MLB trade deadline 2024: Four biggest holes contenders need to fill

One more day to grab provisions for the next 90.

That’s what Major League Baseball teams face Tuesday as the hours and then minutes tick down to the 6 p.m. ET trade deadline. The agita has only been compounded by a market heavily tilted toward sellers, as contenders are paying premium prospect price for a limited supply of reinforcements.

As the clock drags toward Tuesday evening, a look at the biggest unfilled needs from the top contenders as GMs get set to put their pencils down and see if they aced the test come dinnertime:

Cleveland Guardians: Starting pitcher

Monday was a tough one for the Guardians, who saw the reasonably-priced Erick Fedde go to St. Louis in a three-way trade, sentient Frankie Montas get shipped from Cincinnati to Milwaukee, struggling but effective Yusei Kikuchi (Toronto to Houston) and Michael Lorenzen (Texas to Kansas City) slip off the board.

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That leaves not a lot for a club that has so many excellent playoff pieces in place: A dominant and brilliantly-deployed bullpen, a contact-friendly and dynamic offense and a few serviceable starting pitchers.

But no true No. 1.

Not since Shane Bieber succumbed to elbow surgery in the season’s first week, anyway. Tanner Bibee and Ben Lively are passable playoff starters and perhaps Gavin Williams will round into form as he gets more than five starts under his belt.

Can they swing an intra-division deal for Jack Flaherty? That’s one of few dwindling options to upgrade as the clock winds down.

New York Yankees: Relief pitcher

Pretty nice deadline there. Jazz Chisholm is taking to New York like Charlie Parker, they’re in the hunt for Flaherty and Giancarlo Stanton is off the injured list (no, we won’t call that “almost as good as a trade pickup,” but it’s not for nothing).

Yet the bullpen dashboard has been blinking red since before the All-Star break, with a Clay Holmes ninth inning something of a dice roll right now and the innings piling up for Luke Weaver. Are clubs holding out for Spencer Jones, the Yankees’ hulking hitting prospect?

That would seem a disproportional haul for a rental closer or even a guy under contract for 2025, like Washington’s Kyle Finnegan. But with prices what they are, rival clubs will almost surely make Yankees GM Brian Cashman sweat right up until the buzzer.

Baltimore Orioles: Starting pitcher

Zach Eflin was a dandy pickup, and paid dividends in his first start with Baltimore. A Corbin Burnes-Grayson Rodriguez-Eflin playoff 1-2-3 is credible, competitive.

Yet it could be even better.

No system has the top-end talent and depth as the Orioles’ farm, and the one-year rental of Burnes – pitching like a Cy Young candidate – suggests this is the year to unload some of that prospect capital.

While Eflin is under contract for 2025, Burnes will walk. There remains the giddy specter of going big for AL Central lefties Garrett Crochet or Tarik Skubal, though one faces 2024 innings limits and the other the slim chance his team would move him. But both are under team control for two years, making them remarkable arms to dream on.

There’s also the matter of the Yankees, lurking a half-game back in the AL East. The fewer games Albert Suarez and rookies Cade Povich and Chayce McDermott start, the better. Baltimore faces a dogfight now and then in the postseason.

It will be fascinating to see what GM Mike Elias’s move might be in his first all-in deadline.

Los Angeles Dodgers: Starting pitcher

Really neat Monday for the Dodgers, snagging Tommy Edman as their new Optionality King to hedge against injuries and iffy performance in the middle of the diamond. If pitching coach Mark Prior can fix hard-throwing Michael Kopech, the wheezing bullpen will exhale.

Yet the rotation remains dotted with so many question marks, be it flamethrowers in uncharted innings waters (Tyler Glasnow), youngsters with no late-season track record (Gavin Stone, River Ryan, Landon Knack) and once-and-future-aces battling physical demons (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw).

YThat’s no way for a $320 million payroll to approach October. GM Andrew Friedman is almost certainly aiming for 11^th-hour fireworks – might they entertain Crochet’s desire for financial security? – and faces little choice but to augment. This might be the most fascinating and impactful addition (or non-addition) of the day.