It is a fine and worthy ritual, and we strongly urge you to read our installment. That’s not why we’re right here in this space today, though.
We’re only going to talk about the losers.
It’s been an ugly season across the major leagues, with rampant mediocrity and clubs seemingly obsessed with programming an 84-win team that gives their fans modest hope while keeping their bosses’ balance sheets clean. All this comes against the backdrop of what could be a protracted labor battle that threatens the 2027 season.
MLB has already signaled that it will take the winter meetings and hot stove season away from its fans; a lockout is imminent. Thus, this trade deadline was the last time fans could hope and wish that their team improved its chances with a whopping 50 games left in the season.
Instead, many teams clustered in contention bade a hasty retreat.
Rather than adding, or standing pat and improving on the margins, or matching up with clubs on a my-reliever-for-your-fifth-starter neutral trade, they traded franchise players and beloved All-Stars, or asked potential Hall of Famers if they could please waive a no-trade clause.
It was an ugly look, befitting a loser mentality, threatening to boot encouraging presents into a hazy future and a land of prosperity that never seems to arrive. Let’s take a moment to disparage the losers:
Let the record reflect that the Tigers were 2 1/2 games out of a playoff berth when the trade deadline arrived. That they won three games in a row after telegraphing their intentions by scratching No. 2 starter Casey Mize from his assignment.
That Tarik Skubal led them on a glorious 31-13 finishing kick to roar into the playoffs, upset the Houston Astros and nearly reach the ALCS.
Nah. Definitely wouldn’t want to have that much fun again, right?
Tigers apologists will try to memory-hole the ’26 Tigers as having little chance this year, that they played poorly enough and Skubal was injured long enough that they had no choice but deal him to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a package that may help them in the long run but certainly is not the franchise-altering return one would expect for trading the greatest left-handed pitcher on the planet.
Don’t let them do that.
The Tigers chose to trade Tarik Skubal the way the Boston Red Sox chose to trade Mookie Betts. And let’s throw in Mize, too, while we’re at it.
Detroit will insist no towel was thrown in and the players left – Jack Flaherty, for one, was not dealt, as he was in 2024 – can make a run at the playoffs. Maybe they’ll even get there. Yet the club became demonstrably worse Saturday night.
And a team that had appointment viewing every five days just slinked even deeper into the great, gray mass that is the AL this season.
Funny how the Boston Red Sox gave up three of their best prospects to acquire Adley Rutschman from Baltimore on the same day they traded once-top prospect Marcelo Mayer to San Francisco.
It seems like yesterday the Red Sox boasted a “big four” prospect group of shortstop Mayer, outfielder Roman Anthony, catcher Kyle Teel and infielder Kristian Campbell.
Well, Mayer is gone, Anthony and Teel – now a White Sox - can’t stay healthy and Campbell is buried in the minor leagues after signing a multi-year contract. Almost like the Red Sox decided selling hope and dreams isn’t as good as seizing a moment.
That’s a lesson to be learned in Baltimore, where club president Mike Elias fielded some of the worst teams you’ve ever seen in 2019 and 2021 in service of gleaning top talent through the draft.
Rutschman was the bell cow who grew from first overall pick to three-time All-Star. And now that he’s approaching free agency, he’s gone.
This was a gut punch to Orioles fans who averted their eyes through those lean years and bought into brighter days, which came with a 101-win season in 2023 and a playoff appearance the next. Yet five postseason losses and zero wins in those campaigns preceded two desultory seasons, though the Orioles entered deadline day, like Detroit, just 2 ½ games out of a playoff berth.
No matter. Rutschman, whose engaging smile and pump-them-up hugs with his pitchers brought sunlight after so many dark years in Baltimore, is a goner. Never mind that heir apparent Samuel Basallo also seems injury prone, or that both of them are playable at catcher and DH, a combo that would have worked nicely in 2027, too.
Along the way, they dealt closer Tyler Wells – who toggled between roles for years before settling in nicely as their closer of late – to Tampa Bay and walk-happy, power-challenged outfielder Taylor Ward to Seattle. Two rebuild survivors, traded within the division. Wells and former Oriole Bryan Baker will make a nice late-inning combo in Tampa Bay. Perhaps they can ship some cigars to Eutaw Street as a thank-you.
The Orioles received a laudable package for Rutschman – top pitching prospects Anthony Eyanson and Kyson Witherspoon, who throw the hell out of the ball but have SEC mileage on their arms. Minor league outfielder Enddy Azocar is a potential superstar. He is also 19.
Perhaps indicative of the market’s exhaustion with collecting assets rather than championships, Elias, meeting with the media on a 29-minute video call, was not asked a single question about the incoming prospects. Instead, he pointed to Rutschman’s lack of a contract extension and the year and a half remaining on his deal, as if the world would implode should he not get traded before then.
“This is part of running a baseball organization,” says Elias. “Sometimes at deadline time, you have to sell off guys, particularly as they get near their contractual control.”
Well, just like the Tigers, you don’t have to do anything. There is no pennant for asset maximization.
Just one good week away from getting into playoff contention, the Orioles are instead selling the future. Again. This time, Orioles fans seem far more likelier to vote with their feet.
Texas Rangers: Losers
They have spent 37 days in first place, most recently in that ancient period of time known as July 30, 2026. Sounds like a perfect time to ask Jacob deGrom to waive his no-trade clause!
Yes, this is the mentality of the modern franchise: A ballclub will bob up and down with the currents and tides and, if the boat is dipping just a little bit at the magic date on the calendar known as the trade deadline, it’s like they’re a bunch of bums.
So it went in Arlington, where the Texas Rangers still draw decent crowds to their sterile ballpark and this year have fielded their best team since winning the World Series in 2023. At deadline time, they were just 2 ½ games back in the West, 1 ½ back of the wild card.
Some teams would kill to have two races to run. This one asked a potential future Hall of Famer if he’d be willing to get shipped out. Jacob deGrom said, hell no.
“I want to win here,” he said, per the Dallas Morning News. “I signed to win here. We can win.”
Whoa, there, pallie! Not so fast. There’s payroll to clear, assets to collect.
Per multiple reports, the Rangers also talked to clubs about right-hander Nathan Eovaldi, who won them that World Series and has only been a franchise stalwart ever since. Those dudes are owed a ton of money, so you can see the Rangers’ motivation.
They’re also not living quite as high on the TV rights hog as they were when they signed deGrom before the 2023 season. A penny saved, a penny earned, things of that nature.
Yet the Rangers should know how fleeting these windows are. It took the franchise 62 seasons to win a World Series, and two lackluster seasons followed. DeGrom didn’t contribute to that title due to elbow surgery.
Perhaps he’ll have an outsize contribution to this bid simply by saying, “No. Let’s try to be winners.”
Newly acquired Dodgers starting pitcher Tarik Skubal walks toward the dugout at Wrigley Field before Monday's game against the Chicago Cubs. Skubal is scheduled to make his Dodgers debut Tuesday. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
Just a few days ago, new Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal was on the other side, on a mid-market Detroit Tigers team that had hoped to unseat the Dodgers from the top of the league, before a disappointing season made them sellers at the trade deadline.
Still, with that perspective, he wasn’t going to entertain any talk about the Dodgers ruining baseball.
“I don’t really sympathize with people that blame the Dodgers for anything they’ve done,” Skubal said from the Barrel Room at Wrigley Field on Monday. “They’ve developed a really good organization. They draft well. They acquire talent really well. They retain talent. It’s a winning organization. Now the complaints seem to be [happening] because they’ve won the last two World Series. I don’t think it was like that three years ago. So I don’t really sympathize with people that are complaining. Because the Dodgers do all the right things.”
Skubal didn’t want to talk about his impending free agency. And he said he did not have any conversations with Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris about preferring to be traded to the Dodgers. Before the trade, he told Tigers reporters that he wanted to remain with the only team he’d known and compete for a championship there.
“Initial reaction, there was a lot of emotions,” Skubal said. “I spent eight years with the Detroit Tigers. That place will always be special to me no matter what. In the same breath, I’m excited to be here with these guys. When you watch them from across the way, see them do their thing on TV, you just have a lot of respect because they play the game the right way.
“The entire focus of this organization is on winning championships and that is my entire focus — playing baseball — so we’re very much aligned. I’m ready to go out there and compete and give this organization and city everything that I’ve got.”
The Dodgers put the final touches on their trade deadline, adding catching depth as Dalton Rushing went on the 10-day injured list with a sprained left elbow. The Dodgers added two backstops they’re already familiar with in Ben Rortvedt and Hunter Feduccia. They also added left-hander Kris Bubic, who is dealing with a shoulder injury.
It was clear all along, however, that Skubal was going to be the biggest splash of the deadline — for any team, really. And fuel for frustrated baseball fans upset about the Dodgers acquiring another star player.
“I think the Dodgers have done a fantastic job in player development,” said Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer, who also engaged in trade talks for Skubal. “They have a really good farm system, and Scott [Harris] did the best thing you could do for the Tigers and got a lot of talent back. And obviously they did the best thing for their team.
Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal throws in the outfield before the team's game against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Monday. (David Banks / Associated Press)
“And he’s an incredible pitcher. I mean, there’s no question about that. And I guess we’ll see firsthand. But I know there’s been a reaction around baseball about it, but they put themselves in positions to do that deal, and they did, and that’s exactly what they should be doing.”
Skubal had accepted by the end of his last start that he was going to be moving on.
“Losing that game kind of felt like that was kind of it for me in Detroit,” he said. “So not surprised, but that didn’t make the news any easier because I love a lot of those people there. I’ve got a lot of respect about what they do and how they go about their business. A lot of those guys are like my best friends on and off the field. I wish those guys nothing but the best. I’ll be rooting for them, unless we’re playing.”
He officially starts a new chapter Tuesday, taking the mound for the Dodgers at Wrigley Field.
“They’ve been a pretty good baseball team without me,” he said. “So I’m going to show up and kind of be a chameleon in a sense and fit right in with these guys and just gel with them. They’ve got the winning recipe. They know what it takes to win.”
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - JULY 10: Luis Arraez #1 and Bryce Eldridge #8 come talk to Robbie Ray #38 of the San Francisco Giants as he is taken out of the game in the sixth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Oracle Park on July 10, 2026 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Andrew Baggarly just described today’s activity as “frenetic,” and he’s right. The past two trade deadlines have been practically Zaidian for Buster Posey, Zack Minasian, and the San Francisco Giants. For as much as the franchise has oversteered from the 2019-2024 days, the new regime is a lot like the old one in that no matter what they’ve done to improve the team, it’s been stuck in the zone of mediocre-to-bad. But Zaidi was (seemingly) constrained by ownership in how he could rebuild on the fly. Posey doesn’t seem to have any constraints. Does that automatically make today’s deadline deals great? In a moment, I’ll grade them.
