.png?w=1280)
Biggest Winners and Losers of MLB Trade Deadline 2025
Death, taxes and Major League Baseball's trade deadline delivering haymakers left and right up to (and beyond) the buzzer.
These are the things we can count on.
With less than 36 hours remaining until the deadline on Thursday evening, it looked like this could be one of the more sedated mid-summer swap meets in recent memory.
Instead, Carlos Correa, Mason Miller, Eugenio Suárez and plenty more headlined a whirlwind of a day and a half that drastically altered how we feel about quite a few teams around the league.
Let's sum it all up the best way we know how: Winners and Losers.
Winner: Athletics in a California Blockbuster
1 of 10
RHP Mason Miller is one of the most electrifying pitchers in baseball.
He's almost exclusively a two-pitch guy, but he routinely eclipses 103 MPH on his four-seam flamethrower, pairing it with an absolutely lethal slider. In his still-brief MLB career, opponents are 23-for-183 (.126) with one home run, two doubles and 94 strikeouts in ABs that end on a slider. He's also under team control through 2029, which meant it was going to take a ridiculous haul to get the Athletics to move him.
And what a haul it was.
SS Leo De Vries is only 18 years old and is only playing High-A ball, but he's one of the most coveted prospects in all of baseball, MLB.com's pipeline ranking him behind only Pittsburgh's Konnor Griffin and Cincinnati's Chase Burns at No. 3 overall.
He's the type of prospect that is typically as untouchable as they come, especially in recent years of teams clutching their top 100 pearls. But the Padres gave up much more than just their top guy to acquire Miller and LHP JP Sears. They also sent the Athletics their third-best prospect, RHP Braden Nett, as well as RHP Henry Baez and RHP Eduarniel Núñez.
Frankly, it's probably a win-win deal. For the Padres, Miller addresses the impending offseason departure of Robert Suarez (player option) while Sears becomes a durable and controllable arm for a rotation that can't ever seem to stay healthy. They just landed what might be their closer and a No. 4 type of starter for at least the next three seasons.
But in De Vries, the A's got what could become the face of their franchise in Las Vegas in the not too distant future, as well as a desperately needed starting pitcher in Nett who could be a regular in their rotation by the end of next season. Both Baez and Núñez have legitimate potential, too. The former with a 1.96 ERA in 20 Double-A starts this season, the latter with a 2.50 ERA across Double-A, Triple-A and a brief stint in the majors this year.
It might not feel like it until 2028 in Las Vegas, but the A's probably won this landscape-rattling deal.
Loser: Minnesota Twins Fans
2 of 10
During one of these doldrums days coming up in August, we'll need to talk about where Pablo López's shoulder injury ranks among the biggest franchise trajectory altering dominoes to fall in the past decade.
The day after his most recent start, the Minnesota Twins were 34-27, good for the third-best record in the American League. Since then, they've gone an AL-worst 17-30, allowing more runs than every team except the Colorado Rockies.
And while the Pohlad family has been unable to sell the franchise, the Twins sure figured out how to sell off enough of the roster to depress the fan base.
When Byron Buxton said during the All-Star Break that he loved it in Minnesota and had every intention of leveraging his full no-trade clause if they tried to trade him away, that felt like the end of any bubbling thoughts of a full-blown, multi-year fire sale.
At this point, though, it's feeling like Buxton is the only player left on a roster that was stripped of SS Carlos Correa, RHP Jhoan Durán, RHP Griffin Jax, LHP Danny Coulombe, OF Harrison Bader, RHP Brock Stewart, UTIL Willi Castro, RHP Chris Paddack, 1B Ty France, RHP Louie Varland and RHP Randy Dobnak.
A lot of those were impending free agents, but unloading both Durán and Jax with two years of team control remaining and especially shipping Correa's massive contract (while reportedly retaining $33M of it, very "Nolan Arenado and the Rockies" style) back to Houston was quite the one-two punch of embracing a rebuilding situation.
At least they held onto Joe Ryan, who has two years of arbitration eligibility remaining. And they did get OF James Outman from the Dodgers in the Stewart trade and a potential plug-and-play starter in RHP Mick Abel for Durán. Maybe this isn't going to be full-blown multi-year bottoming out like we've seen from the A's and White Sox in recent years.
Still, it cannot feel good to root for this team right now.
Winner: New York Mets' 2025 Bullpen
3 of 10
It was never a secret that most of the New York Mets' bullpen has been a mess, and that adding relievers would be a major deadline focus for them.
