Category: Baseball

The Red Sox’s acquisition of Adley Rutschman has left some in the game shocked at what Boston was willing to give up in the deal with the Orioles. 

The Red Sox picked up the three-time All-Star catcher, along with catcher Jake Rogers and cash, in exchange for a haul of prospects and players that went to Baltimore, which included pitching prospects Anthony Eyanson and Kyson Witherspoon, outfield prospect Enddy Azocar, veteran catcher Carlos Narvaez and a player to be named later or cash considerations. 

However, it appears the cost to bring in Rutschman was too much for some, according to MassLive’s Sean McAdam. Eyanson (No. 1), Witherspoon (No. 6) and Azocar (No. 7) are now all in the Orioles’ top-10 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline.

In a social media post, McAdam reported that there were people around baseball “stunned” by the cost the Red Sox paid for the All-Star catcher and that one evaluator with another organization put it another way. 

“I’m absolutely dumbfounded by this…This is literally one of the most ridiculous trades I’ve seen in 30 years,” the person told McAdam. 

Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow also acknowledged that the high price had been a bit uncomfortable for him, but also said that when you’re making a deal at this time of year, “there are no deals that are comfortable.” 

“You don’t draw a line and say this is as far as we’ll go, and there’s a bit of a moving target,” he said. “And you try to remain as disciplined as you can, but I think you have to constantly zoom out to remind yourself that like what you’re trying to do is improve your major league team in this season.”

Rutschman is hitting .251/.331/.433, along with eight home runs and 47 RBIs in 67 games this season. 

The addition does provide the Red Sox with a big bat and addresses their need at catcher. 

Rutschman is dealing with left wrist inflammation that landed him on the injured list. He has not played since July 18.

CLEVELAND — Six trades later, the Mets makeover is finished.

The organization’s final tally as Monday’s 6 p.m. trade deadline passed was seven players jettisoned over five days and 11 prospects imported. If nothing else, president of baseball operations David Stearns was active in overhauling a roster that has been MLB’s most disappointing this season.

Such is life for a team that assembled a $380 million payroll for this season but has cratered to a 47-66 record and last place standing in the National League East.

Any hopes of a revival were dashed with a plunge into the abyss in late June that forced manager Carlos Mendoza’s firing. It left the Mets as sellers at the trade deadline for the second time in four seasons.

“I believe it was the right thing to do given where we are in this season to make these decisions,” Stearns said on a video call. “These are not easy decisions, and our goal is to move the organization forward in the best way possible to ensure that we have a far better season next and each season beyond.”

On a whirlwind Monday, the Mets completed their final four deals of the trade season involving major league players. The two most noteworthy trades occurred in the late afternoon: Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor were dealt for the Cubs’ No. 2 prospect, infielder Jefferson Rojas. It followed the trade that sent Luke Weaver to Pittsburgh for the Pirates’ No. 9 prospect, infielder Sammy Stafura. The Mets are sending about $8 million to the Pirates as part of the deal.

Earlier in the day, the Mets traded Huascar Brazobán and Brooks Raley to the White Sox and Phillies, respectively. From the White Sox, the Mets acquired Chicago’s No. 18 prospect Gabe Davis, a right-handed pitcher, and Zach Franklin, an unranked right-handed pitcher. From the Phillies the Mets acquired Philadelphia’s No. 27 prospect, outfielder John Spikerman, and right-handed pitcher Luke Gabrysh, an unranked prospect.

A day earlier the Mets traded Freddy Peralta to the Rays for outfielder Aidan Smith, right-handed pitcher Gary Gill Hill and infielder Émilien Pitre. Those three players ranked as the Nos. 15, 26 and 27 Rays prospects.

Stearns acknowledged the difficult decisions the Mets faced in trading Weaver and Brazobán, both of whom were under club control for next season. The rest of the players dealt are set to hit free agency after this season.

“Really tough decisions there, and not straight forward,” Stearns said. “We had a lot of internal discussion and debate. Ultimately, the returns we were able to get we thought made sense in the best interest of the organization, recognizing that at this time of year you are often able to get really good talent back for relief pitching. We understand we’re going to have to go out and acquire relievers in the offseason in different ways to get our bullpen back to where we expect it to be in 2027.”

The Mets looked to trade veteran outfielder Luis Robert Jr., according to a source, but a deal never materialized for the veteran outfielder, who has spent most of this season on the injured list. Robert’s contract, which is paying him $20 million this season, has a club option for 2027.

Why keep Robert?

“I think with Luis, it’s the possibility of what he can do for us in the second half, the understanding that there is a club option and the excitement of still having him here for the next few months of the season,” Stearns said.

Five of the 11 players the Mets acquired were infielders, but Stearns said that course wasn’t dictated by design.

“I think our approach was what’s the best talent?” he said. “It’s so difficult to know exactly what roles you are going to need at the major league level at any point in time and so our approach was really, what’s the best talent? Who are the players that we think have the ability to be the best major league players?” 