First, though, let’s contextualize this analysis. It helps that these 2026ers will go down as one of the worst teams in franchise history, something Zaidi’s squads never came close to even suggesting. Trading away a chunk of the roster, then, would seem like a mercy killing. But also, with free agency and the regular season being such busts, the only real excitement these days seems to come from acquiring hope in the form of prospects. The Giants have done that in their past two drafts, at last year’s deadline, and now, possibly, this year’s deadline, too.
Take a look at this graph of Farm System Values (via FanGraphs) that was compiled by Sky Kalkman:
I admit that my eyes darted far to the right by sheer instinct. I’ve seen farm system rankings for decades now and have become accustomed to the Giants being down, down on the list. And yes, I’d forgotten that I’d written up FanGraphs’ farm rankings back in June. The Giants have been on the rise for some time now. But heading into the trade deadline ranked #9? Cool! And that was before the majority of the trades.
Second, I hope people have internalized that trade deadline deals are usually not great deals. Yes, headliners are moved, but rarely does the team getting prospects in return get equal (future) value. But, like, in the case of say, the Detroit Tigers, it was going to be hard to get back fair value for Tarik Skubal whether they traded him before the season or at the deadline, and the fact that they decided to try to go for it this season with Skubal is a very reasonable one on their part that just didn’t work out in the way they’d hoped.
And yet, unlike the Giants, their odds of making it to the postseason are solid. But that’s not my point. The point is that the Giants clearly helped teams more than helped themselves. They acquired a heap of lottery tickets in exchange for proven track records, and that’s the way the trade deadline usually goes. But that doesn’t mean the Giants’ process was flawed. Maybe “lottery tickets” is the wrong description. They added players with strong physical tools historically associated with prospects that are easier to project.
The Giants did the best they could under the circumstances (being a really bad team that doesn’t seem able to improve no matter what it does — oh, and is lousy with bigots). To what extent do I think that should weigh on these grades? None of us are front office execs, meaning we don’t need to put a premium on team control. It’s enough to know that the Giants traded away three guys who were bound for free agency in a lockout year and moved a player about to enter salary arbitration for the first time and in exchange they got back a lot of pitching — which they badly needed in the farm system. So “team control” isn’t part of my grading here. Let’s just take it as a given that getting players who will be here next year and 2028 is better than losing players after 2026. I also don’t think “freeing up money” is all that compelling, but I’ll merely discount it rather than ignore it.
Mahle was a Giant because they needed rotation help and Bruce Bochy recommended him. He signed just a 1-year $10 million deal in the offseason because of his injury history (he hadn’t started at least 20 games since 2022) and after the first couple of months of the 2026 season, it looked like the deal would be a total bust (6.04 ERA in 56.2 IP). But the strikeout stuff was there and the health was not catastrophic, and so there was reason for hope of a turnaround just in time for the trade deadline. His final outing was rough (5 ER in 5.2 IP), but in 7 starts off the IL he had a 3.79 ERA (3.62 FIP) in 38 IP; so, a better floor was demonstrated. Plus, teams always need pitching.
I’ll add that Aaron Civale, he of the 4.91 ERA and 5.59 FIP in just 22 MLB innings last season, wound up being traded around this time last season by the Milwaukee Brewers — who had acquired him the previous season from the Tampa Bay Rays — to the Chicago White Sox for… Andrew Vaughn, one of the key figures in Milwaukee’s lineup these days.
No, the Giants didn’t get Andrew Vaughn or any player in the vicinity. They basically got somebody to take the remainder of Mahle’s salary — ~$2.1 million. The Giants are still on the hook for a $3 million signing bonus due to be paid in January 2027, however. The actual “prospect” simply adds velocity to an upper minors system lacking velocity. As Brady wrote in his trade analysis:
Atlanta claimed Molina off of waivers this last offseason, then designated him for assignment and outrighted him to AAA, before adding him back to the roster on May 1. He’s only pitched five innings across three games for the Braves Major League team, but has pitched extensively for their AAA squad this year. Atlanta has experimented with using Molina as a starter in the Minors, and in 17 games this year (and nine starts), the Venezuelan has a 3.78 ERA and a 4.14 FIP, with 53 strikeouts and 20 walks in 52.1 innings.
Giants lose: The second-highest K/9 (8.5) in their starting rotation Giants gain: 24-year old RHP (35+ FV) who throws 95-97, salary relief ($2.1 million)
Grade: B
Yes, the Giants were able to get something for a guy who wasn’t going to be around next season under pretty much any circumstances, but saving money and getting a DFA-bound reliever for a major league starter isn’t a return that should earn an “A.” Mahle wasn’t some drag on the rotation or in the clubhouse and they’re likely to feel his absence over these final 50 games more than the sweet salary relief.
2. Luis Arraez & Caleb Kilian for RHP Ramon Marquez & RHP Marty Gair
Luis Arraez is one of the top position players this season who should’ve generated a great return for the Giants. Is that what happened here? A month ago (to the day!), I looked at possible trade returns for Luis Arraez and Robbie Ray in response to an SB Nation Reacts poll indicating that fans thought Ray would bring back the better return at the deadline.
Part of my analysis involved all the times Arraez had been traded previously:
Arraez has been traded twice in his career (in 2023 from the Twins to the Marlins, in 2024 from the Marlins to the Padres) for 7 total players.
[…]
OF Byron Chourio (18 at the time, now 21, has not appeared in MLB) INF Jose Salas (20 at the time, now 23, has not appeared in MLB) SP Pablo Lopez (27 then, now 29, an All-Star for the Twins who has amassed 9.6 fWAR in 2+ seasons and 455 IP) RP Woo-Suk Go (25 then, now 27, has not appeared in MLB, has not appeared in MLB) OF Dillon Head (19 then, now 21, has not appeared in MLB) — #25 in Miami’s system OF Jakob Marsee (23 then, now 25; 96 RC+, 2.1 fWAR in 585 PA across 2 seasons for Marlins) OF Nathan Martorella (23 then, now 25, just released, has not appeared in MLB)
In both instances, the trading team wound up getting back a major leaguer. It worked out best for the Twins, of course, because Pablo Lopez has been great for their rotation and the Giants sorely need starting pitching, but the truth is that the Giants might be able to get a couple of arms for him, or at least some intriguing volume that has more on-paper promise than what happened in the Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval deals last season.
The Giants did, indeed, go for quality over quantity. Marquez was the Phillies’ #3 prospect and #67 overall according to the MLB Pipeline Top 100. He has a 50 Future Value (FV), according to FanGraphs, becoming the sixth Giants prospect with that rating. He joins:
5. SP – Keyner Martinez (50 FV — Average Everyday Player) 4. SS – Luis Hernandez (50 FV) 3. 2B – Jhonny Level (50 FV) 2. SS – Josuar Gonzalez (50 FV) 1. 1B – Bryce Eldridge (55 FV)
Brady’s summation:
He has a high quality fastball and slider, but his money pitch is a changeup that grades out as one of the best pitches in Minor League Baseball. He should immediately slot right behind the team’s No. 4 pick in last month’s draft, Jackson Flora, as the second-best pitching prospect in the system.
Marty Gair is a 23-year old relieving in A-ball this season but has 66 strikeouts in 36 innings. FanGraphs tags him with a 35+ FV.
Giants lose: One of the top position players in the entire sport whose story of reinvention to become a quality second baseman and his quest for the batting title were wonderful distractions from an awful season; one of their only good relievers (who must never pitch in the 9th inning) Giants gain: A top 100 prospect, a lottery ticket reliever, salary relief ($3.7 million)
Grade: A
To answer the question from the opening graff: yes, Arraez generated a great return. The Giants putting Kilian in the deal to finally compel the Phillies to part with Marquez works as a move but less so in the final analysis from a grading standpoint. In the ideal circumstance, Kilian is dealt in a separate deal. But it’s true that the list of suitors for Arraez was perhaps less than you’d expect. Not because of the player or how he improved himself this year, but just because most of the contenders were already solid at second base.
Casey Schmitt’s season-ending injury really hurts them from a “let’s see what the team could be in 2027 here in these final two months of 2026” POV and so losing both Arraez and Kilian really hurts the team over these final 50 games, but the Giants were desperate to get arms like this into their system. Mission accomplished.
3. Robbie Ray for RHP Miguel Mendez and SS Joniel Hernandez, and 50% salary
An intra-division trade with one of the most frenetic front offices of the 21st century. The Padres’ rotation was dire before their additions today of Ray and Casey Mize and the Giants made them pay for the privilege of lipsticking up that particular pig.
Mendez (45 FV) was San Diego’s #4 prospect. He has “a mid-high 90s fastball that can reach triple digits, with an excellent slider.” He was on course to be Rule 5 eligible this winter. Hernandez (40 FV) was an international signing out of Cubs this past January and was the #9 prospect for San Diego.
The Giants are also paying for half of Ray’s salary the rest of the season along with the $1 million assignment bonus built into his deal (recall that this was also part of his deal when the Giants acquired him from Seattle). So, they save about $4.36 million in the transaction, ultimately.
But getting back two of your division rival’s top 10 prospects for Robbie Ray’s expiring contract? Humm Baby! Sure, the Padres’ farm system is heavily depleted after years of big swings, but the pressure for San Diego to develop more prospects for more big moves in the future has only increased while the Giants have gotten one step closer to having a surplus of prospects.
Giants lose: Their #2 starter Giants gain: Two 40+ FV prospects, including a high-velocity arm, salary relief ($4.36 million)
Grade: A
Not really much to quibble with here. With domestic reserve caps being what they are, quantity over quality doesn’t make that much sense, especially with the quality of the Giants’ farm system already in the top third of the sport. Would’ve been a perfect deal if San Diego had taken on the full contract. This obviously obliterates the Giants’ rotation the rest of the way, but it’s hard to argue against a deal that wound up being a better return than one might’ve expected. Ray’s FIP for the season is nearly half a run greater than his actual ERA (and his xERA is approaching 2 runs more) and he’s projected to end the season as just about a 1.5-WAR pitcher.
4. Heliot Ramos for LHP Henry Lalane and INF Kaeden Kent
Heliot Ramos’s value to the Giants had probably peaked, and so all that was left was what they could get in trade. And on that front, they appear to have done very well, nabbing the Yankees’ #5 prospect in Lalane (45+ FV) — a 6’7” left-hander who throws 95+ — along with their #13 prospect, who happens to be the son of Hall of Famer Jeff Kent (40 FV).
Now, with Ramos still having three years of team control left, the typical industry argument is that the Giants might’ve come up a little short on their end. On the other hand, in exchange for a league average bat with questionable-to-bad defensive skills and an obvious injury history, the Giants got a pitcher just outside of MLB Pipeline’s top 100 and a nepo baby with some intriguing upside.
Giants lose: A Good Giant with consistent hard contact Giants gain: Two 40+ FV prospects
Grade: B+
Ramos has hit 42 points worse than the league average for about a month now, so, leveraging another team’s desperation to get some interesting prospects back is just good baseball.
