MLB trade deadline 2023: Players most likely to be dealt - ESPN

Shohei Ohtani is staying with the Los Angeles Angels, but Saturday's trade of Max Scherzer from the New York Mets to the Texas Rangers suggests there is still plenty of potential intrigue heading into Tuesday's 6 p.m. ET trade deadline.

The foremost questions at the moment: Will the Mets now trade a second future Hall of Famer in Justin Verlander? Will teams like the New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners, Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres look to make major additions, remain quiet or even possibly trade players away? Will the Angels continue to add to make a playoff push? And how many players will the St. Louis Cardinals trade away?

What follows is a ranking of the biggest names to watch — starting with Verlander.

The Mets did pretty well to get a highly rated prospect from the Rangers in Luisangel Acuna, although they had to pay down $35 million of Scherzer's remaining contract for 2023 and 2024 in order to do so. Verlander has the same $43.3 million salary for this season and next and, like Scherzer, has a no-trade provision, so he would have to agree to any trade. If the Mets want a similar return as the Scherzer trade, they'll no doubt have to deploy a similar strategy and include some cash in the deal.

Verlander has been pitching better than Scherzer with a 3.15 ERA, including a 1.69 mark over his past six starts in which he has held batters to a .167 average and just one home run in 37⅓ innings. Don't mistake this version of Verlander as peak Verlander, however, or even the Cy Young winner of last season. Even over this stretch, his strikeout-to-walk ratio is a mediocre 32-to-16 and his swinging strike rate, which ranked in the 90th percentile in 2019 (pre-Tommy John surgery), is down to the 37th percentile. His