Category: Baseball

If Thursday felt like a bit of a letdown for Mets fans, it’s largely because David Stearns wowed them on Wednesday with deals for two elite relievers, making it seem the president of baseball operations was setting the stage for a spectacular trade deadline.

It didn’t quite rise to that level, as it turned out. Stearns did get a much-needed upgrade for center field in a trade with the Baltimore Orioles for Cedric Mullins on the final day, but that seemed to be a fallback deal after pursuing the potentially more impactful Luis Robert Jr. of the Chicago White Sox.

And there was a case to be made that the Mets needed another starting pitcher, especially the way converted reliever Clay Holmes has seemed to wear down in recent weeks. But as the 6 p.m. deadline came and went, there was no indication the Mets got close to a trade to help their starting rotation.

So, no, it wasn’t a spectacular trade deadline, but it was a strong one for Stearns, as he made four trades, acquiring three relievers to transform a weak bullpen, and Mullins to likely be the, mostly, everyday center fielder.

Here are the grades, individual and overall...

TYLER ROGERS

This was the most surprising move, as no one expected the Giants to trade Rogers, and it’s potentially the most impactful. Helsley has a bigger name because he throws 100 mph and has been an All-Star closer for the St. Louis Cardinals, but for what the Mets needed most, a lockdown set-up guy, perhaps nobody has been better in baseball than Rogers in that role.

He’s durable, among the MLB leaders with 53 appearances, and has been for years. The right-hander has a sparkling 1.80 ERA and his dominance is mostly the result of deception, despite below-average velocity, as he gives up very little hard contact with his submarine delivery that befuddles hitters. According Statcast, Rogers is in the top four percent of all MLB pitchers in limiting hard contact. And he’s allowed a grand total of four walks in 50 innings.

This trade is also the only one to get pushback on social media, as some Mets fans think they gave up too much in prospects Drew Gilbert, Blade Tidwell, and reliever Jose Butto, especially considering Rogers can be a free agent after the season. However, scouts made the point that other prospects had surpassed Gilbert and Tidwell, notably outfielder Carson Benge and pitchers Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat, and Jonah Tong.

In any case, this was a move Stearns absolutely had to make for a team trying to win a championship.

GRADE: A

RYAN HELSLEY

The surprise here was that the Mets got another elite reliever only hours after the Rogers trade, and the trade made it obvious that Stearns’ priority was to load up in the bullpen not only to lock down the late innings but also as a way of supporting a starting rotation that has lacked length for most of the season.

As a free agent after the season, Helsley was expected to be traded. One of the top closers in the majors the last few years, the right-hander is one of the hardest-throwers in the game, his fastball averaging just under 100 mph. And his slider is actually his best pitch, as the opposition is hitting .092 against it this season.

However, Helsley hasn’t been as dominant this season, at age 31, with a 3.00 ERA and a 1.386 WHIP, mostly because his fastball has been hit hard at times — the opposition is hitting .406 against it this season. However, he has been better lately, allowing one run in his last 11 appearances.

At his best Helsley can still be as overpowering as any reliever in the game. But he’ll need to command his fastball better to be that guy the rest of the way.

To get him the Mets gave up three minor leaguers, most notably infielder Jesus Baez, the No. 6-ranked prospect in SNY's preseason Top 30.

GRADE: A

CEDRIC MULLINS

Mullins is no longer the 30-30 guy who was such a dynamic center fielder in 2021 for the Orioles, but at age 30, he’s still a solid upgrade for the Mets, who were getting nothing offensively from Tyrone Taylor and only serviceable defense from Jeff McNeil.

How impactful Mullins can be for the Mets remains to be seen. His numbers for the season are rather pedestrian, hitting .229 with a .305 on-base percentage and a .738 OPS, but he did have a hot July, slashing .290/.346/.522/868. He doesn’t have the outstanding range he once did, but he’s still plenty athletic, as evidenced by his climbing-the-wall catch this week to rob a home run against the Toronto Blue Jays at Camden Yards.

It seemed clear the Mets’ top center field target was Robert for his potential impact offensively and defensively, but he also would have come with more risk, due to his history of injuries and underperformance. As a result, all indications are that the Mets felt the White Sox wanted too much in return and that an overpay wasn’t worth the gamble.

To get Mullins, also a free agent after the season, the Mets gave up three prospects, most notably Raimon Gomez, a right-hander who throws 100 mph but ranks only as No. 28 in SNY's preseason Top 30.

GRADE: B +

GREGORY SOTO

This was the first of the three trades for relievers, completed a week ago with the Orioles, and it’s important primarily because it gives the Mets a second left-hander in their pen to go with Brooks Raley, who is only a few weeks back from his long absence due to Tommy John surgery.

Soto has a big arm and strikeout stuff, averaging 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings, but he also had a 3.96 ERA for the O’s, due to a handful of bad outings and his penchant for walking too many hitters at times.

He dominates left-handed hitters, holding them to a .138 average this season, but has had a tougher time getting righth-anders out.

To get him, the Mets gave up expendable prospects Wellington Aracena and Cameron Foster.

GRADE: B

OVERALL

The bottom line is Stearns addressed the Mets’ most glaring flaws, and did so effectively, especially in the bullpen, turning a weakness into what should be a strength. In fact, they could have one of the deepest and most dominant bullpens in the majors, loaded now with high-leverage relievers that will give Carlos Mendoza the ability to use quality arms like Reed Garrett and Ryne Stanek in the middle innings if necessary.