Edwin Díaz has been quite the exception to that rule with a slightly unreal line of 33.0 IP, 1 ER, 49 K dating back to April 23. Take his dominance out of the equation, though, and the non-Díaz portion of the Mets' relief corps has a 4.61 ERA during that time.
The thought of Huascar Brazobán or Ryne Stanek pitching high-leverage innings in October was clearly too much for them to bear, as they went out and acquired not one, not two, but three of the most noteworthy rental arms on the block in RHP Ryan Helsley (from STL), RHP Tyler Rogers (from SFG) and LHP Gregory Soto (from BAL).
The Díaz/Helsley combo alone has the potential to be incredible. Right up there with that window when the Brewers had Devin Williams setting up for Josh Hader, or when the 2015 Yankees had Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller both receive votes for AL Cy Young.
Also adding a desperately needed southpaw in Soto and maybe the most durable reliever in baseball in Rogers turns a bullpen that had been an Achilles' heel into a legitimate strength.
Having said that, they sure did give up a lot of future capital to add a bunch of rentals, parting with eight prospects in total. (11, actually, if you include the three sent to Baltimore for CF Cedric Mullins.)
At least they didn't trade away any of their upper echelon prospects, but RHP Blade Tidwell and OF Drew Gilbert are both now top 15 prospects in San Francisco's farm system, as are IF Jesus Baez and RHP Nate Dohm in St. Louis. Most of the "grading every trade" type articles (including our own) gave the Mets the lower grade in each of those 3-for-1 swaps.
If those relievers help win the NL East and/or play a key role in New York's postseason run, though, it's a colossal win for Steve Cohen and Co.
Loser: St. Louis Cardinals
4 of 10
It was more than 10 months ago that the "building for the future" talk publicly began in earnest in St. Louis, with seemingly everyone over the age of 27 potentially up for grabs. Nolan Arenado trade rumors were a staple throughout the winter, but the Cardinals ended up having maybe the most inactive offseason of any franchise.
They overachieved through the first few months of the regular season, yet elected to embrace selling at the deadline, sitting at .500 overall and 5.5 games back in the wild card picture.
Unfortunately, though, they could only sell so much, with Sonny Gray, Miles Mikolas, Willson Contreras and Nolan Arenado all in possession of no-trade clauses and content to stay where they are.
Instead of any sort of productive fire sale that improves their standing for the immediate future, they got "future considerations" for RHP Erick Fedde, a middling corner infield prospect (Blaze Jordan) for LHP Steven Matz, a trio of not-top 100 prospects (Jesus Baez, Nate Dohm and Frank Elissalt) for RHP Ryan Helsley and a TBD (but surely minimal) return from Texas for RHP Phil Maton.
They're still on the hook for a combined $69M owed to Gray, Contreras and Arenado in 2026 and have basically just gotten a year older across the board without actually identifying any building blocks.
Just another lost season for a franchise that usually doesn't sputter through these types of mediocre stretches.
Winner: Philadelphia Phillies
5 of 10
Controllable closers never come cheap.
Go ahead and ask the Padres about that. Not only did they just give up an arm and a leg for 4.5 years of Mason Miller, but they also parted with Robert Gasser, Taylor Rogers, Esteury Ruiz and Dinelson Lamet for 1.5 years of Josh Hader back in 2022. Or remember when they gave up three players and a competitive balance round pick for three years of Craig Kimbrel (and B.J. Upton), and then flipped him to Boston for four players a few months later?
So when rumors began to swirl about Minnesota perhaps being willing to part with RHP Jhoan Durán and the two years of arbitration eligibility remaining on his contract, we assumed it would take a premier, maybe top-25 prospect to make it actually happen.
Yet, the Phillies were able to acquire Durán for the "Really? That's it?" price of C Eduardo Tait and RHP Mick Abel.
Yes, those were the fourth-best and sixth-best prospects in the Phillies' farm system, and, yes, they both rank top 100 in MLB.com's pipeline. But landing a closer for the next 2.5 seasons without parting with Andrew Painter, Aidan Miller or Justin Crawford feels like highway robbery.
That was Wednesday.
On Thursday, the Phillies returned to the scene of the crime and further pilfered the selling Twins with the acquisition of CF Harrison Bader for prospects OF Hendry Mendez and RHP Geremy Villoria. Bader has been bouncing all over the majors over the past three years, but he is enjoying maybe the best season of his career and becomes almost unarguably the most valuable outfielder in Philadelphia.
