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David SchoenfieldJul 31, 2025, 07:00 PM ET
- Covers MLB for ESPN.com
- Former deputy editor of Page 2
- Been with ESPN.com since 1995
This year's MLB trade deadline didn't have star players on the move -- like Juan Soto in 2022 -- or the volume of last year -- when there were 68 trades on deadline day -- but, as usual, the 6 p.m. ET cutoff went down with a flurry of activity.
We did have two shocking trades: The Astros brought back former star Carlos Correa while the Athletics traded closer Mason Miller to the Padres for Leo De Vries, one of the best prospects in the game. Former Cy Young winner Shane Bieber, still rehabbing in the minors, went from Cleveland to Toronto, while the Orioles and Diamondbacks were busy as expected. And the Twins? Well, we'll get to them.
Who came out on top as the biggest winners of the deadline? And who were the biggest losers, leaving much to be desired? Let's dig in.
The big winner: Seattle Mariners
The Mariners acquired the two best hitters to move at the deadline in Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor in two separate trades with the Arizona Diamondbacks -- and remarkably didn't have to give up any of their top 10 prospects to do so. That's some crackerjack dealing from president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, who has always been an aggressive trader but has also been limited through the years by a stingy ownership group that has capped the Mariners' payroll. Given the approval to add some dollars, Dipoto has now constructed one of the best lineups in the majors with the top home run duo in Cal Raleigh and Suarez.
The Mariners have just one playoff appearance since 2001, having missed the postseason by one win each of the past two seasons after making it in 2022, so there certainly was an urgency to go big in a season where the American League is so wide open. They're still battling for a wild-card spot and trying to chase down the Houston Astros in the AL West, so October is no guarantee, and they'll need to get more consistency from a rotation that was among the best in the majors in 2024 but ranks 14th in the majors in ERA this season (and 23rd on the road).
The only knock on Seattle's deadline: Dipoto had said he wanted to add an impact reliever, and while he did get lefty Caleb Ferguson from the Pittsburgh Pirates, getting a high-leverage setup guy for Andres Munoz would have capped an even better trade deadline.
Other winners
With an aging roster and three starting pitchers who are crushing it right now in Zack Wheeler, Cristopher Sanchez and Ranger Suarez, the Phillies are absolutely in full-throttle win-now mode and getting Jhoan Duran addresses their biggest Achilles heel. Jordan Romano and his 6.81 ERA leads the team with eight saves. They'll get Jose Alvarado back from his PED suspension but he's ineligible for the postseason. Phillies fans don't need to be reminded of the 2023 NLCS (when Craig Kimbrel lost two games) or last year's NLDS (when Jeff Hoffman lost twice).
In Duran, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski acquires not only an immediate upgrade for his closer but also a long-term solution, since Duran is under team control through 2027. It cost the Phillies their No. 4 and 5 prospects in catcher Eduardo Tait and pitcher Mick Abel, but Tait is still just 18 years old and years away from the majors while Abel scuffled a bit in six starts with the Phillies. With the need to improve their high-leverage relief, this was a deal the Phillies had to make. In a second trade with the Minnesota Twins, Dombrowski also added useful outfielder Harrison Bader, who provides a needed right-handed bat and could end up as the regular in center field if he keeps hitting like he did with Minnesota.
The Mets bullpen had been struggling for two months -- at least, aside from Edwin Diaz, who has been lights out of late. So president of baseball operations David Stearns used the deadline to remake it, turning it into what, at least on paper, now looks like one of the best in the game. Tyler Rogers is unconventional with his underhand delivery and men's league velocity, but he gets batters to pound that sinker into the ground and he's been one of the top relievers this season with a 1.80 ERA. Ryan Helsley and Gregory Soto provide a power arsenal from the right and left sides, respectively.
With Diaz, Reed Garrett, Ryne Stanek and Brooks Raley already on the roster, this pen is now loaded. October baseball is a different game than the regular season: There are more days off, which makes it even easier to go heavy on the bullpen. We've seen the Atlanta Braves in 2021, the Houston Astros in 2022 and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2024 win the World Series on the backs of their bullpens. The deals cost the Mets two of their top-10 prospects in infielder Jesus Baez (No. 5) and outfielder Drew Gilbert (No. 7), plus pitcher Blade Tidwell, who was No. 10 on Baseball America's list. Dombrowski and Stearns have shown why they're regarded as two of the top executives in the game -- they're not afraid to make a bold move, acting a day before the deadline to ensure they got the top relievers available.