Still, it remains to be seen if Mullins can impact an offense that has been puzzlingly inconsistent this season (and just plain bad with runners in scoring position), or whether Stearns needed to do more in acquiring a bat.

And then there is Stearns’ decision not to add a starting pitcher. If Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea build themselves back up to where they’re going deeper into games again, and Holmes gets a second wind, the Mets’ rotation should be strong to the finish line.  

Or there is the possibility that top prospects like Nolan McLean and Brandon Sproat could produce if the need is there down the stretch.

But it does seem the Mets could have used another starter like Merrill Kelly, traded by the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday, to add some quality depth to the rotation, especially since they like to give their starters more than the typical four days' rest between starts.

It’s not a miss on Stearns’ part, to be sure, but it’s enough to ding his grade a little bit anyway.

GRADE: A-

A funny thing blocked the path to another Andrew Friedman midsummer triumph.

An Andrew Friedman midsummer failure.

The Dodgers and their renowned baseball boss came to bat at baseball’s trade deadline Thursday poised to knock another fat midseason pitch out of the park en route to a second consecutive World Series championship.

They never took the bat off their shoulder.

Strike out, staring.

The Dodgers needed a proven closer. Six teams picked up proven closers. The Dodgers weren’t one of them.

Read more:Dodgers pass MLB trade deadline quietly, add Brock Stewart and Alex Call

Mason Miller went to the San Diego Padres, Camilo Doval to the New York Yankees, Griffin Jax to the Tampa Bay Rays, Ryan Helsley to the New York Mets, Jhoan Duran to the Philadelphia Phillies and David Bednar to the New York Yankees.

Some other reliever went to the Dodgers. I think his name was Brock Stewart or something.

How does this make sense? Are they watching what we’re watching?

So you’re telling me they must forge ahead through the rest of the season hoping that Tanner Scott gets healthy or Kirby Yates gets consistent or Blake Treinen gets younger or, heck, maybe the Boston Red Sox cut Walker Buehler and he comes back for one more ninth inning! That’s crazy, but this entire situation is crazy, a $400-million roster with nobody to pitch the last out.

The Dodger also entered Thursday needing a defensive-minded outfielder. Four teams found one. The Dodgers did not.

Harrison Bader went to the Phillies, Mike Yastrzemski and Randal Grichuk to the Kansas City Royals, Austin Slater to the Yankees and Cedric Mullins to the Mets.

The Dodgers picked up an outfielder named Alex…is it Call?

So now Dodger fans are haunted with the fear that Michael Conforto will lose a fly ball down the left-field line on Halloween with the season on the line.

This is all so weird. This is all so, well, arrogant.

Granted, the Dodgers have baseball’s best team on paper, but they’ve had its best team for several years and that hasn’t stopped Friedman from dominating the last week in July.

One could argue that Friedman actually won last year’s championship by brilliantly acquiring Jack Flaherty and Tommy Edman and Michael Kopech at the deadline.

This has always been Friedman’s strength, humbly adding talent to a group already possessing riches of talent.

Remember, this is the time of year he also once traded for Rich Hill, Yu Darvish, Manny Machado, Max Scherzer, Trea Turner and Evan Phillips, all of whom led them deep into the playoffs.

The only two years during which Friedman has fumbled the deadline? He failed to acquire pitching in 2022 and they were beaten by the Padres. He brought in only Lance Lynn in 2023 and they were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

This suddenly feels like one of those years.

“We felt like this is an incredibly talented group that, as we get healthy and these guys hit their stride, we feel like we're in a great position for another deep run into October,” general manager Brandon Gomes said on a conference call with reporters.

In other words, they think they’re good enough that they don’t need to trade any top prospects for win-now talent.

But are they? And even if they are, why take a chance?

If there’s anything the first 109 games of this season has taught us is that the Dodgers' greatness, like all greatness in a sport that hasn’t had consecutive champions in a quarter of a decade, can be fleeting.

The window suddenly seems to be slowly closing on the Hall of Fame careers of Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. Shohei Ohtani has been so physically stressed that he’s leaving games with cramps.

Teoscar Hernández doesn’t look like last year’s revelation. Max Muncy can’t stay on the field. And Edman is batting aches that may last all season.

The rotation is also shaky, with fragile Tyler Glasnow and aging Clayton Kershaw and underwhelming Roki Sasaki and injured Blake Snell and, really, just one sure-fire starter is Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

“Obviously there was a lot of action today throughout the game, and a lot of teams improved, but we feel really good about this group,” Gomes said. “Coming into the year, felt like this was as talented of a roster as we've ever had. We're in a position where we're in first place, and I don't even think we've played our best baseball yet. So as we continue to get some of our starters back, and then adding these pieces, and our guys just kind of playing up to their potential, we feel like it’s still a really, really strong team, and we don't feel any differently about our aspirations than we did at the beginning of the year.”

Read more:Shohei Ohtani leaves pitching start because of cramping, Dodgers go on to lose to Reds

Through their stunning inaction Thursday, the Dodger clearly made the statement that they’re good enough to a championship without any more help.

All those teams that greatly improved don’t agree.

The baseball world is sensing a Dodger vulnerability, as if there’s blue blood in the water.

Given a chance to dissuade everyone of that notion the Dodgers sighed, shrugged and passed.

A strikeout of a day, a turning point of a season?

Read more:Dodgers Dugout

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

While NASCAR is racing in corn country this weekend at Iowa Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway is on deck to host a Field of Dreams-caliber event of its own.

