Trade Deadline
Dozens of trades were completed in the lead-up to and on July 31, as teams around Major League Baseball took stock of their situations, needs, and the future. The MLB Trade Deadline always features a flurry of activity and this year was no different, as relief pitchers were in high supply and high demand, but we also saw some prominent position players return to familiar clubhouses and others head to contenders for the stretch run.
Acquisition costs were high for some of the more notable names thrown about in the days before the Trade Deadline, so not all of them were moved, but we still had more than enough player movement to establish some winners and losers.
Keep in mind that this doesn’t necessarily mean that the teams are winners or losers for this season, as this is an overall look at what was added and what was subtracted.
TRADE DEADLINE WINNERS
New York Mets
The Mets had a really strong Trade Deadline. With Jeff McNeil playing second base and Starling Marte mostly limited to the DH role, upgrading Tyrone Taylor was a must and New York did that with Cedric Mullins from the Orioles. Mullins has a 104 wRC+, meaning he’s 4% above league average offensively, while Taylor had a 58 wRC+, so 42% below average offensively. Mullins’ defensive metrics have some variance based on the source, but he’s not a big downgrade from Taylor, if at all.
Obviously the larger story was how the Mets bolstered the bullpen with Ryan Helsley from the Cardinals and Tyler Rogers from the Giants. In tandem with the earlier acquisition of Gregory Soto, the Mets added three legitimate relievers to the bullpen and deepened that unit with the postseason looming. I also think we’ll see Clay Holmes back there soon. Helsley has one of the highest arm slots among relievers and Rogers the lowest. The Mets are creating a matchup nightmare for hitters in the late innings.
With an unlimited bankroll thanks to billionaire owner Steven Cohen, prospects are certainly movable and the Mets held on to young pitchers like Brandon Sproat and Nolan McLean, while also protecting some of their second-tier prospects in Double-A.
Chicago Cubs
I was really impressed with Chicago’s Trade Deadline haul. While there are no household names and only three additions, these were good, targeted moves from Jed Hoyer. Michael Soroka, Andrew Kittredge, and Willi Castro are all helpful pieces for the playoff push. The Brewers also stood pat outside of picking up backup catcher Danny Jansen on Monday.
As noted in The VSiN Daily on Thursday, I praised the Soroka move for the Cubs, as he gets an enormous defensive upgrade behind him going from the Nationals to the North Side. His 4.87 ERA is ugly, but his 3.32 xERA is not and his 4.11 FIP can be improved with some better pitch sequencing. Soroka’s 68.4% LOB% should rise with a top-25 K% among pitchers with at least 80 innings. The Cubs badly needed a starter with Justin Steele out for the year, plus the injury to Jameson Taillon.
Castro is an above average bat who can play all over the diamond and help the Cubs match up with platoons, while also providing some defensive depth. Kittredge can be a mid-to-high leverage reliever who sports a 3.45 ERA with a 3.59 xERA and 3.47 FIP in 31 appearances.
As the Trade Deadline neared, the Cubs also snagged Taylor Rogers, who was traded on Wednesday to the Pirates, so they picked up another good bullpen arm.
Sacramento/Las Vegas A’s
The A’s had a great day. Many will say that the Padres did, given that they were extremely aggressive. And maybe for 2025, they are, after getting Mason Miller, JP Sears, Ryan O’Hearn, Ramon Laureano, Freddy Fermin, Nestor Cortes, and Will Wagner. All of those players fill voids and give them a better chance against the Dodgers.
But, the A’s got Leo De Vries in the Miller/Sears deal to go along with Henry Baez, Braden Nett, and Eduardniel Nunez. Nett and De Vries are the centerpieces of the deal, with De Vries rated as a top-five prospect in baseball by some outlets. The 18-year-old shortstop has 19 home runs and 21 stolen bases in 157 games of pro ball. He’s also drawn 102 walks. He has made 19 errors in 72 games at short this season at High-A, but he is widely regarded as the best prospect moved at the Trade Deadline and can now be added to the A’s young core with Nick Kurtz, Jacob Wilson, and Lawrence Butler.
