MLB trade deadline winners and losers: sorting the best from the worst

The MLB trade deadline came and went Thursday. The Minnesota Twins lost more than one-third of their major league roster. The San Diego Padres might not have a farm system anymore. And several of the presumptive favorites to make the postseason opted to make moves around the edges of their rosters, rather than pull the trigger on a blockbuster.

Who won? Who lost? Here's a knee-jerk reaction to the trades that got people talking:

Winners

1. San Diego Padres

General manager AJ Preller pried A's closer Mason Miller, a player previously tagged "untouchable," from the baseball purgatory that is West Sacramento. The early-morning deal was one of many that saw that Padres acquire a starting catcher (Freddy Fermin), a starting left fielder (Ramon Laureano), an All-Star utility player (Ryan O'Hearn) and two starting pitchers (JP Sears and Nestor Cortes). None of this came cheap; Leo de Vries is the highest-ranked prospect (by BA) traded at the deadline in eight years. That might not have been smart*, but it sure was fun.

(*There's a broader analysis to be done here. The Padres' core position players — Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Xander Bogaerts — are locked in through their mid-30s and beyond. Does it make sense for that organization to trade one of its only two Top-100 prospects? Maybe. Maybe not. Only if it gets you to the World Series, I suppose.)

2. Seattle Mariners

In addition to acquiring Eugenio Suarez, the Mariners got left-handed reliever Caleb Ferguson from Pittsburgh on Thursday, five days after landing first baseman Josh Naylor in a trade with the Diamondbacks. It's a quality-over-quantity approach. Each of the three represents the best, or one of the best, in their respective roles to change teams at the deadline.

The dropoff from Cal Raleigh to the second- and third-best hitters in the lineup just shrank, making the Mariners a much more difficult opponent than they were a week ago. The American League West hasn't looked this winnable in years. Kudos for a team that hasn't won a championship in its history for identifying the right season to "go for it."

3t. Mets, Yankees, Phillies, Tigers

None of these teams necessarily needed major roster upgrades. They had made their big moves already, and the standings reflected it. (In the Yankees' case, getting Aaron Judge back from the injured list really is the "midseason acquisition that supercedes the value of any trade.") Each team plucked a closer from a non-contender for not much cost — the kind of moves teams in their position need to make at this time of year.

Honorable mentions

Kudos to Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey for conceding the obvious: this just wasn't their year. They got four minor leaguers for Camilo Doval alone, a decent haul for an arbitration-eilgible closer, and set-up man Taylor Rogers netted two more from the Mets. If even one of them becomes a major league contributor, Posey did his job here.

The Dodgers got prospect James Tibbs III and another Double-A outfielder for pitcher Dustin May, who's headed for free agency at the end of the season and sports a 4.87 ERA. If general managers who needed starting pitching balked at the asking price, this trade offers proof of why. Tibbs was high on the Dodgers' draft board last summer, when they were picking at the end of the first round and he was selected 13th overall by the Giants (who traded him to Boston in the Rafael Devers deal). Now he's a Dodger, for the cost of a talented but underachieving pitcher they were about to send to their bullpen.

The 10 players who were granted a free pass out of Minnesota are all winners in their own right, none more than Carlos Correa. The veteran would only waive a no-trade clause for one team — the Houston Astros. Remarkably, the Astros wanted him (to play third base in place of the injured Isaac Paredes). So it was that one of the least likely trades of 2025 came to pass.

Losers

1. Minnesota Twins

If you're going to do a fire sale, do a fire sale but — holy cow! The Twins traded 10 of their best major league players to contenders, instantly going from a team that had been hanging around the fringes of the Wild Card race to one of the least watchable teams in baseball. Call it a byproduct of the franchise being up for sale, but that still doesn't make it go down any smoother.

As of Thursday, the Twins have three healthy starters and five relievers listed on their depth chart. Trevor Larnach is apparently the starter at three different positions; Kody Clemens is the starter at two. Byron Buxton, Royce Lewis and Joe Ryan deserved better. More than that, their fans did.

2. Texas Rangers

The cost of starting pitching was high at this deadline. That should have been fine for the Rangers, whose starters lead MLB with a 3.12 ERA this season. Naturally, they sent three pitching prospects to the Arizona Diamondbacks for ... a starting pitcher, Merrill Kelly.

Huh?

Tyler Mahle's shoulder injury, and the struggles of unproven right-handers Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker, made the trade more necessary than optional, but Texas' problem (scoring, duh) didn't solve itself in a 6-0 loss to the Mariners on Thursday. It was their 11th shutout loss this season.

Getting Jake Burger, Joc Pederson, Marcus Semien and Corey Seager healthy and productive at the same time has been easier said than done. This was the last opportunity for president of baseball operations Chris Young to bolster his lineup from outside the organization, and it passed quietly.

3. The few Pirates players of value

The Pirates were never going to trade Oneil Cruz or Paul Skenes. But Dennis Santana, Tommy Pham, Bryan Reynolds, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa are veterans who could have helped a contender down the stretch. Instead, they'll play out the string in Pittsburgh, whose plans to rebuild are at best inchoate and at worst nonexistent. Better luck next year.

Dishonorable mentions

The Red Sox probably needed more than May and Steven Matz to forge a starting rotation with any chance of making a deep October run, but at least their young lineup has a chance to disprove that statement. Several better-for-the-short-haul starters changed teams Thursday. Did Craig Breslow ask about Kelly, Ryan Bergert, Stephen Kolek and Shane Bieber the same way he asked Devers about switching to first base?

The Royals' odds of making the postseason sit at 12.8 percent, per FanGraphs — a number that reasonably could rise by virtue of the Guardians' and Twins' sell-offs. The lineup, their biggest weakness, was boosted only by trades for outfielder Mike Yastrzemski and utility man Adam Frazier. The deal with the Padres to acquire pitchers Bergert and Kolek for backup catcher Freddy Fermin could be a steal, but in the overall context this feels like a classic example of too little, too late.

The Angels, Cardinals, and Guardians didn't entirely commit to a direction Thursday. Cleveland got an actual prospect (Khal Stephen) from Toronto for Bieber, but it's possible Steven Kwan's value will never be higher. Not trading him is only the right call if the small-market Guardians can find a way to reload in 2026. The Dodgers were reported to be enamored with Cardinals utility man Brendan Donovan but settled for Alex Call instead; did Sonny Gray and Nolan Arenado really not want to waive their no-trade clauses to see this rebuild through? The Angels could have gotten something for closer Kenley Jansen, Tyler Anderson, Luis Rengifo or Yoan Moncada without meaningfully altering their chances of contention for the next two months. They got nothing instead, and their fans will like it! (Or not.)