It's been a rough beginning to the MLB season for many teams that have won World Series championships in the last several years, including the Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, and Texas Rangers. All three of those squads currently sit below .500 as the season approaches its midway point, having fallen off significantly from their championship heights.

With the MLB trade deadline approaching, some have figured that these three teams may be sellers looking to build for the future rather than get better right now.

However, MLB insider Jim Bowden of The Athletic recently shed some light on why this may not be the case.

“After subpar starts, the Braves, Red Sox and Rangers don’t appear to be postseason teams this year, but most in the industry believe they will make trades to try to improve their respective rosters for the rest of this season and next rather than being typical sellers,” reported Bowen. “The Braves will focus on acquiring more pitching (starting and relieving). The Red Sox will try to deal one of their outfielders for starting pitching help and an upgrade at first base. The Rangers will generally look for bats if they can’t get their own guys going.”

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The Braves are currently the worst of the three teams mentioned in Bowden's report, as the team currently sits at 29-38 despite a recent series win vs the Milwaukee Brewers.

Atlanta has seen regression from virtually every player on their roster this year, and they also haven't gotten the boost they were hoping to receive from Spencer Strider, who has lost all five of his starts since returning from injury.

While it would appear that a postseason berth is a dubious proposition at best at this juncture, that apparently won't be stopping the Braves, Red Sox, and Rangers from trying to make their teams better over the next few weeks.