The All-Star break is officially over, so look for the 2017 MLB trade rumors to begin. Which teams are expected to be the buyers, the sellers and the teams that are still on the playoff bubble but don’t know which way they are headed? Right now, one of the hottest names being passed around as possible trade bait is Jd Martinez.

JD Martinez could fetch a lot on the open market - maybe

The Detroit Tigers best hitter is arguably JD Martinez. Heck, their best player over the last two seasons has been Martinez. So the big question Tigers fans want answered is why trade him?

Martinez will be a free agent at the end of the 2017 season, which is good and bad for Detroit.

Good because if the Tigers' brass believes they can't sign him, they can trade him sometime between now and July 31. The bad news for Detroit is that if Martinez is just a “rental” player for a team that also believes that they can't strike a deal with the 29-year old slugger, they may not want to give up too much to obtain Martinez in a trade.

Fox Sports’ Jon Morosi tweeted that the Diamondbacks are trying to go all-in this season and make a run at a World Series championship, and why not? Arizona is having a dream season so far as they have racked up a 53-37 record to this point of the season. While they may not be able to catch the LA Dodgers in the NL West division standings, they have a more than comfortable 8.5 game lead in the current Wild Card standings over the Chicago Cubs.

Adding a bat like Martinez to an already impressive lineup that includes All-Stars Paul Goldschmidt and Jake Lamb would certainly give the D-backs one of the best in the National League.

Martinez is hitting .298 and has 14 home runs and 32 RBI on the season. Those numbers are even more impressive considering he didn’t play his first game of 2017 until May 12.

Yankees ready to listen to offers for Justin Verlander?

Another big name Detroit Tigers player who is rumored as being shopped around is longtime ace Justin Verlander. Many outlets had Verlander linked to the Chicago Cubs, however, now a strong rumor floating around MLB sources is that the New York Yankees may be interested in JV.

The Yankees have been a pleasant surprise so far in 2017, however, with star pitcher Michael Pineda out for the remainder of the season the Yankees may need to add an arm or two if they want to stay in the Wild Card race.

Verlander, along with Jose Quintana of the White Sox and Oakland’s Sonny Gray, all have possibilities of landing in the Big Apple before August 1. Verlander still has a fastball that flirts with 98 m.p.h. and is as competitive as ever, but a possible reason that the Bombers would pass on Verlander for someone like Gray or Quintana is due to his current contract. JV's current deal runs through 2020 at nearly $28 million per season.
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