Top 15 Starting Pitcher Trade Targets This Summer

When it comes to starting pitching, you know the old saying — you can never have too much. So when the summer heats up in July, you can expect every team that considers themselves a contender to go looking for more rotation help.

To gather a list of potentially available arms, we start by looking at teams who are unlikely to be a solid playoff contender, and thus will be in sell mode. With that in mind, let's have a look at the Top 15 Pitcher Trade Targets for the summer of '24, from most sought-after to least:

Jesus Luzardo, Miami Marlins
Justin Verlander, Houston Astros
Yusei Kikuchi, Toronto Blue Jays
Erick Fedde, Chicago White Sox
Luis Severino, New York Mets
Paul Blackburn, Oakland A's
Mitch Keller, Pittsburgh Pirates
Sean Manaea, New York Mets
Frankie Montas, Cincinnati Reds
Jose Quintana, New York Mets
Martin Perez, Pittsburgh Pirates
Lance Lynn, St. Louis Cardinals
Kyle Gibson, St. Louis Cardinals
Ross Stripling, Oakland A's
Alex Cobb, San Francisco Giants

Some of these teams might still somehow be able to go on a run and get themselves back into playoff contention (at least, in their minds), so those names might have to come off the list. This group could include Verlander, and perhaps Kikuchi and Severino, as unlikely as it seems for the latter two.

Two new teams have surfaced as potential suitors for Luzardo, while Verlander has now been linked to a familiar destination.

Cobb could fall off this list altogether as he is still recovering from offseason hip surgery, and just today was shut down from throwing after shoulder discomfort cropped up.

Only the top half of the list contains pitchers that actually could help move the needle for any contending team.

Additionally, there's always the possibility that other teams will find themselves out of the race and decide to put some pitchers on the block before the end of July.