5. Erik Miller for SS Marcelo Mayer and OF Carlos Gutierrez
In exchange for a 28-year old hard-throwing lefty who has struck out Shohei Ohtani 5 times in 7 at bats, who hasn’t had a massive handedness split this season (.600 OPS vs LHH, .642 OPS vs. RHH), and is set to be a first-time arbitration player, the Giants get MLB Pipeline’s #1 overall draft prospect of 2021, a 23-year old 55 FV prospect (graduated in 2025) drafted with the #4 pick overall in the 2021 draft by the Red Sox.
The profiling suggests a Corey Seager-type shortstop in development, but the injury history (shoulder impingement, back troubles) suggests he’s corner infield-bound if not an outright DH at some point.
Still, for Erik Miller, a strikeout guy with a high walk rate and an injury history himself, this is nothing but a great haul. Yes, Mayer is probably out for most of the next two months from a hand injury and losing Miller hurts the already bad bullpen even more, but the upside is hard to ignore.
Despite having Josuar Gonzalez, Luis Hernandez, Jhonny Level, Gavin Kilen, Kaeden Kent, and Joniel Hernandez already in the fold, the Giants really wanted Mayer, evidenced by the addition of Gutierrez in the deal. He is a 35+ FV prospect who was an international free agent signing back in 2023. He’s tearing it up in High-A this season.
Mayer looks to have high contact potential with gap power and good defense. Not a lot of speed, but the profile is in line with what the Giants seem to want these days.
Giants lose: A great left-handed reliever with command issues, an interesting outfielder possibly years away from contributing. Giants gain: A high upside former top prospect
Grade: A+
I think I dig what the Giants are doing, adding middle infielders like they’re stem cells that could go on to be any other position. Mayer could be bound for third. One of Josuar, Jhonny, or Joniel could wind up replacing Gutierrez as that upside outfielder. Who knows? Getting former top prospects just past their highest value is good baseball strategy for crappy teams like the Giants, and even as talented as Erik Miller is, given the team’s state, he’s the exact kind of player to experiment with. Here, the Giants got a prospect who, just three years ago, had “a promising bat and one of the highest ceilings in the minors.” Yes, three years ago is a long time in baseball years, but he’s only 23 (he turns 24 in December). Hard to argue this is anything other than a win and as a capper to a long day, about as great as could’ve been expected.
Final Grade: A-
Giants lose: Tyler Mahle, Caleb Kilian, Robbie Ray, Luis Arraez, Heliot Ramos, Erik Miller, $4.36 million
Giants gain: INF Marcelo Mayer, RHP Ramon Marquez, LHP Henry Lalane, RHP Miguel Mendez, INF Kaeden Kent, SS Joniel Hernandez, RHP Marty Gair, RHP Anthony Molina, $10.16 million in salary relief
That’s 6 players valued at 6.8 fWAR and $4.36 million for $10.16 million plus 8 players: ~55 FV prospect, a 50 FV, two 45 FVs, two 40 FVs, and two 35+ FVs.
That’s a good day’s work for a bad team. Only time will tell if building up all this talent will amount to a winner.
Another deadline is in the books, but this one felt…different. Between Tarik Skubal getting traded leading to fan (and league) tension as teams navigate the looming forecasted lockout, this will go down as an unforgettable deadline. So, what follows? Who are the favorites? We’ll get to it all, starting with the runway that the week before set up.
7/25: Boston and Washington go 1-for-1 in Splash Deal
Late into the night, Boston and Washington got the deadline train rolling with a huge player-for-player trade with Boston taking on the red hot Curtis Mead from the Nats, flipping left-handed pitcher, Connelly Early, to get the deal done.
INITIAL REACTION: Mead was DFA’d by the White Sox and traded for almost nothing to the Nationals just months prior. Now, he’s moved for a consensus top-50 prospect. Prior to Mead breaking his wrist in his first game in Boston, I felt like this was a strange utilization of Early’s value to begin with. Early, while dealing with an arm issue, pitched excellently down the stretch last season, and then followed it up with a solid start to 2026. Early was a widely regarded top-50 prospect in baseball prior to graduating this season.
Mead had shown one half of a season of good baseball thus far in his career, and it was this first half. The simple answer is that Washington unlocked the potential of a former top prospect because that’s essentially what happened. Pull the ball, kids! Regardless of that, it’s a huge gamble to place the future quality potential of Connelly Early on the table for Mead. That being said, once Mead gets healthy, he will be a solid utility piece for Boston who will especially thrive at Fenway.
Back to Boston. Early felt like the big fish to be had this deadline as Boston had made him available, and it felt like Breslow jumped at the first capable bat instead of waiting this out. Boston has developed and traded for pitching exceptionally well, with quality depth across their minor leagues as well. While Mead is under team control through 2030, Boston is pushing chips in to win now, this felt like a suboptimal use of their best MLB-ready trade chip, and one of the best MLB-ready trade chips in baseball.
INITIAL REACTION: Rangers went searching for relief help, and Silseth appeared. Texas also takes on Logan O’Hoppe here, a once promising catcher who has fallen on hard times (he won’t be the last one of those we discuss!). We’ll start with Chase Silseth, the prize of this trade. Silseth is nasty, under team control through 2030, and will slot into a Rangers bullpen that has some solid pieces but is overall below average. Silseth’s fastball, splitter, and sweeper are all running whiff rates north of 30% this season, and the only real knock this season has been occasional command issues. O’Hoppe is a throw-in letting the Angels shed some future arbitration salary. Texas has already sent him to Triple-A, and if he can’t show serious progress, he’s a major non-tender candidate as his arbitration price tag for next season will be hefty.
The Angels’ return here is interesting. Arredondo is a glove-first shortstop with quality contact skills and borderline 20-grade power capabilities. It’s not an outwardly bad return, but given Silseth’s stuff, it should have been more. Arredondo has a sub-100 mph EV90, significantly below average, and he’s already suffered a serious shoulder injury, a precursor to power development hinderance. Again, not a terrible return, but if this was the best they could do to get O’Hoppe off the books, it’s very underwhelming.
7/30: Twins established as buyers, snag Minter
INITIAL REACTION: The Twins, for some reason, are buying. Your guess is as good as mine. Despite this, they made a good move here. Just a game out of the Wild Card, Minnesota snags lefty specialist, AJ Minter, from the Mets. Minter has been terrific as the three batter minimum’s evolution of a LOOGY (left-handed one out guy) this season. The Twins are chasing the Guardians, who can’t hit lefties, and Minnesota badly needed a leverage lefty arm besides Rogers, and as a rental, Minnesota didn’t have to give up much of consequence.
The Mets get Billy Amick, a third baseman who strongly profiles for 1B now, rather than later. Amick went from a contact bat with big whiff problems to a power bat with untenable whiff problems (38.4% in AA), but in year one of a newer approach, Amick has begun pulling the ball in the air at a high rate and slugged 24 home runs prior to the trade. The other piece of this trade is son of former Met, Benny Agbayani, Bruin. Agbayani is a contact-first, low power threshold shortstop who was running a 94% zone-contact rate in A-ball.
7/31: Twins pay high price for Dean Kremer…?
INITIAL REACTION: Let’s play which weighs more: in one hand sits Dean Kremer’s splitter, a capable swing-and-miss pitch, and his ability to suck up some innings which might help Minnesota down the stretch here. In the other hand is a fastball and sinker-led profile that’s running an xwOBACON pushing .500, a teammate who has been caught multiple times showing up his teammates on the field, including Pete Alonso and Samuel Basallo, and an ERA north of 6.00.
Well, at least Minnesota didn’t give up mu…I’m sorry what’s that? They gave up an outfielder who just posted a 17% barrel rate and 108.7 EV90 as an 18 year-old on the Complex as a lottery ticket? Who, with a hot final two months could see T100 consideration?
FanDuel still has the Twins as extreme underdogs to win the AL Central (+650) and even longer odds at making the postseason (+1300). These deals do not do anything to help.
Oops.
8/1: And we’re off…
Guardians send off Bo to Brewers, snag Yoho in return
INITIAL REACTION: …are the Brewers gonna do it again…? Naturally, fear trekked down my spine. Jake Bauers, Jesus Aguilar ring any bells? No? Okay, me either…
Milwaukee will see Bo as a solid defensive, athletic backstop with a smooth swing who routinely underperformed his expected stats. Under the hood, Naylor should be so much better. The reality was he routinely fell short offensively and defensively. Milwaukee also snags Codi Heuer here, a depth relief piece who never really got much time in Cleveland.
Cleveland has a real chance to get a big win here. Craig Yoho is a solid reliever with potential to be very good. Yoho adjusted his four-seam grip to a true two-seam grip to throw a more natural sinker, ditching his four-seamer entirely, and it’s paid off well. Prior to 7/20, Yoho was still primarily throwing his fastball with a 4-seam grip over 32% of the time. Since then, he’s thrown it 5% of the time with the sinker completely taking over. The sinker generates better drop and tunnels better with his outlier, freakish changeup, and now Cleveland gets to figure out what the sweeper holds.
Ideally Cleveland is not done at this point…hopefully.
Pirates buy low on Doval
INITIAL REACTION: Good deal for both sides? The Yankees badly needed to get Doval away from Aaron Boone. They no longer have to feel compelled to go to the flamethrower who can’t prevent runs late in games. The Pirates, on the flip side, are buying low on what was once a good reliever, and they’re going to hope they can take the final stretch this season to correct some issues to get him ready for next season(?).
The Yankees get back Omar Alfonzo, a Rule-5 eligible catcher who is pretty fringy here. The real interesting piece here is Luis Cruz, a lanky outfielder with capable bat-to-ball skills. The Yankees are banking on physical development to bring along some power to his profile. Overall, this is about all New York could expect, and I think they did well enough.
Braves add short-side platoon in Thomas
INITIAL REACTION: I’ll keep this one short and sweet. Right-handed hitters are going to be at a premium price this deadline. They simply are scarce. The Braves, badly needing a right-handed outfield bat, found one in Lane Thomas. A near 50% hard-hit rate against lefties with a big air-pull approach, and they gave up two pitchers in Braun and Holton who have subpar stuff and can’t get whiffs. Kansas City did not realize they had a bigger chip until it was too late.
Pale Sox add innings eater in Seattle salary dump
INITIAL REACTION: A good deal for both sides here. Castillo is far from his old self, and the White Sox were willing to eat the salary just to get some help in the rotation. In doing so, the big piece they part with here Seranthony Dominguez, their big bullpen signing who hasn’t quite lived up to the money. For Seattle, they don’t get much in return, but they trade from immense starting pitching depth and shed over $31,000,000 owed to Castillo (and possibly more), who had met his decline sharply, especially against left-handed hitters. Seattle gets a living, breathing outfield piece in Nolan Jones, Boston Smith, a catcher walking over 20% of the time in Double-A, and Dominguez, who will slot into the middle innings of a very solid bullpen that’s top five in baseball in ERA.
