After what was a fairly quiet trade deadline for Milwaukee through roughly 2 p.m. CT, the Brewers finally made their first move at roughly 2:15, acquiring right-handed starter Dustin May and left-handed reliever JoJo Romero in a trade with the Cardinals, per Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic.

Nearly 40 minutes later, Brewer beat reporter Adam McCalvy has reported that the return in the deal is outfield prospects Alexander Frias and Josiah Ragsdale.

May, 29 in September, is a former third-round pick by the Dodgers back in 2016. Initially ranked as a top prospect, he had a strong start to his career with Los Angeles before missing the entire 2024 season due to injury. He struggled in 2025 between the Dodgers and Red Sox, with a 4.96 ERA and 4.88 FIP across 132 1/3 innings, but he’s looked better this year with St. Louis.

Across 21 starts this season, he’s 5-7 with a 4.38 ERA, 3.14 FIP, and 106 strikeouts over 109 innings. Despite that high ERA, you can see from his FIP that a stronger defense should do him some favors, and as a groundball pitcher, Milwaukee may just be the perfect fit. He tossed a complete game shutout against the Padres earlier this year, and he also took a no-hitter against the Brewers into the eighth inning back in May, flashing his potential.

Romero, 30 in September, is a former fourth-round pick by the Phillies in 2016. He’s in his seventh big-league season and fifth with the Cardinals, and he’s been a reliable arm for St. Louis for several years now, with a 3.07 ERA, 3.60 FIP, and 207 strikeouts over 214 innings for them between 2022 and 2026. He’s made 44 appearances this year with a 3.35 ERA, 4.00 FIP, and 43 strikeouts across 43 innings, though he’s missed the last several weeks after an emergency appendectomy. He’s expected to return to action by mid-August.

Frias, 18, and Ragsdale, 22, both ranked among Milwaukee’s top prospects. Frias, ranked No. 11 in the system by MLB Pipeline, was an international signee out of the Dominican Republic in January 2025 and was hitting .236/.328/.418 in 28 games with Low-A Wilson after hitting .441/.518/.678 in 32 games at Rookie ball to begin the year.

Ragsdale, ranked as Milwaukee’s No. 13 prospect by MLB Pipeline, started the season at High-A Wisconsin before a call up to Double-A Biloxi, and he’s hit .316/.441/.581 with 19 homers, 21 doubles, two triples, and 31 steals over 86 games between the two levels. He was a seventh-round pick in the 2025 MLB Draft out of Boston College.

Luis Garcia Jr. grew up in New York, rooting for the Yankees. 

While his family moved to the Dominican Republic when he was 8 years old, Garcia has rocked No. 2 most of his life because Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano were two of his favorite players growing up.

Now 26 years old, he has the opportunity to put the pinstripes on himself. 

“It means so much,” Garcia said Monday via a translator. “I was born here in New York, so to be able to play for this team, you ask players and I think everybody wants an opportunity to wear these pinstripes.

“Also to be able to be able to play in front of my family, it means a lot -- I have a lot of family members here in the city still, so to be able to do that, it’s going to be a pretty cool opportunity.”

Garcia, of course, was acquired in a deal with the Nationals on Sunday night.

It remains to be seen where exactly he’ll fit in defensively with the Bombers, as he spent the majority of his time with the Nationals this season starting at first base. 

He'll likely stick there or slide in as the DH most nights against right-handed pitching, but is ready for whatever opportunities his new club decides to throw his way. 

“I’m just here to help,” Garcia emphasized. “Wherever they need me, I’m going to be right there -- that’s the honest answer regarding on that front, I’m just here to help this team.”

The biggest boost he'll be able to provide certainly will be with his bat. 

Garcia has always been a relatively steady producer, but he's been enjoying himself a breakout season offensively, putting together 23 homers and a NL-best .560 slugging percentage through 104 games. 

One of the biggest keys behind that has been him pulling the ball in the air at a career-best rate (18.6), which figures to make him a nearly perfect fit for the short porch in the Bronx.

"That’s one of the adjustments I’ve made this year, get the ball in the more and pull it with authority," he said. "It's no secret playing here at Yankee Stadium it's exciting to be part of that, so we'll see what happens."

