By Grant Brisbee, Andy McCullough and Stephen J. Nesbitt
A trading frenzy that began with a Curtis Mead-for-Connelly Early swap last week and went into warp speed over the weekend when back-to-back Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal joined the back-to-back World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers mercifully ended Monday evening.
Major League Baseball’s trade deadline has passed.
Did your favorite team check all of the boxes on your wishlist?
Before we look ahead to the baseball season’s stretch run, it’s time to sort all 30 MLB teams into three categories: Winners, losers and snoozers. Winners can be buyers or sellers so long as they appropriately addressed their needs and didn’t overpay. Losers infuriated fans by getting fleeced or missing a crucial chance to improve. Snoozers sat there watching all the fun going on around them, and they felt nothing.
Winners
Boston Red Sox
This one might end up looking silly, but we live in silly times.
For the folks in Boston harboring ill feelings about the team’s medical staff, this blockbuster deadline from Craig Breslow may only induce further queasiness. Because Breslow put together a big-time prospect package to acquire Adley Rutschman. The catcher is a three-time All-Star. He’s been productive at the plate this season. One problem: he’s currently on the injured list with wrist inflammation. This is his third stint on the shelf in 2026. What could go wrong?
Well, a lot. Rutschman has the star reputation without the star production. His injury history is worrisome. And Boston gave up a significant amount of minor-league capital — albeit in the volatile form of pitchers — to acquire him. But we’re making snap judgments here. And the aggression from Breslow, who has absorbed a hailstorm of reasonable criticism in recent years, is notable. The decision to part with former top prospect Marcelo Mayer, sent to San Francisco for hard-throwing but wild reliever Erik Miller, was even more shocking.
Breslow caught some bad luck when Curtis Mead suffered a broken hand on his first day with the Sox. Mead is under contract for quite a while, so perhaps he can still help the organization down the road. But the Red Sox look like they could contend right now. If Rutschman can come back healthy, they will look that much more formidable. — Andy McCullough
Chicago Cubs
Coming out of the All-Star break, the Cubs’ rotation lined up like this: Colin Rea, Matthew Boyd, Shota Imanaga, Jameson Taillon and David Peterson. Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer overhauled that group ahead of the trade deadline, adding a pair of two-time All-Star right-handers, Clay Holmes and Kevin Gausman, and lefty Braxton Garrett. The Cubs, who also have Edward Cabrera and Ben Brown on the injured list, should be able to flex some of their surplus starters into relief roles in the postseason.
Outfielder Tyrone Taylor is another rangy outfield option for the Cubs, but he also has hit left-handed pitching well this season, which could come in handy in October. All of that adding came at a significant cost to the Cubs’ farm system. The departure of Jefferson Rojas in particular will sting. But the major-league roster is undeniably better because of it, and, in the midst of a division race, that matters most. — Stephen J. Nesbitt
Los Angeles Angels
Not only did the Angels get a bounty of prospects and young players for a lot of players who weren’t going to be around for the next contending roster, but they also avoided doing anything too froggy, like trading Zach Neto or other foundational pieces. The best players the Angels traded — Jo Adell, José Soriano — have far more value to the teams they’re going to than leaving. They’re like older dogs that are actually going to a farm upstate, where they can play to their hearts’ delight and occasionally win a few more baseball games. Good for them.
It was the kind of deadline that fans and analysts have waited for years, with minimal risks and maximum rewards. The Angels finally carpe’d a dang diem at the deadline. Now they can move on to more pressing organizational priorities, like getting Neto some longer pants. — Grant Brisbee
Los Angeles Dodgers
Tarik Skubal in Dodger blue? Hard to top that as the biggest move of the deadline. (Luke Hales / Getty Images)
The Dodgers got Tarik Skubal. Did you see this? Wild. Yes, yes, they also got practical additions, like Seth Halvorsen and Kris Bubic, who will come in handy when the pitching runs dry, which it does for every team, much less those who have expectations regarding Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. The story is Skubal, and rightfully so. The best team in baseball got the best pitcher in baseball. Write it 100 times on a chalkboard if you’re still unsure. Nothing else matters.
