Opinion

The San Francisco Giants didn't limp into the second half of the 2016 MLB season. That's far too kind.

Rather, San Francisco stumbled and crashed like Chris Farley's Matt Foley into an ill-fated coffee table.

The Chicago Cubs were already on the short list of MLB heavyweights.

If they prove the rumors true and acquire flamethrowing closer Aroldis Chapman, they'll tip the scales.

First, the rumor, courtesy of Jon Heyman of Today's Knuckleball:

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Tears began flowing immediately. Like, we’re talking instantly. Hall of Fame inductions always are emotional. But this one, what a weepfest.

And it was absolutely, sniff, touching.

Careers often become sentimental journeys while we’re paying scant attention, whether you’re talking baseball, teacher or auto mechanic. The thing is, so many of us don’t even stop to realize it until you look up one day and the twilight is beginning to set in.

It's the Chris Sale show during this wild MLB trade rumors season. 

Sale might dominate the headlines right now because he took scissors to throwback jerseys and got sent home (no joke), according to Tommy Stokke of FanRag Sports, but more importantly he's one of the biggest names on the market. 

As if trading Chris Sale wasn't going to be complicated enough for the Chicago White Sox, then he had to go and carve up some jerseys.

If that second part lost you, boy do you have a story to get caught up on.

The goal in any trade, in any sport, is for both teams to walk away happy with what they got in the deal. It'd be insane for a team to make a trade intending to walk away in worse shape than they were before. 

That's our goal here—to craft deals that benefit both teams.

While we typically hit on trade ideas and scenarios every Tuesday, the rumor mill has picked up significant speed over the past few days. So consider this a special edition of our weekly trade ideas, with more to come in the days ahead.

For weeks, we've all been asking whether the New York Yankees would sell.

Turns out the Sale we should have been focused on is Chris, as in Chris Sale of the Chicago White Sox, as in the pitcher who could energize this July trade market.

If a team gets (or misses out on) Aroldis Chapman, it could be season-changing.

It's time for MLB teams to make a decision. 

With August getting closer, teams on the brink of the postseason have to decide whether it's time to make a move for the present or for the future.

The future means a front office throws up the proverbial white flag and sells off assets to teams with different ideas. It means securing spots of need for the long-term outlook and trying again at a later date, what some would call the smart approach.

As the grind of the long MLB regular season takes its toll and some rosters begin to wilt in the summer sun, shoring up a pitching staff can be the key to maintaining consistency and stocking away wins before the final playoff push in the fall.

Better buckle up. Major League Baseball's August 1 trade deadline is fast approaching, and the market appears to be flooded with buyers.

Let's take that as our cue to get into how every team can make out well.

Ahead are blueprints for what it would take for the 18 contenders (defined here as any team at or above .500 at the start of play Thursday) to earn "A" grades for the 2016 trade deadline. This involves taking a look at each team's biggest needs and available assets and determining how (or in one case, if) it should use the latter to fill the former.