What Jeff Passan is hearing as the MLB trade deadline approaches -- pitching edition

We started the week before the MLB trade deadline by examining which hitters are most likely to move before 6 p.m. strikes on Aug. 2. Now, it's time to look at the pitchers most likely to be available.

Here are the players and teams you need to know and the latest news on who could be going where, starting with an ace who just so happens to also be one of the best hitters in the entire sport.

Sure, Ohtani could have gone in both files, but with the year he's having on the mound, he fit even better here. For the record: Nobody expects the best player in baseball to move in the next week. The thing is, just about every factor lines up to have an Ohtani deal make more sense than one for Juan Soto.

The Angels are woebegone. Ohtani will hit free agency after the 2023 season, and the desire to return to an organization that hasn't finished a season with a record above .500 since 2015 is reasonably suspect — particularly when you remember that the team also has arguably the worst farm system in baseball and an owner who hasn't come within sniffing distance of the luxury-tax threshold despite having Mike Trout for the past 11 full seasons. And that owner, Arte Moreno, is the name executives queried about Ohtani's availability — whether now or this winter — bring up again and again.

There are multiple elements to Moreno's stewardship of the Angels that make a trade of Ohtani before Aug. 2 a near impossibility. Moreno's lack of trust in his front office to make bold decisions is, by now, a truth with which Angels executives must live. Perry Minasian is in his second year as the team's general manager, and while his decision-making has been convicted — from drafting all pitchers last year to aggressively seeking pitching help this