In a matchup where baseball meets motorsports, the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds will clash inside the confines of the “Last Great Colosseum” this Saturday, Aug. 2, in the MLB Speedway Classic presented by BuildSubmarines.com (7:15 p.m. ET, FOX), the first MLB game ever played in the state of Tennessee.

RELATED: More info on 2025 MLB Speedway Classic

“We love hosting the races that we host, but it’s always fun to showcase our facility in a different light, and we’ve done that with football, and now we’re thrilled to be able to do that with Major League Baseball,” Jerry Caldwell, president of Bristol, told NASCAR.com. “They’ve been great to work with. We’re blessed with a world-class team within Speedway Motorsports and at Bristol Motor Speedway. And then you couple that team with the team that Major League Baseball has assembled, and it’s really putting together something special, and I can’t wait for folks to get here and see it and just be wowed.”

With the event, Bristol continues to expand its non-racing resume. In addition to hosting a National Football League exhibition between Philadelphia and Washington in 1961, the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile” laid the gridiron for the University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech during the “Battle at Bristol” in 2016, which drew 156,990 spectators, an NCAA football record.

Bristol’s attendance muscle will again be flexed this weekend, with MLB announcing that more than 85,000 tickets have been sold for the event, surpassing the previous record of 84,587 set on Sept. 12, 1954, when Cleveland Stadium hosted the New York Yankees.

Any collaboration of this magnitude requires plenty of planning, and the MLB Speedway Classic is no exception. Soft demolition of several walls and buildings began May 27, with the property being turned over to MLB and associated partners and vendors June 23. Roughly 100-150 workers were involved in the demolition process, while a crew of approximately 400 was responsible for building the baseball infield.

Plenty of material went into the effort, too, including 340 tons of infield clay, 450 wall pads (based on MLB’s London Series build), 17,500 tons of rock, 80,000 square feet of backstop netting, 124,000 square feet of Diamond Series AstroTurf (the same turf type utilized by Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jays) and much more. The final product? A Bristol diamond with dimensions spanning from 330 feet down both foul lines to 400 feet dead center.

“It’s kind of dreaming up this concept and saying, what if?” Caldwell said regarding the event, which has been years in the making. “Then we get computer renderings of what it could look like, and then now we’re showing pictures of what it really is like, and you’re seeing all that stuff come together. It’s a great sense of accomplishment and fun for me to see and for our team just because our teams work so hard on it, getting everyone to see this kind of work of art, almost, that they’ve created.”

Baseball players have taken notice, with “Talladega Nights”-inspired catching gear, racing-centric uniforms and simulator attempts all the rage. While NASCAR drivers continue their regular-season push at Iowa, they, too, recognize just how significant an event like this can be in getting more eyeballs on Bristol and NASCAR as a whole.

“A lot of baseball fans are going to go to Bristol and be like, man, this is wild. I can’t imagine they race on the banking and stuff like this. And hopefully, they come back for a race,” Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe said. “And even for the players, I know that I was able to do some stuff with the Reds. And even Elly De La Cruz (Reds’ shortstop), right? He was racing around the track, and he was so intrigued by it. So hopefully, we can get some more of those guys to the race track. I think the more we can do that kind of stuff just helps you know push all this in the right direction.”

“Any time you can introduce yourself and expose yourself to new fans and create new opportunities, great, and I think we’ve done a good job of doing that with a lot of different opportunities, whether (Clash at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum), whether it’s street races, whether it’s going to cities, going to different places, engaging in other sports and engaging with other athletes,” Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell said. “I feel like that’s a big part of just overall growing our brand as a NASCAR brand.”

The MLB Speedway Classic isn’t the only major event on Bristol’s docket. After all, the 0.533-mile short track will host all three of NASCAR’s national series in September, headlined by the Bass Pro Shops Night Race as the Round of 16 elimination race in the Cup Series Playoffs (Sept. 13, 7:30 p.m. ET, USA, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). According to Caldwell, the process to transition the facility back to a race track is already in motion. Approximately 200 crew members from MLB, along with 90-100 from Bristol, will aid in the dismantling process of the baseball field.

MORE: Cup Series schedule

“We’ve got to make sure we’re keeping our eye on the ball, and we can do that,” Caldwell said. “There are lots of major facilities that host huge events weeks apart, and we’re going to be able to do that, but it takes a tremendous amount of planning, a tremendous amount of cooperation, and that’s what we’ve done. … From the partners with Major League Baseball, understanding that we have to get ready for the race, and then partners that we’re going to bring in that are from the construction space that will help us execute as we head towards the playoff race, and we’ll be ready, but it’s really just a tremendous amount of planning and making sure we’re all on the same page.”

At a venue with plenty of history, “Thunder Valley” will have another vaulted chapter written in its annals, and whether as a regular or first-timer, the MLB Speedway Classic will be a wonder under the lights for all in attendance.

Batter up.

“It’s one of those places you have to see to believe it,” Caldwell said about Bristol. “It’s a football stadium or baseball stadium on steroids, if you will. But you really want to get in and just take in the magnitude of the place. Enjoy every aspect of it. Walk around the facility. Make sure you see it from different angles. It’s in a beautiful part of the country, but it’s also just an amazing facility to think that this is built in Bristol, Tennessee, and is one of the largest spectator facilities in the country and in the world.”

Cubs set to host 2027 MLB All-Star Game at Wrigley Field originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

After decades of waiting and hundreds of millions of dollars in renovations, Wrigley Field will host the 2027 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

The game will mark the first time the Chicago Cubs have hosted the All-Star Game since all the way back in 1990, and will mark the first time the game itself will have been played in Chicago since the White Sox hosted at Rate Field (then U.S. Cellular Field) in 2003.