As far as Yankees prospects go, George Lombard Jr. was about as untouchable as they come as the trade deadline passed Monday.

Now the question becomes when the Yankees might call him up over the final two months of the season to see if he can provide a solution to their shortstop question after it went unanswered at Monday’s deadline.

“If he does [get a shot], we’ll let you know,” GM Brian Cashman said on a conference call Monday night. “Obviously tonight, that’s not the case. It’s business as usual the way we’re currently set.”

That meant Anthony Volpe and José Caballero continuing to split the position for now, as the Yankees entered Monday having received 0.8 bWAR from their shortstops this season.

Neither Volpe nor Caballero has done much to put a stranglehold on the position, creating questions about whether Lombard will get a chance to take over this season.

The 21-year-old Lombard, after returning from a finger injury in mid-July, has been tearing it up at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, batting .268 with a .845 OPS across 56 games — including .377 with a 1.081 OPS in 14 games since coming off the injured list.

Cashman indicated the Yankees explored adding a shortstop or infield help, but did not ultimately see a match — at a deadline when no major league shortstops got traded.

“I don’t think there were a lot of opportunities that existed that were upgrades for us,” Cashman said. “We like the players we have and we like the players we have on the come. … It was going to be a high bar.”

When describing his negotiations with the Tigers on Tarik Skubal, who ultimately went to the Dodgers, Cashman hinted that they may have asked for (and refused to move off of) Lombard, a price he was unwilling to pay.

The Yankees believe that Lombard — whose makeup and baseball IQ gets raved about by any and all club officials — is already ready for the big leagues defensively.

Offensively, he has taken some time to adjust to each new level in the minors, so if the Yankees want to have Lombard as their shortstop by the playoffs — or at least see if he can handle the job — it may behoove them to call him up sooner rather than later to give him enough runway into October.

Having traded away a slew of players ahead of the trade deadline earlier this evening, the Mets are set to call up six players, per Will Sammon: Dedniel Núñez, Jefry Yan, Nate Lavender, Chayce McDermott, Xzavion Curry, and Cristian Pache. The team has 21 players on its active roster at the time of this writing, and with Curry having just been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse on Friday. Perhaps another pitcher is going on the injured list.

Núñez had Tommy John surgery last July, and he’s been pitching in the minors on a rehab assignment. In 13.0 innings, most of which have been with Syracuse, he has a 4.15 ERA and a 3.81 FIP. In 44.2 major league innings before his elbow injury, he had a 2.82 ERA and a 2.62 FIP.

Yan is a 29-year-old who took a long break from baseball in the late 2010s, but he’ll be making his major league debut whenever he appears in a game. He’s been in the Mets’ organization since the start of the 2026 season, and he’s had an outstanding 43.5% strikeout rate and a somewhat staggering 15.8% walk rate with a 3.24 ERA and a 2.64 FIP in 41.2 innings between his time in Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse. He’s known for his eccentric strikeout celebrations.

Lavender, a left-handed reliever, has been in the Mets’ system since the team drafted him in 2021. He was limited to just 7.0 innings in 2024 and missed the entirety of the 2025 season because of an injury. He’s thrown 43.0 innings in the minors this year with a 3.77 ERA and a 2.78 FIP. He, too, will be making his major league debut when he first appears.

McDermott is a 27-year-old right-handed reliever who came to the Mets when they traded minor league catcher Ben Rortvedt back to the Dodgers today. He’s thrown a total of 15.0 major league innings with the Orioles and Dodgers and has a 12.00 ERA and an 8.74 FIP. He has a 4.55 ERA and a 4.51 FIP in 31.2 innings in Triple-A this year.

Curry has thrown 11.0 innings with the Mets with a 3.27 ERA and a 4.92 FIP since joining the organization this year. He has a 4.56 ERA and a 5.63 FIP in 51.1 innings in Syracuse this year.

And last but not least, Pache is a right-handed hitter who is 27 years old who was considered a top-100 prospect in baseball from 2019 through 2022 as he played in the Braves’ minor league system. He’s made 610 plate appearances in the big leagues and hit just .181/.243/.275 with a 46 wRC+. He hasn’t hit much better in Syracuse this year, either, with a .232/.289/.356 line and a 62 wRC+.

The league played a game of musical catchers chairs Monday, and when it stopped, the Yankees got left out.

The trade deadline came and went without the Yankees addressing their biggest positional need from an offensive standpoint — plus not adding a reliever for the first time since 2019 — making for an underwhelming final haul of first baseman/DH Luis García Jr. on Sunday and outfielder Heliot Ramos on Monday.

While García may have been the best bat dealt at the deadline — and an important addition for a scuffling lineup, despite not being a perfect positional fit — the Yankees were not able to land a catcher like their two biggest foes in the AL East or upgrade the bullpen, instead hoping that the two bats they acquired along with the injured stars they are banking on returning later in the season will be enough to give them a legitimate chance to chase a 28th championship in October.

