teams need to become comfortable with that discomfort. Those planning to move big league talent are starting to make concrete asks. While the lion's share of trades will take place over the final 72 hours before the deadline, the deal-making zone has arrived.

And while this is not a deadline with a truly great player available, there is enough talent out there — and enough that can be had for the right price — to bring intrigue to the week-plus ahead. Here, in broad strokes, is how one of the most fundamental stretches on the baseball calendar is shaping up, with teams tiered by their expected levels of activity.

Jump to team:

American League
ATH | BAL | BOS | CHW | CLE
DET | HOU | KC | LAA | MIN
NYY | SEA | TB | TEX | TOR

National League
ARI | ATL | CHC | CIN | COL
LAD | MIA | MIL | NYM | PHI
PIT | SD | SF | STL | WSH

Biggest needs: 3B, SP, RP
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