They wanted a right-handed bat and they needed to upgrade the bullpen. They accomplished both goals without budging on their prized future. Pretty hard to argue with that.
Loser: Both of Chicago's MLB Franchises
6 of 10
The Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox are at wholly opposite ends of the spectrum as far as "direction of the franchise" is concerned.
While the baby bears are one game back for the best record in baseball, the pale hose are comfortably in the driver's seat for the best odds of winning the 2026 lottery.
The former ought to have been an aggressive buyer, given the state of their starting rotation and iffy third base situation. The latter should have been selling just as aggressively to clear the books for the future.
Neither really happened.
The Cubs added some pieces. Getting UTIL Willi Castro and RHP Taylor Rogers in the closing minutes before the deadline was nice. They previously landed both RHP Michael Soroka from the Nationals and RHP Andrew Kittredge from the Orioles.
But does that fix anything? It improves the bullpen a bit, sure, but is Soroka starting Game 3 in October for the Cubs? Just a bunch of whatever deals from a team that we expected to pursue multiple mid-rotation arms and possibly Eugenio Suárez.
And then the White Sox, just like last season, may or may not have realized when the trade deadline was?
They refused to move CF Luis Robert Jr., and are apparently content to bring him back on that $20M club option in 2026. They failed to unload the roughly $35M left on LF Andrew Benintendi's contract. They did manage to move RHP Adrian Houser to the Rays just before the deadline, but settled for light-hitting UTIL Curtis Mead for what felt like just about the biggest guarantee in all of baseball to get dealt this week. Beyond that, they sent OF Austin Slater to the Yankees for RHP Gage Ziehl...and that's it.
For whatever reason, the trade winds egregiously missed the Windy City.
Winner: Shane Bieber Gets Out of Cleveland
7 of 10
Remember that scene in the "Remedial Chaos Theory" episode of Community when Troy leaves the apartment to get the pizzas from the delivery driver and comes back a minute later to find the room ablaze and Pierce on the floor with a bullet in his leg?
RHP Shane Bieber (Tommy John surgery) returning to Cleveland's active roster at some point in the next week or two would've felt a bit like that.
Instead, he is on his way to Toronto, joining Max Scherzer, Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt and José Berríos as the final piece of a starting rotation that would've been one of the best ever assembled...had it been assembled four years ago. (It's still a solid rotation today, but, goodness, imagine having that quintet in 2021.)
The Blue Jays didn't have to give up all that much to acquire the 2020 AL Cy Young winner, merely parting with what was their No. 5 prospect, LHP Khal Stephen. Between Bieber's injury recovery and his $16M player option (or $4M buyout) for 2026, it was going to be tough for Cleveland to demand a proverbial arm and a leg for him.
But it's kind of the perfect landing spot, no?
Had he gone to, say, the Cubs, Yankees, Red Sox, Astros or Padres, those teams would've wanted Bieber back on the mound and back at pre-TJ form ASAP to save both their rotation and their playoff aspirations.
But the Blue Jays already had a *good enough* rotation that they didn't need to do anything desperate, not to mention a 6.5-game cushion above the AL's postseason cutline even after the recent four-game losing streak.
If Bieber makes his 2025 debut in mid-August and looks great, he could plausibly start Game 1 of the postseason in Toronto. But if he comes back every bit as underwhelming as Sandy Alcantara did for the Marlins, they could plausibly leave him off the postseason roster altogether and still be a real threat to win it all.
Loser: Cincinnati's Quest to Upgrade at Third Base
8 of 10
If the Reds were going to be deadline buyers, we thought they would have their sights set firmly upon that highly coveted third baseman with nearly 40 home runs hit this season.
But instead of a reunion with Eugenio Suárez, they traded for Pirates 3B Ke'Bryan Hayes, who doesn't even have 40 home runs in his 576-game career.
Hayes is fine for what he is: An elite glove at the hot corner who isn't going to give you much offense. He has amounted to 11.0 fWAR since breaking into the majors in 2020, tied with Marcell Ozuna in value added while taking wildly different paths to that 11.0 mark.
At $2.2M for the rest of this season, $7M in each of the next two seasons and $8M in each of 2028 and 2029, Hayes is, again, fine for what he is. And the Reds didn't give up all that much to get him: LHP Taylor Rogers and SS prospect Sammy Stafura
But what the Reds desperately needed is offense.
