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Which MLB teams are going for it after a pivotal trade deadline? Ranking all 30 teams

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Adley Rutschman runs to first base.

Adding Adley Rutschman in a blockbuster deadline deal helped shift the Red Sox into a brand-new tier. Patrick Smith / Getty Images

One reason we love the trade deadline is that it’s a moment of real transparency: Front offices tell you exactly what they think of their team with how they operate before the deadline. This year at The Athletic, we’ve tracked each team’s ambition through the final week leading into the deadline, looking at who’s all-in on 2026 and who’s waiting for a different competitive window.

For our final summary of the Ambition Index, we’re renaming and redefining some of our tiers:

  • Tier 1: World Series or bust — Teams that could consider this season a disappointment if they only win the pennant.
  • Tier 2: Oh, we’re going for it — Teams that were especially aggressive at the deadline, sacrificing real future value for the present.
  • Tier 3: Contending sustainably —Teams that are in it every year — and aim to remain in it every year, which limits their aggressiveness at the deadline.
  • Tier 4: Did we do enough? — Teams with a lot invested in 2026 that made solid moves but still feel short of pennant contention
  • Tier 5: Let’s roll the dice in October — Teams that have improved their chances to get to the postseason without really moving their odds of winning a pennant.
  • Tier 6: Pulling back — Teams that could have gone in more aggressively but decided instead to stand pat or sell a little bit.
  • Tier 7: On to 2027 — Teams that operated as standard sellers.
  • Tier 8: Time to start over — Teams that decided now was the time to start overhauling the roster over the next few seasons.

Note that these aren’t a ranking of the best deadlines or even the teams best positioned the rest of the way. This is more narrowly focused on how these teams viewed themselves at the deadline.

Updated MLB Ambition Index

Updated Team Previous

Tier 1 (1)

Tier 1 (1)

Tier 2 (2)

Tier 3 (7)

Tier 3 (3)

Tier 2 (4)

Tier 3 (4)

Tier 2 (3)

Tier 3 (5)

Tier 2 (2)

Tier 3 (6)

Tier 2 (5)

Tier 4 (7)

Tier 3 (6)

Tier 4 (8)

Tier 3 (8)

Tier 4 (9)

Tier 3 (10)

Tier 4 (10)

Tier 3 (9)

Tier 4 (11)

Tier 4 (11)

Tier 5 (12)

Tier 4 (15)

Tier 5 (13)

Tier 4 (13)

Tier 5 (14)

Tier 4 (12)

Tier 5 (15)

Tier 4 (16)

Tier 5 (16)

Tier 4 (14)

Tier 6 (17)

Tier 4 (18)

Tier 6 (18)

Tier 5 (19)

Tier 6 (19)

Tier 6 (21)

Tier 7 (20)

Tier 6 (22)

Tier 7 (21)

Tier 5 (20)

Tier 7 (22)

Tier 6 (23)

Tier 7 (23)

Tier 4 (17)

Tier 7 (24)

Tier 6 (24)

Tier 7 (25)

Tier 6 (26)

Tier 7 (26)

Tier 7 (27)

Tier 7 (27)

Tier 7 (28)

Tier 7 (28)

Tier 7 (29)

Tier 7 (29)

Tier 6 (25)

Tier 8 (30)

Tier 7 (30)

Let’s get down to who showed their hands at the deadline:

  • The Dodgers remained alone in Tier 1, as was almost certainly going to be the case when they acquired Tarik Skubal on Saturday night. No one else did enough to make you favor them over Los Angeles in an October series.
  • The Red Sox were Monday’s most aggressive team, giving up big-time prospects to land Adley Rutschman from the division-rival Orioles. Boston is looking to capitalize on its recent hot stretch to emerge as a real contender for the American League pennant.
  • The Rays, Brewers, Yankees and Braves still occupy the “Contending sustainably” tier, though that’s dropped from Tier 2 to Tier 3. All added, with Tampa Bay and Milwaukee giving up some real prospect value to do so. But their systems are good enough that it still doesn’t feel as if they’ve pushed a huge stack of chips in on 2026.
  • In the NL, the Cubs and Phillies occupy Tier 4, with a potential NLDS matchup in their future. Both faced uphill climbs to chase down division leaders, both added in real ways anyway, both feel like they’ll still be October underdogs. (Blame it on the National League.) The Cubs picked up a pair of October starters in Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes, as well as a potential big-time reliever in Ryan Zeferjahn. The Phillies made their big move for Luis Arraez, shifting their defense around to make it work. Brooks Raley and Caleb Kilian should help in the ‘pen as well. The White Sox, Guardians and Astros land here from the AL. Put them in the NL, and we’d probably push them down a tier, below the Cubs and Phils. But there’s a real opportunity for any of these teams to land a first-round bye by claiming their divisions.
  • The teams in Tier 5 look mainly content to get to October, eschewing the major moves that could alter their odds to advance in the postseason. Here we’re talking about the wild-card races for the final few spots. In the NL, that’s San Diego, Pittsburgh and Arizona; in the AL, it’s Minnesota and Seattle. The Twins made three deals, while the Mariners are hoping Taylor Ward solves their issues from the right side of the plate.
  • In Tier 6, we have three teams still in the race that largely operated as sellers. Texas was curiously inactive, unwilling to add and unable to unload any of its bigger names. The Marlins traded away Liam Hicks and Lake Bachar, and the Nats sold high on Luis García Jr. and Foster Griffin — moves that help the future but considerably damage their chances to hang around this year.
  • Our group of sellers in Tier 7 grew considerably as the deadline approached. The Blue Jays did a little bit of buying with José Soriano but traded away Gausman, Daulton Varsho and Jeff Hoffman. The Orioles looked like potential buyers earlier in the week; instead, they traded away a one-time franchise cornerstone, albeit for a huge haul of prospects. The Giants and Mets mainly traded away impending free agents while not stepping back into full rebuild mode.
  • And alone in Tier 8, we have the Angels — which isn’t necessarily a denigration of their deadline. This is the kind of deadline the Angels have needed for a while, as they dealt Jo Adell and Soriano with team control remaining. Los Angeles didn’t go as far as it could have — Reid Detmers and Zach Neto are still here, to say nothing of Mike Trout — but it’s a solid step in a needed direction.

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Champions League: Jacob Bergstrom aims to continue Mjallby fairytale against Slovan Bratislava

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Last season’s surprise title triumph made headlines around the world, mainly because of Mjallby’s remote location. The club is based in Hallevik, a coastal village in southern Sweden with fewer than 1,000 residents.

As the strongest football team in Blekinge County, Mjallby attract fans from across the region, averaging home crowds of 5,000 last season.

They also attract players such as Bergstrom, who grew up an hour’s drive north in Blekinge’s capital Karlskrona, a naval city where handball and ice hockey are more popular.

When Bergstrom rejoined Mjallby after a brief spell with Stockholm-based Djurgarden in 2023, he and his wife moved to Hallevik. They and their two children now call it home.

Although Hallevik is a sleepy fishing village come the winter, holidaymakers quadruple its population in the summer.

And Bergstrom likes to cycle to games and training at Mjallby’s home ground Strandvallen. It is just 100 metres from the Baltic Sea, nestled between some woods, a campsite and an outdoor swimming pool.

“You have the ocean and the people,” adds Bergstrom. “It’s so beautiful by the water and the beach.

“In the winter there’s not many people here, so it doesn’t fit for everyone, but it fits for us.”

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BBC Sport quiz: Who am I? Guess The Hundred star cricketer No 15

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Welcome to our special cricket edition of our Who am I? game.

The rules are simple. Each day of The Hundred there’s a new cricketer taking part in the tournament who we want you to guess in as few attempts as possible.

After each wrong guess you unlock a new clue. Guess the answer after as few clues as possible to score more points.

Three is a good score, four or five points is exceptional.

So take part and return for more tomorrow.