“As we move forward in this, we do think we have the players … that can compete for a championship,” Cashman said Monday night, shortly after the deadline passed. “The effort we put forth was trying to find ways to upgrade it if we can in this marketplace and we’re happy we were able to bring in Ramos and García to solve some of the problems. We’re looking forward now to getting the other guys back from the IL over time to fortify and finish us off for a supercharge.”

To make matters worse for the Yankees — who entered Monday 2 ¹/₂ games back of the Rays for the division and best record in the American League — the two teams they are sandwiched between in the AL East both acquired catchers. The Red Sox landed Adley Rutschman from the Orioles and the Rays added Liam Hicks from the Marlins.

The Yankees made a push for the switch-hitting Rutschman, who is on the IL with a wrist issue, but were “unable to meet the price,” Cashman acknowledged, as the Red Sox got him instead for a hefty five-player package.

“Ultimately, at the end of the day, there was no opportunity that existed for us that we felt good enough about to be able to push through on,” Cashman said.

Two of the best offensive catchers in the game, the Rockies’ Hunter Goodman and the Twins’ Ryan Jeffers, did not get traded.

The Yankees also place a high value on Austin Wells’ game calling and his work with the pitching staff, which entered Monday with the lowest ERA in the majors, a partnership they did not necessarily want to mess with. Wells has been one of the worst hitters in the majors this season, though he has been better over the last few weeks, while the righty-hitting Ali Sánchez has been effective against lefties in a limited sample size.

Regarding the bullpen, Cashman pointed to the lack of high-impact relievers that actually moved (i.e., the Padres hung on to both Mason Miller and Adrian Morejon) and the fact that the Yankees could eventually have internal additions in Clarke Schmidt (finishing off his Tommy John rehab) and Will Warren or Ryan Weathers (if the rotation stays healthy by the time Carlos Rodón returns later this month).

As for Tarik Skubal, the back-to-back AL Cy Young winner acquired by the Dodgers, Cashman said he spoke with the Tigers but was unable to get them off of the “very specific ask and a certain player we weren’t willing to play with in that arena” — likely top prospect George Lombard Jr., whom the Yankees could call up this season to solve their issue at shortstop.

Of course, the Yankees already have the makings of a powerhouse rotation and instead approached the deadline knowing they needed help offensively, as they try to survive without Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton, likely until September. Cashman reiterated that their expectation is to get Judge back this season from a right rib stress fracture, but since he has still yet to be cleared for baseball activities, that is no guarantee.

Without Judge, the Yankees lineup has been a shell of itself. Since June 18 (two weeks after the back-to-back AL MVP landed on the IL), entering Monday, it ranked 30th in OPS (.618), 30th in batting average (.205), 30th in runs per game (3.3), 30th in strikeout percentage (27.7) and 30th in WRC+ (72).

So they acquired García, the lefty slugger who led the National League in slugging percentage, from the Nationals on Sunday and Ramos, the righty-hitting outfielder who helps against lefties, on Monday from the Giants in exchange for pitching prospect Henry Lalane and infielder Kaeden Kent.

“Ultimately, we got some of the best slug on both of these guys against opposite hands in the game as additions to our offensive lineup,” Cashman said. “So I think Aaron Boone has a chance to match up better than he did as of [Sunday] when we get both of these guys here on property.”

CLEVELAND — The Mets may have saved their best two additions at this trade deadline for last.

Jefferson Rojas and Sammy Stafura are those names to watch.

Both infielders arrived to the Mets on Monday in separate deals just hours before the 6 p.m. deadline.

Rojas, the No. 2 Cubs prospect, was acquired in a deal that sent Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor to Chicago. The Mets landed Stafura, the No. 9 Pirates prospect, in a trade for Luke Weaver.

Rojas, 21, plays third base and shortstop. In 91 games this season in Double-A, he owns an .800 OPS with 15 homers and 17 stolen bases. He becomes the No. 1 Mets prospect, according to MLB Pipeline.

“A very well-rounded offensive profile,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “He’s young for his level and has really done exactly what you would want to see a player do who was a really well thought of amateur on the international market and has really just performed and progressed throughout his development.”

Stafura, 21, hails from Cortlandt Manor in Westchester County, where he attended Walter Panas High School — and grew up rooting for the Mets. He was a second-round pick by the Reds in 2023 before he was sent to the Pirates in a deal for Ke’Bryan Hayes at last year’s trade deadline.

In 60 games this season over two Class-A levels, Stafura owns a .960 OPS with 20 homers.

“The first thing that jumps off the page with you on Stafura is the defense,” Stearns said. “He’s got tremendous defensive ability. He’s a very good base runner and can impact the game in a variety of different ways.”

Stearns noted that Stafura hit 14 homers over the last month.

“We have seen some bat-speed upticks,” Stearns said. “Clearly, we have seen some exit velocity upticks that have allowed him to get there. This is a player who has real power, who can hit the ball out of the ballpark. When you have that combination, whether it’s doubles power, home run power, plus someone who can play at a high level at shortstop those aren’t easy players to find.”