If there’s a downside to the move, it’s that the Dodgers might not get the best free agent or trade target next season. They’re going to be so disappointing, everyone. Just you wait. — GB
Philadelphia Phillies
Bryce Harper said the Phillies needed help. Dave Dombrowski went out and got some. The addition of Luis Arraez will force some defensive repositioning, because the Phillies recognized the status quo was no longer sufficient. Arraez offers a new skillset for a lineup built around sluggers. That could make Philadelphia more dangerous in October. Plus, Dombrowski nabbed relievers Brooks Raley and Caleb Kilian for a bullpen that has been struggling for weeks.
So Harper got the help he requested. Now he will need to help his team in his own fashion — by moving back to the outfield. — AM
San Diego Padres
Another addition to the “perfectly reasonable, graded on a curve” cohort, the Padres got the starters they desperately needed (Robbie Ray and Casey Mize) without needing to do some sort of oddball “Gift of the Magi” deal, where they made the active roster weaker while doing it. Instead, they were able to come to an agreement with the Giants on Ray’s remaining salary obligations and talk the Tigers into a deal for a popular deadline target, and the active roster stayed intact. They can keep the Mason Miller fastballs popping and the Korn songs pumping, which was a win for everyone. With the notable exception, perhaps, being those who are simply not ready.
It wasn’t A.J. Preller’s flashiest deadline, but it didn’t need to be. He traded prospects away for players who might be good when he’s either the architect of a pennant-winning Padres team or with another organization, but he didn’t gut the organization (more), either. It was the middle bowl of porridge for a guy who usually pours the hot bowl on his head and the cold bowl down his trousers. Sometimes boring is OK. — GB
San Francisco Giants
The deadline started ominously enough, with the Giants trading Tyler Mahle for a reliever who might otherwise have been designated for assignment at the deadline, but it was a haul that was always going to be judged by the return for Robbie Ray and Luis Arraez, and the Giants delivered on those fronts, getting prospects worthy of attention.
Then they took the rare step of trading players with several years of team control left, opting for a proactive youth infusion over another turn with some of their younger veterans. The Giants didn’t need to trade Heliot Ramos or Erik Miller, which meant they could hold out for a POBO’s ransom, and the returns from the Yankees (Henry Lalane, Kaeden Ken) and Red Sox (onetime No. 4 pick Marcelo Mayer) impressed. This has never been an organization to stash highly regarded prospects away like acorns, but there’s no better time to start than now. — GB
St. Louis Cardinals
It was not a particularly busy deadline for the Cardinals, but they continued their selloff apace and did so successfully. They got a great return in an in-division trade, sending pitchers Dustin May and JoJo Romero to the Brewers for prospects Alexander Frias and Josiah Ragsdale. The Athletic’s Keith Law recently ranked Frias, an 18-year-old outfielder, as the No. 69 prospect in the sport. Ragsdale, 22, is having a breakout season at High A and Double A, batting .316 with a 1.022 OPS, 19 homers and 31 steals while handling center-field duties.
Later, St. Louis shipped outfielder Lars Nootbaar to Arizona. Nootbaar, a darling of the analytics community, had great stretches for the Cardinals but never fully broke out. Ultimately, he was best used on the strong side of an outfield platoon. That’s something the Diamondbacks can use, and the Cardinals don’t need at the moment. — SN
Toronto Blue Jays
This was a tough one to grade. It was painful for Toronto to part ways with Kevin Gausman, who lived up to his billing across the five seasons of his $110 million contract. But they found a replacement for this season and the next two in José Soriano, who has leveled up this season by improving his strikeout rate. The cost was not insignificant. Arjun Nimmala was a first-round pick in 2023, and sat at No. 42 on our most recent prospect rankings. Toronto will take a risk on Soriano’s injury history and strike-throwing ability. But he profiles as a solid back-end starter with a bit of upside who won’t break the bank in arbitration. Neither will Spencer Arrighetti, the Astros pitcher acquired in exchange for outfielder Daulton Varsho. Toronto also took a flier on Josh Smith, who won a Silver Slugger award two seasons ago and was worth 2.9 bWAR last year. — AM
Washington Nationals
In his first summer running the Nationals, Paul Toboni made some moves but not any waves. He did not ship out All-Star shortstop CJ Abrams in a blockbuster. He did not make major additions. But he acted with a reasonable understanding of his team’s outlook. The Nationals have outperformed expectations, especially on offense, and possessed a surplus of position players. Toboni jumped the market to acquire young pitcher Connelly Early from the Red Sox, his former employers. That looked like a savvy move even before Boston experienced the bad luck of Curtis Mead suffering a broken hand in his first game. He also received some praise from our man Keith Law for flipping Luis García Jr., a left-handed hitter in a market starving for right-handed bats, for a quartet of arms. Near the buzzer, Toboni did what was necessary and dealt Foster Griffin, who made the All-Star team after the Nats took a chance on him coming back from Japan, in exchange for a quartet of new guys. — AM
Losers
Arizona Diamondbacks
They got Lars Nootbaar, and bless him for finally getting out of St. Louis, where the Cardinals were never entirely sure what to do with him. That fills a clear need for an underperforming Diamondbacks team, but they were always going to need a lot more run prevention to compete in a packed wild-card scrum, and they were never going to cough up the prospects to be there.