Today’s player and clues set by BBC Sport’s Callum Matthews.

After more quizzes? Go to our dedicated Sports Quizzes page and sign up for notifications to get the latest quizzes sent straight to your device.

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F1 Q&A: Aston Martin and Adrian Newey, Malaysia, Imola, McLaren and its engines, upgrades

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There seem to be more significant upgrades from a number of teams this year, McLaren’s being the latest. Will the top four teams be bringing many more in the second half of the season or is there a limit to what they can do? – Richard

All the F1 teams headed into 2026 knowing that the season would be defined by development.

When there is a new rule set, this is always the case. The longer a set of rules exists, the more a) the car designs converge; b) teams get into diminishing returns.

But at the start, progress comes faster and in bigger steps, and that explains the fluctuation in form between the top teams so far this season.

Typically, a team will bring an upgrade, their competitiveness will increase, but then it will shift as other teams bring their own upgrades.

The longer a team leaves it between upgrades, the more they fall back.

That’s why McLaren, for example, made a leap forward with their Miami upgrade, but slowly slipped back as Mercedes and Ferrari brought their own big developments in Canada and Spain.

Then, McLaren leapt forwards – even more than they expected – with their Hungary upgrade. And they have another due in Zandvoort. And more to come after that.

Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull also have developments to come after the summer break.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said in Hungary: “I still believe that if we want to be in a position to fight for victories consistently in the future, we need to keep our focus on delivering more upgrades. That is the plan, but we are not naive. We know that this will be the plan for all the teams.

“Like it’s always been in this 2026 season, it’s a matter of a race of upgrades. And the good news is that McLaren is now back in this race of upgrades while fighting for the lead.

“But I expect that the car that will be the best car at the end of the season will keep adding tenths of a second in the next 11 races, probably as much as half a second. So definitely a lot of work ahead of everyone, not only McLaren.”

The limiting factor is the cost cap – all teams are restricted to spending no more than $215m on racing and development this season.

This means teams have to be strategic in how they deploy their new parts, “rather than just throwing it in at every grand prix, like in the past”, as Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff put it in Hungary.

He added: “We’re bringing upgrades, we’re closely monitoring how much we can bring. At the moment, cost cap-wise, we’re in a good spot. We’ve tried to have it a little bit more second-half-of-the-season weighted, and we’ll see if that’s enough.”

Why don’t McLaren make their own engines? They often seem to struggle because they rely on others’ (Mercedes) power units, who are also a direct competitor. Surely McLaren have the expertise and they could benefit their road car industry and their F1 car if they became a works team. – Jack

Making a Formula 1 engine is a highly specialised enterprise. It’s also extremely expensive. The manufacturers supplying engines to F1 this year have all spent hundreds of millions of pounds developing their power-units.

Apart from Red Bull, all are car manufacturers who have wider automotive companies to offset the cost, and expertise on which to lean.

There is now an engine budget cap, set at $190m in a company’s inaugural year, and $148.5m after that.

McLaren is a road-car manufacturer. But it does not build engines. It outsources its engines to a UK company called Ricardo.

The plans for the next F1 engine, due in either 2030 or 2031, are still being formalised, and there is considerable debate about them.

However, one aspect all stakeholders are agreed upon is for the costs to come down, perhaps even to the point where becoming a supplier of customer engines becomes a viable business proposition, which is not the case at the moment.

McLaren have proved they can win titles as a customer team, but they have also had frustrations with their Mercedes relationship this year. They have discovered how customer teams are on the back foot when it comes to maximising the operations of such complex engines at the start of a new regulation cycle.

As for the future, McLaren Racing chief executive officer Zak Brown said at the Monaco Grand Prix: “Priority one is to stay with Mercedes. They’ve been a great partner. Any time a new regulation comes out, we’ll take a look and see, is it something technically that’s interesting? Is it something fiscally that makes sense?

“We’ll go through that process when that happens. But sitting here right now, we’re extremely happy with Mercedes and we anticipate continuing with them.”

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