MLB trade deadline’s 3 biggest winners, 3 biggest losers, and 1 team that confused us

The 2023 MLB trade deadline has come and gone, and while we didn’t necessarily get the blockbuster deals that we were expecting (which was largely due to the Angels deciding early on to hold on to what could’ve been the biggest name ever traded at the deadline), there was still plenty of action to sink your teeth into as a baseball fan. As usual, it’s time to figure out who came away from the deadline feeling good and who came away from Aug. 1 feeling like they’re going to regret what they did by the time Oct. 1 rolls around.

Winners: Texas Rangers

If the Rangers are going to have any hope of staying ahead of the Astros, they had to improve their pitching at the deadline. They did exactly that, as their additions of Aroldis Chapman, Jordan Montgomery, Chris Stratton, and even Max Scherzer were able to fill one of their last remaining significant needs. They also managed to do these acquisitions without significantly harming their farm, which is always nice to see.

Texas needed to knock this deadline out of the park and it looks like they did. Of course, winning at the deadline doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to be winning pennants and trophies once the season ends but it goes a long way towards firing up the fanbase and most importantly, the clubhouse. You have to imagine that the Rangers are fired up knowing that their front office just gave them a full vote of confidence and they’re going to be ready to battle tooth-and-nail for the AL West and beyond.

Losers: New York Yankees

While this team wasn’t mentioned in the teams that needed to be buyers or sellers at the deadline, it’s still very obvious that the Yankees had to do something when it came to injecting some life into an offense that had suddenly gone moribund (with a below league average team wRC+ of 94 and a similarly woeful team wOBA of .305) and instead they added Kenyan Middleton to their already-strong bullpen and then added Spencer Howard as a depth piece.

So there you have it: If the Yankees are going to make a push towards the postseason, they’re basically just hoping that their offense finally gets hot. It’s not 2022 and a guy hitting 63 home runs is not walking through that door any time soon. New York didn’t really do much buying and they didn’t really sell, either. Instead, they chose the worst option at a crossroads like this: They stood pat. They’re currently in last place in the thunderdome that is the AL East and also 3.5 games back in the Wild Card but instead they basically decided to roll with what’s gotten them here. It’s baffling from an outsider’s perspective but the fans themselves have come to expect this from their front office.

Winners: Houston Astros

If the Astros are going to have any hope of overtaking the Rangers, they had to improve their pitching at the deadline. You’d be correct to say that this sounds familiar, as it’s exactly what Houston’s rivals to the North had planned for the deadline. As it turns out, the Astros were up to the task as well as they decided to reunite with two old friends in the form of Kendall Graveman and Justin Verlander. The price for Verlander may have been steep in terms of prospects as Ryan Clifford and Drew Gilbert are both highly-regarded but getting the Mets to pay for a huge chunk of Verlander’s contract going forward still helped tilt this in Houston’s favor.

While this didn’t exactly cancel out what the Rangers did, that’s only because Houston’s pitching staff was already in a stronger position than Texas’ was. Now, the Astros have a pitching corps that is absolutely loaded and it’s the kind of pitching that could carry a team to glory in October. That’s exactly what the defending World Series champions have their sights set on as these deals would indicate. They’re ready to go at it with the Rangers for the AL West crown and whether they take the division or not, this still looks like a team that nobody would want to face in October. I mean, did you see Framber Valdez last night?

Losers: San Francisco Giants and Cincinnati Reds

The Giants and Reds are here together because of what they didn’t do and what other teams surrounding them in the standings did. San Francisco has played themselves into a solid spot, as they’re currently only 2.5 games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers for first place in the NL West and are currently tied for first in the Wild Card and a game ahead in that department as well. The Reds are leading their division but that’s just with a tenuous half-game lead, so they can’t exactly rest on their laurels going forward.

Instead, San Francisco and Cincinnati watched as the Diamondbacks made some positive moves with the likes of reliever Paul Sewald and outfielder Tommy Pham, the Padres decided not to throw the white flag on the season and became buyers themselves, the Dodgers added some decent depth to their roster, the Brewers did the same thing, the Marlins filled some holes and the Phillies even dipped their toes in the water and got a couple of deals done.

Meanwhile, the Giants added A.J. Pollock (who has been having a nightmarish season so far) and the Reds added a couple of depth arms for their bullpen. While it’s not like a GM can just make a big trade happen out of thin air, if the Reds and Giants are both on the outside looking in once October rolls around then they’ll be looking at their inactivity at the deadline as a big reason why they’re watching the postseason at home.

Winners: Chicago Cubs

While the Brewers did improve their roster to the point where you could say that they’re odds-on favorites to win the NL Central this year, both they and the Reds now have to check their rearview mirrors for the Cubs. While this was a team that did have one of the biggest names that could have been sold, it was also mentioned that Chicago could find themselves buying at the deadline if things continued to go well for them.

As it turns out, the Cubs did just that. They ended up snatching up Jeimer Candelario from the Nationals and Jose Cuas from the Royals. Candelario was one of the best bats available on the trade market, and Cuas could have a chance to stand out and thrive in a new environment in this Cubs bullpen. The Cubs may not have dominated at the deadline but their recent form and their additions are clear indicators that they’re going for it. Another hot streak could very well have them at or extremely close to the top of the NL Central and it seems like they’ve got the personnel on hand to at least make a decent run at this thing.

Somehow both: New York Mets

Finally we get to the mercurial Mets. This has been a horror show of a season for New York after entering the campaign with such high hopes after winning 101 games in 2022 and having the splashy offseason that they did. Instead, nothing has gone right for the Mets and they found themselves as deserved sellers at the deadline — hopelessly adrift in the NL East race and with very little hope of making a run towards a Wild Card spot.

The Mets did what they had to do and they actually did it very well — they managed to revitalize their farm system with the trades of Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Mark Canha and Tommy Pham. Thanks to the interview that The Athletic posted with Scherzer, we now know that the Mets have possibly decided to punt on 2024 as well with an eye on 2025 and maybe even 2026. On paper, you can’t really knock what the Mets did here and it’s definitely understandable to praise Billy Eppler for the work he did at the deadline in order to make sure that this team is set up nicely for the future.

With that being said, this is basically the equivalent of tripping while walking on the sidewalk, eating pavement and coming up with no teeth missing or any other injuries. Yes, the Mets did a great job selling at the deadline but it’s also absurd that this had to happen with a team that had clear and obvious World Series-or-bust aspirations heading into this season. Things went ‘bust’ for the Mets in a major way and now they’ve gone from trying to solve unfinished business in this year’s postseason to potentially not even thinking about the playoffs until a couple more years down the road while essentially paying tens of millions of dollars for prospects. It’s an astonishing turn of events but you do have to give the Mets credit for at least picking a direction and going full speed ahead in it.