Winners and losers of the MLB trade deadline
With Major League Baseball's trade deadline behind us, Jonah Birenbaum, theScore's senior MLB writer, breaks down the winners and losers from this unprecedented season's final flurry of wheelings and dealings.
Winner - San Diego Padres
Uh, wow.
The Padres clearly weren't content to just snap their 13-year playoff drought this season. Rather, after a half-century as a perennial bottom-feeder, general manager A.J. Preller's emergent powerhouse is resolved to win the whole damn thing in 2020 - and get that "big cake," as Fernando Tatis Jr. so deliciously put it - for the first time in franchise history.
The evidence? A dizzying two days leading up to the deadline in which San Diego brokered five trades while turning over nearly one-third of its roster.
The Padres were already plenty formidable before the deadline. Now, after upgrading their bullpen, eliminating the two weaknesses in their explosive lineup, and adding a bona fide ace to an already sneaky-good rotation, they've transformed into a World Series favorite. And not only are they much better equipped to grab that elusive championship than they were 72 hours ago, they managed to pull off this makeover without parting with any of their most highly coveted prospects - a testament to the unrivaled strength and depth of San Diego's farm system - and without leaning overwhelmingly on rentals. Mike Clevinger, the franchise's most-prized deadline addition, remains under control through 2022, while Austin Nola, the Padres' new catcher, won't hit free agency until after 2025, and new designated hitter Mitch Moreland comes with a $3-million club option for 2021.
Those three additions - plus closer Trevor Rosenthal, catcher Jason Castro, relievers Austin Adams and Dan Altavilla, and speedy outfielder Greg Allen - didn't require the Padres to part ways with MacKenzie Gore, Luis Patino, CJ Abrams, Luis Campusano, Robert Hassell, or Adrian Morejon. They're the jewels of a farm system that Baseball America recently ranked the game's second-best, behind only the Tampa Bay Rays. And Taylor Trammell, the best prospect San Diego did give up, experienced a much more fraught path to the big leagues amid Trent Grisham's ongoing breakout.
Meanwhile, a number of the other youngsters the Padres sent off may not have survived the club's forthcoming 40-man roster crunch anyway, and they would've been taken in the Rule 5 Draft. And the big leaguers they unloaded, save for Cal Quantrill, were either underperforming, superfluous, or both.
Long story short: The Padres are significantly better than they were Friday night, and their future is no less bright following a decision to go all-in for 2020.
Loser - Texas Rangers
Besides Clevinger, the most highly coveted player on the market seemed to be Lance Lynn, the veteran right-hander who owns a 1.93 ERA through eight starts in 2020 and was seemingly born anew upon signing with Texas two winters ago. With the Rangers' postseason odds all but nil heading into the deadline, it seemed likely - if not necessarily like a foregone conclusion - that he would be dealt, and Cleveland's haul for Clevinger suggested Lynn would net the Rangers a solid package owing to his additional year of control beyond 2020. That didn't happen, though. For whatever reason, be it a dearth of compelling offers or misplaced confidence that they can turn it around next season, the Rangers opted to hang on to Lynn. They might soon come to regret that decision.
For one, the Rangers don't seem all that close to contending. Their core of position players continues to disappoint - they dangled Joey Gallo for a reason leading up to Aug. 31; their seemingly revamped rotation, bolstered this past winter by the additions of Corey Kluber and Kyle Gibson, was a bust (and Kluber almost certainly won't be retained for 2021); and their farm system isn't poised to graduate any stars before next season. Given their short-term outlook, Lynn is far more valuable to the Rangers as a trade chip than on the mound moving forward, yet they passed up their best opportunity to get a tasty haul for him. He's already 33 and poised to regress at least a little bit - his FIP is considerably higher than his ERA. Even if he continues to dominate for the remainder of 2020, it's hard to imagine the Rangers getting more enticing trade offers this offseason than what they received leading up to Monday's deadline.