Tigers bite the bullet, move Skubal to Los Angeles
INITIAL REACTION: It finally happened, and naturally it’s the Dodgers. Detroit, the season’s biggest underachievers in a landslide, moved their prized ace and reigning two-time Cy Young winner, Tarik Skubal late at night. In return, the Dodgers land Zyhir Hope, a near consensus top-40 prospect, River Ryan, an older prospect for a few reasons who possesses some of the best stuff across the minor leagues, and Brady Smith, a right-handed pitcher.
I’ve seen a lot of bad faith talk about this trade. This is where I stand. As you can tell by the B- grade, I like this return for Detroit.
It’s among the heaviest packages ever given up for a rental player, let alone arm. Yes, a rental. That’s key here. This is not quite Tarik Skubal of old, but he’s still good. Skubal’s fastball is down a full tick as you can see here, thanks to TJStats, and from start to start, that can fluctuate even further. He still gets plenty of swing and miss, and if a team is going to find more even after the injury, it will be the Dodgers, but for a rental arm with questionable medicals, to say the least, they gave up a pretty penny to get it done. Now, that’s not to say Detroit couldn’t have done better with LA. Sirota and De Paula are still safe and sound atop this system, as is Zazueta, but it doesn’t sound like the competition was very fierce. Milwaukee and Tampa Bay are reportedly among teams scared away by Skubal’s medicals which, for a 2.5 month rental, doesn’t seem like a huge issue unless they see his arm as a ticking time bomb right now.
At the end of the day, the Dodgers aren’t making moves unless it can help their championship odds. Skubal is one of the few pieces who do. Over at FanDuel, their odds have increased up to +160, ridiculous odds given the sport we’re playing here, but that’s where we’re at. Yamamoto-Skubal-Ohtani-Snell-Glasnow. Wow.
8/2: Arms, arms, arms
Braves snag Mahle
INITIAL REACTION: The Braves get what they needed here, and that’s some rotation extending innings from an arm they think they can rework into his old self. They give up next to nothing here, but the Giants at least get something mildly interesting in return with 24 year-old Anthony Molina. Molina’s stuff has improved a bit recently with a reliever’s arsenal. Again, Mahle underwhelmed pretty heavily with the Giants, so any level of return would have just been welcomed.
Yankees snag biggest bat available for arms
INITIAL REACTION: Luis Garcia Jr. chases a lot, but he also leads the NL in SLG and thrives when he pulls the ball. Now, he will be in Yankee Stadium pulling the ball. Easy win for the Yankees, who can now platoon Garcia with Goldschmidt and let Ben Rice DH full-time. A good lineup in need of someone in the middle of it without Judge got their guy. In return, the Nats got four arms: relievers Yovanny Cruz and Jake Bird, and prospects Ben Grable and Jack Cebert.
Cruz is the immediate helper here. He’s looked dominant in Triple-A and in his short stint with the Yankees, averaging 100 on his fastball with a 90 mph slider to pair with it. Cruz was running a whiff rate north of 40% across his entire arsenal in Triple-A. Jake Bird is a reclamation throw-in for a bullpen in immediate need of help. Washington is closer to contending than most and believe in their ability to replace Garcia’s bat, but arms is where they’ve been hurt the most, so this kind of a swing makes sense here. Grable is also a reliever with big stuff who has dominated Double-A. Cebert is the lone starter here, and he also possesses big stuff. He needs to clean up some things mechanically, but he has good potential.
This is a good return for the Nats, but it does feel light. Garcia Jr. comes with 1.5 years of control and big SLG ability, and while the Nats revitalized their future bullpen here, they could have squeezed more out here. The Yankees come out of this with +600 odds to reach the World Series, per FanDuel.
Rays miss out on Skubal, snag rental Peralta
INITIAL REACTION: I love this for the Rays, what a rebound from not landing Skubal. Yes, Peralta has not been typical Freddy Peralta, but he’s going back to the confines of a dome (the dome boost is real, folks). Peralta has just has had a brutal year. All that being said, his 4.99 ERA is over a full run above his xERA of 3.79, and his stuff is still very good. His usage is still largely the same, but again, a dome bump does wonders, just ask Bryan Woo. I am all in on this move. Great snag from Tampa Bay, they needed another top third of rotation arm.
For the Mets, the return mirrors Peralta’s season for them. Underwhelming. Gill Hill is a groundball creator on the mound with little whiff capability, Smith is an outfield prospect whose swing mechanics are leading to struggles with velocity, and Emilien Pitre, the prize of this return, has great contact skills and approach but 30-grade power.
Cubs dip into pitching market, nab Gausman
INITIAL REACTION: Another good rental haul, and this may be the best of the bunch outside of Skubal. Gausman is still quite good, the Cubs were in dire need of pitching, and they gave up two glove-first, contact centered profiles to get it. Gausman still induces a ton of chase, above average whiff, and the 4-seam/splitter combo is still nasty. The Cubs were needing not just more starter innings, but innings from someone they can start in a postseason game, and Gausman fits the bill across all fronts.
8/3: Deadline Day
Arraez to Philly, moving parts to follow
INITIAL REACTION: Arraez and relief help benefit the Phillies, but where does he play? It sounds like Harper is moving back to the outfield, which is…a decision, and Alec Bohm moves to 1B. The Phillies now go from Harper’s power at 1B to the worst 1B production in baseball. Again, lots of moving parts here. Arraez’s bat presents quality contact ability and more notably, little swing and miss, something that has plagued Philadelphia’s postseason runs.
I love this return for the Giants. Ramon Marquez is a fringe-top 100 prospect in baseball (he’s in mine). He possesses a good sinker that acts more like a 2-seamer that generates good run without sacrificing vertical pace, but the plus changeup and good command are what highlight this profile. Gair is a reliever with an extreme overtop release and huge vertical fastball. It sits 98, touches 100, and borders on double-plus. San Francisco flipped their pitching depth within the system through the draft. They’ve now bolstered it in a huge way.
Phillies get badly needed relief help, nab Raley from Queens
INITIAL THOUGHTS: The Phillies needed bullpen help yesterday, and they were in even bigger need for a lefty. Enter the most prominent LOOGY equivalent arm this deadline, Brooks Raley. It’s a rental, but the Phillies needed this in the worst way.
The Mets get outfielder John Spikerman, a contact/speed/defense prospect whose speed is true double-plus, and RHP Luke Gabrysh, a sidearm starter who has good stuff and has seen a spike in strikeout stuff this season. The Mets do very well here considering it’s a divisional move. Gabrysh has reliever risk, but the stuff works well, and if he can continue to improve command, starting until he can’t isn’t off the table here.
M’s need OF help, get Ward
INITIAL REACTION: The profile overhaul for Ward scares me. In with passivity and higher OBP, out with the SLG. How much does Wall-timore contribute to this? Time will tell, but given how flawed the Mariners are offensively, bringing in a flawed bat like Ward is a terrifying premise. Do we trust he can rekindle power in one of the hardest home parks to slug in? I don’t.
In return, Baltimore nets reliever Alex Hoppe, a big velo/stuff reliever who Baltimore sees as someone they can get more strikes out of, Harrison Kreiling who hasn’t thrown a ton of innings, and Brock Moore, a reliever with a plus fastball and quality slider who has some funk to his motion. Baltimore does well here.
Jays shock everyone, trade Nimmala for Jose Soriano
INITIAL REACTION: A terrific trade for both sides here. Nimmala has made major strides this season to not only rekindle his top prospect status but even rise back into the consensus top-50 area, and even after moving Kevin Gausman, Toronto goes out and gets Jose Soriano, a pitcher in his prime with years of control who goes from the worst defense in baseball to the best. Soriano runs a groundball rate north of 50%, and he will go from Neto and co. along the infield to platinum-caliber defense with Andres Gimenez and Ernie Clement.
There are some warts in Soriano’s profile, namely his walk rate, but the curveball is among the very best in the sport, and he compliments that with a power sinker and splitter. A huge get for the Jays to bolster around Dylan Cease in the rotation.
Guards land bat, get Adell for Cozart
INITIAL REACTION: Considering the expected price of the short-side platoon bat, the Guardians did great here, trading from a position of depth to land the biggest power bat of the bunch in Jo Adell. Adell is far from perfect, but over the last two seasons, his 151 wRC+ against left-handed pitchers is a top-10 mark in the sport. Adell will generate no value elsewhere, thus this being a B-grade and no higher, but considering the price, they did quite well here.
The flip side of this is the Angels. I thought they could have gotten more, but they need catching in the worst way and nabbed a riser in Jacob Cozart. Cozart was a glove-first catcher upon being drafted, and the Guardians have done a good job developing him into a more well-rounded profile, selling high on him here. This is well done all-around, more importantly by Cleveland’s front office.
Rays net Liam Hicks
INITIAL REACTION: While this won’t be the big catcher trade of the day, the Rays net bat-first backstop, Liam Hicks, from the Marlins, sending over a trio of prospects. Hicks is under control through 2030, and in return, Miami will get a resurgent Brayden Taylor whose swing changes have revitalized his career, RHP Jacob Kisting, a big strikeout arm with good command, and infielder Adrian Santana, whose contact skills are highly touted.
With Joe Mack ready to take over everyday duties as a plus defender, Miami traded from depth and did well here. Good trade for both sides.
Pirates push chips in, get their closer
INITIAL REACTION: Great, great job from Pittsburgh here. The Pirates sell high on white hot Sammy Stafura, netting them Luke Weaver who will immediately slot in as their closer. Weaver has had a return to form with the Mets and was the prize reliever at this deadline. Pittsburgh got him without giving up any of their coveted prospects, instead sending power hitting shortstop Sammy Stafura. Stafura had a crazy last two months, but his chase and whiff tendencies are hard to overlook here. The Mets not being able to land a Murf Gray or Wyatt Sanford is a bit underwhelming here, but Stafura has more than risen his stock.
Brewers land May, Romero, pay heavy price
INITIAL REACTION: Our one and only A+. The division tax is a heavy price. Alexander Frias feels like he’s on the cusp of breaking out into one of the best prospects in baseball. The Baseball America ranking at 100 feels light. FanGraphs has him within the top-50. Prospects Live is incredibly high on him. On top of that, they nabbed outfielder Josiah Ragsdale, another riser into the fringe-top 100 territory. All of this for rental Jojo Romero and possible rental Dustin May. The positive here is both May and Romero make the Brewers immediately better, but it’s incredibly difficult to get past the cost.
Sox land Rutschman in blockbuster trade
INITIAL REACTION: Boston bolsters their lineup with Rutschman who, while not quite who he once was, is still a very good player. The price, however, was steep. Again, these divisional trades! Rutschman nets Baltimore Anthony Eyanson, a legitimate top-50, and rising, pitcher, Kyson Witherspoon who is inside BA’s top-100, Enddy Azocar, a pull-side monster having a breakout season in High-A, and major league catcher Carlos Narvaez.
Woah, that’s really all I can say. Both sides do well here, Baltimore does better. Adley is a culture changer for Boston. Have to be willing to weed out the bad, however, so does Duran get moved?