To cap it off, the Mets added center fielder Cedric Mullins, who gives them more offense than Tyrone Taylor but less defense. That will probably turn into a platoon situation or allow the Mets to spread out some DH at-bats to Juan Soto. Nothing wrong with improving the depth.
The Astros added Carlos Correa to play third base, outfielder Jesus Sanchez to give them a much-needed left-handed bat and utility infielder Ramon Urias. They're getting shortstop Jeremy Pena back on Friday, so suddenly the lineup is much improved compared to the stopgap group Houston has been running out there for much of July.
Correa looms as one of the key players these final two months as the Astros look to hold off the Mariners and Texas Rangers in the AL West. He hasn't been an impact hitter in 2025, batting .267/.319/.386 with just seven home runs in 93 games, but he's one season removed from a 151 OPS+, when his OPS was 200 points higher than it is this year. It will be fascinating to see what happens in his return to Houston.
The Astros have one of the best late-game bullpens in the majors and one of the best 1-2 starting pitcher duos in Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown. They've been winning without Yordan Alvarez. They don't necessarily need a great offense with their pitching, but they have a better one with Correa, Sanchez (.814 OPS against right-handers) and Urias.
The Mason Miller-for-Leo De Vries trade was one of the more shocking we've seen in years, not just because top-100 overall prospects are rarely traded at the deadline -- let alone a consensus top-five prospect in De Vries -- but because the A's got him for a reliever. Yes, a very good one in Miller, who the San Diego Padres might try as a starter next season, but any time you can flip a reliever for a potential superstar, you make the move.
At 18 years old, De Vries is holding his own in High-A, with an OPS 60 points above the Midwest League average despite being the youngest player in the league (and one of just two teenage position players). You could say he's where Carlos Correa or Francisco Lindor were at this age, although you could just as easily point to a long list of hyped teenagers who didn't make it. Still, everybody thinks De Vries is the real deal and his precocious results suggest he should develop into at least an above-average regular. This a potential franchise-altering move.
General manager Brian Cashman promised the Yankees were going to "go to town" this deadline. They added third baseman Ryan McMahon, infielders Jose Caballero and Amed Rosario, closer David Bednar, outfielder Austin Slater and reliever Jake Bird, which is ... a lot of pieces. But is that going to town? McMahon could end up as one of the sleeper acquisitions of the deadline, as escaping Colorado for a more analytical organization could be good for the psyche and the numbers. Caballero gives them an option to play shortstop over the struggling Anthony Volpe or at least gives them one of the best basestealers in the game.
But the Yankees didn't get Eugenio Suarez or Jhoan Duran or a starting pitcher.
Bottom line: This was hardly the Death Star approach we always expect from the Yankees -- but, really, they haven't operated like that in a long time. Their biggest deadline moves in recent years were Jazz Chisholm Jr. last year and Andrew Benintendi in 2022. Don't remind Yankees fans of Joey Gallo in 2021. They have dramatically improved their depth and versatility, so we'll call them winners, but did they do enough to chase down the Toronto Blue Jays in the division?
The big loser: Minnesota Twins ... fans
What a sad, brutal day to be a Twins fan. Gone this deadline period: Carlos Correa, Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland, Danny Coulombe, Harrison Bader, Willi Castro, Brock Stewart and Chris Paddack. That's nine players off the 26-man roster, including the backend of a championship-caliber bullpen. At least they kept Joe Ryan and Byron Buxton.
Sure, some of those guys -- Bader and Castro in particular -- were heading to free agency. It's more the messaging here: We're cheap and we don't care about winning. Was that likely this season? Probably not, as the Twins are 5½ games out of the wild-card race. But it wasn't an impossible idea. One hot streak and they're right back in it. Is it likely next year? Probably not now. The Twins will need to build an entire bullpen from scratch, for starters. They have one legitimate star position player in Buxton and he has trouble staying healthy.
Did they do well in the trades? Time will tell, but it's not like they loaded up on top-100 prospects or anything like that. Catcher Eduardo Tait is the most interesting prospect they got, but he's an 18-year-old in High-A and likely years away from making an impact. It's possible the Twins -- if they spend some of the savings on trading Correa's contract -- can reallocate their resources to build a more competitive, well-rounded team. It's also possible, with the team for sale, that the Twins are entering a Rays- or Pirates-like era of frugality, pocketing more profits while the losses pile up.