Stearns was asked whether the Mets prioritized packing two players for a top prospect, was the case in the Rojas deal.

“Those are the type of deals that we explored throughout the past week,” Stearns said. “We had a lot of interest in a number of our players and so when you have that and you have the same team with interest in multiple players it does give you the ability to package or be creative. We explored a number of those concepts and the Rojas deal was the one that actually came to fruition.” 

There were already groans about the Los Angeles Dodgers’ sustained greatness and penchant for picking up available star players, both in free agency and via trade.

Then the Dodgers traded for two-time reigning AL Cy Young winner, Tarik Skubal, before this season’s trade deadline. As a result, groans have turned to full-blown gripes about the Dodgers’ legendary roster (and means of acquiring this roster) ruining baseball.

Few have to try and combat the Dodgers’ roster more directly than San Diego Padres President of Baseball Operations and General Manager, AJ Preller. Therefore, he has a right to be more frustrated about this than anyone else.

But Preller doesn’t see it that way, which he conveyed when speaking with the media on Tuesday.

When Preller was asked about whether the Dodgers are ruining baseball, he said, “When you have great teams and you have great players, it just raises the bar of other people and other players and other teams. Our focus is on what we needed to do to get better, and our group and our team,” according to an X post from ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez.

Perhaps it would’ve been more surprising to hear Preller complain publicly about what the Dodgers are doing. Then again, he’s right in saying that the bottom line is that every other team must do what they can to keep up, or else they’ll get left in the dust time and time again.

Preller’s Padres did what they could to keep up at this year’s trade deadline by adding Robbie Ray and Casey Mize to their rotation.

But these two additions still don’t compare to the Dodgers securing Skubal.

After a brief break, it’s time for the next Most Important Series of the Season™. We welcome the Padres to Chase Field for the first time this season – though it’s not the first home series against them. That conundrum is explained by the fact that the home series in April took place in Mexico City. It was an offense-minded event, the teams combining to score 29 runs across the two games, each winning once, and was an interesting cultural exercise. But it kinda sucks that it counted as a “home” series for Arizona, when this set of four is the only time we actually get to host San Diego this year. With head-t0-head now the first tiebreaker, that could end up mattering.

Certainly, everything still to play for between the two teams, with the season score currently tied, at 3-3, with seven games left to play. The Diamondbacks have a slight edge after splitting the four games in Petco last month. If everybody “hold serve” the rest of the way, then they’d win 7-6. But I’ve a feeling it might not be that easy. While the D-backs are currently tied with the Phillies for the second/third wild-card spots, the Padres are lurking, just one game back. So, anything less than a split would see Arizona drop behind San Diego, and depending on what Philadelphia do (they’re hosting Washington), potentially out of a playoff spot entirely.

It might end up being a pitcher’s duel tonight. Both starters went in the July series, and got wins in their respective starts. Brandon Pfaadt gave the D-backs five scoreless innings, combining with two relievers on an eight-hit shutout, as they took the opener, 8-0. But two days later, Michael King was almost as good, allowing one run over six innings, as the Padres cruised to a 10-4 victory. We’ll see who prevails tonight, as we come down from the breathless excitement of the trade deadline [sorry, there’s no sarcasm font available when you’re writing a Gameday Thread…]

The Yankees added a big-time basher at this year’s MLB Trade Deadline, plus a platoon-side righty swinger who should help against left-handed pitching until their injured sluggers return. Two needs met – nice job, Brian Cashman and lieutenants. 

But the Yanks’ deadline feels incomplete because the club did not address other glaring needs, particularly behind the plate and in the bullpen. There were a couple of big-name blockbusters that didn’t involve the Yankees, too, which is weird because those kinds of deals were once their annual domain. 

So while we love the addition of slugger Luis García Jr., like well enough the trade for Heliot Ramos and understand the addition-by-subtraction of sending Camilo Doval away, we have mixed feelings overall. Too many flaws left unaddressed.

Here are our grades for the deals the Yankees made at the trade deadline: 

Acquired 1B Luis García Jr. from the Washington Nationals for four pitchers (Yovanny Cruz, Jake Bird, Jack Cebert and Ben Grable)

Aaron Judge has not played since May 31, and the Yankees are 26th in runs scored, last in on-base percentage and 25th in slugging since then. Yikes. With Judge down and Cody Bellinger out for several weeks, too, the Yankee attack needed help. Desperately. 

García, who is just 26 and comes with one more year of control beyond ‘26, is enjoying a breakout season. He entered Monday leading the National League in slugging (.560) and has already established career-bests with 23 home runs and 76 RBI. He ranks ninth in the NL in extra-base hits with 48 – the same number as some guy named Shohei Ohtani. 

“He can hit, and he’s coming into the power this year for sure,” said a scout from another MLB organization who was granted anonymity to talk about García. 

“He will wear out the right-field bleachers,” the scout added. “He’s got a really good feel for the barrel and he’ll use the whole field, too. He’ll create opportunities and balls will end up in the seats.” 

