The trade deadline is just around the corner and Buster Olney of ESPN gives us a preview of how teams are preparing for it:

– New York Mets: They will listen to offers for Carlos Beltran and Francisco Rodriguez, but as Olney points out, they will have to eat a substantial amount of money in order to move both players. Jose Reyes will probably stay in New York as he’s having an amazing season and his value keeps getting higher. Olney says that the Mets would require at least a Grade-A prospect and a solid Grade-B prospect in order to move Reyes. Besides, Reyes has said he would like to try the free agent market.

– Houston Astros: They’ll listen on Hunter Pence and Wandy Rodriguez, but they will ask for a lot in return in order to move either of them. Besides that, the Astros have a new owner and he will probably will not want to sell their best players as his first act as owner.

– Atlanta Braves: They are looking for offensive help and the good thing for them is that they have a lot of young pitchers to spare. Some rival executives are wondering if they could even deal Jair Jurrjens. Given the season he’s having, the Braves could trade him and get the offense their looking for.

– San Francisco Giants: They’re still looking for a catcher to replace injured Buster Posey, but according to Olney, the Giants’ best shot for an actual upgrade might be in a deal with Cincinnati for Ramon Hernandez.

– Florida Marlins: They will move to a new stadium next season, so they don’t want to create a perception that they having a fire sell again. Olney points out that Anibal Sanchez could be of interest to other teams, but they need him for their 2012 pitching staff. Leo Nunez is another story, he’s getting pricey for them so the best time to move him could be now.

Image by Keith Allison under the Creative Commons License.