I’m not sure what the Diamondbacks’ actual window is, but therein lies the problem: I don’t know if they have a clear idea, either. — GB
Athletics
The perfect deadline for a team caught in limbo between two or three cities at a time, with a phalanx of would-be franchise cornerstones signed to immovable long-term contracts, but an overall long-term direction that should serve them well. It was always going to be fringe players going out for little return. That doesn’t mean it was a bad deadline, just a boring one.
If the A’s had a time machine, they’d go back and sign a few more relievers to one-year show-me deals, hoping to get in on some of that wacky bullpen trade action. But, well, if they had a time machine, they’d probably do a lot of things. They definitely wouldn’t stop there. — GB
Baltimore Orioles
Despite all of the early promise, Adley Rutschman never became the player Baltimore envisioned as the backbone of its burgeoning juggernaut. And the Orioles, as evidenced by their results the past two seasons, never became said juggernaut. Mike Elias acknowledged that reality by dealing Rutschman in a deadline-day stunner to a division rival. The team also bid farewell to Dean Kremer and Tyler Wells. They flipped Taylor Ward for some relievers. The loss of Rutschman is the one that might sting, even with replacement Samuel Basallo signed to a long-term deal.
The return for Rutschman is considered impressive. We might look back on this deadline as the turning point for the Elias regime, which has taken a hit during the past two seasons. But Orioles fans have spent a long time hearing about prospects. Rutschman was supposed to symbolize the conclusion of that rebuilding chapter. Instead, the deadline marked the end of an era that never really was. — AM
Chicago White Sox
The White Sox acquired Luis Castillo and his contract. It remains to be seen if that was a good idea. (Joe Nicholson / USA TODAY)
The White Sox were busier than just about everybody in the last week, but because most moves amounted to little more than better depth, their deadline will be defined by the Luis Castillo trade. Not only did GM Chris Getz take on the $30 million left on the contract of an aging starter with a 5.06 ERA this season, but he parted with a real prospect to do so. It’s unclear where catcher/outfielder Boston Smith will land on the diamond, but it’s not hard to see that the kid can hit. Seattle is happy to have him.
The White Sox roster is better than it was a week ago — Huascar Brazobán strengthens the bullpen; Brenton Doyle fills out a Gold Glove platoon in center; Joey Bart eases a need at catcher while Kyle Teel is hurt — but there was no big win to make up for the Castillo overpay. — SN
Detroit Tigers
The Tigers set out to contend for a World Series in 2026. A few months later, they find themselves trading away Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize rather than giving them the baseball in October, awarding them qualifying offers in November and wishing them well in free agency beyond. It’s hard to consider this outcome a win.