Aaron Boone noted that García has been a “wrecking ball” in the NL this year and says he’ll add instant presence to the Yankee lineup. Monday night, Boone slotted García third in the order, tucked behind Ben Rice, the Yanks’ best hitter. 

García, who was born in New York, doesn’t walk much, so he doesn’t have the patience profile that other Yankees do. Still, they’ll benefit from his thump. Swing-happy or not, he’s batting .283 and has been a very effective hitter.

It’s not an ideal trade – García is a left-handed hitter and it would’ve been better for the Yanks had their big acquisition on offense been a righty. He’s not positionally perfect, either – the Yankees now have three first basemen on their roster – García, Rice and Paul Goldschmidt. 

García has played second base in the past, but “his tools fit best at first,” the scout noted. 

Still, they needed some thunder before Judge, Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton return from injury. They’re weeks away, though. The rough roster edges can sort themselves out whenever they get back. 

In the meantime, García can mash. Maybe one or two of the pitchers morph into something good for Washington, but it’s worth it to fill this Yankee need.

GRADE: A

Acquired OF Heliot Ramos from the San Francisco Giants for LHP Henry Lalane and INF Kaeden Kent.

With the abovementioned players out, especially Judge and Stanton, the Yankees lacked weapons against lefty pitching. Ramos is batting .292 against lefties this year with a .343 on-base percentage and .492 slugging in 65 at-bats. Overall, he has a .728 OPS. He figures to give Boone platoon options. 

Two years ago, Ramos, a former first-round pick, was an All-Star for the Giants when he hit 22 homers and notched a .792 OPS. 

Ramos is a handy pickup, though he cost the Yanks their No. 5 prospect (Lalane) and their 13th-ranked youngster (Kent). Lalane is a highly-regarded 6-7 lefty who had a 2.77 ERA across two levels of A-ball this season. Kent, the son of Hall-of-Famer Jeff Kent, is, perhaps not surprisingly, a bat-first second baseman who was hitting .302 at High-A. 

GRADE: B-minus

Acquired C Omar Alfonzo and OF Luis Cruz from the Pittsburgh Pirates for RHP Camilo Doval

Doval, a former closer for the Giants, was acquired at this time last year with great fanfare as the Yanks rebuilt the bullpen by targeting relievers with control. Doval has high-octane stuff and nice peripherals, but he never thrived, pitching to a 4.63 ERA in 66 games for the Yankees. 

Alfonzo, a 22-year-old minor-league catcher, has a .743 OPS this year, which he’s spent mostly in Double-A. Cruz, 18, was hitting .300 in the Dominican Summer League. 

Doval was supposed to be David Bednar’s primary setup man, but his strikeouts backslid and he always walked too much. A change of scenery was inevitable and necessary for both Doval and the Yankees, regardless of the return. It’s fine. 

GRADE: C-plus

OVERALL

Again: love the García acquisition. But the Yankees should’ve pressed deeper into the trade market, even if it got pricey. The American League is, overall, pretty soft this season and an easy path to the World Series should’ve injected more urgency into the Yankee deadline.

They really needed to add to their catching department – a right-handed hitting catcher with power would’ve been ideal, especially since Yankee backstops are 26th in homers, 28th in average and 29th in OPS this season. Bleah. 

Austin Wells is a quality defender and deft handler of pitchers. But he’s batting .161 with a .537 OPS. Wells swatted 21 homers last year and was supposed to be a contributor at the bottom of the lineup. 

Cashman told reporters he had multiple conversations with the Orioles about Adley Rutschman, the three-time All-Star, but couldn’t agree on price. Then Baltimore traded him to the Red Sox – gulp! – instead. The Rays, the team the Yankees are chasing in the AL East, also acquired a catcher, getting Liam Hicks from the Marlins. 

Non-moves there by the Yankees may prove costly in the division race. Or even October.

Maybe Wells gets his offense together. He’s been better lately, as Cashman noted. Wells also has the lowest catcher’s ERA in MLB this season among backstops with at least 50 games caught. It’s 2.84. Connor Wong of the Red Sox is second at 3.21. 

Even though they have the second-best bullpen ERA in baseball (3.01, just 0.06 behind Boston), they could’ve and maybe should’ve added relievers. The bridge to David Bednar often feels rickety. 

In fairness, they’ve been good at finding relievers in recent years. Maybe their rotation surplus, such as Ryan Weathers, helps keep the bullpen humming. 

Finally, the Yanks saw Tarik Skubal get traded to the Dodgers. That could be a pinstriped problem come October. Cashman said the Tigers set an enormous price for the prized lefty and he also indicated that Detroit wanted one player in particular. Seems pretty certain that was the Yanks’ best prospect, George Lombard Jr., who might be in the Majors soon. Maybe including Lombard wouldn’t have even gotten the deal done. 