Guards land a starter, nab Foster Griffin from Nats
INITIAL THOUGHTS: The trade that puts the Guardians over the edge for an overwhelmingly good deadline. Griffin slots into the middle of this rotation right away, and it moves Slade Cecconi to a bullpen role, deepening that unit as well. As for the Nats, I fully get what they’re doing here in identifying traits that they like, but at some point quality > quantity does have to factor in, even for a rental. Hartle does not induce swing and miss, but he thrives on groundballs, Dion is a solid reliever ceiling, Virguez has a super fun fastball but is a definitive reliever, and Nick Mitchell’s ceiling is OF4. The Guardians nab Griffin for nothing that affects their future plans even slightly.
OTHER TRADES
Cubs land RP Ryan Zeferjahn for C Moises Ballesteros, RHP Mason McGwire
Blue Jays get INF Josh Smith, RHP Josh Stephan; Rangers get LHP Adam Macko; White Sox get C Joey Bart; Braves get RHP Duncan Davitt
Astros get OF Daulton Varsho for RHP Spencer Arrighetti
It was a dizzying day of activity, and when the smoke cleared after the Major League Baseball trade deadline, we learned who’s actually serious about challenging the Los Angeles Dodgers, and which teams are the pretenders.
We found that Craig Breslow, president of baseball operations for the Boston Red Sox, maybe isn’t so hell-bent on analytics after all, showing his guts by trading away his prized prospects for Baltimore Orioles All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman.
We discovered that the Cleveland Guardians aren’t going to just sit back and let the Chicago White Sox dream season continue without putting up a fight with their surprising show of aggressiveness, not only grabbing much-needed offensive help, but bolstering their rotation.
And we learned that while the Dodgers may be that immovable force in their way of a World Series, it didn’t stop A.J. Preller of the San Diego Padres from finding a way to fortify their rotation with two front-line starters without needing to trade away a piece of their prized bullpen.
It will take years before we know whether any of the prospects will come back to haunt the men who traded them away, but only two months to know whether the risk pays off by playing deep in October.
Here are the top five winners and losers at this year’s deadline:
MLB trade deadline winners
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers not only won the MLB trade deadline, but ran away and hid from the competition.
They got the No. 1 prize in Tarik Skubal, and didn’t give up a single major-league player or anyone that will haunt them in the future. They didn’t give up any of their top five prospects, sending outfielder Zyhir Hope (25th-best prospect in MLB), right-handed pitcher River Ryan (No. 68) and right-hander Brady Smith.
They struck gold, once again.
Just to rub it in, they even grabbd left-handed former All-Star starter Kris Bubic, who’s on the 60-day injured list, stashing him away for good measure. They even grabbed catching depth by bringing back Ben Rortvedt and Hunter Feduccia from the Tampa Bay Rays
Their biggest concern the rest of the season is planning the World Series parade route.
“We were of the mind to be aggressive for one player this deadline," said Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations, “and fortunately we were able to line up.”
The Dodgers now have a starting rotation of Skubal, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Justin Wrobleski, Roki Sasaki, Tyler Glasnow and Emmet Sheehan.
“I think it’s arguably the best rotation of all time," Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing gushed.
So, are the Dodgers really ruining baseball with their latest heist?
“Passionately disagree,” Friedman said at the Dodgers’ press conference following the Skubal trade. “Again, this is about the partnership that we have with our fans who come out 50,000 large and the passion that they have for this team (and) the guys in that clubhouse who are doing everything they can to put us in position to win a World Series.”
Indeed, they have.
Boston Red Sox
Say hello to the new American League pennant favorite.
They could have stopped when they traded starter Connelly Early for Curtis Mead last week, only to see Mead break his wrist in his second at-bat.
Instead, they still went for the jugular, and traded for Baltimore Orioles three-time All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman, the No. 1 pick in 2019, along with backup catcher Jake Rogers. They also acquired Giants left-handed reliever Erik Miller for former first-round pick Marcelo Mayer, and outfielder Eli White from Atlanta.
Not bad for the hottest team on the planet, who just swept the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.
Rutschman, who made the All-Star team this year, is hitting .251 with eight homers, but has been on the injured list since July 18 with wrist inflammation. Still, he’s expected to return within a couple of weeks and provides a massive upgrade behind the plate. Certainly, the Red Sox needed catching help, hitting an MLB-low four home runs with the sixth-worst OPS from the catcher’s position.
It was a steep, steep price, which stunned rival executives that the Red Sox were willing to include them in the deal:
Right-handed pitcher Anthony Eyanson, their second-best prospect; right-handed pitcher Kyson Witherspoon, their fourth-best prospect; outfielder Enddy Azocar, their fifth-best prospect; a player to be named later; and catcher Carlos Narvaez.
Hey, with the way the Red Sox are playing, why not go for it?
They have now won 23 of their last 26 games, and are 28-5 since June 25.
Whether they win the AL East or not, they should be the team to beat in the American League, and face the Dodgers in the World Series, with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts acknowledging Sunday he may have not seen the last of them.
“Really good ballclub," Roberts says. “Really fundamentally sound. It’s a younger group as far as service time. They’re hungry. Seems like they play well together. They can really defend. They’re athletic. Remind me a lot of the Brewers. They can really pitch. They don’t beat themselves. Dynamic.”
They went into the trade deadline looking for a right-handed hitting outfielder.
They ended up with a left-handed hitting infielder, who just happened to be the finest contact hitter in the game:
Luis Arraez, the three-time batting champion, was hitting .324 this season for the San Francisco Giants with only 21 strikeouts in 464 plate appearances.
It required the Phillies to send No. 4 prospect Ramon Marquez to San Francisco along with reliever Marty Gair, but the Phillies also received right-handed reliever Caleb Kilian. The biggest gamble is that the Phillies have to re-arrange virtually their entire infield while sending first baseman Bryce Harper back to right field for the first time in two years.
Second baseman Bryson Stott is moving to third base. Third baseman Alec Bohm is moving to first base. And Harper is moving to right field.
It will be fascinating to see it work, but the Phillies knew they had to shake things up, and it’s a shrewd gamble.
They also shored up their bullpen by acquiring Mets’ lefty Brooks Raley, too, after losing setup man Mitch Keller for the season.
San Diego Padres
The Padres, who a week ago were listening to offers for closer Mason Miller and setup man Adrian Morejon, not only shut down all conversations, but acquired veteran Robbie Ray from the Giants and Casey Mize and utilityman Gage Workman from the Tigers.
Oh, were you really going to believe A.J. Preller was going to punt on a season?
“We’re trying to win," Preller said. “We don’t apologize for it. We’re trying to win championships. We’re trying to get to the postseason and do it year after year.’’
Ray, the former Cy Young winner and two-time All-Star is pitching just about better than anyone in baseball these days. He’s 6-0 with an MLB-best 1.09 ERA in his last eight games (seven starts) since June 16, striking out 41 batters 49 ⅓ innings. Only once during this stretch has he permitted more than one run.
Casey Mize is healthy, and dominating. He is 2-1 with a 2.20 ERA over his last five starts, giving up just 19 hits and striking out 27 in 28 ⅔ innings.
The Padres knew they couldn’t go all year with just two starters, having already moved three of their starting pitchers for 11-man bullpen, with Michael King and Walker Buehler as their only traditional starters.
Now, they have added two frontline starters, and two more that could join them late this month in Joe Musgrove and Nick Pivetta, who are beginning rehab assignments Tuesday. They’ll likely be back in the postseason, winners of a wild-card berth, and will take their chances with the nastiest bullpen in the land.
Los Angeles Angels
John Mozeliak not only orchestrated the most aggressive trade deadline in recent Angels’ history, he just earned the right to stay as their permanent GM.
Scrub the interim title. It will become permanent.
Clearly, Mozeliak has earned the trust of Angels owner Arte Moreno, earning the right to make any trade he wanted outside of moving Mike Trout.
The Angels were one of the busiest teams at the deadline, making five trades across the landscape, including three controllable players. They traded right-handed starter Jose Soriano to the Toronto Blue Jays, outfielder Jo Adell to the Cleveland Guardians, reliever Ryan Zeferjahn to the Chicago Cubs, and veteran relievers Brent Suter to Atlanta and Kirby Yates to Pittsburgh.
They received nine prospects in return, highlighted by prized shortstop Arjun Nimmala from Toronto, who’s ranked as MLB Pipeline’s 43rd-overall prospect. Mozeliak even listened on shortstop Zach Neto and starter Reid Detmers, but “wasn’t comfortable,’’ with any of the offers.
Trout, who had no interest in waiving his no-trade clause, was not talked about during the day.
MLB trade deadline losers
Detroit Tigers
This was a team that was supposed to be in the World Series this year, maybe even ending their 42-year drought.
They spent a franchise-record with their $220 million payroll. They signed Framber Valdez to a free-agent contract. And they kept two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal.
Now, just 2 ½ games out of a wild-card spot, they panicked. And surrendered.
They dumped Skubal.
They got three nice prospects, but none of the Dodgers’ top five prospects.
Rival executives were surprised that the Tigers didn’t wait until the last hours, seeing if the Brewers would increase their offer, or someone else would jump in.
They instead took the Dodgers’ offer 48 hours before the deadline. Why so early? Why not create a bidding war?
Yet, instead of continuing to dump, they went halfway.
They traded starter Casey Mize at the buzzer. But they kept infielder Gleyber Torres. And reliever Kyle Finnegan. And closer Kenley Jansen.
So they can tell their fans they’re still kind of going for it, even though they just gave away the best pitcher in the American League.
Make it make sense.
New York Yankees
The Yankees told the world they badly wanted a catcher, desperately sought a back-end reliever, and offensive help.
Well, after acquiring infielder/outfielder Luis Garcia Jr. from the Washington Nationals on Sunday, they traded for defensively-challenged outfielder Heliot Ramos from the San Francisco Giants.
And, believe it or not, that was it.
Oh, they talked to the Orioles about Adley Rutschman. They tried to pry catcher Ryan Jeffers from Minnesota. They were in plenty of conversations about another late reliever.
And came away empty-handed.
The Yankees are going to have to hang onto dear life just to make the playoffs. They’re not going to catch the Tampa Bay Rays. They're probably going to get caught by the Boston Red Sox.
They are praying on a return to health from Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Cody Bellinger.
Privately, the Yankees will tell you they are much more concerned than they’re conveying publicly about Judge, and are terrified that he might not be able to return this year from his fractured rib.
And if Judge doesn’t come back, well, then maybe it doesn’t really matter that the Yankees didn’t do much.
The Diamondbacks, who have surged into the second wild-card spot, told everyone they hoped to be aggressive at the trade deadline. They wanted at least one starter, a big bat, and another late-inning reliever.
The only bat they received was St. Louis Cardinals left-handed hitting outfielder Lars Nootbaar. He happens to be hitting .234 with three homers and 16 RBIs.
That was it.
The Diamondbacks got Nootbaar, but look at what the three teams did who they’re battling for a wild-card berth:
Let’s see, the Phillies traded for a three-time batting champion. The Padres grabbed two front-line starters. And the Cubs acquired multple starters and relievers.
