To recap: Tarik Skubal is now a Dodger, Freddy Peralta is a Ray, Kevin Gausman is a Cub, Casey Mize is a Padre, Luke Weaver is a Pirate, Adley Rutschman is the Red Sox's catcher, Luis Arraez is a Phillies infielder and … well, just take a look below for more. In this week’s post-deadline Power Rankings reshuffle, we’ll highlight every team’s biggest move or moves. (And you can find the winners and losers of the trade deadline here and our trade grades for the biggest moves here.) The Angels got a lot worse at the deadline, which is … actually refreshing! This organization wasn’t ready to contend anytime soon and was in need of an overhaul.
The infusion of nine prospects to the system — even if it meant parting with controllable pieces, including starter José Soriano and outfielder Jo Adell — was a necessary move. They now have a new top position player prospect in shortstop Arjun Nimmala, a top-50 prospect in baseball. Remember when the A’s were 38-38?
Me neither. They’ve lost 29 of their past 36 games and nothing really changed with their outlook at the deadline. Their biggest move was trading 2022 third-round pick Colby Thomas, a corner outfielder who has been a below replacement level player in his brief MLB tenure, for 2019 first-round pick Seth Johnson, a reliever from the Phillies who has also been a below replacement level big-league player.
Much like the Athletics, this was a team that needed to sell but lacked the talented rentals to bring back impact pieces. They held onto controllable arms Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo and sold low on injured starter Kris Bubic — to, guess who, the Dodgers — after an All-Star season last year. Their biggest move was getting pitching prospect Lucas Braun as part of the Lane Thomas trade to Atlanta.
This had a chance to be a bigger deadline for the Rockies, considering the interest in All-Star catcher Hunter Goodman and the lack of available outfielders for contending teams. But Goodman stayed, as did outfielders Jake McCarthy and Mickey Moniak, who reportedly signed a two-year extension amid the deadline chaos. The Rockies did trade outfielder Brenton Doyle and relievers Antonio Senzatela, Victor Vodnik and Seth Halvorsen to add mostly arms to the farm system.
The Giants weren’t able to move any of their long-term deals, but they did what they had to do, trading most of their rentals. Ramon Marquez (acquired in the Luis Arraez trade), Henry Lalane (acquired in the Heliot Ramos trade) and Miguel Mendez (acquired in the Robbie Ray trade) immediately become three of the best pitching prospects in the system, and it will be interesting to see if a change of scenery can unlock more out of former top prospect Marcelo Mayer. They needed to sell, and they did.
The only surprise was that they held onto Luis Robert Jr., who maybe didn’t have the market we expected. Their returns were more quantity over quality, though infielder Jefferson Rojas — acquired in the Clay Holmes deal with the Cubs — immediately became their top prospect. The Mets also clearly think highly of shortstop prospect Sammy Stafura, a 2023 second-round pick who’s mashing at High-A, as they acquired him straight up for one of the top relievers on the market in Luke Weaver.
Huh? This was a confounding deadline for the Reds, who traded Nathaniel Lowe and Caleb Ferguson but held onto rentals Brady Singer, Tyler Stephenson and Brock Burke. With as many contenders as there were out there in need of catching help, I have no idea how or why Stephenson in particular is still on the team.
The Adley Rutschman era is over with unfulfilled promise and zero playoff wins. The O’s received a significant haul of prospects in dealing away their franchise catcher to a division rival — Anthony Eyanson and Kyson Witherspoon are now two of their top arms on the farm. It’s very possible they win that trade, but at what greater cost?
It's another year in which the fan base has to think toward the future instead of the present. Taylor Ward, Dean Kremer and Tyler Wells were also part of the deadline sale. After trading Tarik Skubal two days before the deadline, the Tigers were a fascinating team to watch to see what they did next.
They were still within striking distance of a wild-card spot, so they could have gone either way — tear it down and look to the future, or convince the fan base that even after dealing Skubal there were still enough pieces in the rotation to contend. But by trading Casey Mize at the buzzer, while holding onto other pieces (including a rental in Gleyber Torres), this felt more like a half measure. When you’re a team withstanding an unexpectedly poor first half after coming two outs away from winning the World Series a year ago, you can understand the desire to thread the needle at the deadline.
The Blue Jays did that arguably more than any other team, adding starters José Soriano, Spencer Arrighetti and Jameson Taillon and infielder Josh Smith while trading starter Kevin Gausman, outfielder Daulton Varsho and former closer Jeff Hoffman. The 2026 magic might have run out for a youthful St. Louis club.
After losing each of their first five series to start the second half, the Cardinals traded Dustin May, JoJo Romero and Lars Nootbaar at the deadline. The deal with the Brewers netted two legit outfield prospects in Alexander Frias and Josiah Ragsdale. This was not a deadline about capitalizing on unexpected success.
A recent sweep of the Phillies, and moving just a couple games out of a playoff spot, didn’t cause the Marlins to change direction. They were light sellers, trading one of their best hitters this year in Liam Hicks and a starter in Braxton Garrett to look toward the future, but they held onto Sandy Alcantara. What a difference a week makes.