This Twins era began with a 101-win team in 2019. They signed Correa in 2022, but the Correa era will have produced just one playoff season in four years. It might be a few years before the Twins are even thinking of the playoffs again. Twins fans can only hope that assessment is wrong.
Other losers
The Cubs weren't inactive -- they added third baseman/utilityman Willi Castro and a couple marginal pitchers in Michael Soroka and Andrew Kittredge -- but it was a surprisingly non-aggressive deadline for a team battling the Brewers for the National League Central title. No Eugenio Suarez. No impact starting pitcher like Merrill Kelly. None of the impact relievers who exchanged teams. The Cubs have a pretty good farm system, so had the resources to make a trade for one of those players, but erred on the side of caution. We'll see if that costs them a division title or haunts them in October.
The Red Sox added pitchers Dustin May and Steven Matz. Meh. May had a 4.85 ERA while starting for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Matz had a 3.44 ERA pitching in relief for the St. Louis Cardinals. Both have some utility -- May gives them a rotation option and Matz has been a multi-inning reliever -- but don't really alter Boston's playoff odds, especially factoring in the moves the Yankees and Blue Jays made or even the Tampa Bay Rays adding a couple higher-impact pitchers in Adrian Houser and Griffin Jax.
The Red Sox could have traded for a first baseman or gotten creative and dealt from their logjam of outfielders. It's understandable why they didn't want to do that now, given they've gone 17-7 in July. Why mess with that momentum? Still, a better starting pitcher than May or an impact reliever would have helped.
We applaud the Reds for making a couple of deals -- after all, they haven't made the playoffs in a full season since 2013 -- but Ke'Bryan Hayes and Zack Littell are odd fits. As my colleague Brad Doolittle wrote, Hayes is a terrific defensive third baseman but hits like a 1970s shortstop (he has the lowest slugging percentage of any player with 600 plate appearances over the past two seasons). The Reds will try Noelvi Marte in right field to clear space for Hayes, but given that Marte had zero experience in the outfield until 11 days ago, the gains Hayes provides on defense might be offset by Marte in right field. Yes, this can be viewed as a long-term deal as much as a win-now move since Hayes is signed through 2029, but once his defense slips even a little, he'll be unplayable.
Littell is a strange acquisition as well since the rotation has been a strength for the Reds and his home run tendencies -- he leads the majors in homers allowed -- are an especially bad fit for the cozy confines of Great American Ballpark. He's allowed just 21 walks in 22 starts, so at least the plus-plus command eliminates some of the damage of the home runs. But Littell doesn't look like an upgrade over what the Reds already have and, unlike Hayes, he's a free agent after the season.
The Tigers were busy adding pitching at the deadline -- with starters Chris Paddack and Charlie Morton and relievers Kyle Finnegan, Paul Sewald, Rafael Montero and Codi Heuer -- but that group doesn't do much to address the bullpen problems that have plagued the Tigers for two months and Paddack or Morton merely replaces the injured Reese Olson without providing an upgrade.
Granted, with a comfortable nine-game lead in the AL Central and their division rivals not doing anything to improve, the Tigers weren't under any intense pressure to improve. Still, in a season where the AL is so wide open, it was a disappointingly conservative approach to the trade deadline, especially since Detroit has one of the top farm systems in the majors. The Tigers didn't have to trade Kevin McGonigle or Max Clark or Bryce Rainer to get better, but they should have at least added an impact reliever.
The Brewers are hardly losers in the big picture, as this is arguably the best team in baseball, and you can argue they already made their two big additions with the return of Brandon Woodruff a couple weeks ago and the June call-up of flame-throwing rookie Jacob Misiorowski. It's also true that their needs -- a power bat for the lineup -- didn't match what was available, although Eugenio Suarez would have been a nice addition.
They did get reliever Shelby Miller from the D-backs, who is having a good year, but the Brewers already had one of the best bullpens in the majors. And if Andrew Vaughn keeps hitting, they'll be OK at first base -- though, he was terrible for the Chicago White Sox prior to the Brewers getting him for a song. Ryan O'Hearn would also have been a nice addition, capable of playing first base or the outfield and improving the bench, but he was dealt to the San Diego Padres. The Brewers are battling the Cubs for the division title -- and avoiding that wild-card series will be huge. We'll see if the Brewers can do that without making any major deals.
