What we learned from a wild Trade Deadline

We don’t do dull Deadlines in MLB.

The move to “one true Trade Deadline” with the elimination of the August waiver trade period in 2019 and the expansion of the postseason format in the current CBA have combined to make the midseason trade market reliably fun and fruitful.

Even when it appears early in the year that we might have a shortage of sellers or productive trade pieces, there’s always some craziness lurking around the corner – struggles that spark a sell-off, injuries that increase aggressiveness, creative concepts that cross the finish line. On Thursday alone, 35 trades were consummated. If you include the numerous swaps that happened on Wednesday, we get an even 50.

That was the case once again in the 2025 Trade Deadline that left us with these six key takeaways.

1. Starting pitching (basically) stood still

While this was a voluminous Deadline Day overall, the starting pitching market was notable more for who didn’t move than who did.

Sandy Alcantara, who entered the year as the seeming darling of the Deadline before his post-Tommy John performance left a lot to be desired, stayed put in Miami, as did Edward Cabrera. All-Star Joe Ryan stayed put in Minnesota, even as seemingly everybody else moved out.

Dylan Cease (Padres), Zac Gallen (D-backs), MacKenzie Gore (Nationals), Luis Severino (A’s) and Mitch Keller (Pirates) were among the other trade candidates who need not forward their mail at the moment. The Royals extended Seth Lugo rather than swapping him.

It’s distinctly possible that NONE of the starters moved at this Deadline make a playoff start for their new clubs this year.

Shane Bieber was the most accomplished starter moved (from the Guardians to the Blue Jays), but he’s thrown all of 12 innings in the big leagues since 2023, so who knows? Merrill Kelly was nails for the D-backs in the 2023 postseason, and that’s a reason why the Rangers wanted him, but Texas is on the fringe of that third AL Wild Card spot at the moment. The Tigers landed Chris Paddack and Charlie Morton, but right now they profile as back-end guys on a very good staff.

Meanwhile…

2. The market revolved around relievers

The only three Top 100 prospects, per MLB Pipeline, who moved at this Deadline were all involved in deals fronted by relievers – shortstop Leo De Vries (No. 3) going from the Padres to A’s in the Mason Miller deal and catcher Eduardo Tait (No. 56) and pitcher Mick Abel (No. 92) going from the Phillies to Twins in the Jhoan Duran deal.

In an industry that prizes prospects like never before, for De Vries, in particular, to go in a trade for a reliever was truly striking. Since MLB Pipeline began ranking prospects in 2004, there has only been one prospect ranked higher than De Vries to ever be traded, and that happened at the Winter Meetings (Yoan Moncada in 2016).

Also striking was the activity of the Yankees, who, all told, forked over six of their top 30 prospects in the deals for David Bednar, Jake Bird and Camilo Doval.

In last year’s postseason, relievers accounted for 51.9% of all innings pitched. Don’t look for that trend to change.

3. The Astros tug at fans’ heartstrings… again!

There were more than four dozen trades consummated in this Deadline period, but the biggest stunner of them all was Carlos Correa going back to Houston.

Then again, should this be stunning? After all, a prominent member of the Astros’ first World Series championship team leaving in free agency only to return in a midseason swap is a page pulled right out of the 2023 Justin Verlander playbook. And just like that Verlander trade with the Mets two years ago, the Astros are getting more than $30 million in salary relief on Correa’s remaining deal.

The ’23 Astros ousted Correa’s Twins in the ALDS despite him batting .400 with three doubles in that series, and now he should have an opportunity to play the October hero in Houston once again. Correa has been open to moving to third base to reduce the rigors on his body and get more out of his bat for a while, so the move to an Astros team that lost Isaac Paredes to a bad hamstring injury works for him on practical and emotional fronts.

4. More like Trade Target Field …

The Twins totally collapsed in the last month and a half of the 2024 and were sub-.500 this season with one of the highest payrolls in franchise history. All of that is a recipe for a sell-off.

But what a sell-off!

In the last 24 hours leading up to the Deadline, the Twins traded 10 players from their 26-man roster – Correa, Paddack, Duran, Griffin Jax, Brock Stewart, Danny Coulombe, Louis Varland, Harrison Bader, Willi Castro and Ty France.

The Fresh Prince of Bel Air empty house meme doesn’t even begin to cover it. Although, as noted above – and given how much his name was tossed around in the rumor mill leading up to the Deadline -- it’s surprising Ryan stayed put amid all that activity.

Having made just one postseason appearance in the last five years and not advanced further than the Division Series in a generation, the Twins are going to start from something resembling scratch. Given that club ownership is exploring a sale, this is clearly a transitional period for the franchise.

5. The Dodgers stuck to their preseason plan

You can read my pal Will Leitch’s appraisal of the Deadline winners, so here I’d like to focus on the quietest of the big-market contenders.

In the midst of another active winter that resulted in a record-breaking payroll, Dodgers president Andrew Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes made it clear that they were trying to leave no stone unturned in the offseason so that they wouldn’t have to act desperate at the Deadline. Overpaying in free agency, they know, is not as punitive to a team this rich in resources as overpaying in prospects.

Even with their bullpen beset by injuries and underperformance, left field a position of concern and the rival Padres making moves, the Dodgers didn’t stray much from that mindset.

They did bring back reliever Brock Stewart, but at the cost of a 28-year-old outfielder in James Outman, and they added a different depth outfielder in Alex Call.

The Dodgers actually were sellers, of a sort -- though “opportunists” would be the better word. They dealt catcher Hunter Feduccia to the Rays for depth catcher Ben Rortvedt, righty reliever Paul Gervase and lefty prospect Adam Serwinowski. L.A. also sent starter Dustin May to the Red Sox for outfield prospects James Tibbs III and Zach Ehrhard.

What they didn’t do was sell the farm for Steven Kwan or one of the top-flight relievers who moved this week.

6. Viva division duels!

The Tigers’ nine-game AL Central lead on a Guardians team that engaged in a soft sell-off might be the only division edge that’s safe.

While the Blue Jays, who are 3 1/2 games up on the Yankees, did a lot of work to shore up their pitching staff in the final days before the Deadline, those Yankees will try to keep the pressure on with their new-look ‘pen.

The Astros might seem inevitable -- and they have a five-game lead in the AL West -- but the second-place Mariners’ moves for Eugenio Suárez and Josh Naylor give them one of the best lineups in the sport. Meanwhile, the surging Rangers added starter Merrill Kelly and lefty reliever Danny Coloumbe.

The Mets and Phillies are separated by a mere half-game in the NL East and both addressed their struggling bullpens in meaningful ways.

In the NL Central, it was actually a relatively understated Deadline for both the first-place Brewers and the second-place Cubs, who are separated by only a game. So that one could stay close down the stretch.

Finally, in the NL West, where the Dodgers’ dominance was considered a fait accompli, AJ Preller is pushing the pedal down once again with his Padres a mere three games back. The results have been mixed through the years, but the man understands the assignment: Here we are now, entertain us.