Elly De La Cruz is their only hitter with at least a dozen home runs. And third base, in particular, is where they stood to gain the most ground, currently saddled with a .623 OPS from that position. It appears, however, that is about to get even worse, as Hayes has a .571 OPS since the beginning of last season, not to mention a .432 mark over his last 19 games.
Cincinnati's subsequent acquisition of Rays RHP Zack Littell was nice. Can't argue with the flyer taken on UTIL Miguel Andujar, either. Their interest in Hayes was a head scratcher, though, maybe Noelvi Marté permanently moving from 3B to RF wouldn't be a bad thing.
Winner: Seattle Mariners
9 of 10
First things first, the Mariners got their man.
A little over 20 months after sending 3B Eugenio Suárez to Arizona in a classic "salary dump" type of move, they've brought him back from the desert.
The most coveted rental on this year's trade block has hit 36 home runs and is tied for the MLB lead with 87 RBI. The player he is tied with is Cal Raleigh, who he'll be hitting either before or after in a lineup that now packs a "McGwire and Canseco" sort of punch.
Seattle also got Suárez's Arizona teammate 1B Josh Naylor a week ago, who quite literally has been off and running with four stolen bases within his first four games with the M's. His roughly .800 OPS for the year likely now slots in at either sixth or seventh in a lineup that has come a long, long way from last year's offensive ineptitude.
They also scooped up LHP Caleb Ferguson from the Pirates, which was a low-key pivotal move for a staff whose list of southpaws previously consisted of only Gabe Speier.
Perhaps just as impressive: Seattle entered the deadline with eight of MLB.com's top 70 prospects and still has all of them.
We thought the asking price for Suárez was going to be astronomical. Evidently, so did the Yankees and Reds, who traded for Ryan McMahon and Ke'Bryan Hayes, respectively, while Geno was still available.
But all it took was a borderline top 100 prospect in 1B Tyler Locklear and a pair of pitchers (RHP Hunter Cranton and RHP Juan Burgos) who barely rank top 25 in Arizona's updated farm system. The Mets gave up more than that in each of their trades for Ryan Helsley and Tyler Rogers.
Rapid-Fire, Last-Minute Winners and Losers
10 of 10
Winner: AL West Race. The Rangers sure looked like a loser up until the final two hours, but pulling RHP Merrill Kelly, LHP Danny Coulombe and RHP Phil Maton in under the wire was huge for a team trying to hang with everything we already mentioned the Mariners doing, as well as the Astros going wild on deadline day with the additions of SS-turning-3B Carlos Correa and OF Jesús Sánchez. Houston vs. Seattle vs. Texas was an unbelievable race to the finish in 2023. Let's run it back again.
Loser: Los Angeles Dodgers. Blake Snell is coming back this weekend. Max Muncy isn't far behind him. Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott, Hyeseong Kim and Michael Kopech all ought to return in August. To some extent, the Dodgers didn't need to do anything. But the Padres sure are pounding at the door in the NL West with all the moves they pulled off on Thursday alone.
Winner: Yankees Bullpen. For a while there, it looked like the Yankees forgot they needed pitching, only adding 3B Ryan McMahon, UTIL Amed Rosario and OF Austin Slater prior to Thursday. But they basically rebuilt an entire bullpen under the gun, bringing in David Bednar, Jake Bird and Camilo Doval. Weird that they didn't add another starter, but they could just roll with a bullpen game or two in the playoffs at this point.
Loser: San Francisco Giants. Who would've guessed when they acquired Rafael Devers six weeks ago that the Giants would be deadline sellers? They dumped Rogers, Doval and Mike Yastrzemski as they sputter toward a .500 record for the fourth consecutive season.
Winner: Miami Marlins. Everyone expected Sandy Alcantara and/or Edward Cabrera to get dealt, but the Marlins decided not to deal just for the sake of dealing in a market where the offers for starting pitching were seemingly not what was expected. Maybe they still unload one or both at the winter meetings, but I like their decision to just stand pat, aside from trading Jesús Sánchez for Ryan Gusto and a pair of prospects.
Loser: Milwaukee Brewers. Basically every team with a winning record made a clear effort to get better...except for the one with the best record of them all. The Brewers added C Danny Jansen and RHP Shelby Miller and swapped in OF Brandon Lockridge for LHP Nestor Cortes. Of that bunch, though, the player they gave up feels more noteworthy than the three they added. That's never a good sign.
