Chicago Cubs President Jed Hoyer knows the drill. White Sox general manager Chris Getz is getting his first taste. The upcoming July 30 trade deadline can be exhilarating, explosive and exhausting, especially for executives with as much at stake as our two Chicago honchos.
Hoyer must decide whether the Cubs’ disappointing first half is an anomaly or a trend, Three years ago Hoyer executed the biggest trade-deadline sell-off in Cubs history, so he’s not afraid of criticism, no matter which direction he goes. Getz has two of the biggest names on the market in All-Star pitcher Garrett Crochet and center fielder Luis Robert Jr. The first-year GM needs to determine whether one or both are expendable in the Sox rebuild.
With the . They’re not alone. Twenty-eight other executives atop their respective food chains are in similar positions.
Major League Baseball’s trade-deadline industrial complex has grown steadily over the last two decades, from a few weeks of rumors on the internet to a virtual cottage industry. The arrival of the website mlbtraderumors.com in 2005 was the first salvo in the Rumor Revolution, followed in 2009 by the launch of MLB Network, which MLB owns and devotes hour upon hour of trade speculation leading up to the deadline.
Twitter, the social media platform since renamed X, amplified almost every rumor and created a real-time sounding board for fans, letting executives get a feel for how fans would react to a proposed trade or acquisition. And with the.