If you felt these Tigers were doomed even with Skubal and Mize sticking around for the wild-card race, you’ll be pleased with the return. The Tigers took two top-50 prospects from the Dodgers — outfielder Zyhir Hope and starter River Ryan — and another promising arm, lefty Kash Mayfield, from the Padres. This should set them up for the future far better than two comp-round picks would. But there’s a lingering feeling of this being a deadline of half-measures. The Tigers will try to stick around the playoff picture, yet they didn’t do any adding to supplement the current roster, and they didn’t trade away other rentals. They stayed somewhere in the middle. That’s a bad place to be, especially without your best pitchers. — SN
Milwaukee Brewers
When you enter a trade deadline rumored to be in on Tarik Skubal, the top name on the trade market, and come away with Dustin May and JoJo Romero, it’s bound to be disappointing. The Brewers were in on trade talks all over the map, but little materialized. The Brewers are the same team they were on the other side of the deadline. That just so happens to be the team with the best win-loss record in baseball. So, maybe they’re on to something.
The additions of May, Romero and Antonio Senzatela fortify an already formidable pitching staff. Bo Naylor provides catching depth. But when the Dodgers land Skubal and the Cubs reshape their entire rotation, all of these smaller moves leave you wanting a bit more. — SN
New York Mets
Time will tell about the fleet of minor-leaguers just acquired by David Stearns. But any time you have to tear down a $365 million roster, forced to overhaul a team expected to compete for a championship in 2026, you qualify as a loser. Those are the rules. Nothing to be done about it. Better luck next year. — AM
New York Yankees
Luis Garcia Jr. offers some aid to the lineup, even if he is an imperfect roster fit. The Yankees wanted right-handed hitters, but they needed offense, so they dipped into their deep stockpile of arms to land Garcia. Heliot Ramos could experience a boost getting out of San Francisco and getting to hit at Yankee Stadium. But they watched their chief rival land Adley Rutschman at a time when catching help was desperately needed in The Bronx. The Yankees could not pry Ryan Jeffers from the Twins or Hunter Goodman from the Rockies. — AM
Snoozers
Atlanta Braves
Alex Anthopoulos worked the margins to aid his first-place club. Tyler Mahle has tantalized teams with his ability for years, but it is hard to rely upon him. Brent Suter is a serviceable reliever. Lane Thomas will help against left-handed pitchers. The deadline still passed without the Braves finding a pitcher to pair with Chris Sale atop the rotation. So it goes. — AM
Cincinnati Reds
The Reds completed two minor trades. After our dear friend C. Trent Rosecrans did all that writing about Tyler Stephenson, Brady Singer and even Hunter Greene leading up to the deadline, the Reds held on to all of ‘em. Nathaniel Lowe to the Guards. Caleb Ferguson to the Cards. That’s it.
Trent wrote that the Reds seemed to be every team’s backup plan. Guess everyone else found a Plan A. All quiet in Cincinnati. — SN
Cleveland Guardians
Foster Griffin was an All-Star in his return from Japan. (Jess Rapfogel / Getty Images)
Cleveland briefly snapped out of its trade-deadline snoozefest Monday by bringing in a righty hitter (outfielder Jo Adell) and a lefty (first baseman Nathaniel Lowe), then acted late to acquire Nationals starter Foster Griffin. The Guardians already had a capable rotation. Griffin, 31, makes it better and deeper. After playing in Japan the past three seasons, Griffin signed a one-year deal with the Nationals and delivered a 2.76 ERA through his first 21 starts. That the Braves put up a crooked number against him Friday did not dampen other clubs’ interest. The four-player package the Guardians sent to the Nationals was big on volume, low on expected value. It was a fine deadline. The Guards are the Guards. — SN
Colorado Rockies
They didn’t want to be anywhere else at the deadline. If they did anything too extreme, it likely would have meant trading away All-Star catcher Hunter Goodman. They don’t have to deal with that nonsense just yet, and this wasn’t the trade deadline to do it. The Rockies made moves at the edges, and traded away a glove-first center fielder in Brenton Doyle, and relievers Antonio Senzatela, Seth Halvorsen and Viktor Vodnik. Snooze away, fellas. The trade deadline is a strange game. Sometimes the only winning move is not to play. — GB
Houston Astros
It was a perfectly reasonable deadline for the Astros, acquiring the left-handed outfielder they desperately needed in Daulton Varsho. However, they’re going to be graded on a curve, and they can’t compete with the splashier acquisitions like Tarik Skubal (who went to the Dodgers, if you can believe it). So snoozers it is, with their remaining postseason hopes hinging on their strategy of “hoping their pitchers play better,” which is just crazy enough to work.