The team announced the news in a press conference Friday, just days after the death of Cubs legend and Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg — a fitting move noted by Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts.

“Fitting because Ryne played in 10 All-Star Games, notably he played in the last All-Star Game that was at Wrigley in 1990,” Ricketts said. “And he won the Home Run Derby that year.”

Surprisingly, despite being the oldest ballpark in the National League, 2027 will mark only the fourth time the Cubs have hosted the game, with previous editions in 1947, 1962 and 1990 all hosted at the stadium.

MLB has been looking to host the All-Star Game at the Friendly Confines since the Cubs launched a massive renovation project of the ballpark and the neighborhood in the 2010s. The “1060 Project” as it was dubbed ultimately overhauled the stadium’s entire infrastructure, including its suites, concourses, restrooms, restaurants and numerous structural repairs and replacements within the ballpark.

The team also built completely new clubhouses and renovated the press box, and added video boards into the iconic bleachers after rebuilding the entire structure before the 2015 season.

Ultimately, the entire project cost more than $550 million, and completely transformed the neighborhood around the ballpark, ushering in the advent of Gallagher Way, Hotel Zachary and more amenities.

The 2026 All-Star Game will be contested at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park, celebrating the 250^th birthday of the United States.

There are questions over whether the game could be impacted by a potential work stoppage in Major League Baseball, as the sport’s collective bargaining agreement is set to expire at the end of the 2026 season. Those questions will certainly loom large over the festivities until labor peace is achieved, but for now, the Cubs are preparing to host one of the sport’s flagship events at one of its oldest stadiums.

Perhaps lost in the various trade deadline moves the Mets made was the transfer of Jesse Winker to the 60-day IL.

While this sort of move is a paper one, and this does allow Cedric Mullins to be added to the roster, it also means the Mets won't see Winker back on the team until September at the earliest.

Winker, placed on the IL in mid-July with back inflammation, has seen his 2025 injury-riddled. The veteran slugger has appeared in just 26 games this year, and while there's optimism he will return before the end of the season, president of baseball operations David Stearns provided an update that justified the 60-day designation.

"We still have some hope he’ll be back at some point this season, but clearly this has taken a little bit longer than we originally appreciated," Stearns said during his post-deadline Zoom call. "Wink go an epidural. We’ve seen progress since then, but not at the pace he or we were hoping. So the 60-day IL timeframe lined up. Not closing the door on this season, but it’s not going to be August."

Alongside right-handed hitting Starling Marte, Winker was the pairing the Mets were looking to use in the DH spot this season. But with Winker down for most of the season, the team has had to look elsewhere for left-handed at-bats. Mullins fit that profile while also playing elite defense, so he was a natural fit and a target before Winker's diagnosis, but Stearns admitted his slugger's slow recovery pushed him to get a left-handed bat at the deadline.

"[Winker's injury] played into it or was a part of it. We were looking at this segment of the market even before this direction for Wink became clear," Stearns said. "But certainly as it became evident that Wink’s absence was going to be longer, it made us look even harder at this segment, especially left-handed bats."

Now that Mullins is in the fold, and none of the Mets' young infielders (Mark Vientos, Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio, Luisangel Acuna) were traded, where and how will the lineup be configured?

Jeff McNeil, who was platooning with Tyrone Taylor in center field, will continue to have his bat in the lineup more often than not, but with the addition of Mullins, will not be needed in center as often.

"We’ll work through that. Jeff’s still going to play a lot, he’s swinging the bat very well. There will be outfield opportunities at times, 2B opportunities, probably going to be DH at-bats. For our left-handed hitters, there will be ample opportunity for all of them. It’s just finding where the pieces fit on each day in the lineup."

On that same vein, with McNeil likely playing the bulk of his games at second, that leaves fewer opportunities for those young infielders. Stearns said he's confident that Mendoza will be able to balance the lineup and find ways for all the infielders to get time on the field.

"The good news is, there are a lot of at-bats to go around," he said. "When you talk about a couple of Infield positions, an outfield position, DH at-bats, there’s a lot of bats to go around. All those guys are going to get plenty of time. Is there going to be one or two guys on the bench each day? Yea. And then they’ll probably gonna get a leverage at-bat, or pinch-hit later in the game. Mendy does a great job of figuring out which guys for the lineup based on who we’re facing… We’ll continue to do that."

Update on Jose Siri

While talking about Winker, Stearns was asked about Siri and whether they expect him to return this season.

"With Jose, still possible," Stearns said. "Wouldn’t write it off but we need a little bit more news or an update to see what the timeline is for him to progress."

Siri will get an update on his recovery in 7-10 days and then the Mets will have a better idea.

The first-year Met went down in April with a left tibia fracture and has yet to see the field. He's played in just 10 games this season. 

On the latest episode of The Mets Pod presented by Tri-State Cadillac, recorded live following the 2025 MLB Trade Deadline, Connor Rogers and Joe DeMayo recap all the moves made by the Mets!

The guys break down the deals for Cedric Mullins, Tyler Rogers, Ryan Helsley, and Gregory Soto and discuss the strategy and process followed by Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns. The show then goes into Mailbag-mode to answer questions about the best bullpen in the NL East, the immediate future of pitching prospects Nolan McLean and Brandon Sproat, the starting rotation moving forward, and more.

Be sure to subscribe to The Mets Pod at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In the slang, “mid” means disappointingly mediocre, forgettable, uninspiring. On TikTok, a classic rant starts: “It’s called the Midwest because everything in it is mid! Skyline Chili? Mid! Your Cincinnati Reds, who haven’t won a World Series since 1990? M-M-M-Mid!!!”