Whatever the case, the Yanks left too much undone. Maybe it’s unreasonable to ask them to splurge prospect capital on Skubal, a luxury of sorts for a team with an already-terrific rotation. But the Yanks needed other fixes and didn’t get them. That hurts their overall mark at this deadline. 

OVERALL GRADE: C-plus

Nationals manager Blake Butera was ejected in the top of the seventh inning because he thought Garrett Stubbs tripped into Nasim Nuñez during a run down that began to change the tides into the Phillies favor.

While Butera was not witnessing the game from the dugout, he and the entire Nationals organization experienced a flashback and will have nightmares tonight because of their bullpen.

After cruising through six innings, the Nationals staff let Andrew Alvarez return for the seventh inning against the bottom half of the Phillies order with a three-run lead. After a flyout to Alec Bohm, Bryan De La Cruz was hit by a backfoot slider in an 0-2 count that gifted him first base. Bryson Stott then worked a walk and it was time for the 2026 Washington Nationals bullpen.

First up is left-hander Tom Cosgrove against the bottom of the Phillies order. Against Edmundo Sosa, Cosgrove could not find the strike zone and walked Sosa on five pitches to bring up Derek Hill.

Against a left handed pitcher for the Nationals in a big leverage spot? Flashbacks!

After a shutdown inning from Orion Kerkering that featured an excellent running catch by Hill to save a leadoff double, the Nationals bullpen roulette must go on!

Clayton Beeter was summoned from the bullpen to try and keep the Phillies lead to only one-run. Unfortunately, it is the 2026 Washington Nationals bullpen and this is a Phillies game recap so you know what is about to happen.

After a five pitch walk to Kyle Schwarber, the next right fielder of the Philadelphia Phillies crushed a dead-center fastball right over Jacob Young’s head to give the Phillies a three run lead.

The game was not trending this way for most of the night. In the aftermath of one of the weirdest trade deadlines a Phillies fan might ever witness, they experienced a normal version of the Phillies during their post all-star break rut for at least half a dozen innings.

Aaron Nola took the ball against a Nationals team that is now missing a few pieces after making a few trades at the deadline. One of their new corner infielders, Abimelec Ortiz, crushed a hanging curveball for his first career home run to draw first blood.

In the second inning, it was even more quick trouble for Nola, Keibert Ruiz began the inning with a single and then Daylen Lile almost immediately took a high fastball over the right field seats to give them a 3-0 lead.

Nola was able to work through six innings without any damage, striking out five in the process against a pesky Nationals lineup.

Kyle Backhus started the seventh inning with the Phillies down three runs and it began to feel like one of those nights. Nasim Nuñez laid down a solid bunt and Backhus threw a fastball to Bryce Harper that went right past his glove and down foul territory in right field, De La Cruz struggled handing the ball so Nuñez made it to third base standing.

On a two-two count, Brady House his a dribbler right to Backhus but Nuñez went on contact, forcing a controversial run down that squandered a thread. But the inning wasn’t over yet, after a Jacob Young walk, it was first and second with one out.

Backhus then worked through the next two hitters, getting James Wood to hit a ground ball to first base and Andrés Chaparro to strikeout.

With two more scoreless innings from the bullpen, the Phillies begin their homestand with a win before Luis Arraez joins the club with several position changes to make it all work.

It was a bizarre day but good for Derek Hill.

Thomas Harding of MLB.com is reporting that the Colorado Rockies are nearing a two-year extension with outfielder Mickey Moniak.

A former first overall pick of the Philadelphia Phillies in 2016, Moniak struggled to find his footing in his first few big league seasons. He was eventually traded by the Phillies to the Los Angeles Angels, where he had a career year in 2023. However, after a down year in 2024, Moniak was released by the Angels during spring training prior to the 2025 season. The Rockies then swept in and signed him to a Major League deal.

Moniak, now 28, has developed into an important contributor on this Rockies team. While it cannot be denied that he was a defensive liability in 2025, his bat was one of the few bright spots in an otherwise miserable season. Moniak hit .270/.306/.518 with a career high 24 home runs and 68 RBIs.

Although he missed the start of the 2026 season with a hand injury, Moniak got off to a strong start when his year began. In his first 43 games he hit .280/.335/.607 with nine doubles, two triples, 12 home runs, and 28 RBIs. He was then sidelined with right ankle tendonitis for just over a month, but since returning he has continued to be a key offensive player. Coming into Monday night’s trade deadline, Moniak was hitting .273/.317/.547 with 17 home runs. He has also played fairly solid—if unremarkable—defense in left field.

Moniak was one of several names linked to trade rumors at the deadline, but ended up not being moved. Now we know why.

“I think Mickey’s an important part of what we’re doing here,” Rockies president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta said in a media availability following the deadline.