Winner - Toronto Blue Jays
None of Ross Stripling, Jonathan Villar, Robbie Ray, or Taijuan Walker could accurately be described as difference-makers, but it's fair to say the Blue Jays - an ascendant club currently clinging to the eighth postseason spot in the American League - are better now than they were a week ago. Marginal gains are still gains. The vacant spots in their injury-ravaged rotation are no longer, and while Ray and Stripling are having disappointing seasons, both are former All-Stars who at least have more upside than "TBD." Meanwhile, Villar, who's quietly amassed more than 6 WAR since the start of 2018, offers a considerable upgrade at shortstop in the continued absence of Bo Bichette, and his versatility, speed, and switch-hitting ability will make him a valuable bench piece upon Bichette's return.
Even if Toronto's efforts don't pay dividends, the club still deserves recognition for its needle-threading efforts. General manager Ross Atkins appreciably bolstered his club's chances of snagging a playoff spot - and of making some noise in the postseason, for that matter - without sacrificing any meaningful long-term pieces. The most highly touted prospect the Blue Jays surrendered Monday is Griffin Conine, a 23-year-old corner outfielder - and the son of former Miami Marlins star Jeff Conine - who wasn't among the organization's top-15 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline. They didn't give up Austin Martin, their top pick in this June's draft. They didn't give up Jordan Groshans, or Simeon Woods-Richardson. Their future looks fantastic, like it did 24 hours ago. And now they have a slightly better chance of turning this season into an especially memorable one.
Loser - New York Yankees
No team heads into September as thoroughly banged up as the Yankees, who looked indomitable at the outset of the season but have slipped to second place in the American League East amid injuries to virtually all of their key players. As the postseason looms, the two most fearsome hitters in their lineup, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, remain sidelined indefinitely, as does James Paxton, their ostensible No. 2 starter. The Yankees could've used reinforcements for the stretch run amid all that uncertainty, particularly in the rotation, which was unspectacular even before Paxton's injury. Yet, New York didn't do a thing Monday, standing pat even in the wake of a 3-7 slide that seemed to reinforce this club's newfound vulnerability.
Now, if Paxton's elbow trouble persists into October, the Yankees will be forced to start one of Jordan Montgomery, rookie Deivi Garcia, or some comparably suboptimal option in the first round of the postseason. If Judge and Stanton don't return in timely fashion, they'll have to entrust regular playing time to a fading Brett Gardner. If Gleyber Torres reinjures his wonky hamstring, which has kept him out since Aug. 20, the Yankees will have to continue relying on Tyler Wade, a career .195 hitter. None of those possibilities are entirely nightmarish, but why are the Yankees, of all teams, leaving anything to chance? They signed Gerrit Cole for $324 million this past winter to avoid flaming out in the postseason once again and extending their World Series drought to 11 years, so their laissez-faire approach to the trade deadline is a little puzzling. It could be costly, too.
Winner - Seattle Mariners
It seemed rebuilding teams were in tough as this unique season's trade deadline loomed. With the postseason more of a crapshoot than usual, and with the season itself so precarious on account of the pandemic, contenders were thought to be disinclined to give up quality prospects, even for big-league contributors with multiple years of control remaining. And, overwhelmingly, that held true: None of the prospects traded Monday cracked Baseball America's most recent top 100 list. One team, however, did manage to finagle a genuinely tantalizing prospect ahead of this year's deadline: The Seattle Mariners nabbed Taylor Trammell in Sunday's seven-player swap with the Padres, and while the soon-to-be 23-year-old (Sept. 13) may have been increasingly expendable in San Diego, the Mariners deserve credit for landing such a prize in such an impossible market.
In exchange for 30-year-old Austin Nola - who has only 377 big-league plate appearances under his belt - and a pair of relievers, the Mariners added a potential plus-plus defender with similarly elite speed who also has solid on-base skills and above-average pop. With Trammell in tow, the Mariners now have six of MLB Pipeline's top 100 prospects, tying them for the most in the majors and providing yet another reason to believe Jerry Dipoto's rebuilding efforts are going to bear fruit. Even with circumstances working against them, the Mariners legitimately managed to brighten their long-term outlook at the deadline, which is more than you can say for virtually every other non-competitive team out there.
Jonah Birenbaum is theScore's senior MLB writer. He steams a good ham. You can find him on Twitter @birenball.