The baseball trade deadline usually comes and goes with very little fanfare. That certainly wasn't the case this year. I can't remember a trade deadline this eventful maybe ever. And we didn't just have some minor moves. We had some major players change teams, the balance of power shifted, and the postseason picture definitely affected by what happened today.
So who are the big winners and losers? Well, one team that looked like it would be the biggest winner ended up not being so by the end of the day. But interestingly, very little happened that's going to make an impact in the National League. As a result, we start in the Junior Circuit.
Dominoes began falling early, when the Red Sox and A's announced their blockbuster, with Jon Lester going from Boston to Oakland in exchange for Yoenis Cespedes. I didn't get this trade when it happened, and I don't get it now. The Boston trading Lester part is whatever. Everybody kind of knew that was going to happen. But to Oakland? For Cespedes? It doesn't make sense. The A's went out and got another starting pitcher. But in exchange, they gave up their cleanup hitter and arguably their biggest power threat. Sure they made their pitching staff a little stronger, but you still need to score runs, and the lineup is significantly weaker now.
Oakland's lineup is especially weaker than one team in particular. Detroit. Going back to the Jeff Samardzija trade, it's clear that everything the A's are doing is directly because of the Tigers. Basically, they're tired of losing to Detroit in the playoffs. Well, in my opinion, the way to beat Detroit isn't making your offense weaker. Especially because the Tigers already had a better lineup, and the pitching staffs were at worst comparable.
I said the pitching staffs were comparable. They aren't anymore. That's because Lester wasn't the only front-line starter traded on Thursday. The Tigers responded big time. They got David Price. So, Detroit now has the last three Cy Young winners, Rick Porcello, who arguably could've been an All-Star this year, and Anibal Sanchez, who had the best ERA in the American League last season. And, like I said, the lineup was already better before the A's dumped Cespedes. Game, set and match Tigers. Guess who's NOT the favorites in the American League anymore.
That trade was actually a three-way deal with Seattle. Austin Jackson actually had to come out of the Tigers-White Sox game in the seventh inning because he got traded to the Mariners. With Jackson in center field and the leadoff spot, Seattle got a little better. They're still the third-best team in the AL West, though, so the best they can hope for is the Wild Card Game. I actually thought they were going to be the team that ended up with Drew Smyly in that deal, because Seattle could use another starter, but Smyly in Tampa Bay is a decent fit. He's not David Price, but who is?
Boston wasn't done dealing with Lester, either. They shipped out another starter, sending John Lackey to St. Louis for Joe Kelly and Allen Craig. The Red Sox are clearly trying to win the World Series next year. Apparently that's this team's M.O. Suck one year, blow the team up, win the World Series the next, rinse and repeat. Let's see if it works this time.
Surprisingly, the Red Sox also made a couple of trades within the division. They sent reliever Andrew Miller to Baltimore, which strengthens the Orioles' bullpen a little bit, but they (the Orioles) definitely needed to do much more. They might be in first place, but they aren't the best team in the division, and they certainly aren't going to beat Detroit or Oakland in the playoffs. The Orioles needed to add a starter and they didn't do that. They might still win division and/or make the playoffs, but that's more a commentary on the state of the AL East.
But the most surprising trade made by the Boston Red Sox today was sending Stephen Drew to the Yankees. It's the first trade between the bitter archrivals since 1997, and it seems to be six of one, half a dozen of the other. The Red Sox went without Drew for the first two months of the season, brought him back in June, then traded him six weeks later. What exactly was the point? For the Yankees' part, they were thinking about signing Drew in the offseason, yet decided not to, only to get him at the deadline (and make him play second base).
Even though they needed a starter with 80 percent of the rotation on the DL, the Yankees seemed content with Brandon McCarthy and Chris Capuano (probably with the hopes that Michael Pineda and Masahiro Tanaka come back to further strengthen the rotation), so they turned their attention to their anemic offense. They essentially swapped Brian Roberts for Drew, even though Drew has been awful with the bat so far this season. And, even though he's actually been one of their most consistent hitters, they don't want Ichiro to be the everyday right fielder. Enter Martin Prado, who can play multiple positions, so I'm a little more OK with that one. I don't think either move makes the Yankees favorites in the AL East, though.
Like I said, most of the movement took place in the American League. The only National League team that did anything significant was the Cardinals with the Lackey trade, as well as adding Justin Masterson. Much like Baltimore, St. Louis needed to do more (especially since Yadier Molina's out until at least mid-September), but the NL Central is really bad and they got two established starters, so that might be enough for a team as annoyingly consistent as the Cardinals.
It's probably a stretch to put this one in the same category as the three pitching trades, but the Nationals became NL East favorites by getting Asdrubal Cabrera from the Indians. Ryan Zimmerman's out for a while, if not the rest of the year, so they needed to make some sort of offensive move. Ian Desmond's locked in at short, so I'm curious to see where they put Cabrera (my guess is he plays second and Anthony Rendon moves to third), and I doubt this move is for more than this year, but it's a good short-term deal for Washington. And it's enough to push them past the Braves in the NL East.
Of note in the National League is that the two best teams in the NL--the Dodgers and Giants--did essentially nothing. Yes, the Giants got Jake Peavy (and Felix Doubront went to the Cubs, making 80 percent of the Red Sox' rotation that was traded at the deadline), but they were both quiet on deadline day. That's because neither one had to do anything. The Dodgers and Giants already were the two deepest teams in the National League. Sure, LA could've moved one of its 36 outfielders for a reliever, but they can probably live with what they've got.
My final assessment is that the biggest winners here are the Tigers, with the Cardinals and Nationals close behind (OK, not really that close). The A's were big winners until the Price deal went down. Believe it or not, the Red Sox came out as big winners too. They set themselves up nicely for next year, especially if Lester comes back as a free agent. The biggest losers? Baltimore, Toronto and the Phillies (why didn't they trade anybody?), as well as Arizona, which now has nothing to show for the Justin Upton trade.
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