“Again, he had a very good year last year. I think he’s been off to a great start this year. Unfortunately, missed a little time with the injuries, but he is a legitimate middle-of-the-order bat for us. He’s a leader in our in our clubhouse. He’s a veteran. He’s been around a little bit longer. He’s also been in some different organizations, so he he knows what it should look like. He also knows sometimes maybe what it shouldn’t look like, which is just as valuable, and that’s important not just for his peers in the clubhouse, but also for me and for Schaeff as we try to shape our culture here. So I think Mickey’s value, both on on the field and off the field, is really important to us.”

The terms of Moniak’s extension are not yet public, but would buy out his final year of arbitration in 2027 and his first year of free agency in 2028. A formal announcement is expected some time tomorrow.

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The Detroit Tigers lost their two best starting pitchers at this year’s trade deadline—and another one of their starters is in his feelings about their absence.

Two-time reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend, in what was the biggest trade of the deadline by far.

Then, right-handed hurler Casey Mize was traded to the San Diego Padres right in the final moments before the deadline struck on Monday.

Jack Flaherty is one of the starters still on Detroit’s roster. And he had the perfect reaction to Skubal and Mize’s exit on Monday afternoon.

Flaherty posted the GIF of Will Smith looking around an empty room then sighing during an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to his X account.

The clip has become a timeless internet meme, meant to be used when someone feels like they’ve been abandoned by the ones who were just with them a short time ago. And it makes sense why Flaherty is feeling this way right about now.

Flaherty is no stranger to being dealt at the trade deadline. He was traded to the Dodgers at the deadline in 2024 and was a key part of Los Angeles capturing the World Series that season. Therefore, he knows better than anyone that this is an unavoidable part of the sport.

Still, Flaherty is well within his rights to lament two guys who were surely not just colleagues, but friends. Plus, the Tigers trading both indicates they’re more or less giving up on competing this season.

Flaherty is hoping to compete again this season, after landing on the injured list with right flexor inflammation at the end of June. This injury is likely why he wasn’t at risk of being traded.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman denied a report that the Yankees had conversations with the San Diego Padres involving right-hander Will Warren ahead of the MLB Trade Deadline.

A report from Sunday had San Diego rejecting a New York offer of Warren for left-handed reliever Adrian Morejon. 

"There was a lot of noise on whatever that was, but that wasn't true; that's all I can tell you," Cashman said when asked about the report after Monday's deadline.

"There's a lot of media reports, there's a lot of noise always constantly flying around, some are accurate, some of them aren't accurate," he continued. "It's a lot of people with a lot of information. Writers who cover the sport have a difficult time of trying to parse what's real and what's not.

"We never had a discussion with San Diego that way. So, I'll leave it at that." 

Warren, 27, is under team control through the 2030 season. He is 8-5 with a 4.14 ERA and 1.362 WHIP in 108.2 innings over 22 games (21 starts) this season. His latest outing saw him allow four hits and strike out seven batters in 6.2 scoreless innings of Friday's 2-0 win at the Chicago Cubs.

The 27-year-old Morejon is a free agent after the 2026 season. In 60 frames through 52 games this season, the Padres' setup man 3.00 ERA and a 1.067 WHIP with 70 strikeouts to 15 walks.

Cashman did reveal that the Yanks “looked and engaged on trying to upgrade the ‘pen,” but weren’t able to get any deals done.

“There wasn’t a lot of arms that moved ‘pen-wise,” the GM Said. “More starters moving and certainly a lot less relievers, especially high-impact ones.

“But we definitely were on a number of different people but we were unable to find the matches there.”

He added: "We shopped in that aisle pretty heavily, but to no avail."

Warren was asked about trade noise after Friday's start and said you have to "control what you can control."

"Whatever's going to happen is going to happen. So, that's never really been on my mind," he said. "I feel like, ever since I've been with the Yankees, that's been a thing, so I'm kind of used to it by now. But just taking it day by day and, again, whatever happens is going to happen."

In the end, neither Warren nor Morejon was dealt before the deadline.

The 2026 Trade Deadline has officially come and gone, and it’s time for the immediate breakdown of the state of the Yankees following it. It’s fair to say that most weren’t projecting a flashy deadline for New York with a big-name blockbuster or anything of that sort, but it still comes as a surprise that at the end of the day they made only three moves: they traded Camilo Doval away to Pittsburgh, and then added Luis García Jr. alongside Heliot Ramos to bolster their lineup and provide some depth to the outfield while two of their stars are on the shelf.

Let’s start with what they did accomplish before we get into what they failed to get. García is a legit A-plus addition offensively, leading the National League in slugging and coming in just behind Ben Rice for third overall across MLB. They also managed to pry him away from Washington for a basket of arms that they likely didn’t have plans for this season and possibly even next, sending off their 14th-rated prospect Jack Cebert and their 25th-ranked prospect Ben Grable by MLB Pipeline’s scouting, alongside Yovanny Cruz and Jake Bird. Cruz impressed in Triple-A this season and got a couple brief stints with the major league team but never seemed to be in the plans for a postseason bullpen, while Bird actively worked his way off the roster two years in a row after getting acquired at the deadline last season. Overall, that’s a more than acceptable package to surrender in exchange for a bat that can mash against righties and bring some protection to Rice’s spot in the order.