Last Tuesday, the Rangers were two games up in the division and seen as potential buyers. Then they lost six straight and basically sat out at the deadline. They did, at least, grab a couple relievers in Chase Silseth and Adam Macko, but it was quiet in Arlington.
The Nationals have lost six straight and are unsurprisingly looking to the future after trading their best pitcher, Foster Griffin, to the Guardians and one of their top hitters, Luis Garcia Jr., to the Yankees. They needed an infusion of arms into the system, and that’s what they got. Some should quickly assist what is one of the worst bullpens in baseball.
The trade for starter Connelly Early already looks like a big win. A year after selling off every big piece in their bullpen, the Twins used this deadline to try to patch it back up by adding Jeff Hoffman and AJ Minter. They needed a right-handed bat and found one in Taylor Ward.
They also traded from their excess of starting pitching and got Luis Castillo’s contract off the books in a deal with the White Sox, adding an intriguing catching prospect (Boston Smith) and a piece who can help their bullpen now (Seranthony Domínguez) in the process. Their deadline looks better when you consider how little the other AL West contenders did to improve. They’ve won 11 of 13, just swept the Rangers to move into first in the AL West … and got little help from the front office at the deadline to back up their strong start to the second half.
The Astros picked up Daulton Varsho to help a lackluster Houston outfield, but they traded Spencer Arrighetti to get him when they could really use more, not less, starting pitching. The Guardians needed to add more pop to their lineup (who would have thought?), and the additions of Jo Adell and Nathaniel Lowe should do that. The more unexpected move was their trade for All-Star Foster Griffin, which adds depth to an already solid rotation.
Relief pitching was the obvious area of need, and the Pirates completely rebuilt their bullpen by adding Luke Weaver, Camilo Doval, Lake Bachar and Kirby Yates. The Weaver acquisition was one of the best moves any team made at the deadline. I was all set to put Arizona in the top 10 … and then they snoozed at the deadline.
Outfielder Lars Nootbaar could be a nice addition, but this was a disappointing deadline for the D-backs, who could have used both first base and pitching reinforcements and whose play to start the second half deserved more. With both the bats and the team heating up, GM AJ Preller managed to fix the biggest problem area of the club by acquiring starters Casey Mize and Robbie Ray. Whatever you think of Preller’s body of work, you have to give him credit for always finding a way to surprise at the deadline regardless of how depleted the farm system might be.
The White Sox needed pitching help and got it, but I’m not a huge fan of the Luis Castillo trade. He has a 5.06 ERA, his strikeout rate is plummeting, and he has been a below replacement level pitcher on the year. I wish they would have added more of a sure upgrade to the rotation.
We’ll see if Castillo can turn it around with a change of scenery. I liked the Huascar Brazoban addition for the bullpen, and Brenton Doyle provides more outfield depth. This will be one of the most interesting teams to watch after the deadline.
The addition of Luis Arraez gives the offense a needed boost and an element it has been missing, but he also completely reshuffles the defensive alignment. Surely that won’t be a problem, right? The additions of Brooks Raley and Caleb Kilian were important moves for the bullpen.
It was a bit of an odd deadline for the Yankees, who didn’t address their needs at catcher or the bullpen but did manage to upgrade the offense with the additions of Luis Garcia Jr. and Heliot Ramos. Garcia might be the best bat moved at the deadline, but I’m still surprised Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson, at the very least, isn’t on this team. "Adley Rutschman, Boston Red Sox catcher." Imagine saying that when Alex Cora got fired in April.
Or in May, when Boston was 23-33. Or in June, when Boston was 32-46. The Red Sox have won 28 of 33 games, and after sweeping the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium, Craig Breslow went all-in at the deadline.
Now, we wait to see if the Rutschman gamble was worth it. The Cubs needed pitching help across the board. How about Kevin Gausman, Clay Holmes, Braxton Garrett and Ryan Zeferjahn?
That do anything for you? Jed Hoyer needed a big deadline if he wanted the Cubs to contend, and he delivered. The Braves failing to get an impact starter was one of the biggest swings and misses of the deadline.
Lane Thomas, Tyler Mahle and Brent Suter might be useful pieces for them, but their start to the season deserved more than depth. They lose a spot on this list for their inaction. They raised the ceiling of the rotation by adding Freddy Peralta, acquired a useful bullpen arm in Tyler Wells, and while everyone was penciling in Luis Arraez as the logical bat to add, the Rays instead made an unexpected big swing to upgrade at catcher by trading for Liam Hicks.
Don’t be surprised if we look back on that Hicks move as one of the biggest of the deadline. Dustin May, JoJo Romero and Antonio Senzatela will all help the Brewers. But none of those pitchers are Tarik Skubal (or even Casey Mize, Clay Holmes, Foster Griffin or José Soriano).
That is worth remembering if they flame out in October again. The trade for Tarik Skubal has distracted a bit from the fact that the Dodgers have not been playing good ball. They’ve now lost six of their past eight games after running into the buzz saw that is the Red Sox over the weekend.
But, who are we kidding? On Tuesday, Skubal will make his Dodgers’ debut, Blake Snell is throwing what will likely be his final rehab start, and Tyler Glasnow heads out on assignment. Also, lest we not forget, they have Ben Rortvedt again.
It's full speed ahead in L.A.