At last, the final checkpoint of the regular season is here. The Trade Deadline is today, and as of writing the Yankees have made one significant upgrade having acquired Luis García Jr. from the Nationals to boost their lineup with a genuine power threat, though it looks as though he’s going to be a platoon bat against righties as he has some extreme splits. There’s more work to be done, but it may go down to the last minute before we see what the fruits of Brian Cashman’s labor end up being.

What is clear is that by the end of the day, we’ll be looking at a different landscape across the American League. The Yankees aren’t the only team looking for upgrades after all, and their direct rivals are working hard on covering all their bases. Did the Yankees do enough to improve themselves, and what’s your confidence level in them pushing for the division now that the rosters are all said and done? Did they get taken to the bank for all their prospects, or did they manage to make the most of who they sent off? And did they manage to get better than their rivals, or did the gap grow after Monday night? If you have questions like these, or anything else on your mind, send ‘em in for a chance to be featured in our Yankees mailbag.

Answers will run on Friday afternoon. All questions received by the night of August 6th will be considered. You can leave your submissions in the comment section below or by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.

We’re counting down to the final two hours until the trade deadline at 4:00 pm MDT.

As a reminder, the Colorado Rockies traded CF Brenton Doyle to the Chicago White Sox.

Rumors suggest the Rockies will make at least one more trade.

Stay hydrated, everyone. Be sure to keep breathing.

Let’s do this.

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

On top of the Guardians’ win-loss column looking ever so slightly better than previous weeks, the team made some noise off the field that has the potential to keep that win total moving up.

New Faces in CLE

While the Guards have spent recent years waiting until the last minute of the trade deadline to make any moves, they surprised us fans by announcing a trade on Saturday. Catcher Bo Naylor and relief pitcher Codi Heuer were sent to the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for outfielder Blake Perkins and pitcher Craig Yoho. Naylor has spent most of the 2026 season in Triple-A Columbus, hitting just .143/.200/.238 in his time with the Big League club this year. Heuer’s story was much the same, pitching to a 4.66 ERA in just 9.2 innings of work. For the return, the Guards got a 3.00 ERA pitcher with 19 strikeouts in 21 innings with Yoho, and a .157/.250/.258 hitter in Perkins. This seems to be an off year for the outfielder so far, but maybe a change of scenery will be exactly what he needed to get his bat going again.

Ohio Cup Stays in Cleveland

Thanks to a 2-1 series win against the Cincinnati Reds this week, the illustrious Ohio Cup will be staying in Cleveland for the 11th time in the past 12 years. While Monday’s game was postponed due to rain, it may have been exactly what the Guardians needed. They had lost their last five games in a row, and things were beginning to look a little bleak. However, thanks to the break, they claimed game one in a 6-5 victory thanks to a grand slam by Kyle Manzardo, and sacrifice outs from Chase DeLauter and Brayan Rocchio. The Guardians were shut out in game two, but came right back to take the finale in a no-doubt 6-1 victory.

History Made in Springfield

Okay, no, this isn’t related to the Guardians, but there is no way I could’ve written a whole article about positive moments from the week and NOT mention the Women’s Professional Baseball League. After more than 70 years, women are once again playing professional baseball. On Saturday night, the Los Angeles Queens took on the New York Heights in the very first game of the new WPBL. The Queens earned the come-from-behind 10-8 victory over the Heights thanks to a stellar closing performance by pitcher Meggie Meidlinger. In game two, it was the San Francisco Firebells versus the Boston Hunters where the face of women’s baseball, Kelsie Whitmore, made her debut. The Firebells earned a dominant 11-3 win over the Hunters after getting the scoring started early. The four teams will play each other in 14 more games over the next month, all taking place at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois.

Mike Elias built the Baltimore Orioles around Adley Rutschman for seven years. On Monday he shipped him up I-95 to Boston in a move that people in Baltimore are going to be arguing about longer than Elias is the Orioles GM.

Rutschman was the first pick Elias ever made, No. 1 overall in 2019, five months after Baltimore hired him to clean up a team that had just lost 115 games. He turned into the best prospect in the sport, then a three-time All-Star, then the face of a rebuild that made the playoffs twice and stopped. He's 28 and under contract through 2027 and he'll be fighting his old team in division.

Boston also gets catcher Jake Rogers. Baltimore gets right-handers Anthony Eyanson and Kyson Witherspoon, center fielder Enddy Azocar and catcher Carlos Narvaez. The Orioles will also get a player to be named later.