For a team that’s still under .500, that’s probably right where they should be. — GB
Kansas City Royals
The Royals operated sensibly at this trade deadline. They sent lefty Kris Bubic to the Dodgers for right-hander Carlos Duran. They swapped outfielder Lane Thomas and lefty reliever Bailey Falter for two interesting prospects. They did what teams with bad records but reasonable hopes for next season do at this time of year: They sold what needed to be sold, and held the rest. — SN
Miami Marlins
Miami shipped out some players who had become expendable. The arrival of Joe Mack allowed the Marlins to part ways with catcher Liam Hicks. They also dealt away Braxton Garrett, who had been toiling in the minors. The return from Tampa Bay for Hicks looks solid. Eh. I’m falling asleep writing these sentences. I woke up in time to catch the Victor Vodnik deal just at the deadline, but then checked his strikeout-to-walk ratio and passed back out. (I kid, I kid: good buy-low candidate, won’t hurt getting him out of Colorado.) — AM
Minnesota Twins
For a team that declared itself ready to buy last week, the end result is unremarkable. The Twins added a mid-level closer (Jeff Hoffman), a league-average starter (Dean Kremer) and a solid lefty reliever (A.J. Minter). They’re not losers — not in our book, anyway. They held onto their guys and got a couple more they liked. But none of these moves move the needle enough to make you believe in the 2026 Twins as playoff contenders if you didn’t before. — SN
Pittsburgh Pirates
While the Pirates emphatically addressed their most pressing need — bullpen help — their inability to upgrade the lineup leaves their haul feeling lacking.
With Mason Miller and Adrian Morejón staying put in San Diego, the Pirates landed the top reliever that was actually traded, swapping Luke Weaver for shortstop prospect Sammy Stafura — and getting the Mets to pay down $8 million of the $13.4 million Weaver is owed through next season. They also took a chance on Ron Marinaccio and Camilo Doval, the former Giants closer who was struggling with the Yankees. Then, at the buzzer, they struck deals for Kirby Yates and Lake Bachar. All of this almost entirely remakes the Pirates bullpen. That was necessary. But is this lineup capable of overcoming a wild-card deficit and winning in October? The Pirates will consider Oneil Cruz, Konnor Griffin and Ryan O’Hearn great second-half (re)additions to the lineup. But swinging a trade for one more big bat would have done wonders. — SN
Seattle Mariners
They built a better team at a reasonable cost, while moving salary out via the Luis Castillo deal, which will help their owners feel better about spending money in the offseason (assuming there’s an offseason). They didn’t go through with any of the more elaborate plans to trade pitchers like Emerson Hancock or even George Kirby. It’s not a trade deadline their fans can get pumped over, exactly, but it’s not going to depress them or weird anyone out, either.
Someone should check on Jerry Dipoto and AJ Preller. Maybe someone sent them on a fishing trip together and told them the deadline was next week. This is incredibly normal stuff for both teams, here. — GB
Tampa Bay Rays
There was a lot of hype about Tampa Bay’s zeal to deal at this deadline. They had the prospects to land Tarik Skubal. They have the best record in the American League in a down year for the junior circuit. And Erik Neander has never been shy about making moves. But rather than go big on Skubal, the Rays bought low on Freddy Peralta, who has been suffering through the worst season of his career. Odds are that pitching coach Kyle Snyder and the team’s staff will rectify some of Peralta’s delivery woes and improve his fastball. It just won’t make the same sort of splash that landing Skubal would have. As for Liam Hicks? Well, it wouldn’t be a trade deadline or an offseason if the Rays didn’t add a new component to a catching platoon. — AM
Texas Rangers
After signaling that everyone and anyone could be available, the Rangers made some minor moves to improve their minor chances. They’re one of those wacky Schrödinger’s contenders, both contending and under .500, so it’s not like they could have been expected to be anywhere else. This isn’t the roster on which to mortgage the future, and it’s not the deadline in which to do it.
If the Rangers get demerits, it’s that they teased us with bigger trades involving notable players like Corey Seager and Jacob deGrom. That was always going to be implausible, though, so here you go. Plausible. — GB