Nett is a really good arm currently at Double-A who was drafted in 2022 and has a big fastball. Baez is knocking on the door with a 1.96 ERA in Double-A and an extremely low HR/FB% with a big ground ball split. Relievers like Miller are really volatile and carry big injury risks, so I love what the A’s did.
The Padres obviously deserve a mention with everything they added to the MLB roster, but they paid a huge price.
Kansas City Royals
The Royals were fairly quiet most of the day, but they got some arms that will help this season as they likely play out the string. One of the players traded by the aforementioned Padres was Ryan Bergert, who was San Diego’s No. 3 prospect per FanGraphs in their June update of the Padres system. The Royals have an outstanding pitching coach in Brian Sweeney, who has had a lot to do with the development of Cole Ragans, Kris Bubic, and has helped steady guys like Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo.
The Royals also got Stephen Kolek in that trade for Freddy Fermin, a defense-first catcher without much of a future in KC. Later, the Royals picked up Bailey Falter from the Pirates for a nominal cost. Falter is not a free agent until 2029 and has a 3.73 ERA this season, though the advanced metrics paint a less rosy picture. Still, they saw something that they liked in the arsenal and Sweeney can work his magic.
With very limited starting pitcher depth in the upper minors, the Royals rotation is set for a while.
They also got Mike Yastrzemski really late in the process…they went into Thursday three games out of a Wild Card spot and I think they believe they can contend for it. They’re a play-on team for me moving forward.
Baltimore Orioles
Obviously it will be price-dependent, but the Orioles to win the AL East will be high on my list of picks entering next season. A lot of players have graduated to the big leagues over the years and Baltimore has made some moves at the expense of their farm system to try and plug holes in the pitching staff via trade. Well, that left them with a bit of a depleted system.
While not everybody that they acquired at the Trade Deadline will have an impact this upcoming season, including promising pitching prospect Boston Bateman, the Orioles didn’t give up any of their best young hitters or remaining prospects of note to get stronger as an organization. If ownership is willing to spend for a frontline starter to put ahead of Kyle Bradish and others, this team is ready to make a run and now has better depth with 13 players acquired on Thursday.
Honorable Mention
Since a few of the teams have more long-term value than short-term, let’s talk about a few other one-offs:
Houston Astros: The Astros reunited with Carlos Correa and brought in Jesus Sanchez and Ramon Urias for some more depth. Their bigger “Trade Deadline” moves will come when they activate Jeremy Pena and Yordan Alvarez off the IL.
New York Yankees: The Yankees bolstered the bullpen with David Bednar and Camilo Doval. Austin Slater is a nice platoon bat. It was a little bit underwhelming across the AL East, but to be honest, it might be better than what the Blue Jays and Red Sox, even if I think Shane Bieber still has something left in the tank.
The late deal from the Jays to get Louis Varland was a nice grab, so they get an honorable mention, too. The Red Sox should’ve done more.
TRADE DEADLINE LOSERS
Cincinnati Reds
A team that should have inspired a lot of confidence over the last couple of weeks was mostly a bystander at the Trade Deadline. Homer-prone Zack Littell and wet-noodle hitter Ke’Bryan Hayes were the only two additions of note. Littell is an upgrade to what the Reds had at the back of the rotation and is some protection for Chase Burns and Chase Petty later in the season, but his K% is down significantly and he gives up a lot of home runs.
The Reds have an “if not now, when” feel to them, in that the core probably isn’t good enough long-term, but some plugged holes here and there could give the team a playoff push. With a really cheap ownership group, dabbling in free agency isn’t really an option. I guess Hunter Greene could be viewed as a Trade Deadline “acquisition” when he gets activated from the IL, but the chance was there to do more and they didn’t.
Detroit Tigers
The AL Central doesn’t hang in the balance, but in light of the season-ending injury to Reese Olson, I expected the Tigers to be a little bit more aggressive. Chris Paddack is a fine addition and they got Charlie Morton right before the 6 p.m. horn. They also added some reliever depth in Randy Dobnak, Kyle Finnegan, Paul Sewald, and Rafael Montero.