Adley Rutschman trade details

• Red Sox receive: Adley Rutschman, Jake Rogers
• Orioles receive: Anthony Eyanson, Kyson Witherspoon, Enddy Azocar, Carlos Narvaez, PTBNL

After landing back-to-back Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal in the biggest trade of the summer, Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman sat at the podium and was mum on whether he'd continue to add to the big league roster in the final 24 hours ahead of the deadline.

"Less likely," he said at the time. "I think coming into this deadline again, our mindset was we're going to be really aggressive for one player. If that player doesn't get moved, if that player goes somewhere else, it's a different mindset. ... You never say never, but fortunately we don't have that acute need where it's, 'you have to do this or our team is in real danger.'"

Turns out, Friedman wasn't done making moves. The Dodgers are trading for Kansas City Royals reliever Kris Bubic in exchange for right-handed pitching prospect Carlos Duran, as first reported by MLB.com's Mark Feinsand. It's a low risk move for LA as they add another bullpen arm in Bubic, who has been on the IL with left shoulder inflammation since May 18.

He has pitched well when healthy, as seen by his 2025 All-Star season in which he posted a career-best 2.55 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP in 116.1 innings. But outside of that, the 28-year-old has pitched a total of just 96.2 innings in 2023, 2024 and 2026 combined as he's been hampered by nagging shoulder and elbow injuries.

The move is a clear flier for the Dodgers, and the Royals got a prospect in return, so how did each team fare in this trade?

The Cubs made an interesting deal today before the trade deadline, getting left-hander Braxton Garrett from the Marlins.

We now have the return for Garrett as well.

The left-handed Garrett, who turns 29 on Wednesday, is still under team control until 2029 and still has one minor league option left, although that only applies to this year. That’s important because after a breakout in 2022 and 2023, Garrett underwent Tommy John surgery in 2024. He missed most of that year and all of 2025. He’s healthy now, but after two poor starts in the majors in May, he’s been pitching in Triple-A Jacksonville since then.

Garrett’s major league numbers this year are ugly—0-1 with a 14.54 ERA over two starts. But his minor league numbers have been good with a 2.90 ERA and more than a strikeout an inning, although the walks are a bit up and his underlying numbers in Triple-A aren’t quite that good. (They’re not bad, though!) If you assume it takes a while for a pitcher’s control to return after Tommy John, then maybe his walk totals aren’t that bad.

Garrett was the seventh-overall pick of the 2016 draft out of high school in Alabama. He’s mostly a sinker/slider guy who gets the kinds of ground balls the Cubs want.

So Garrett serves as starting pitching depth for this year and an upside play for the next two years afterwards. He can report to Iowa for now and be ready to step in if the Cubs still have even more injuries to their pitching staff for the rest of 2026.

Jonathon Long is a promising bat who got off to a bad start to start this season but has lately been turning things around. He’s a good right-handed hitter with above-average power. But he’s also pretty much limited to first base (Long can play left field in a pinch) and he’s pretty much blocked by Michael Busch with the Cubs. But the Marlins could use a first baseman and he could make his major league debut immediately

Baseball America had Long as the Cubs’ 16th-best prospect. MLB Pipeline ranked him tenth. I ranked him 11th in my mid-season update.

The Cubs signed the right-handed Beck as a minor league free agent after the Mets released him this offseason. He dominated Double-A for the Cubs, posting a record of 6-2 with a 2.87 ERA over 20 games and six starts. He struck out 102 batters over 59.2 innings. That got him promoted to Triple-A Iowa, where he has struggled in five appearances and a 6.60 ERA. But Beck was starting to show up on some prospect lists, with Baseball America and MLB Pipeline both listing him as the Cubs’ 28th-best prospect .

The San Diego Padres began their trade deadline by trading two prospects for left-handed starting pitcher Robbie Ray from the San Francisco Giants.

President of baseball operations A.J. Preller used No. 4 prospect Miguel Mendez and No. 9 prospect shortstop Joniel Hernandez to acquire the 34-year-old veteran, who has been one of the top pitchers in baseball over the past two months.

 In 10 starts and 60 innings pitched since June 1, Ray has a 1.65 ERA. He has a 3.08 ERA for the season in 122.2 innings with 107 strikeouts to 57 walks. 

Ray features a low-90s four-seam fastball and sinker along with a knuckle curve, a slider, and a changeup. He figures to slip into the rotation behind Michael King as the No. 2 starter for the Padres. 

