Before you call for your general manager to be fired and complain about the players your favorite team didn’t sign, think about the bigger picture.
The three top left-handed starters discussed in the trade – Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet and Blake Snell – did not move.
Even the hitters who could have shaken the market – Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Luis Robert Jr., even Brent Rooker – remained unmoved.
It wouldn’t be fair to call it a “Dudline,” especially when 60 trades have been made in the last six days, including 32 on Tuesday before the 6:00 PM ET closing date.
But think about it:
Who was the best starting pitcher traded? Jack Flaherty, who wasn’t as big a prize as David Price in 2014 and ’15, Zack Greinke in 2019 or Max Scherzer in 2021.
The best relievers traded? Tanner Scott and Carlos Estévez, who are both having good seasons but are relatively unknown to many fans.
The best hitters traded? Choose between Jazz Chisholm Jr., Randy Arozarena and Isaac Paredes, none of whom will be confused with Juan Soto, the 2022 deadline prize.
Part of this is luck. For whatever reason, the crop of available players this season just wasn’t that great. But part of it also has to do with the shift in trade dynamics that occurred when Major League Baseball adopted expanded playoffs in 2022. With 12 postseason spots available, more teams are in the race. And fewer teams are inclined to be outright sellers.
Mike Petriello of MLB.com put it best: say on X“I think we need to stop saying it’s a seller’s market because with the expanded playoffs, there are only a handful of teams that are really selling now, and that’s going to be the case every year.”
Call it an unintended consequence of the league’s decision to invite more teams to Oktoberfest. Some might argue that the league should adapt by moving the deadline to mid-August. The extra two weeks would create more separation in the standings and perhaps create clearer lines between buyers and sellers. But such a move would lessen the drama. Acquisitions would have less of an impact. And for six weeks of rent, teams would be even less reluctant to give up better prospects.
Isaac Paredes was one of the biggest names to switch teams, from Tampa Bay to the Chicago Cubs. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports)
This deadline, for all its strangeness, was not without intrigue. The Tampa Bay Rays made 10 trades, most of them sell-offs, and still believe they can compete for a wild card. The Miami Marlins blew up their roster, making 10 trades as well, starting with the Luis Arraez deal in early May. Their commotion resulted in 11 additions to their list of top 30 prospects, according to MLB.com.
The Chicago Cubs’ trade for Isaac Paredes and the three-team deal of the Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago White Sox were stunning, if not blockbusters. And San Diego Padres general manager A.J. Preller was his usual raging self, trading 12 prospects from the Top 20 list The Athletics Keith Law was released in February, with nine of the top 11 taken. (Shortstop Leodalis De Vries, 17, was not on Law’s list, having only signed in January; Law ranked him the game’s 39th-best overall prospect in his last Top 60.)
But despite all the flying bodies, many teams wanted more.
The Baltimore Orioles felt that none of their available players were worth the sacrifice of their best talent. One of them, second baseman Jackson Holliday, hit a grand slam Wednesday in his first game back from Triple A.
Even two players below Baltimore’s top prospects, infielder Connor Norby and outfielder Kyle Stowers, may have been too expensive for lefty Trevor Rogers. And the Orioles’ biggest acquisition, righthander Zach Eflin, has been an average starter most of his career.
The Cleveland Guardians and Milwaukee Brewers are virtual mirror images in the game’s respective Central divisions, first-place teams with new managers and frighteningly thin starting pitching staffs. Both had reason to be aggressive. Neither was entirely so, and not just because of salary considerations.
With limited starters available, the Guardians took a chance on two pitchers who were injured and had yet to appear in a major league game this season, left-hander Matthew Boyd and right-hander Alex Cobb. The two starters the Brewers added, right-handers Aaron Civale and Frankie Montas, both had ERAs above 5.00 when they were acquired.
The Pittsburgh Pirates also did Pirates things, making a series of modest improvements – infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa, outfielder Bryan De La Cruz, left-handed relievers Jalen Beeks and Josh Walker.
Ideally, they would have done more to capitalize on the emergence of rookie righty Paul Skenes, who gives them an excellent chance to win every five days. But again, the available talent pool wasn’t exactly full of difference-makers.
Even some high-revenue teams struggled to meet their needs.
The New York Yankees were without a starting pitcher after failing to reach a deal with the Tigers for Flaherty. The Boston Red Sox overhauled their bullpen by adding Lucas Sims and Luis Garcia, but failed to acquire a right-handed center fielder and a starting pitcher besides James Paxton. The Dodgers settled for additional offensive pieces (Tommy Edman, Amed Rosario, Kevin Kiermaier) instead of acquiring the impact hitter they desired.
And so it went. The Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals, Houston Astros, and Yankees were shut out in their search for another hitter. The San Francisco Giants added only Mark Canha and cut Jorge Soler. Most of the contenders filled their bullpen needs, but it’s not as if the 2016 versions of Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller were available. Some of the relievers, notably Estévez and Scott, should prove to be solid additions. But the New York Mets, who held on to their top prospects and added four relievers, plus righty Paul Blackburn and outfielder Jesse Winker, were among the clubs that essentially just replaced bodies in their bullpen.
This is not to excuse teams that failed to do more. Preller, with his acquisitions of right-hander Dylan Cease in spring training, then Arráez in May, and then relievers Jason Adam and Scott at the deadline, proved that big moves are possible when the head of baseball operations is bold enough.
Some teams certainly deserve a critical look. The White Sox, for failing to score more points while parting with three major leaguers (Erick Fedde, Michael Kopech and Tommy Pham) in their deals with the Cardinals and Dodgers. The Oakland A’s, for exploiting the hot relief market by trading Mason Miller even after his pinky injury. The Minnesota Twins, for only acquiring Trevor Richards, a middling setup. The Los Angeles Angels and Colorado Rockies, for limiting their activities to trading relievers.
The Angels, under owner Arte Moreno, operate in their own insular universe, with their long-term plan extending only to the next day’s draft. The Rockies are similarly bizarre, and seem to pride themselves on being conscientious objectors at the deadline.
Those teams’ plays are tired. But for most other clubs, the deadline offered limited options, anyway. Time will tell whether the Astros overpaid for left-hander Yusei Kikuchi, whether Preller did the same for relievers Scott, Adam and Bryan Hoenig, or whether other teams, in their attempts to repair their bullpens, also overdid it. But the high prices simply reflected supply and demand.
Give your GM some slack this time. There was only so much quality to be had.
(Top photo: Rich Storry/Getty Images)
