Mitchell Layton/Getty ImagesThere was a lot of wheeling and dealing on the day of the MLB trade deadline.
One of the biggest deals in baseball history happened early on Tuesday. In exchange for a huge return of young talent, the Washington Nationals traded Juan Soto to the San Diego Padres.
The biggest surprise of the year was that the Chicago Cubs didn't move Willson Contreras and Ian Happ at the deadline.
It's a big task to sift through everything that happened in the hours leading up to the deadline. There are some general conclusions that can be drawn from this year's deadline deals.
Has the contender addressed their glaring needs? Selling teams maximized their trade chips. Is the situation worse for individual players?
There were 18 former All-Stars getting traded in the aftermath of the MLB trade deadline in 2022.
Luke Voit (Nic Antaya/Getty Images)The Colorado Rockies are an American baseball team.
The Rockies were the only team that didn't make a trade at the deadline. We should expect more at this point. The Rockies have become the gold standard for front-office incompetence because of their poor handling of the Nolan Arenado andTrevor Story situations. Daniel Bard, C.J. Cron, and Chad Kuhl are all staying put.
J.D. Davis and Eric Hosmer are related.
The three veterans went from clear-cut playoff contender to likely out of the playoffs. Voit was included in the Juan Soto blockbuster after Hosmer exercised his no-trade clause. The New York Mets traded Davis to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for a similar player in Ruf.
There is a baseball team in Boston, the Boston Red Cubs.
Christian Vazquez and Jake Diekman were traded to another team. That approach for a team that has been in a tailspin for the past month is odd. The two most obvious trade chips on the roster were Nathan Eovaldi and J.D.Martinez.
Brandon Marsh (Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)The Toronto BlueJays are a baseball team.
In exchange for a diminishing asset in former top prospect Jordan Groshans, the Astros traded groundball machineZach Pop and veteran setup man Anthony Bass. The oft-injured Groshans is hitting a punchless.250/.343/.289 with one home run in 281 plate appearances at Triple-A this year, while the Blue Jays upgrade a relief corps that ranks 15th in the majors with a 3.89 ERA At the buzzer, they added another person. He can still be a key contributor for the stretch run despite having a down year with an 81 OPS+ in 95 games.
There is a swap between Brandon Marsh andLogan O' Hoppe.
This has the potential to be a rare win-WIN trade in sports. Young outfielder Brandon Marsh fills a massive void in center field for the Philadelphia Phils, while catcher LOGAN O'HOPpe becomes the catcher of the future for the LA Angels after being blocked by J.T. Realmuto in Philadelphia.
TheJoey Gallo.
Gallo doesn't have to deal with the constant negative vibes from the New York Yankees fans anymore, even if he returns to All-Star form or struggles at the plate. The weight is back to normal.
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Jorge Lopez (Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)The Baltimore Orioles have been the most surprising team in baseball this season. Entering play Tuesday, they had a narrow 2.5 game deficit in the wild-card race.
The Orioles played their best baseball of the season in July. That wasn't enough for the front office to keep.
No one expected a blockbuster addition, but the upside of a winning season and a playoff push for a young roster on the rise far outweighs the mediocre returns they got for fan favorites.
It might not seem like the Orioles lost a lot in the grand scheme of things, but selling in the midst of surprise contention is a decision that can be demoralizing.
It would have been a great show of faith in the current core from the club's decision-makers if they had held in 2022. They are content with this being another rebuilding season.
Noelvi Marte (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)The Cincinnati Reds continued to sell off players at the deadline, shipping out Luis Castillo, Tyler Mahle, Brandon Drury, and Tommy Pham.
The Top 10 prospect list now looks like this.
In our latest update, the Reds added infielder Spencer Steer, who was the ninth ranked prospect in the Twins system.
They have a clear cut top 10 farm system.
Jose Quintana (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)In the days leading up to the trade deadline, the St. LouisCardinals were heavily linked to both Washington Nationals superstars. Rival teams viewed them as a potential front-runner to land Soto at one point.
They walked away from the trade deadline with two left-handed pitchers.
He made good on a one-year, $2 million deal with the Pirates this season, as he has a 3.50 earned run average in 103 appearances.
Montgomery is controllable through next season and has pitched to a 3.69 average and 1.10 average in 114.2 appearances. In the first season of a two-year, $10.4 million deal, Gold Glove center fielder Harrison Bader went the other way after a 3.9-WAR performance.
