MLB All-Stars Most Likely to Be Dealt Before 2022 Trade Deadline

The All-Star break is a welcomed time across the game.

It's either an actual break, or a ton of fanfare participating in All-Star festivities.

We should all enjoy it, take it in, because it could be the last time we see some of the players on these respective teams.

Not every All-Star is playing for a contender, or is even part of their team's future plans.

We're taking a look at All-Stars most likely to be dealt before the deadline on Aug. 2. This list includes some All-Stars of the past and present with special consideration to their trade markets and teams' incentive to trade.

Willson Contreras is one of the more popular names in trade discussions this season, given he's a 2016 World Series champion with the Chicago Cubs and one of the best catchers in the game.

He's making his third career All-Star appearance, all since 2018. But the Cubs should be sellers at the trade deadline, just as they were a year ago.

Chicago is right there with the Cincinnati Reds at the bottom of the National League Central standings with no shot at the postseason.

Contreras becomes a free agent after this season, and the fact he hasn't signed an extension with the Cubs seems to indicate he'll likely be playing elsewhere in 2023 and beyond.

The Cubs already traded away most of their World Series core group last year. They are similarly situated now, perhaps with an even clearer picture of how far away they are from competing.

There is no point in one of the best center fielders in baseball continuing to play for a lowly Pittsburgh Pirates team with no shot at making the playoffs.

Bryan Reynolds gets it done on the defensive end, with the fourth-most outs above average and third-most runs prevented by any center fielder.

He's also 13th among qualified center fielders in WAR. Reynolds, an All-Star last year for Pittsburgh, is different from others on this list because he's under team control through 2025.

That makes the Pirates more reluctant to trade him, and the asking price to do so even higher, given his level of play.

Reynolds went on the 10-day injured list with a right oblique strain last week. It will be interesting to see whether that impacts interest in Reynolds across the league, since he likely won't be ready to play again until some time after the deadline.

Josh Bell was an All-Star for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2019 but has been in purgatory with the Nationals since being traded to Washington two Christmas Eves ago.

The Nationals were just a year removed from winning the World Series. They still had Max Scherzer and Trea Turner on the team.

Now, they are in a full rebuild with an All-Star-caliber first baseman better served on a contending team.

Bell, who ranks fourth among first basemen in WAR, is a potential suitor for all of them in this first season of the universal DH.

He's slashing .311/.389/.506 with 13 home runs. It makes a lot of sense for the New York Mets, San Diego Padres and Boston Red Sox.

Luis Castillo has effectively been auditioning for other teams since the start of the season.

The Cincinnati Reds clearly had no intention of competing this year, as evidenced by trading away Jesse Winker, Eugenio Suarez and Sonny Gray. They also let Nick Castellanos walk in free agency and did not sign any player to an extension.

The result has been about what one might expect. Cincinnati holds the third-worst record in baseball with virtually no chance of making the postseason.

Meanwhile, Castillo just earned his second career All-Star selection and is coveted by contenders like the New York Yankees, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox.

All of these teams have been linked to Castillo, at least checking in. Castillo has one more arbitration-eligible season before becoming a free agent for 2024.

Joey Gallo is a far cry from the All-Star he was just a year ago, before the Texas Rangers dealt him to the New York Yankees ahead of the trade deadline.

He has never been someone expected to hit for a high average or to get on base a ton. But he's long been considered a valuable power hitter, until seeming to fall off a cliff with the Yankees.

The experiment with Gallo to the Bronx has been a flat-out failure. He slashed .160/.303/.404 with 13 home runs in 58 games for the Yankees last season. He's slashing .161/.286/.327 with 10 homers for them this season.

Gallo, in a sense, is holding down the best team in baseball. But it doesn't mean he's irredeemable, or that another contender would be afraid of kicking the tires on his expiring contract.

Earlier this week, B/R's Zachary D. Rymer ranked the potential landing spots for Gallo.

Noah Syndergaard hasn't exactly been impressive this season. He holds a mediocre ERA of 4.00. By WAR, he's the third-most-valuable starter for the Los Angeles Angels, behind Shohei Ohtani and Patrick Sandoval.