Depending on what else Preller can add, the Padres can count on one less bullpen game per trip through the rotation by adding Ray. The report is that the Padres and Giants will split the remaining $8 million owed to Ray for the rest of the 2026 season. He is a free agent at the end of the year.

The Padres relinquish a shortstop who has made a big splash in the Dominican Summer League in his first season after signing as a top international prospect. Joniel Hernandez has plus tools on both sides of the ball but is only 17 years old and a good distance from helping any team as a major league player.

RHP Miguel Mendez has been a starter for the Padres since being signed as an international prospect in 2021. He made his stateside debut in 2022 and recently began a rehab assignment with Fort Wayne at High-A after suffering a shoulder injury earlier this season while playing for Double-A San Antonio.

Mendez, 24, excelled last year with Fort Wayne, pitching to a 1.32 ERA in 12 games started, but has had issues with command and injuries this season.

With Robbie Ray added to the Padres’ starting rotation, the Padres have King, Ray and RHP Walker Buehler for their current rotation and hope to get RHP’s Nick Pivetta and/or Joe Musgrove back later this month after their rehab stints are completed. 

Both Musgrove and Pivetta are scheduled to start their rehab with Lake Elsinore on Tuesday.

The trade deadline bananza continues for the Mets, who have shipped out arguably their most valuable asset in Luke Weaver. The team acquiring the veteran reliever is the Pittsburgh Pirates (a team that nobody would have expected to be a team buying from the selling Mets, but alas), and the return is middle infield prospect Sammy Stafura.

In a season where just about every single one of David Stearns’s offseason acquisitions went terribly, Weaver has been the one bright spot. The 32-year-old righty has posted a 1.84 ERA in 42 appearances and has provided immense stability to the back of the team’s bullpen. He is also under control for next season, meaning the Mets didn’t necessarily have to trade him at the deadline, but they undoubtedly deduced that his value would never be higher and decided to capitalize on that.

Stafura is the result of that. A second-round pick out of high school in 2023, the 21-year-old is a right-handed hitter who has had time at both shortstop and second base in A and A+ ball this season. Across both levels, he has combined to put up a .276/.367/.593 slash line with 20 homers in 60 total games (albeit with a somewhat alarming 30.1% strikeout rate). As with all these deadline deals, we will want to wait to hear from credible prospect evaluators to get an up-to-date assessment of Stafura’s current outlook before fully evaluating the trade. At first glance, it does seem perhaps a bit surprising that he is the only player Stearns was able to get in the swap for Weaver, given the extra year of control at play. But in any event, the wheeling and dealing continues for the Mets.

Bringing in Luis Arraez to mix up the offense has the consequence of also mixing up the defense as well. Speaking today with reports, Don Mattingly talked about the new defensive alignment.

That is certainly a path to take with the pitching staff the team has right now, but if Robert Frost talked about the road less traveled, this is the road not many want to go down.

Harper going back to the outfield is something he sees as temporary.

I mean, we’re talking about making room for Alec Bohm.

There are three hours left until the deadline. Let’s see if this alignment holds.

Shohei Ohtani is, for the time being, not pitching and will serve only as the Dodgers DH.

That means the Cubs remain the only team Ohtani has never pitched against. (He also hasn’t faced the Brewers in a regular-season game, but he did have that memorable game against them in the NLCS last year.)

And, of course, the big news surrounding the Dodgers is the acquisition of Tarik Skubal, and his first Dodgers start will be in this series.

For more on the Dodgers and Skubal, once again I welcome Molly Knight to BCB. As you probably remember, Molly and I randomly ran into each other last year in Tokyo, which she wrote about at her Substack newsletter The Long Game. We’ve become good friends, and I’d like to strongly encourage all of you to sign up for The Long Game, a fantastic community of baseball fans. Here’s Molly on the Dodgers.

Al has asked me to write a Dodgers preview here the morning of the trade deadline, and I will proceed as if they are done making major moves, and are not on the verge of, say, trading for Elly De La Cruz or CJ Abrams. (I don’t think this will happen but one can never be sure!)

The big headline for LA’s series vs. the Cubs, of course, is that Tarik Skubal will make his Dodger debut on Tuesday at Wrigley. I have no idea how to process this news except that it’s great for the Dodgers and very bad for everyone else — especially Milwaukee, as they could have and should have landed the superstar lefty instead.