Today, the Reds are five games over .500, and one of four teams that appear to be competing for the three National League wild-card spots. They added a starting pitcher, an elite defensive third baseman and a veteran utilityman batting .298 ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline.

The Angels are mid.

They are three games under .500, four games out in the American League wild-card race, with four teams to pass, hoping to end baseball’s longest playoff drought at 10 years.

The Seattle Mariners, tied with the Texas Rangers for the final wild-card spot, traded for middle-of-the-lineup corner infielders in third baseman Eugenio Suárez and first baseman Josh Naylor. The Rangers acquired Merrill Kelly to supplement Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi atop the starting rotation.

The Angels made two trades, picking up two veteran setup men and an infielder batting .152 for three lightly regarded minor leaguers.

Read more:Dodgers pass MLB trade deadline quietly, add Brock Stewart and Alex Call

Why lightly bolster a team with a 1.3% chance of making the playoffs, as projected by Baseball Prospectus before Thursday’s trades, when you could start building the 2026 roster in the many areas needing improvement?

“Giving them a chance to play this thing out, relative to what was presented [in trade talks], made a lot of sense,” Angels general manager Perry Minasian said.

In large part, he said, this was about the young players.

“The development of our core is obviously very, very, very important,” Minasian said. “Being competitive in August and September is really, really important for this group, not only for the now but for the future — playing meaningful games, understanding there is an expectation to win, showing up to the ballpark every day feeling like you have a chance to win over a six-month period.

“It’s hard to quantify, but I felt like it was very important for this group to go through that, to see what playing in August demands, what playing in September is like.”

Does he see the 2025 Angels playing meaningful games in October?

“I don’t make predictions,” he said.

Beyond shortstop Zach Neto, no one on the Angels’ current roster was likely to command an elite prospect in return.

Yet the Angels could have traded soon-to-be free agents such as pitchers Kenley Jansen and Tyler Anderson, or infielders Yoan Moncada and Luis Rengifo, to fill 2026 needs: a back-end starter, bullpen help, a utility infielder, a defense-first outfielder, upper-level depth in the minor leagues.

Maybe Oswald Peraza, the once-hyped New York Yankees prospect with the .152 average, starts at third base next year, or secures that utility job. Minasian called him “a classic change-of-scenery guy.”

Read more:MLB trade deadline tracker: All the moves by the Dodgers, Angels and everyone else

To get him, however, the Angels surrendered $73,766 in international bonus pool money that could have been better used to sign Latin American prospects. Minasian said the Angels had used what they needed of their $6,261,600 pool they needed this year — and the better prospects cost much more than $73,766 — but they cannot afford to close any avenues for talent acquisition.

In 2021, the Angels drafted all pitchers and failed to get a collective 1.0 WAR out of them. The Dodgers basically did the same thing: 20 picks, 18 pitchers, same under-1 WAR, although they have gotten some big moments from Ben Casparius, Emmet Sheehan and Justin Wrobleski.

But the Dodgers spend whatever they need, and then some, on deep and talented rosters of players, coaches and executives, and on player development and player acquisition.

It’s not all about money. It’s about creativity too. The Dodgers inserted themselves into a three-team trade Wednesday to bolster their farm system by trading a surplus minor league catcher for two minor league pitchers. The Dodgers last year inserted themselves into another three-team trade to grab reliever Michael Kopech, then-injured Tommy Edman for a depth bat and two minor leaguers.

The last time the Angels were a party to a three-team deal, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman facilitated that too. The Dodgers got four players from the Miami Marlins, then swapped pitcher Andrew Heaney to the Angels for infielder Howie Kendrick. That was in 2014.

The Angels these days do not spend as much, or as well, on free agents. They do not distinguish themselves in scouting, analytics, player development or international signings.

That forces them to narrow their focus to drafting college players who race through the minor leagues. A weak draft class hurts far more in Anaheim than it does in L.A.

The Angels have their kids, but the optimism inherent in their talk of a young core obscures the fact they are about to have to pay the kids — and, money aside, they are running out of time.

Neto, the lone star to emerge so far from the young core, is eligible for salary arbitration this winter. The Angels control him for only three more seasons — maybe less, if some or all of the 2027 season is lost to a collective bargaining war.

Catcher Logan O’Hoppe and pitcher José Soriano also are eligible for arbitration this winter. First baseman Nolan Schanuel is eligible next winter.

In the big picture, nothing much changed Thursday. The plan today is the same as it was in spring training: hope enough young players blossom that, when Anthony Rendon’s contract expires next fall, Minasian can persuade owner Arte Moreno that spending big on one or two players in free agency could make the difference. If playing meaningful games this August makes those young players that much better, perhaps this trade deadline was worth it.

Moreno resists rebuilding, as an advocate for fans he believes deserve to see a competitive team. No one in Orange County has to watch what something akin to what the Colorado Rockies are offering — or what the Houston Astros were offering before their ongoing run of success. Rebuilding could mean 100-loss seasons and an even greater drop in attendance; competing could mean sneaking into the playoffs with 84 victories.

The Angels could do that this year. It could work. However, it has not worked over the last decade, and in the meantime the Angels have become an unwitting poster child for a players’ union fighting against a salary cap to say, “Market size is not destiny. Look at the Angels.”

You can say the game plan is to contend every year, in the interest of the fans, but you should not try to win every year on a wing and a prayer.

