MLB Trade Rumors: Fact or Fiction on All the Wildest Rumors on the Web

One of the most anticipated and typically exciting times in the baseball season—the two weeks between the All-Star Game and the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline—has fallen well short of expectations thus far.

Heck, the rumor mill isn't even giving us full rumors at this point. There's been no mention anywhere of a potential deal that would send "Player X" to another team for "Player Y," only that there are teams with varying degrees of interest in "Player Y."

There's nothing exciting, much less wild, about that. But there's enough speculation out there to at least keep us interested in the chatter until someone—anyone—decides to pull the trigger on a deal, which should, hopefully, be followed by a flurry of activity.

Is a perennial contender about to throw in the towel and trade "Player X"? Could one of baseball's best bullpens add another high-profile piece? Is $3 million really going to keep a contender from making an addition it desperately needs?

We'll hit on all of that and more in this week's edition of "Fact or Fiction."

Fiction: The Yankees Will Add Another All-Star Closer to Their Bullpen

Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press

It's more speculation than rumor, and ESPN's Buster Olney says it's highly unlikely, but his thought about Craig Kimbrel possibly becoming a member of the New York Yankees is too wild not to include.

The idea in and of itself isn't so wild.

Nobody's about to confuse the Yankees starting rotation for the one the Mets are trotting out to the mound in another one of New York City's five boroughs, and if the Bronx Bombers aren't willing to pay what it would take to add a starter, adding to the bullpen makes sense.

With three All-Star relievers at the back end of the pen—Kimbrel, Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller—the Yankees would be able to shorten games, needing no more than five innings from any starter. That trio could take the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, while the rest of the bullpen could handle the sixth.

It's the same formula the Kansas City Royals use.

What makes it wildly unlikely is the fact that the San Diego Padres would have to become desperate for it to happen. As Olney notes, one of the Padres' deadline goals is to create additional payroll flexibility. Moving Kimbrel and the $25 million (minimum) he's due through 2017 would do just that.

The Yankees are able and willing to take on additional salary. They're just not willing to give up anything substantial to do so. It's hard to imagine a scenario in which San Diego gives up a perennial All-Star in the prime of his career for next to nothing.

It's also why the premise of the Cincinnati Reds' Aroldis Chapman joining the Yankees, as suggested by ESPN's David Schoenfeld, is another wild and crazy idea that isn't going to happen. The Yankees aren't giving up the pieces it would take to get a deal done. 

Fact: The Mets Won't Add Any Additional Payroll

Tony Dejak/Associated Press

If you're looking for outrageous rumors, allow me to present this nugget from ESPN New York's Andrew Marchand for your consideration: "Wait, I just read that it's been reported the Mets don't want to pay Zobrist's remaining $3M. God Bless, Met fans. #Wilponzis"

Yes, the same team that sends Bobby Bonilla a check for about $1.2 million every July—and will continue to do so for the next 20 years—doesn't want to pay $3 million to add Ben Zobrist.

You can't make something like that up, and if you're familiar with the Wilpons, who own the team, then it's completely believable.

What makes the situation so absurd—besides the fact that a team with its own cable network in the biggest market there is operates like it's the Atlantic League's Long Island Ducks—is that the Mets nearly traded for Zobrist earlier this season, back when he had more than $3 million left on his deal.

According to CBS Sports Baseball Insider Jon Heyman, a deal between New York and Oakland that would have sent right-handed pitching prospect Rafael Montero to the A's for Zobrist was scrapped when the A's began to play well and Montero landed on the disabled list.

The only thing that's changed since then is that the Mets offense has gotten worse. But spending $3 million to begin fixing it, with the team still in the thick of the National League playoff race and only three games behind Washington for the lead in the National League East, is now too much to ask.

Simply amazin'.

Fiction: The Detroit Tigers Are Going to Sell

Carlos Osorio/Associated Press

If you're looking for a team to stick on a poster championing the cause to push the non-waiver trade deadline back, look no further than the 2015 Detroit Tigers.

This year's team never really looked like it was capable of making a deep playoff run, even with a healthy Miguel Cabrera in the lineup. Yet despite the fact that their four-year run as AL Central champs is likely over, the club has a .500 record (47-47) and is only three games out of a wild-card spot.

So it wasn't very surprising that less than 24 hours after USA Today's Bob Nightengale wrote that the Tigers were "going to surrender and be sellers," there were multiple reports contradicting that stance.