It’s funny that everyone is talking about how unfairly good the Dodgers are right now, as they are coming off their worst series of the year where they played sloppy and got wrecked by the Red Sox. The Dodgers tend to run the bases and defend well, and they did neither against Boston this weekend. I don’t know if they were distracted by the trade deadline or simply took a dirt nap because they have a 10-game lead in the division, but they did not look like themselves. 

Part of this identity change is that Shohei Ohtani is currently playing baseball on one leg, unable to pitch or zoom around the bases like he usually does. He’s still bashing the ball, but he needs to go on the injured list because his knee is not improving and the Dodgers really only play for October.

Freddie Freeman has also been whacking the ball, but Mookie Betts has not been the same since he got sick last spring in Tokyo. 

Kyle Tucker has shown signs of life over the past week, but he still only has an OPS of .703 despite being paid a record $60 million this season. (I’m guessing a few Cubs fans saw this coming, but it must still feel good nonetheless). 

Edwin Diaz returned last week after missing most of the season due to loose bodies in his elbow, and I’ll be watching to see how well he does in leverage on the road. Tommy Edman and Enrique Hernandez are also both finally healthy, and figure to loom large against the Cubs this week as they will be in the lineup vs. lefties Matthew Boyd and Shōta Imanaga.

I suppose the biggest questions I have are not about the Dodgers but about the Cubs. How much better will they be tomorrow than they are today? They figure to be one of the teams the Dodgers will need to beat in October, so what moves will they make in the next few hours to put them in a better position to do that?

Kevin Gausman pitched quite well against LA during the World Series last season, even though the Jays lost both his starts (he was matched up against Yamamoto, unfortunately for him). I know Cubs fans are probably eager to see him against the best teams in the league, but it’s probably better LA hitters aren’t getting another live look at him this week before October.

I’m also looking forward to seeing how extra motivated PCA is against the Dodgers, and if Dalton Rushing can keep his intrusive thoughts to himself.

It should be a fun series!

Fun facts

The Cubs and Dodgers have played 2,150 games since the rivalry began in 1890. The Dodgers lead in wins by only 18, 1,077 to 1,059. They have outscored the Cubs by just 24 runs, 9,225-9,201.

The Cubs are 570-505-8 at home vs. the Dodgers. They won the two games played at Wrigley Field last season but lost two at Tokyo, where the Cubs were officially the home team.

They last swept the Dodgers in three games in 2021. The next year, they lost all three. They went 1-3 in 2023 and 2-1 in 2024.

(Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)

Probable pitching matchups

Monday: Matthew Boyd, LHP (6-1, 3.41 ERA, 1.197 WHIP, 3.55 FIP) vs. Justin Wrobleski, LHP (11-2, 2.88 ERA, 1.021 WHIP, 3.60 FIP)

Tuesday: Javier Assad, RHP (6-1, 3.75 ERA, 1.163 WHIP, 4.82 FIP) vs. Tarik Skubal, LHP (7-5, 2.79 ERA, 0.910 WHIP, 2.60 FIP)

Wednesday: Shōta Imanaga, LHP (7-9, 3.67 ERA, 1.073 WHIP, 4.43 FIP) vs. Roki Sasaki, RHP (5-5, 4.64 ERA, 1.303 WHIP, 5.02 FIP)

Times & TV channels

Monday: 7:05 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network

Tuesday: 7:05 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network, TBS (outside the Cubs and Dodgers market territories)

Wednesday: 1:20 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network, MLB Network (outside the Cubs and Dodgers market territories)

Prediction

Well, the Dodgers are now a juggernaut and they won’t lose another game like ever.

Of course, that’s silly. The Cubs have their two best current starters going in this series (Boyd and Imanaga) and both have been really good lately. Dodgers pitching hasn’t been great since the All-Star break and they just got swept — at home! — by the Red Sox. Since the All-Star break the Cubs are 9-7 but have outscored opponents 86-49 (and the 49 runs are the fewest allowed by any team since the ASB). The Dodgers are 8-7 and have scored 66 runs in those 15 games to their opponents’ 65.

I think the Cubs steal this series and win two of three.

Up next

The Cubs will host the Blue Jays Thursday afternoon in a makeup game for the rainout on June 21. After that they’ll travel to Kansas City to face the Royals in a three-game series beginning Monday evening.

(A note that the poll below includes the make-up game against Toronto — vote here if you haven’t already.)