Your most dedicated fans — represented by the hundreds that decorated themselves in wings and halos at Wednesday’s game, flapping their arms as angels in the outfield — were not shy about letting their feelings be known.

You could hear them loud and clear, at the game and on the television broadcast, “Sell the team!”

Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The biggest question after the Mets' trade deadline deals were completed was, why didn't they acquire a starting pitcher?

While Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said in his post-deadline Zoom he was engaged with teams in that market, he ultimately went with revamping his bullpen. As he put it, "there's multiple ways to build a pitching staff," and he hopes the arms he has on the big league roster and even those in the minor leagues can help his team down the stretch.

"As we saw, there were some starting pitchers that were traded not every pitcher who was rumored to be available was ultimately moved. We were engaged throughout," Stearns said. "We’re really happy with the arms we were able to acquire, who are going to pitch out of our pen. And we have confidence in the starters not only who are here, who will keep us competitive and help us win games, but also pleased with the development of some of the guys in Triple-A are progressing. We understand that they could, may not definitely, but they could be part of the mix going forward if needed."

Nolan McLean and Brandon Sproat are two such minor league arms that are the closest to making the jump to the major leagues. When their names were brought up specifically to Stearns, he praised both of their development so far this season.

"They can help. It’s just a matter of their continued development and when does the opportunity arise, and is it the right time," Stearns said. "Both guys have taken very nice steps forward in their development. We’re going to continue to challenge them. We’re going to continue to ask them to get better and work on things. They are doing a good job. If we need someone from Triple-A, we’ve got people down and they are among them who can help us."

McLean, 24, has had a great year for Syracuse, posting a 3.01 ERA and a 1.12 WHIP across 14 games (11 starts). In his last start (July 30), McLean allowed two runs across six innings while striking out six batters.

Sproat, 24, has been just as good as McLean. Entering Thursday's start, Sproat pitched to a 4.30 ERA with a 1.29 WHIP but hadn't allowed a run in more than a month before his July 25 start, where he gave up two runs. But Sproat is now starting a new streak, as he pitched five scoreless innings for Syracuse on Thursday.

Both have been impressive this year, but like Stearns said, the team needs to wait for the right opportunity for a call-up. The Mets' rotation is healthy, with David Peterson, Kodai Senga, Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas and Clay Holmes pitching without issue -- physically -- in weeks. The team also has Paul Blackburn in the minors, who Stearns said a conversation about his role on the Mets needs to be discussed, so there's currently no room for young arms.

And unless there's an injury, a win-now team in the midst of a race for the division may not want a youngster pitching.

However the rest of the season shakes out, the Mets have made it known they believe in Sproat and McLean, we'll just have to see if that "opportunity" Stearns spoke of arrives.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman held his annual post-trade deadline press conference on Thursday night. Here's what he said on the team's activity and outlook...

---

More today than yesterday

The Yankees made nine total trades over the last week, and of the five that transpired before the league's 6 p.m. deadline, three completely reshaped the structure of their bruised-and-battered bullpen.

Over the course of three hours on Thursday afternoon, Cashman acquired a trio of high-leverage, right-handed relievers: David Bednar from the Pirates, Jake Bird from the Rockies, and Camilo Doval from the Giants. Sandwiched in between the bullpen upgrades were deals that saw utilityman Jose Caballero acquired from the Rays and infielder Oswald Peraza shipped to the Angels.

While the Yankees checked off several boxes with a slew of trades, both large and small -- newly-acquired hitters Ryan McMahon, Amed Rosario, and Austin Slater were all on the active roster Wednesday -- bullpen help was their top priority. Fair strategy, considering that the unit entered Thursday with the league's second-worst ERA (6.29) in July.

"We've improved the team, we believe. We tried to address the areas of need," Cashman said. "We added to the bullpen. We improved the position player group as well, giving the manager more choices to play matchups... He's certainly got more arms to mix and match with the new additions as well... We've addressed a lot of areas of need to give us the best shot we can take."

The deals involving Bednar, Bird, and Doval matter beyond 2025 as well. All three relievers are under team-friendly control through the 2026 season, and Cashman viewed this collective contract situation as an obvious "benefit." It wasn't the motive for the moves, as he also inquired about rental relievers in the marketplace.

But what about the rotation?

Despite the flurry of arrivals and departures, the Yankees didn't come away with any new rotation pieces. While they were linked to several starters in league-wide rumors spanning the entire month -- Sandy Alcantara, Edward Cabrera, Mitch Keller, and Merrill Kelly were mainly at the forefront -- nothing materialized, according to Cashman.

When asked if the Yankees seriously pursued a blockbuster deal for Alcantara, Cashman neither confirmed nor denied any involvement.

"We certainly knocked on many doors regarding potential starting pitching, but obviously weren't able to match up in that category," Cashman said. "We had a lot of conversations in a lot of different places. But again, this is what we have to show for those efforts."

The Yankees' inability to deliver rotation depth places immense pressure on a top-heavy staff that's become more volatile due to injuries and inconsistencies. While they have a quality one-two punch of star lefties Max Fried and Carlos Rodón in full-ish command, the back-end combination of Will Warren, Marcus Stroman, and others isn't reassuring by any means.

They can treat injured starter Luis Gil'simminent return to the rotation as a deadline acquisition, but only time will tell how the 2024 AL Rookie of the Year -- fully recovered from a months-long lat strain -- fares with a closely-monitored workload this summer. The Yankees already know that Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt won't see the mound again until sometime in 2026.

Top prospects stick around

As the chaotic week unfolded, expectations of the Yankees making highly-coveted outfielder Spencer Jones the centerpiece of any blockbuster trade package waned. This news came as no surprise, as a torrid start to his first stint in Triple-A exponentially boosted his value and altered his stock.

