Late Monday, the Cubs and Royals announced that they had swapped catcher Martin Maldonado and pitcher Mike Montgomery. Contreras was walking around the Cubs clubhouse on Tuesday with no limp and spoke to members of the media. They have to treat this deadline more aggressively and make trades now that are more about preparing for September and even October. In this case, the Cubs get Maldonado for the second half of 2019 because he's a free agent come 2020, and the Royals have Montgomery for two more arbitration-eligible years. In a vacuum the timing of this trade might look a little strange or even like there's more going on behind the scenes, but in reality, it's one of the first examples of how the change in the MLB trade deadline is going to affect how teams operate in July.

Source: Forbes July 17, 2019 18:36 UTC