Opinion

The Chicago Cubs made the big splash everyone waits for each year, but the MLB trade rumors market is far from shuttered. 

Call the Cubs wrangling Aroldis Chapman from the New York Yankees, according to Jon Heyman of Today's Knuckleball, more of an appetizer than anything.

There are just a few days left before Major League Baseball's August 1 non-waiver trade deadline, and the rumor mill is replete with tidbits regarding some of the best players in the league.

Dee Gordon will return to the big leagues on Thursday, and you're allowed to have mixed feelings about that. 

On the one hand, the Miami Marlins second baseman served his time—an 80-game suspension under MLB's performance-enhancing drug policy. 

Joey Gallo is very good at hitting the ball over the fence. In fact, he did it Tuesday in his first game since the Texas Rangers recalled him. 

It came in the fifth inning of the Rangers' 6-3 loss to the Oakland A's. Like most Gallo blasts, it was impressive—a no-doubt drive to left-center field off Oakland starter Sonny Gray that might as well have lit up the scoreboard the moment it touched his bat.

The rumor mill tends to run wild in the days and weeks leading up to the MLB trade deadline, and one of the biggest storylines of the 2016 trade season has been the potential availability of Chicago White Sox ace Chris Sale.

It's not the heat, it's the humidity….

1. The Dodgers Play Catch-Up

Clayton Kershaw is down, the Los Angeles Dodgers are out and Chavez Ravine cannot disguise the cracks in its faulty roster.

Is now the time for the Dodgers to deal top-tier prospects for a Chris Archer, or a Matt Moore?

No. Absolutely not. A thousand times no.

The floodgates are now open with one major trade out of the way and likely plenty of more to follow before the July 31 deadline.

Things were looking dicey for a while, but offense has come back to Major League Baseball. Almost everywhere you look, hitters are hitting again.

But why the "almost," you ask? Because behind the plate is a place, and it's where hitters are still in a rut.

The New York Yankees are officially trade-deadline sellers. They announced as much by shipping hard-throwing closer Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs on Monday, per Jon Heyman of Today's Knuckleball.

The 2016 MLB trade deadline is Aug. 1, which leaves a bit of time for trade chatter to circulate before the biggest deals go down.

At the center of the current buzz are several pitchers with varying roles. New York Yankees flamethrower closer Aroldis Chapman is in the process of changing teams. Chicago White Sox ace Chris Sale is also being mentioned in rumors.