The 5 MLB Teams That Blew It at 2025 Trade Deadline
The San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies were among the teams who made major moves in advance of Thursday's trade deadline with an eye on winning a World Series in a couple months.
Meanwhile, the Minnesota Twins did a full-scale teardown of their roster, one it will probably takes years to evaluate. But while it's a tough pill to swallow right now, there's a chance that the Twins acquired a ton of young talent that will ultimately help them to develop into a great team in a few years.
For entirely different reasons, this could be remembered as a great trade deadline for the Padres, Phillies and Twins.
But while nothing is set in stone, there are a few teams that feel like losers coming out of the trade deadline. Here are five teams that did poorly during trade season.
Chicago Cubs
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President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer—who signed a contract extension this week—did add super-utility man Willi Castro in a trade with the Twins, while making some minor pitching additions with Michael Soroka, Taylor Rogers and Andrew Kittredge. We're not saying they sat on their hands.
But the Cubs are only guaranteed this season with Kyle Tucker, and considering he's surrounded by the likes of Seiya Suzuki, Michael Busch and Pete Crow-Armstrong, this is a lineup built to win a World Series this year.
The problem is that the Cubs don't have a starting rotation ready to compete in October. Matthew Boyd was an All-Star, but it's fair to be a little bit skeptical of how he will hold up in the second half given his lengthy injury history. Even if he and Shota Imanaga are healthy and pitching well when October rolls around, this is still a team that needed to add another starter capable of toeing the rubber in a playoff game. They didn't do that.
Granted, this was about as poor of a year to be looking for front-line starting pitching as any. The Miami Marlins held onto Sandy Alcántara and Edward Cabrera, while the Arizona Diamondbacks didn't move Zac Gallen. None of those three would have been sure things anyway.
But Soroka, who has a 4.87 ERA in 16 games this season, doesn't move the needle, even if he's pitched well lately. Someone like Merrill Kelly would have given the Cubs another playoff-tested arm. Not getting another front-line (or even middle-of-the-rotation) starter might burn the Cubs in October.
Pittsburgh Pirates
2 of 5
The Pirates did trade Ke'Bryan Hayes—an all-world defender who has failed to hit consistently—to the Cincinnati Reds Wednesday. They proceeded to flip the aforementioned Rogers, acquired in the Hayes trade, to the Cubs Thursday. LHP Bailey Falter was also dealt to the Kansas City Royals.
But it's still hard to see how the Pirates positioned themselves to not be in a similar position a year from now.
Pittsburgh failed to take advantage of a weak outfield market and move off of the $60 million owed to Bryan Reynolds over the next four seasons. That deal is actually a bargain if Reynolds is producing, but it's a lot of money for a club that spends very little. The Pirates could have flipped Reynolds for a prospect or two, and then reinvested that money.
General manager Ben Cherington also elected not to trade RHP Mitch Keller in a market desperate for starting pitching. Keller is owed more than $50 million across the next three seasons. Again, a major-budget team could have absorbed that with ease and had him start for them in a playoff game. The Pirates probably could have gotten a decent return in addition to the financial relief if they traded Keller. But they didn't.
Perhaps the most perplexing was holding onto veterans on expiring contracts like LHP Andrew Heaney and super-utility man Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Neither would have fetched a major return, but these are the type of players that small-budget teams need to move for lottery tickets and hope they hit on them. Instead, they'll finish out the season for a Pirates team that's going to lose 90+ games. What's the point?
Paul Skenes may very well win the NL Cy Young Award this year, but the Pirates seem destined to waste the likely limited number of years they have with one of the faces of the sport.
Los Angeles Angels
3 of 5
The Angels haven't been to the postseason since 2014, and are only four games back of the final wild-card spot in the AL. If that's the only context you have, you would think it made sense for the Halos not to sell and to try to get Mike Trout back into October baseball.
But if you're general manager Perry Minasian and owner Arte Moreno, you have to be honest with yourself.
Yes, the Angels are only four games back of the final wild-card spot in the AL, but two teams are currently tied for that spot and three more are closer to it than Los Angeles. The Angels also have a minus-66 run differential, which indicates they are much more likely to swoon than go on a tear over the final two months of the season.
The Angels, especially when Trout is healthy, have a lineup that can slug. But Yusei Kikuchi and José Soriano are the only two starters that have pitched well for them. The Angels didn't improve the rotation before the deadline.
They made minor additions to the bullpen by bringing back Luis Garcia for a third stint, and also landing Andrew Chafin in the same deal with the Washington Nationals. That might help them win a couple more games, but both are rentals.
Going for it is fun, but the Angels' long-term interests would have been best served if they traded Taylor Ward and/or Jo Adell in a market desperate for right-handed slugging. Instead, they held onto both, with the most likely outcome being that they still post their 10th straight losing season.
Houston Astros
4 of 5
It's a cool story that Carlos Correa is back in Houston, but he's got a .704 OPS and 0.1 WAR this season, per Baseball Reference. Even if there's reason to believe he's going to produce better than that going forward, he's been a player that's dealt with injuries throughout the course of his career and has a right ankle that caused both the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets to back out of deals with him prior to the 2023 season.
The Twins will eat about $30 million of the money remaining to Correa, but that still leaves the Astros on the hook for more than $70 million with the 30-year-old. At the very least, there's definitely more risk in this move than what's been presented.
An even bigger issue than taking somewhat of a risk in reacquiring Correa is that the Astros didn't land a No. 3 starter:
The Astros might have the best bullpen in the American League, and a great one-two starting rotation punch with Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown. But Valdez can become a free agent after this season, so the Astros could have used a controllable starter to give them some insurance in the starting rotation for 2026. And it's not clear right now who would start a Game 3 in a postseason series, let alone a Game 4.
Atlanta Braves
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The Braves have been one of baseball's most disappointing teams this season, but unlike teams in similar situations like the Baltimore Orioles and Arizona Diamondbacks, they didn't make any major trades to help them restock the cupboard for 2026.
While it would be interesting to know what teams might offer for Ozzie Albies and/or Michael Harris II, both have underperformed this year and you would be selling low on them.
But Marcell Ozuna is a 34-year-old DH in a contract year. He has 10-and-5 rights so he would have had to approve any deal, but it seems like the Braves could have moved him for a lower level minor league piece or two, as opposed to probably letting him walk in the offseason.
It's been a nightmarish season for closer Raisel Iglesias, but he was one of baseball's best relievers a year ago. Given the amount of relievers who moved, it's hard to think the Braves couldn't have gotten something for him. He's another guy that will instead walk for nothing in the winter.
Whether it's Pierce Johnson or Aaron Bummer, the Braves had some other pieces in the bullpen that a team with no path to the postseason probably should have traded. Would any of these pieces have netted a franchise-altering player? Probably not, but for as great of a job as president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos has done in general, it's hard to understand the strategy of mostly standing pat this July.