There are two useful rotation pieces, but they are not like a frontline starter or a young star.
According to Jon Morosi of MLB Network, Dylan Carlson was not included in a package that included their top prospects. That meant no deal at all.
TheCardinals might be the favorites in the NL Central, but what could have been a franchise-changing trade deadline ended up being all smoke and no fire.
Christian Vazquez (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)There is no question that the Astros improved at the deadline.
The addition of Christian Vazquez gives them a viable offensive threat at the position and some necessary depth, but incumbent catcher Martin Maldonado is highly valued for his defensive game and ability to handle the pitchers.
First baseman Yuli Gurriel, who is hitting only.243 with a 94 OPS+ on the season, has a chance to be a huge upgrade over another player. At Minute Maid Park, his power should be better than it was at Camden Yards.
Adding veteran left-handed pitcher Will Smith to the relief corps fills a hole and gives them a proven late-inning option who they got to see firsthand last October.
The Astros entered the trade deadline with a chance to make a run at the Yankees for the American League Championship. They did enough to keep up with the pace of their pursuit of another World Series trip.
Willson Contreras (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)Willson is not going to be traded by the Chicago Cubs. Even though they found trade partners for David Robertson and Mychal Givens, they both stayed put.
As he waited to find out where he would play for the rest of the season, he seemed resigned to his fate.
The Cubs are on the verge of losing one of the best catchers in baseball for nothing more than a pick in the upcoming draft.
The front office might try to get a last-minute extension over the last two months. If the Cubs were unwilling to come down from a high asking price, the market would never develop.
It is easier to swallow if he fails to move Happ. He's having the best year of his career and his value may never be higher, so that makes it feel like a missed chance.
The Cubs will be a bit more watchable than expected over the last two months, but if Contreras walks this winter, it will cost a lot of prospects.
Andrew Benintendi (Adam Hunger/Getty Images)The biggest holes on the New York Yankees' roster were plugged before Tuesday's activity kicked into high gear.
The Yankees have a need for a left-handed outfielder. The All-Star was acquired for three prospects who were not part of their elite-level talent.
With the lineup addressed, they turned their attention to the pitchers on Monday when they acquired Scott Effross from the Cubs and Lou Trivino from the A's.
Montas and Trivino will be in the top of the rotation. In 47 appearances this season, Effross has a 2.66 earned run average and has 13 holds. Through the 2027 season, he is under club control.
The acquisition of Montas allowed them to trade left-handed pitcher Jordan Montgomery to the St. Louis Cards.
The Yankees got a taker for Joey Gallo. They sent him to the Dodgers for a pitcher who has 88 strikeouts in 51.2 appearances at Double-A with a high ceiling as a late-inning relief pitcher.
The Yankees added four key pieces for the stretch run, and the only elite-level prospect they had to give up was left-handed pitcher Ken Waldichuck. They have solidified their position as World Series favorites.
Joey Gallo (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)The Dodgers have a 12 game lead in the NL West. The San Diego Padres were able to bridge the gap after everything they did at the deadline.
The Dodgers were in the running for Juan Soto and Luis Castillo, but they didn't make the final cut. It was a huge departure from last summer, when they made a big deal of the deadline by acquiring Max and Trea.
The deal was a buy-low pickup of Joey Gallo in a one-for-one swap with the New York Yankees.
If Gallo makes a big impact in the middle of the lineup, what about the rest of the starting rotation? What about the work done in the middle of the game?
The Dodgers still have an extremely talented roster and a comfortable perch atop the NL West, but they no longer look like clear top dogs in the race for the NL Championship. The Padres improved dramatically and the Mets welcomed Jacob deGrom back.
Juan Soto (The Washington Post)The San Diego Padres got their guy when they swung one of the biggest blockbuster deals in baseball history to acquire Juan and Josh Bell from the Washington Nationals.
It cost them top prospects Robert Hassell III and James Wood.
The Padres have two catchers in Luis Campusano and Jackson Merrill who are solid prospects. After two days of wheeling and dealing that saw them land All-Star closer Josh Hader on Monday and versatile infielder Brandon Drury on Tuesday, the cupboard is still full.
This was a wildly successful 48 hours in San Diego, as they locked up free-agent-to-be Joe Musgrove on a five-year, $100 million extension on Monday.
Even if they can't close the gap on the Dodgers in the NL West, this team is well-equipped for a deep October run and title contention for years to come.
Through Monday's games, all statistics were provided by BaseballReference.
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