But, they didn’t address the offense at all. Maybe they believe in that group internally, as they’ve posted a .250/.319/.421 slash with a .322 wOBA and a 106 wRC+ for the season. They’ve also batted .232/.300/.399 over the last 30 days (25 games) and are only 3% above league average against righties for the season.
Bats were out there. They didn’t get any. Maybe it won’t matter. Maybe it will. Obviously Tarik Skubal can carry a lot of weight in the rotation, but for a team all but guaranteed a playoff spot, I expected more of a concerted effort to increase their chances when they get to October.
Minnesota Twins
What a miserable day for Twins fans. The team traded Chris Paddack on Monday and Jhoan Duran on Wednesday and followed up the fire sale with Carlos Correa, Griffin Jax, Danny Coulombe, Brock Stewart, Willi Castro, Harrison Bader, Ty France, and Louis Varland.
I don’t mind the collection of players they received and I’m super intrigued to see what Taj Bradley can do. I also like Alan Roden and James Outman with a chance to play most every day. They also got a 16-year-old pitcher in Geremy Villoria from the Phillies. But, this fire sale was a hard pill for the organization and fan base to swallow. The Pohlads have been looking to sell the team and cutting costs is always part of that.
With an oft-injured player like Byron Buxton, a winter trade candidate in Pablo Lopez, and an uncertain future in a largely mediocre division, it was a rough 72 hours. And I don’t think that the Twins really got any huge building blocks for the future, except for maybe Mick Abel, depending on how you view him. The cost for getting out from under Correa’s contract was one High-A pitcher named Matt Mikulski.
The Twins traded away their five best relievers and turned over 40% of their roster. We’ll see how they get priced in the betting markets moving forward.
Atlanta Braves
It was a disappointing day for the Braves. To be 14 games out of a Wild Card spot and not be able to get anything for Raisel Iglesias or Marcell Ozuna is a mistake. Both guys do have 10-and-5 rights, meaning 10 years in the league and five years with the same team, so they can veto any potential trade. But, there had to be interested parties with playoff prospects. Ozuna does have bad PR associated with him, so maybe teams just shied away.
Either way, the Braves completed one trade and it was Rafael Montero for IF Jim Jarvis. Prior to Thursday, they were actually in buying mode, getting RP Tyler Kinley and SPs Carlos Carrasco and Erick Fedde. I guess they’re just trying to protect some younger arms the rest of the way with a trio of 32+-year-old pitchers.
I guess I’m not sure entirely how much wiggle room they felt they had and who they could move, but they do have a full MLB rotation on the IL with Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, Reynaldo Lopez, Grant Holmes, and AJ Smith-Shawver. Finding a way to get more 2026-ready SP depth would’ve made sense. Maybe this winter.
Cleveland Guardians
Injuries and gambling-related suspensions definitely thinned the herd of who the Guardians could trade, as Lane Thomas and Emmanuel Clase would have netted something. Clase the bigger package of the two, obviously. But, he’s on the restricted list, so the Guardians couldn’t take advantage of the big reliever market.
Khal Stephen is a very nice addition in exchange for Shane Bieber, who has a player option for 2026 that he’s likely to decline, so they got a good Double-A arm for a guy who hasn’t helped the MLB club at all. Some may say it’s a win that they didn’t trade Steven Kwan. I’m not entirely sure that I agree, given their asking price and the hopes that somebody would meet it.
But, they basically committed the cardinal sin in my mind. Get better now or get better for later. They certainly didn’t get better for now and still didn’t solve their position player problems for later. I’m sure the clubhouse is thrilled that Kwan is still there, but there is no worse place to be in pro sports than in the middle and that’s precisely where Cleveland is. Not good enough to make the playoffs (IMO) and not bad enough for a high draft pick.
They do still have a very manageable schedule for a while, playing the Twins, Mets, White Sox, Marlins, Braves, and Diamondbacks over the next 18 games, so I guess that’s their hope. I still would’ve either bought or sold, not toed the line between the two.
We’ll see how all the markets reopen after Thursday’s games and all the dust settles. Now that the Trade Deadline is over, teams and players can lock back in, or start thinking about those postseason vacations, and that should lead to some betting opportunities.
