Every year, there's at least one team that just kind of spectates at the trade deadline, being unwilling to throw in the towel and embrace a selling mentality while also being unwilling to spend more money and/or part with any prospects to try to improve a team a few games out of the playoff picture.
This year, though, the stage is set for a lot of teams to simply stand pat.
Through 65ish games, there are only five teams at least five games back in the wild-card picture—A's, Angels, Marlins, Rockies and White Sox.
Everyone else has a pulse.
That will change to some extent in the next seven weeks, when a couple of teams stumble through July and opt to join what is very much a seller's market right now. But there are just a ton of mediocre teams out there this year, with more than one-third of MLB entering Monday either at .500 or one, two or three games below .500—in the hunt for a postseason berth, but not exactly one or two pieces away from becoming a serious World Series threat.
Notably in that group are the Boston Red Sox, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays. Those are the four big dominoes this year with quite a bit to offer if they do become sellers. However, if the trade deadline were today, it's likely that all four would more or less shrug their shoulders and let it ride.
Other .500ish teams who don't seem likely to do much buying or selling are the Minnesota Twins, Pittsburgh Pirates and Tampa Bay Rays, each of whom has minimal budget in a small market and hardly anything to offer as far as expiring assets go.
It will make for a less entertaining deadline, but it wouldn't be shocking if there end up being at least half a dozen teams who either make no trades or put together just one or two inconsequential swaps.