The Diamondbacks just might be going into this wild-card war with a squirt gun.
They may be considered a loser at the trade deadline, but come on, you know they’ll get the last laugh.
They always do.
The Brewers, who have the best farm system in baseball, bid on Tarik Skubal, but fell short when they refused to include their top prospects.
They could have jumped on the top starters available, or some of the relievers, but instead settled on Colorado Rockies reliever Antonio Senzatela, St. Louis Cardinals starter Dustin May and left-handed reliever JoJo Romero.
Senzatela, 9-2, 3.61 ERA, has been one of the best right-handed relievers this year. May has been wildly erratic, but has talent, and was yielding a 2.54 ERA and averaging 6.19 innings during a 12-start stretch. Romero was considered the top left-handed setup man last year with a 2.07 ERA, but is now on the injured list after undergoing an emergency appendectomy in mid-July.
When the trade deadline ended, you figured the Brewers would certainly do more, particularly considering the rival Cubs went out and were one of the day’s most aggressive buyers.
Oh, the Brewers could still win the most games in baseball. They might even be able to hold off the Cubs in the NL Central. But come on, how are they ever going to knock off the Dodgers?
Atlanta
See the Brewers.
No one expected them to go out and trade for Tarik Skubal, although man, can you imagine him and Chris Sale together?
Still, folks still expected them to grab another top starter on the market.What do they do?
They acquired starter Tyler Mahle (3-9, 5.13 ERA) from the Giants and veteran Brent Suter (1-2,4.12 ERA) from the Angels, and right-handed reliever Tyler Uberstine from the Red Sox, who spent most of the season in the minors.
That was it.
And no one was more thankful than the Phillies, who are trying to chase them down.
Daytona Tortugas' Sammy Stafura trots to home plate to score during a game with the Palm Beach Cardinals at Jackie Robinson Ballpark in Daytona Beach, Friday, June 27, 2025. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Co
With their lower value trade chips gone on deadline day, the Mets moved on to trading players with more significant value. The Pirates were the eventual landing spot for the first of these deals, landing Luke Weaver— along with some coverage of his contract—for infield prospect Sammy Stafura.
Stafura was drafted in the second round of the 2023 draft by the Reds out of Walter Panas High School. Two years later, he was traded to Pittsburgh as part of a deadline deal for Ke’Bryan Hayes. Stafura is actually a lifelong Mets fan from Westchester, the second local product (after Gary Gill Hill, acquired from the Rays in the Freddy Peralta trade) acquired by the Mets at this deadline. It is always cool when you can bring in players who are enthusiastic about the organization.
As for the on-field player, Stafura is your classic toolsy middle infielder; he has plus speed, is a decent shortstop defender, and has plus potential raw power. His on field performance prior to June of 2026 could best be described as “good, but not great”. Then he hit 16 homers in his last 22 games at High-A Greensboro. That’s something that should certainly grab your attention.
With the upside that performance portends comes serious hit tool questions. Stafura is striking out almost 30% of the time in High-A, is running a 71% Z-contact, and has a clear propensity to chase. This all portends to serious hit tool and/or pitch recognition issues, flaws that could be crippling as he moves up the minor league ladder. This weakness will likely him keep him at the back-end or just off offseason top-100 lists (a distinction that is largely meaningless from those that sneak on to the back of the list).
Sometimes guys with big tools and serious hit tool questions have a huge month with no root cause beyond statistical noise. Sometimes it’s the product of actual changes that are real and sustainable. Parsing whether Stafura’s recent surge – which pushed his OPS at High-A from the high 500s into the 1.000+ range – is the former or the latter is nigh impossible for us on the public side. Hell, it’s not even all that easy for team-side analysts to figure out. What this does serve to illustrate is the high risk, high reward nature of this profile.
How you feel about this return largely comes down to personal preference. In terms of objective, consensus value, this is a solid return for a reliever of Weaver’s caliber signed to a roughly market-rate deal. If you like power-over-hit profiles, you probably like this deal more (and you likely less the Freddy Peralta deal less). If, like me, you prefer the opposite sort of hitter, you’ll like this deal a bit less.
We’ll have full grades for every deadline deal the Mets make once all the moves for the deadline have been made. Check back in for those next week.
PHILADELPHIA, PA - APRIL 28: San Francisco Giants pitcher Blade Tidwell #46 is shown during the game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the San Francisco Giants on April 28th, 2026 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, PA. (Photo by Terence Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The San Francisco Giants traded six players off of their Major League roster between Sunday’s series finale against the San Diego Padres and Monday’s series opener against the Texas Rangers. And so, naturally, after parting ways with Luis Arráez, Heliot Ramos, Robbie Ray, Tyler Mahle, Erik Miller, and Caleb Kilian, the Giants had some work to do just to field a team tonight.
And so they added five players to the roster, all of whom were already on the 40-man roster, and have already played in the Majors this year. Replacing the four pitchers are righties Blade Tidwell, Tristan Beck, and Carson Seymour, and lefty Reiver Sanmartin. Tidwell wil start Tuesday’s game. And replacing Arráez is infielder Buddy Kennedy, who was claimed off of waivers from the Seattle Mariners on Sunday.
For those doing the math at home, that only gives the Giants 25 players on their 26-man roster. That’s not allowed under normal circumstances, but trades are exceptions to the rule. According to beat reporter Alex Pavlovic, the Giants are planning to add an outfielder tomorrow to replace Ramos. Their options there are limited, with Jonah Cox — who only just played his fourth rehab game yesterday — the only healthy player on the 40-man roster. But with four open spots on the 40-man — without even accounting for the three spots that will open up when the team transfers Casey Schmitt, Trevor McDonald, and Harrison Bader to the 60-Day IL — the Giants can afford to either make a waiver claim, or roster a player like Turner Hill or Parks Harber.
The Mets were long rumored to have been looking to move on from at least seven different players ahead of this year’s MLB trade deadline.
By the time 6 p.m. struck, they were able to part ways with six of them.
New York moved all of their expiring contracts and two pieces with control, but they could not find a new home for outfielder Luis Robert Jr.
They reportedly shopped Robert, but ultimately didn’t strike a deal. Without getting into too many details on specific negotiations, president of baseball operations David Stearns explained the decision to keep him through the end of the season.
“I think with Luis, it’s the possibility of what he can do for us in the second half,” he said. “The understanding that there is a club option and the excitement of having him here for the next two months of the season.”
Along with the $20 million option, Robert is owed $6.5 million for the rest of this year.
The oft-injured slugger was also forced to the sidelines for a significant stretch again, which likely played a factor in matching up with a potential partner.
He’s hitting just .197 with seven XBH’s and a .610 OPS through 35 games this year.
Robert will have the final few months to build some value if he can keep himself on the field, but the Mets are all but certain to decline that option at the end of the year.
Controllable starting pitching?
Even in sell mode, Stearns and the Mets considered adding.
He said that they spoke with several clubs about controllable starting pitching available on the market, but they ultimately could not match up with anyone on their asking price.
The controllable arms moved include Jose Soriano (Angels), Braxton Garrett (Marlins), and Luis Castillo (Mariners).
ATLANTA, GA - JULY 18: Atlanta Braves General Manager Alex Anthopoulos speaks to the media before the game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Truist Park on July 18, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images) | Getty Images
I’m going to start this by addressing the headline. When it comes to Atlanta Braves President of Baseball Operations/General Manager Alex Anthopoulos’ claims that the Braves got better after the 2026 Trade Deadline, I’ll let this clip from Futurama speak for me:
I mean, the Braves did add Tyler Mahle to the rotation, they added some very solid outfield depth in Lane Thomas and they brought in Brent Suter to help fortify what’s already a solid bullpen. Technically speaking, the Braves got better with these additions.
With that being said, it’s very difficult to feel excited and that is solely down to the fact that Atlanta was unable to add a front-line starter to their rotation. It now appears that (outside of the ever-reliable Chris Sale) the Braves will be leaning on pitchers like Martín Pérez, AJ Smith-Shawver, Bryce Elder, (maybe) Spencer Schwellenbach and the newly-acquired Tyler Mahle to help them get outs during a Postseason scenario. Again, it’s difficult to feel excited!
Despite the overwhelming feeling of underwhelm permeating across Braves Country, AA remained defiant and adamant that everything is A-OK as far as the team is concerned. “Since the All-Star break, […] we’ve been fifth in MLB in ERA. During the first two months of the season we were top-five in MLB in ERA,” maintained AA when he was asked about the pitching staff during a post-deadline press conference. . “Obviously in the middle, we weren’t. Does that mean you’re not looking to get better? Absolutely, in all areas — bullpen, offense, rotation, yes. But, you’re managing short-term and long term and you’re going to do what you feel is best for the club and you’re not going to force a deal.”
“We said no to a lot of things,” continued AA. “That’s not easy to do but you have to do what feels right for the organization.”
AA was pressed multiple times about whether or not he was close to acquiring a front-end starter or if there were certain things that got in the way. Anthopoulos was cagier than usual in his responses, stating that it wouldn’t be appropriate to talk about deals that didn’t get done. I’m guessing that’s a recent development since we did hear about the Kyle Schwarber deal from 2021 that didn’t go through and that was straight from AA himself, so maybe there’s a statute of limitations on that?
I digress, though. The only thing that came of that line of questioning is that AA had his eye on “one other guy who we thought was incredibly impactful” but no names were named. Either way, Anthopoulos continued to maintain that he’s willing to defend the state of the big league roster at the moment. He did mention that the Braves are playing well coming out of the break and that they’re in first place. That much is true — the Braves are in a good spot right now and it’s hard to envision them falling off to the point where they miss the Postseason.
Still, it’s also hard to envision this team having enough reliable starting pitching to make it deep into the Postseason. They certainly have the relief pitching to do it and when this offense is clicking, they can swing with anybody. It’s just apparent at this point that the lineup will have to perform at an elite level and the bullpen is going to have to continue shouldering a heavy load if this team is going to make a deep run in October. With all due respect to the aforementioned starters, there just isn’t a ton of confidence here.
Alex Anthopoulos (at least publicly) still has plenty of faith in the club. “How many times do we say ‘This team won the deadline […]’ and then you look up and certain players were unbelievable and certain players didn’t play well. That’s the toughest part — from here on forward, we’re looking at two-month sample sizes,” explained AA later on in the presser. “We can look at the back of the baseball cards of some of these great players and say […] that ‘this team on paper looks great’ and then all of a sudden performances change and health [changes].”
“We’re going to soon find out what were the best acquisitions […] We’re going to find that out pretty soon,” continued AA. “I just think that you’ve got 29 other clubs and you know your own roster, your fit. Ultimately, you’ve got to give to get and ultimately, are you prepared […] to give what could be the [Michael] Harris [II]s or the [Drake] Baldwins. Are you willing to do that?”
