On the day after the 2018 All-Star Game, the Orioles traded Manny Machado to the Dodgers. The next day, the Padres dealt Brad Hand to the Indians.

Two days after the 2019 All-Star Game, the Thunder traded Russell Westbrook to the Rockets for Chris Paul, which technically doesn’t count as a baseball transaction.

Have you noticed the sounds of silence so far in trade deadline month? Now, to be fair, last year’s Midsummer Classic took place a week later on the calendar than this year’s. Nevertheless, myriad factors exist to lead industry folks to believe this trade period, despite the new rule that bans revocable waivers transactions in August, will lag until the month’s final days before the July 31 deadline.

“I’m surprised the industry is slow, given that August is dead,” an official from a National League club said on the condition of anonymity. “But it’s looking like it’s going down to the last week.”

A look at the landscape offers an explanation:

1. No deadline headquarters. Often, the deadline “runs through” a certain team that possesses top talent to unload and can dictate the market to an extent. Think the Orioles last year with Machado, Zack Britton, Kevin Gausman and Jonathan Schoop; or the Yankees in 2016 with Carlos Beltran, Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller and Ivan Nova; or the 2007 Rangers with Eric Gagne, Kenny Lofton and Mark Teixeira.

This season’s spiritual headquarters probably would be located halfway between San Francisco, where the Giants (Madison Bumgarner, Sam Dyson, Will Smith, Tony Watson) will look to move multiple guys, and Toronto, where the Blue Jays (Freddy Galvis, Ken Giles, Marcus Stroman) will do the same; can I suggest Rapid City, South Dakota? Yet neither club possesses players that stand out well among the crowd as did Machado, Chapman and Teixeira.

2. Players with questions. Bumgarner will start Saturday night for the Giants in Milwaukee after leaving his July 6 start early upon getting hit in the left elbow by a comebacker — X-rays were negative. Stroman will start Sunday afternoon at the Yankees after missing two weeks, including the All-Star Game, with a left shoulder pectoral cramp. Those guys aren’t going anywhere until they prove their good health.

3. Teams with questions. This season features more teams occupying the middle ground than usual. The Indians must determine whether they can trade Trevor Bauer and/or Hand without giving up on this year, in which they find themselves in the AL wild-card race and not out of the AL Central competition, either. The Reds went all-in last winter and aren’t dead, yet they have to start climbing soon. Though the Rangers and Diamondbacks probably exceeded their own preseason expectations, how much more do they want to invest in this season? The Diamondbacks appear to be preparing for a possible sale, with special assistant to the general manager Tim Wilken scouting the Yankees’ Class-A Tampa team; left-hander Robbie Ray would fit well in the Yankees’ starting rotation.

Perhaps this first week out of the break will bring some clarity and spur some action. Don’t be surprised, however, if the action occurs in a flurry, with the clock ticking toward its end.

In meeting with the Baseball Writers Association of America this past week hours before the All-Star Game in Cleveland, baseball commissioner Rob Manfred tried to alleviate pressure from his way too many owners who haven’t committed to extending netting to protect their fans.

“We recognized early in the process that it was very difficult to set an individual rule, one rule that applied to 30 different ballparks given their structural differences,” Manfred said. “And instead, we have opted to work with the individual clubs over a period of time to extend netting. We’ve made extensive progress on that. And I believe that progress will continue, and one of the reasons we have made progress is that we have not put clubs in an impossible position by adopting a one-size-fits-all rule.”

In that case, what about a one-rule-fits-all size, so to speak? Every team should be compelled, publicly, to extend its netting — if not to the foul poles, then darn close. The White Sox and Nationals finished the job in time for the second half. The Pirates have vowed to improve their safety, and the Rangers will install it next year in their new ballpark. How could anyone feel differently after seeing a 4-year-old girl get struck by a foul ball in Houston on May 29?

“I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that clubs are going to take a period of time, figure out what they can and can’t do, especially before they announce what their plans are going to be,” Manfred added. “And look, one injury is too many, but the fact of the matter is … we have less incidents than we used to have. We are better off than we were. And I do believe we’ll continue to make progress on that.”

That doesn’t make for much of a slogan, does it? “Come to a ballgame! You’re less likely to suffer a serious injury than you once were!” Nah, the only unreasonable action left for teams is to sit still and imperil customers.