What a crazy trade deadline? We saw one of the biggest deals get agreed upon, held up, changed, and agreed upon again. We saw a ton of prospects moved. We saw a team do absolutely nothing. I would love to learn all of the moves that didn’t happen.
Below are the adjustments for each team. The added column includes MLB Organizational Rankings for new prospects; so Tucker Davidson is now the #11 prospect in the Angels organization.
Teams going all in: The Padres lead the pack with their pick up of Soto and Bell; then they landed Hader and a ranked prospect. Their system definitely took a hit though, and they are eating $44M on the Hosmer deal.
The Mariners traded some big prospects to get Castillo; will it be enough to either catch the Astros or get a Wild Card?
What were they doing: The Red Sox are a head scratcher. They traded off a semi-regular like Vazquez, then added Hosmer? They probably aren’t good enough to make the playoffs but are just good enough to stay relevant during the rest of the season.
The Brewers traded Hader in a weird deal, but it makes sense in a baseball perspective. They replace Hader with Rogers, but also have Devin Williams ready to close; Hader and Rogers have the same amount of team control, but Rogers is much cheaper. They also netted a potential Cy Young pitcher and 2 ranked prospects. I don’t have an issue with this deal.
The Yankees traded Montgomery for an injured Bader? I’m good with it, but fans in New York aren’t. Bader might be back (the Yankees are anticipating a September return), but the team got some insurance in a conditional PTBNL if he doesn’t return this year.
The Losers Can anyone really argue that the Rockies aren’t the biggest losers? They did absolutely nothing when they did have players they could have traded. That system could have used a boost too.
The Farm Builders The Reds might have done the best at restocking the farm. The Reds ended up with 7 ranked prospects, including a #1 for their system. The Athletics and Royals added 4 each.
Surprisingly the Nationals only ended up with 3, although they also have a new #1 in their system. That said, Abrams and Gore are both young enough to be included future pieces.