AA continued by stating “In some instances, we make trades and others, we hold them back. We look back over time and we cross check ourselves. But, to sit there and say ‘This team did X,’ it doesn’t always work out that way. It doesn’t always work out that way with the projections. I don’t know what the preseason projections were for all these teams but I don’t know how accurate they were. I know there are changes every year. There are some teams that sold that people expected them to be good and there are some teams that are buying that didn’t think that they’d be contending.”
“I don’t think anybody’s good enough to know what’s going to happen,” concluded AA. “But, you are expected to know your own team and your own organization when you’re trading young players.”
Hearing that, it suddenly made sense why we saw that wave of promotions on the farm. That honestly should’ve been the initial sign that the Braves weren’t going to dip into the farm and trade away some potentially impactful prospects. While that would’ve made sense considering what the asking price was for some of the big names who did move and some of the players who were under team control past this season, it’s still certainly disappointing that the Braves didn’t come away from this deadline having used that talent on the farm to potentially upgrade their rotation in any major way.
Despite the lack of moves, AA is still convinced the team has gotten better and also stated that he’s not fully focusing on the Postseason until “we get there.” “Hopefully we get there […] We still have two months. There’s a long way to go — there’s going to be injuries the next two months for everybody. You’re still weighing all of those things [when it comes to getting outs in the Postseason]. We’ve seen teams do all kinds of things with openers and short starts and bullpen games, guys going on short rest, we’ve seen that happen,” explained AA. “Everything’s in play when you’re trying to win but you cross that bridge when you get there. The focus for us is that we’re playing well coming out of the break and we have a nice lead but it doesn’t mean a thing.”
“We’ve got another two months to go and the NL is very strong. There’s great teams and a lot of teams added (including us) and guys are going to continue to get better, so we have to make sure that we keep our foot on the gas and try to get to the playoffs,” stated Anthopoulos.
All of that sounds good and it does seem like AA has a nice line of communication with manager Walt Weiss when it comes to the roster and how it’s constructed but it’s still hard to weigh that with the inaction when it comes to the starting rotation. It’s not like this is a new problem, either — fans and media alike have been clamoring for some type of addition to the rotation since the early portion of last offseason and it still seemed like there was a chance to address that situation at the deadline even if they didn’t do so before Opening Day.
Instead, it sure seems like Alex Anthopoulos is convinced that the starting rotation will be good enough to get the Braves where they want to be by the end of the season. Now, there’s a question of whether or not the end-goal is actually to add another World Series trophy to the cabinet or if it’s to simply get back to the Postseason. If it’s the latter then sure, the Braves are likely going to have enough to make it back to October and should also have enough to get back to the top of the division.
If the goal is truly to win another World Series then it’s hard to envision this rotation helping to win one of those tough, gritty, low-scoring games where there’s a ton of drama hanging on every pitch, much less every out. We’ve got some bad memories around here of seeing this team’s pitching staff essentially get bombed out of the Postseason and hopefully that won’t be the case this season.
With that being said, it’s clear that it’s now going to take a Herculean effort from the lineup and some surgical precision from the bullpen in order to make sure that this team has truly got what it takes to make a deep run in October. For now, let’s hope that Alex Anthopoulos is right and that we’re all panicking. If he’s right, a parade may be coming soon. If he’s wrong then, well, enjoy the fireworks from the opposition once October rolls around. We’ll see what happens.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 02: Tarik Skubal of the Los Angeles Dodgers looks on in the dugout against the Boston Red Sox during the eigth inning at Dodger Stadium on August 02, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images) | Getty Images
For all the drama surrounding the Tarik Skubal sweepstakes, and the will they or won’t they position the Tigers were in as the trade deadline approached, the Detroit Tigers ultimately kept to just two notable trades. They got good value for both Skubal and Casey Mize, but at the same time didn’t really address their biggest weakness in their high leverage relief corps. As they still seem bent on trying to secure a wild card slot, it’s a bit of a peculiar mixed bag in terms of their intentions, but ultimately their trades have to be viewed as punting on the 2026 season without simply giving everything away to slash payroll. They had two valuable assets heading to free agency, and they did a solid job of cashing them in for good prospects with which to restock their farm system.
The Tigers currently have the 17th best odds of making the postseason and are +590 on FanDuel’s sportsbook to do so at the moment. FanGraphs is more optimistic, giving them a 22.6 percent chance of reaching the playoffs. It helps that they’re not entirely out of the divisional race, as well as having the shot at a wild card berth and currently just 2.5 games back of the final spot.
Those odds still aren’t great, and with Skubal and Mize out of the rotation, and no attempt to address the bullpen, those odds will also have to be adjusted to reflect the significantly weaker starting rotation they’ll be working with down the stretch. Ultimately, while the Tigers will say they’re still trying to make the postseason and will do what they can with what they have to do so, the totality of their moves adds up to capitulation without going whole hog and trying to dump the salaries of players like Gleyber Torres, Jack Flaherty, or Kenley Jansen.
Of course, teams have to want those players, and with Flaherty injured, and Jansen struggling, there wasn’t going to be much, if any, interest. Still, the decision not to deal Torres is the really interesting one. He wouldn’t return a whole lot in trade, but he’s also potentially blocking a currently hot-hitting prospect in Max Anderson. Perhaps Anderson will get the call anyway and they’ll simply piece together at-bats for the Anderson/Torres duo, but the best reason to keep Torres is to have that extra, professional right-handed bat in the lineup against the best teams in the postseason.
Overall, we’ll take the Tigers for what they did do, rather than trying to piece together why other moves weren’t pursued. The slightly mixed signals here make it tricky to figure out what they’re thinking in regard to their hopes to at least get into the postseason. The trades suggest a team throwing in the towel, and as sellers, they did pretty well overall. On the other hand, their proximity to a wild card berth, says they still have an outside shot. So declining to go after relief help was strange when that’s been the team’s main problem all season long. Whatever their intentions or hopes the rest of the season, they sold off talent and got quality prospect packages in return, and so we’ll grade them like a team that decided to cash in their chips rather than trying to sustain the momentum they built with their strong run in June and July. Threading the needle between selling and contending doesn’t appear to have been the plan at the end of the day.
Letter grades are a crude tool, but we’ll give the Tigers a solid B+ here. They didn’t land the dream package for Tarik Skubal, but they did better than many expected for a rental ace who hasn’t been at peak form for most of the 2026 season. The Casey Mize deal looks very good, especially as his injury issues have flared up again recently. The Padres may regret that one, and they have completely hollowed out their farm system in the process of adding Mize and lefty Robbie Ray from the Giants.
The Tigers didn’t quite land one of the top prospects the Dodgers could’ve offered, which would’ve taken this to an A grade, but that organization is so flush with top 100 outfielders that Zyhir Hope, despite drawing 50 and 55 grades depending on who you ask, wasn’t even one of their top three outfield prospects according to the major national prospect sites, at least. Either way, Hope is a really talented young player and will slot in as the Tigers top positional prospect over Bryce Rainer and Josue Briceño on many lists.
They chose the risk/reward play in River Ryan rather than holding out for a safer but significantly less talented starting pitcher like Emmet Sheehan or Justin Wrobleski, so they did take a chance there. The way their deadline work is viewed in retrospect may have a lot to do with whether the 27-year-old Ryan can ever stay on the mound consistently. Finally, they added two young pitching prospects in RHP Brady Smith and LHP Kash Mayfield who are still raw but talented enough to develop into mid-rotation starters within a few years time. Considering the lack of pitching development in the system over the past few years, this really improves their group of legitimate pitching prospects and, along with 2026 first round pick RHP Cameron Flukey, balances out the system pretty nicely at a point where a really strong young core of talent has already reached the Tigers major league roster.
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BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - JULY 07: Adley Rutschman #35 of the Baltimore Orioles reacts during the game against the Chicago Cubs at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on July 07, 2026 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Orioles all but punted on the 2026 season by shipping away Adley Rutschman, Taylor Ward, and Tyler Wells. They declined to deal Trevor Rogers, but did not acquire any significant major league help. With Rutschman on the injured list, Ward failing to hit the long ball, and Wells unable to steady an unstable bullpen, there’s a case to be made that the team is not significantly worse than it was yesterday. That being said, Baltimore dealt away some good players to teams positioned above them in the Wild Card hunt.
Camden Chat has already recapped the majority of today’s moves, and there will be plenty of content over the following days. For now, we’ll assign a grade to each trade.
Alright, let’s rip the bandaid off…
Orioles Receive: RHP Kyson Witherspoon, CF Enddy Azocar, C Carlos Narváez, RHP Anthony Eyanson and Player To Be Named Later
Red Sox Receive: C Adley Rutschman, C Jake Rogers and cash
Grade: C-
They say C’s get degrees, but nobody really likes getting a C. If the Orioles were going to trade away Adley Rutschman—especially in the division—they needed to get a haul. Said haul featured Boston’s two best pitching prospects, an outfield prospect, an MLB catcher, and a PTBNL or Cash.
It doesn’t mean that you have to like it. The Orioles drafted Rutschman with the first overall pick in the 2019 draft. The backstop debuted in 2022. He never won a playoff a game. Somehow, the same executive was still in position to deal Rutschman away in 2026.
Rutschman felt like the keystone for a long-term rebuild. Mike Elias threw around terms like “liftoff” and “10-year window.” The Orioles won the division in 2023 and made the playoffs again in 2024. They crumbled last season and threw in the towel at the trade deadline this season.
Many felt the writing was on the wall after the Orioles inked 21-year-old catcher Samuel Basallo to an eight-year contract extension, but Baltimore made it work with two talented backstops this season. They could have made it work next year (Rutschman’s final season of control) too, but the Orioles took advantage of a seller’s market at catcher.
The Red Sox were clearly comfortable paying an in-the-division type of tax. MLB Pipeline immediately slotted the 21-year-old Anthony Eyanson as Baltimore’s top prospect. They ranked Kyson Witherspoon at six and CF Enddy Azocar at seven. Carlos Narváez was worth 2.8 WAR last season and will not become a free agent until 2031.
The deal also sent recent acquisition Jake Rogers and money to Boston. You can read Mark Brown’s initial reaction here.
Elias deserves all the heat in the world for letting things get to this point, but the significant return from Boston stopped me from busting out a failing grade. Trading Rutschman to a division rival with over a year of control is despicable. That being said, injuries have become a bit of a problem for the 28-year-old, and the 2027 season looks murky at best with a lockout looming.
Orioles Receive: RHP Alex Hoppe, RHP Brock Moore and RHP Harrison Kreiling
Mariners Receive: OF Taylor Ward
Grade: D+
Who the heck are these guys? Taylor Ward was marketed as one of the best right-handed bats on the market. In exchange for the future free agent, Baltimore received Hoppe (5.79 ERA in MLB), Kreiling (a 24-year-old pitcher with minimal experience after recovering from Tommy John), and Moore (a 26-year-old with a 5.56 ERA at Double-A. If there’s one thing to take away, it’s that the trio throws hard. MASN’s Brendan Mortensen noted that Hoppe’s fastball velocity ranks in the 93rd percentile and that Moore has a 42.1 K%.