As Joel Sherman of the New York Post put it, "What I have heard most often today from scouts/execs is some version of: Don't think #Tigers have it in them to sell, but they should."

Detroit is built to win now, and the Tigers will eventually get the best hitter in baseball, Cabrera, back into the lineup. For some, that's reason enough to stick with the program and not abandon ship.

But the team's farm system is largely devoid of talent—both Baseball America and ESPN Insider Keith Law ranked it as the worst in baseball—and the Tigers could begin to rectify that by trading away Yoenis Cespedes and David Price (pictured), both of whom would bring back a substantial package of talent.

Ultimately, the decision belongs to 86-year-old owner Mike Ilitch, who isn't getting any younger and desperately wants to bring a World Series crown back to Detroit before he dies.

Because of that, the Tigers aren't going to sell. In fact, they may try to use what little talent they've got down on the farm to add a piece or two and make another run at baseball's Holy Grail for what might be the last time with this core group of players.

Fact: MLB Will Push the Trade Deadline Back in the Near Future

Bill Kostroun/Associated Press

This might not be a trade rumor involving two teams, but it's a rumor that will impact every team in baseball and the trade market in general, so I'd be remiss if I didn't include it here.

The 2012 addition of a second wild-card berth in each league has worked as planned. More teams are in the playoff picture, creating added excitement and keeping fans engaged deeper into the season. Only a few years ago, they would have shifted their attention elsewhere.

But even the best decisions have unintended consequences sometimes, and as MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred recently told reporters, he's prepared to take a deeper look at addressing them:

"

I think that the July 31st deadline is something that we may want to revisit in the context of the revised playoff format. Obviously when you have two additional opportunities to be in the playoffs, you have more teams in the hunt and they may want to wait a little longer before they make decisions.

On the other hand, you've got to remember, we want teams that the core of which have been together for the year playing in the postseason. So you have to just balance those two issues, I think.

"

Just how far back the non-waiver trade deadline should be moved is up for debate, and there's no right or wrong answer. I'm of the opinion that pushing it back two weeks, to August 15, would give those teams still undecided about whether they're contenders or pretenders ample time to get that sorted out.

But some people believe pushing the deadline back a full month, to August 31, is the right way to go, while others surely would be in favor of moving the deadline back by one week or three. The one thing we can all agree on is that by moving the trade deadline back, the trade market would become more exciting and intriguing.

In fact, it might create two different trade markets—one for teams that decide to sell in mid- to late July, as we have now, and one for those clubs that don't throw in the towel until later, when a new batch of contenders will be looking to add.

There's enough of a call for change that Manfred will get something done. It's just a matter of how quickly that change will be implemented.

Fiction: We Won't See a Multiplayer Blockbuster Deal

Al Behrman/Associated Press

The first real "blockbuster" trade I have any memory of wasn't completed at the trade deadline but rather at the 1990 winter meetings, when the San Diego Padres dealt Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez.

It was the kind of deal that made fans and executives stand up and say, "Whoa! What just happened?"

Even with a limited number of teams having proclaimed themselves to be sellers, this year's trade deadline provides us with a chance to see another one of those awe-inspiring, playoff race-altering deals come to fruition.

Of course, for that to happen, we need two willing parties, and according to Nightengale, the Reds are not one of them, with the club seemingly disinterested in packaging Johnny Cueto and Aroldis Chapman together.

But there's a strong case to be made for doing just that. Teams would surrender far more in terms of prospects to get their hands on two impact players, especially if one of those players were under team control past the end of this season.

Consider some of the players potential sellers could package together:

• Cincinnati: Jay Bruce, Chapman, Cueto, Mike Leake
• Detroit: Yoenis Cespedes and David Price
• Oakland: Scott Kazmir and Ben Zobrist
• San Diego: Andrew Cashner, Craig Kimbrel, Tyson Ross and Justin Upton

Finances are always an issue, and putting together a multiplayer deal involving established major league stars is incredibly complicated, but there's not a contender in baseball that couldn't use at least two of the players listed from each of those teams.

That's why it's foolish to believe—with eight days to go before the non-waiver trade deadline hits—we won't see such a swap take place. Chances are there's a general manager somewhere who is trying to figure out a way to make one work right now.

Unless otherwise linked or noted, all statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs and are current through games of July 22. All contract information courtesy of Cot's Contracts.

Hit me up on Twitter to talk all things baseball: @RickWeinerBR.