But Syndergaard signed a one-year, $21 million prove-it deal with the Angels this past offseason, and at the very least, he's proved himself to be healthy again.

The Angels, meanwhile, are awful. This, despite having Ohtani, Sandoval and Syndergaard. And Mike Trout had been healthy for much of the season, until recently. Nothing seems to work there.

Cashing in on the short-term Syndergaard investment makes sense for the Angels, given they are another squad with next to no chance of making the playoffs.

Syndergaard probably won't play there next season. Contending teams like the Minnesota Twins, Seattle Mariners or the Los Angeles Dodgers could use an extra arm in their respective rotations.

The Houston Astros are living in luxury when it comes to starting pitching. They have a surplus of starters—at least seven arms for five spots.

After Justin Verlander, Houston likes All-Star Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, Luis Garcia, Jose Urquidy and Jake Odorizzi.

Lance McCullers Jr., maybe the Astros' best pitcher after Verlander who has missed the entire season with a strained flexor tendon, is progressing in his rehab and expects to return at some point this season.

Odorizzi and Garcia are tied as Houston's fourth-most-valuable starters by WAR, ahead of Urquidy. But Urquidy has pitched well lately and has performed in two World Series for Houston.

Hunter Brown, the Astros' top prospect, could also factor into the mix soon.

Odorizzi has a player option for 2023 worth $6.5 million and would be wise to test the market. While the 2019 All-Star is a useful pitcher, the Astros don't have as much use for him once McCullers returns and Brown is eventually promoted.

It feels like panicking if the Detroit Tigers give up the flame-throwing left-handed Gregory Soto, but it has to be in play given how disappointing a season it's been in Detroit.

The Tigers went all-in this offseason, trying to take the next step in their rebuild. Almost nothing has gone right for them.

Javier Baez, one of their key free-agent signings, has been underwhelming (.213/.251/.375). Spencer Torkelson, the Tigers' most recent No. 1 overall pick, has not quite figured it out in the big leagues yet. Casey Mize, Detroit's No. 1 overall pick in 2018, is out recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Soto, who averages over 98 mph on his fastball, is an All-Star in back-to-back seasons for a non-competitive team.

The Tigers no doubt want him to be a part of when they compete again, but contenders should be trying to pry him away. The Houston Astros, for one, could use a dynamic lefty in their right-hand-dominant bullpen.

This could become a regular occurrence for Nelson Cruz, the longer he keeps playing. He was traded by the Minnesota Twins to the Tampa Bay Rays last year to help boost Tampa's offense in the team's playoff run.

Cruz, who turned 42 this month, has been signing one-year deals since 2019, when he first joined the Twins, who then picked up his team option the following year.

He is a seven-time All-Star, selected to the team as recently as last season with Minnesota. The production at the plate has dipped. Cruz is slashing .242/.324/.361 with 94 wRC+, compared to his .265/.334/.497 line and 122 wRC+ last season.

But this is still a big enough bat to help a contending team in need of offense. Think about the New York Mets, San Francisco Giants, Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres and the Tampa Bay Rays—all contenders who rank somewhere between 11th and 21st in OPS.

The Boston Red Sox are in an odd position. They are in a fight with the Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Guardians, Chicago White Sox and three of their own division rivals for one of the three wild-card spots.

In theory, they should be buying at the trade deadline, trying to better the team.

Boston also has several key expiring contracts for players like J.D. Martinez, Nathan Eovaldi and Xander Bogaerts, who's already planning to opt out of his contract at the end of the season.

Martinez acknowledged the "very weird" position the Red Sox are in an interview last week with WEEI's Rob Bradford. Martinez has played exclusively as Boston's designated hitter this season, slashing .304/370/.484 with nine home runs. That has to appeal to other contenders.

The Red Sox signed Bogaerts' replacement, Trevor Story, this past offseason, so parting ways early makes sense. Bogaerts is having another outstanding All-Star season, his fourth, slashing .318/.391/.456.