Trade Deadline Tracker Keeps The Rumor Mill Roaring

The Athletic’s deadline tracker is doing what deadline trackers do best - feeding the league’s appetite for smoke before the fire shows up. Front offices are working phones, rival scouts are pretending not to listen, and every rumor gets stretched a little farther than it should. That is the real sport here once the calendar turns and the sellers start asking for too much. The trick now is separating the real deals from the usual talk designed to make one GM blink first.