This deal is an extension of the front office’s decision to give up on former top pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez. Baltimore sent their former first-round pick to LA in exchange for less than one year of Ward. Ward never hit dingers, but he did get on base at a steady clip. Rodriguez has nearly an 8.00 ERA over 10 games with LA this season, but he’s under team control until 2030.
Would you have traded Rodriguez for a struggling reliever and two prospects ranked outside of Seattle’s Top 30 last offseason? To make matters worse, the Mariners are only a half game above Baltimore in the Wild Card race. This move represented the first indication that Baltimore would punt on the season despite sitting less than three games from a playoff spot. There are some parallels to the Cedric Mullins deal from 2025, but Ward was billed as more valuable asset than Mullins.
Orioles Receive: RHP Michael Forret
Rays Receive: RHP Tyler Wells
Grade: C+
Context matters here. Last season, the Orioles sent reliever Bryan Baker to Tampa in exchange for the 37th-overall pick. Baltimore selected high school outfielder Slater de Brun, but eventually sent de Brun, recent draft pick Caden Bodine, right-handed pitching prospect Michael Forret, outfield prospect Austin Overn, and the 33rd-overall pick in the 2026 draft to Tampa Bay for Shane Baz. Baltimore proceeded to sign Baz to a five-year contract extension.
Baz has pitched well (3.86 ERA), but the Orioles have struggled to win the games that he starts. Meanwhile, Tampa quickly developed Baker into an All-Star closer. The Rays know how to get the best out of pitchers, and it feels like they’ll find a way to extract the most value out of Wells.
The Orioles deserve credit for plucking Wells out of the Rule-5 draft, but they struggled to find a concrete role for the 31-year-old. Wells spent time as a starter, closer, and multi-inning reliever. What’s his best position? The Rays will probably find it.
Meanwhile, the Orioles get back a piece from the Baz deal. MLB Pipeline ranked Bodine as the Rays third best prospect, while Forret slotted in at number eight. Is this Elias trying to outsmart the Rays after they stole back de Brun? Forret holds real value, but it’s difficult to imagine this front office got the best of Tampa.
Orioles Receive: OF Jhomnardo Reyes
Twins Receive: SP Dean Kremer
Grade: B
The Orioles sent Dean Kremer to the Twins after a dramatic come-from-behind victory over the Phillies. At the time, it felt like Baltimore couldn’t afford to have a struggling Kremer taking the ball every fifth day while they chased down a playoff spot. The team would either hand Kremer’s starts to Chris Bassitt, or it might even make a deal to acquire a starting pitcher.
With added context from today, this was simply another instance of the Orioles swapping big league players for future value. Baltimore dealt away 1.5 years of Kremer in exchange for an 18-year-old outfielder.
MLB pipeline had Reyes slotted as Minnesota’s 20th best prospect, but the former international signing has been trending upward. The Twins gave the lefty a six-figure bonus in 2025, and he slugged his way through rookie ball before making a recent debut at Low-A. At the end of the day, the Orioles had had enough of Kremer, while Reyes looks like an intriguing piece to monitor for the distant future.
Orioles Receive: OF Christian Franklin
Nationals Receive: RHP Joe Glassey
Grade: Incomplete
It’s incredibly difficult to assign a grade to a deal that involves two unknown prospects. Franklin will be placed on the 40-man roster. The 26-year-old has played all three outfield positions but mostly profiles as a corner outfielder. Will Baltimore give Franklin a look before Heston Kjerstad or Enrique Bradfield Jr.?
Orioles keep Trevor Rogers
Leading up to the deadline, Mike Elias suggested that the Orioles would not position themselves as buyers or sellers. The team did plenty of selling, but the closest thing to “buying” was simply not trading away Trevor Rogers.
Rogers has insisted that he wants to stay in Baltimore long term, and perhaps the Orioles believe they can make that a reality. The organization handed out extensions to Shane Baz and Kyle Bradish, but Rogers will become a free agent at the end of the season.
The decision to keep Rogers around could pay off if he signs a new deal with the organization, but Elias could look foolish if he leaves at the end of the season. Rogers will be eligible for a qualifying offer after 2026, but there’s been speculation that a new CBA could eliminate qualifying offer compensation as early as this offseason.
Orioles extend Yennier Cano
The Orioles signed Yennier Cano to a two year extension that included a club option for 2029. The move essentially handed Cano guaranteed money during his arbitration years and ensured a team option for 2029.
Cano was already under team control, but the new deal likely deterred Baltimore from parting with the reliever at the trade deadline.
The trade grades were sponsored by FanDuel, which dropped Baltimore’s odds of making the playoffs to +680 after the trade deadline.
Including a few deals prior to Monday's 6 p.m. trade deadline, the Mets completed eight trades that sent out eight players in exchange for 13 new players.
"We're excited about the players we're bringing in," Stearns said after thanking the traded players. "We think we added a tremendous amount of talent to our organization that will help us going forward. Believe it was the right thing to do given where we are in this season to make these decisions; these are not easy decisions.
"Our goal is to move the organization forward in the best way possible to ensure that we have a far better season next year and each season beyond."
Stearns added that the players acquired fit the varying molds they are looking for and make their farm system stronger.
"First and foremost, we have a tremendous amount of talent all throughout our system," Stearns said. "Different shapes and sizes, different positional groupings, arms and bats, really good defenders. So overall, we believe that we've added to our system. We've added players that will help us in New York and overall strengthen the quality of our farm system."
Of the prospects acquired by New York, infielder Jefferson Rojas from the Cubs is the highest ranked by MLB Pipeline at No. 63 overall. The 21-year-old is right-handed and has split time mostly between 3B (56 games) and SS (26 games) this season in Double-A. He's hitting .270 with an .800 OPS and has 15 home runs, 19 doubles, and 57 RBI over 91 games.
"Really exciting, well-rounded player," Stearns said. "Has experience at all three positions on the dirt, has the ability to play all three. A very well-rounded offensive profile. Young for his level. Has really done exactly what you would want to see a player do, who was a very well-thought-of amateur on the international market and has really just performed and progressed throughout his development.
"All of our reports are extremely hard worker and is going to fit in very well to our organization."
Another top prospect acquired was SS Sammy Stafura from the Pirates, who attended Walter Panas High School in Cortlandt Manor, NY and coincidentally grew up a big Mets fan. Stafura, 21, was ranked as the Pirates' No. 9 prospect and owns a .276 batting average with a .960 OPS in High-A, blasting 20 home runs for 54 RBI, plus 20 stolen bases.
"I think the first thing that jumps off the page with you with Stafura is the defense," Stearns said. "He's got tremendous defensive ability. He's a very good baserunner. Can impact the game in a variety of different ways, can help you win ball games in a variety of different ways, and clearly has power as well.
"When you begin to talk about a power-hitting infielder, who we believe can play shortstop at a high level, that's a player with a pretty high ceiling."
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - APRIL 23: Shohei Ohtani #17 of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts after striking out during the ninth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on April 23, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) | Getty Images
It’s time for a short memory to move past the three straight losses against the Red Sox, now visiting the Cubs.
When the MLB Trade Deadline came at 6 p.m. on Monday, the Yankees had added infielder Luis Garcia Jr. and outfielder Heliot Ramos. But the failure to add one of the big fish available at the deadline wasn’t for a lack of conversations had by general manager Brian Cashman.
Cashman revealed that the club had many conversations with Detroit about left-hander Tarik Skubal, who ended up being dealt to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Baltimore about catcher Adley Rutschman, who went to the Boston Red Sox.
"We've certainly been working at it for a long time; it’s always hard to find matches,” Cashman said Monday evening of the deadline talks.
While starting pitching is clearly a strength of the club, because of the excellence of the lefty, Cashman said, “We definitely made our phone calls and I talked to [Tigers president of baseball operations] Scott Harris several times about it.”
“We talked to Detroit, they set a high price,” Cashman said. “And, to be honest… we were unable to get them off what they said might work, but at the same time they were communicating that it also might not even win the day.
“They kinda went silent, I think after they got what they were looking for, and, ultimately, were wrestling whether they were gonna make the decision to move him or not. And then they made that decision. We feel like we didn't really match up in the end. We weren't able to compete at that level.”
Cashman said that the Tigers “did have some asks our way that we were unwilling to do.”
“It was a very specific ask, a certain player and players that we weren't willing to play with in that arena on Tarik Skubal, despite how great a pitcher he is," the Yankee GM said. “It’s another two months to go, plus the postseason, and that made it more difficult for us to be comfortable giving up the ask that was gonna go their way.”
Cashman said in the weeks leading up to the deadline that catcher was an area they were looking to improve with Austin Wells and Ali Sanchez struggling mightily at the plate.
Asked how close the club came to adding a catcher and Rutschman in particular, the GM said, “We grinded through the market at catching, ” but it was “a very thin market of opportunity.”
“We do believe we have quality catching, but obviously the offensive side, which has been a struggle for our team overall, not just at the catching position, made us certainly shop in that aisle,” Cashman said. “We had many conversations with Baltimore, as well, but were unable to meet the price. They did their business elsewhere.
“And we kept grinding through it, but ultimately at the end of the day there was no opportunity that existed that we felt good enough about to be able to push through on. There were very limited opportunities that were available in the marketplace, regardless, so I think that’s why probably Baltimore [did well]. And they did well. We had conversations with them, but to no avail.”
As far as the catchers on the roster, Cashman believes Wells is “trending in the right direction” of producing more at the plate.
“I think Austin has been getting his offense going this past month,” the GM said. “A much more closer version to what he’s capable of.”
“I know he’s capable of a lot, but we’ll see,” he continued. “Hopefully, the best is yet to come, and they're going to play big roles on both sides of the ball. [Wells] is extremely talented, knowledgeable in how he's handling our staff, and he does possess a lot of potential with that bat. Hopefully he's starting to finally tap into it."
One thing that won’t happen is Ben Rice seeing time behind the plate in any meaningful way.
“We’re not planning on having Rice catch now. He’s our third emergency catcher, but in terms of putting him in play for an everyday situation, we think he’s best served in being deployed in the capacity he has been this year,” Cashman said. “We are not considering him as a consistent catching option for us.”
Cashman did add that Rice is “capable of getting back there” if there are any late-game situations that require manager Aaron Boone making substitutions, but they will not “put him back there starting games.”
HOUSTON - APRIL 2: A general view of the opening day game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Houston Astros on April 2, 2007 at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. The Pirates won 4-2 in 10 innings. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images) | Getty Images
After all that happened today, there is still a game tonight.
Shane Bieber gets the start, since he’s still there. Cristian Javier starts for Houston.
Daulton Varsho hits cleanup tonight for the Astros. That will be weird. He had a rather emotional press conference before the game. It does have to be hard on guys to leave their friends.
I’d still be ok with it if the Jays went on a bit of a roll. I’m not betting on it, but I’d be ok with it.
