Last fall, the Yankees jumped out to a lead in their first-round playoff series behind their ace, C.C. Sabathia, on their way to yet another sweep of the Twins. If the big lefty had already been used earlier in the week, however, the entire dynamic of the series might have changed. The Yankees, mindful of this potential, had decided to rest Sabathia for the final regular season game, instead conceding the division title to the Rays.

Such a development, with an exciting division race dwindling to nothingness as the two teams limped to the finish line, was the perfect fodder for media types to explode.

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With six weeks left in the season, five of baseball’s six divisions have legitimate races for the division championships. That kind of frequency doesn’t happen every year, but Major League Baseball is poised to make sure it never happens.

As much as division races have been diluted by the existence of the wild card in each league, they will soon be diluted even more by the creation of even more wild cards, almost certainly one in each league.

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Some players have no-trade provisions in their contracts, meaning they have veto power over any trade. In some cases, the players want the clauses because they genuinely want to ensure that they will remain with the team they signed with. Most often, though, they have and use the provisions for economic purposes. That is, if a team wants to trade a player with such a provision, the player says how much are you willing to pay for my ok?

It’s the latter group that prompts me to propose a revolutionary idea. Representatives of the players and owners are negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement, and I am suggesting that they insert a new element into their trading rules.

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