Cashman was asked if he tried to avoid trades that would've required the Yankees to part ways with Jones, or top infield farmhand George Lombard Jr. He didn't speak to either prospect by name in response, but did acknowledge that some players are "more touchable than others."

"There's a lot of guys that we like, and unfortunately, we parted with guys we like," Cashman said. "Just the nature of the beast. We were trying to stay away from certain guys more than others, but we also recognize that you have to give to get...

"That's where the rubber meets the road. You've got to make a decision on certain things, where you pick the lane, holding on and have that for yourself, or use that to get something that's going to help you in the near term. We had to make those tough decisions..."

A brief state of the union

While the Yankees wrapped up July on a three-game winning streak, several of their warts were exposed throughout the month. They produced a sub-.500 record in July for a third straight season, and saw a red-hot Blue Jays squad leap as many as 6.5 games ahead of them for first place in the AL East.

With a tight 1.5-game lead over the Red Sox for second place in the division, the Yankees will need to play a much cleaner brand of baseball in order to supplant the Blue Jays and avoid the extra round of wild-card postseason games. And all that Cashman can do now is cross his fingers for a roster that's largely underwhelmed.

"I know we have improved ourselves, and that's the nature of the beast at the deadline," Cashman said. "You and your group -- and I've got great people behind me advising me -- you get after it and prepare for whatever comes your way because it's so unpredictable. I thought we were buttoned up and we were prepared.

"We were hopeful to try to execute some things, and now it's time to test the theory of how it plays out with the group of players we currently have. I know we're better. We're better today than we were yesterday, so mission accomplished there... We're looking forward to taking our shot -- that's all we can give it."

It was a busy trade deadline for David Stearns and the rest of the Mets front office, as they tried to shore up holes and prepare the team for the final two months of the season and a potential long playoff run.

Stearns was able to accomplish his number one goal of remaking the bullpen with the acquisitions of Ryan Helsley, Tyler Rogers and Gregory Soto -- days prior -- but also grabbed an outfielder in Cedric Mullins.

And outside of some household names, like Jose Butto and a couple of minor leaguers -- more on them later -- the Mets didn't have to give up a lot to get these players. So, how did Stearns accomplish that?

"The story of this deadline, for us, is really an amateur talent acquisition and player development story," Stearns said over Zoom after the 6 p.m. trade deadline. "Our amateur talent acquisition departments and player development group put us in position to have this type of deadline, where we were to go out and acquire players that would help us in the major league level and not touch some really high-upside players at the top of our system. Enormous credit to them."

Stearns lauded Mullins' athleticism and ability to affect games in ways that won't show up in the box score. He also praised the two-headed monster of Helsley and Rogers that will give manager Carlos Mendoza more options to bridge to star closer Edwin Diaz. But some of the minor league capital -- specifically Drew Gilbert and Blade Tidwell in the Rogers deal -- used to acquire some of these arms were met with raised eyebrows.

The Mets' president of baseball operations understands how good the team's minor leaguers are, but also understands it needed to be done in order to compete this year.

"They’re good players, there’s no question they are good players," Stearns said of Tidwell and Gilbert. "Proximity to the major leagues certainly factors into these types of deals. We believe we’ve traded a number of players who are going to play on TV and continue to play on TV and I hope they do…

"We are rooting for them. We are in a position where we thought these deals made sense, giving good players for good players who can help us in a more concentrated fashion right now. Never easy decisions to make, but it was the right decisions to make right now."

While Stearns got the outfield bat and remade the bullpen, many felt the Mets would be better off trading for a starter to bolster the rotation. The current starters, outside of David Peterson, have not been able to give the team consistent length, and a proven arm could rectify that.

Of course, the Mets did not deal for one at this trade deadline and Stearns explained his thought process.

"As we saw, there were some starting pitchers that were traded but not every pitcher who was rumored to be available was ultimately moved. We were engaged throughout," Stearns said. "There’s multiple ways to build a pitching staff. We focused on the back-end of the pitching staff. We’re really happy with the arms we were able to acquire who are going to pitch out of our pen.

"And we have confidence in the starters not only here who will keep us competitive and help us win games, but also pleased with the development of some of the guys in Triple-A who are progressing. We understand that they could, may not definitely, but they could be part of the mix going forward if needed."

Those Triple-A arms, which include veteran Paul Blackburn, who was not dealt at the deadline, are options. How viable those options are remains to be seen, but Stearns believes the team is good enough to win it all this year and for years to come.

Since being hired after the 2023 season, Stearns has committed to making the Mets a sustainable winner, and this trade deadline is just one part of it. So while many saw the moves for rental relievers as going all-in on a "window," Stearns sees it as just another part of his grand plan.

"I don’t view this as windows. Our responsibility here is to give ourselves a chance to make the playoffs and win a World Series every single year," he said. "That’s what this should be, that’s what we’re aiming for. I don’t view this era of Mets competitiveness as a window.

"I view it as the beginning of a long and sustained competitiveness at a high level. The moves we made help this year without, in a very material way, sacrificing some really high-end talent that could help us in years to come."

Before trade rumors heated up and dream scenarios were briefly envisioned, before the Dodgers were linked to a string of big names who all wound up anywhere but Los Angeles, the team’s front office foreshadowed what proved to be a rather straightforward, unremarkable trade deadline on Thursday afternoon.

“This group is really talented,” general manager Brandon Gomes said last week. “I would argue it’s better than the team that won the World Series last year.”