García’s defensive fit is a bit more murky, as he’s a first baseman when the team already has Rice and Paul Goldschmidt working there. Goldschmidt, for all his early-season success, is still meant to be a backup for this team, and it looks as though he’ll cede playing time to García at first while Rice will primarily play as the designated hitter.

What that group looks like once Giancarlo Stanton is back in the fold, who knows, but the Yankees can’t plan on Stanton just sliding back in after missing most of the season and needing a bat in the worst way to stay afloat here and now. The Yankees will have García for the 2027 season as well, assuming there will be one amidst CBA negotiations and the very real threat of a lengthy lockout.

The other piece of this deadline “haul,” Ramos is a league-average bat overall but owns a 127 wRC+ against left-handed pitching this season, a trend that was muted during his down 2025 season but carried his performance in his breakout 2024 with the Giants. Just 26-years-old, Ramos will be entering arbitration for the first time in 2027 and under team control until 2030, giving them a solid platoon to utilize for the foreseeable future and the right-handed bat they coveted to help cover the outfield’s holes with Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger still out. Is he the most exciting get? Not exactly, and the cost of getting him was a little steeper with No. 5 prospect Henry Lalane headlining the return alongside their 13th-best prospect Kaeden Kent. The sticker price probably looks a little bit riskier than it is, as the Yankees’ system is rather top-heavy and both Lalane and Kent are still a while away from playing in High-A. As far as who they got, I’m not complaining about either Ramos or García — they’re both fine additions that’ll hopefully raise the offensive floor from dreadful to watch towards tolerable until the cavalry arrives.

Speaking of dreadful, it’s time to address what the Yankees didn’t do at the deadline. For months, speculation has been centered on the Yankees seeking help at catcher and aiming for relief help, but when the pencils were put down, Brian Cashman came away with exactly zero additions for both departments. The bullpen is a lesser concern at this point than it was earlier in the year, to be fair, as Paul Blackburn and Brent Headrick have turned into fantastic options late in games while closer David Bednar locked in and allowed two runs combined throughout June and July. They’ve shed the disappointing arms in Doval and Bird, and will likely shift one of their starters over to the ‘pen alongside ramping up Clarke Schmidt for relief duties as he nears a return.

The biggest failure of the deadline comes from being unable to secure any upgrade at all at catcher. Simply put, Austin Wells and Ali Sánchez have been a disaster duo behind the plate. While Wells at least has the trust of the pitching staff, keeping him in the lineup, they needed to do something with their backup catching spot. But while several catchers indeed moved on deadline day, none of them will be donning pinstripes — the big ticket name was Baltimore’s Adley Rutschman going over to the archrival Red Sox, but the Rays secured a catcher as well in Liam Hicks from the Marlins. Rutschman being available is a shock to the system, but Baltimore fumbled their core with just a single postseason of getting swept to show for it, and the star is admittedly not doing too great health-wise. In fact, those medicals were concerning enough for the Yankees to not pursue him after doing some initial check-ins, but Boston was clearly willing to take the gamble.

Passing on Rutschman for health concerns is one thing, but the rest of the market entirely passing them by? How could that happen? Well, it takes two to tango, and unfortunately the other enticing options were Minnesota’s Ryan Jeffers and Colorado’s Hunter Goodman. Goodman looks to be a legit big bat at a premier position, so Colorado has been asking for the moon in any talks regarding his services; and it’s fair enough to balk at a king’s ransom for a player that hasn’t established themselves long-term yet. Jeffers, meanwhile, became unavailable as the Twins fancied themselves competitors despite sitting under .500 entering play on Monday because the AL Central has been anyone’s game and the AL Wild Card field is a bit of a joke with how many teams are within striking distance. Suddenly out of first-choice options, the Yankees were left scrambling to consider backup plans like Cincinnati’s Tyler Stephenson, a relatively unappealing defender but at least one with a pulse at the plate. Even there they couldn’t agree on a deal, and now they’ll be stuck with what they’ve got.

The Yankees have learned not to invoke the rage of the fanbase by acting like getting a whole host of players back from the IL is a sort of deadline acquisition on its own, but it feels like that’s still the case here. They did get one significant upgrade with García, and for that alone I’m not willing to rake Cashman over the coals for this deadline, but this undoubtedly is one of their weakest deadline performances since Aaron Boone took over and the team regained their expectations of always competing. It leaves a lot unsaid about their unwillingness to go all-in this year with the clock ticking on Judge, Stanton, and Gerrit Cole’s window to win a championship, but at the same time you can at least see how the perfect storm arose to prevent them from landing more meaningful additions despite seeking them out.

Following the trade deadline Monday night, odds to win the division favor the Rays, but I certainly wouldn’t count the Yankees out of the race. The Pinstripes return to the Bronx for the next three series, facing the Cardinals, Braves, and Mariners. For now, it’s on the Yankees to weather the storm for another two months and see if they can make some noise in October.