“It’s really about our internal guys, and the fact that these are veteran guys that have well-established watermarks,” echoed president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, amid a July slump that fueled deadline speculation about what the team would need.

“I think the fact that we see the work they put in, how much they care, just makes it easier to bet on.”

Read more:MLB trade deadline tracker: Live updates, news and every major move

On Thursday, maintaining faith in their current group is exactly what the Dodgers did.

The team did address its two main needs ahead of MLB’s annual midseason trade deadline. In the bullpen, it reunited with right-handed veteran Brock Stewart in a trade with the Minnesota Twins. In the outfield, it added solid-hitting, defensively serviceable 30-year-old Alex Call in a deal with the Washington Nationals.

But compared with the flurry of blockbuster deals that reverberated around them in the National League — from a head-spinning seven-player shopping spree by the San Diego Padres, to a bullpen arms race between the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies — the Dodgers’ moves were mild, tame and certainly cost-conscientious.

They didn’t splurge for one of the several established closers that were dealt for sky-high prices throughout the league. They didn’t remake their lineup by landing someone such as Steven Kwan, or any other hitter with anything close to All-Star pedigree.

In fact, the Dodgers hardly gave up much at all, content to round out the margins of their roster while parting with little in the way of prospect capital.

High-A pitchers Eriq Swan and Sean Paul Liñan (the 16th- and 20th-ranked players in their farm system by MLB Pipeline) were shipped to Washington. But otherwise, the only other departures were 40-man roster players unlikely to factor much into the team’s late-season plans: James Outman, who went to Minnesota in exchange for Stewart; Dustin May, who was dealt to the Boston Red Sox for a prospect a few months before entering free agency; and minor league catcher Hunter Feduccia, who was part of a three-team deal late Wednesday night that netted the Dodgers two pitching prospects and a journeyman catcher.

Compared to last year — when the Dodgers added Jack Flaherty (their eventual Game 1 starter in the World Series), Tommy Edman (the eventual National League Championship Series MVP) and Michael Kopech (a key piece in a bullpen that carried the team to a World Series title) — it all felt rather anticlimactic.

Which, as the Dodgers’ top two executives had noted the week before, appeared to be perfectly fine by them.

In Stewart, the team got a lower-cost addition in what was an expensive seller’s reliever market.

The 33-year-old has only two career saves, and is unlikely to fix the Dodgers’ ninth-inning problems. But, he is having a strong statistical season with 14 holds and a 2.38 ERA, 14th-best in the American League among relievers with 30 innings. He will give the Dodgers a stout option against right-handed hitters, who have just a .104 average and .372 OPS against him. And he comes with familiarity in the organization, still thought highly of after starting his career with the Dodgers from 2016-2019 — back before he reinvented himself with a fastball that now sits in the mid-to-upper 90 mph range.

In Call, the Dodgers gave themselves more versatility in the outfield.

Read more:Dodgers begin deadline with minor trade, while still seeking upgrades in bullpen and outfield

The right-handed hitter has appeared in just 277 career games over four MLB seasons with the Nationals and Cleveland Guardians.

But the former third-round draft pick is having a nice 2025 season, highlighted by a .274 batting average, .756 OPS and decent (if unspectacular) defensive grades at all three outfield positions.

While Call’s role wasn’t immediately clear, he could factor into a platoon with recently resurgent left-handed hitting outfielder Michael Conforto. He also gives the Dodgers another option in center field, specifically, which would allow Andy Pages to spend more time in a more naturally suited corner outfield spot.

For those Dodgers, the moves checked off their two big priorities: Adding another dependable right-handed reliever in the bullpen, and improving their defensive options in the outfield.

What was missing from the Dodgers’ deadline, however, was the kind of big splash so many other contenders reeled off this week. The Padres acquired Mason Miller, Ramon Laureano, and Ryan O’Hearn without sacrificing any key big-league pieces. The Mets added Tyler Rogers, Ryan Helsley and Gregory Soto to their already stout bullpen, while the Phillies upgraded theirs with the addition of Jhoan Durán.

Already this year, the rest of the NL was keeping pace with what was billed as a seemingly invincible Dodgers team. Suddenly, the competition looks that much stronger, not only for the club to defend its World Series, but even to preserve the narrow three-game lead it holds over the Padres in the NL West.

The Dodgers, however, see internal improvement as the key to the rest of the season.

Read more:Shohei Ohtani leaves pitching start because of cramping, Dodgers go on to lose to Reds

Already, their pitching staff is getting healthy. Tyler Glasnow, Blake Treinen and (as of this coming Saturday) Blake Snell are all back from extended injuries. Michael Kopech, Brusdar Graterol, Tanner Scott and Roki Sasaki are also scheduled to return over the final two months.

Offensively, the club is confident that slumping stars Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Tesocar Hernández will get back on track, and that Max Muncy will provide a jolt in his return from injury next week. All that — coupled with the MVP-caliber play of Shohei Ohtani and Will Smith — they believe should yield a lineup capable of repeating a run to the World Series.

“It’s always tricky when you’re in the midst of a swoon in team performance, because in those moments you feel like we need everything,” Friedman acknowledged leading into the deadline, with the team enduring a 10-14 slide in July. “So for us, it’s about, all right, let’s look ahead to August, September. Let’s look at what our best-case scenario is. Let’s look at, if we have a few injuries here and there, what areas are we exposed? What areas do we feel like we have depth?”

Apparently, the Dodgers still liked what they already had, rolling the dice on their current group while other contenders stocked up all around them.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.