2023 MLB trade deadline winners and losers: Rangers, Astros use Mets' teardown to fuel AL West arms race

Time's up! The 2023 MLB trade deadline came Tuesday afternoon, locking in the major veteran pieces for baseball’s race to October. In a season of tightly bunched standings, only a few teams sold impact players, the most notable being the New York Mets, who undertook a massive reset that sent two future Hall of Famers and a spray of others to contending teams.

Other teams on the periphery of contention buckled up to go for it, including the Los Angeles Angels in Shohei Ohtani’s final season under team control and the disappointing San Diego Padres.

It was a limited market right up until the end, with position players in particularly short supply as about 20 would-be buyers scoured the minority of selling teams for targets.

As players board flights to join their new (and sometimes old) teams, let’s take a look at some of the winners and losers of trade season.

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Winner: Houston Astros and Texas Rangers

The two best teams in the AL West went shopping at the New York Mets’ legendary ace garage sale. The Astros reunited with Justin Verlander, who has rounded into form after an injury-delayed start to the season, running a 1.49 ERA over his past six starts. With the 40-year-old two-time champ back in the fold and 28-year-old rookie J.P. France executing a trademark Houston glow-up, the Astros have largely patched up an injury-depleted rotation. It would surprise precisely no one if they subsequently stormed to the top of the division and back to the ALCS or beyond for the seventh consecutive season.

The Rangers hope to stand in their way. With the offense humming, Texas general manager Chris Young saw his rotation wearing down — Jacob deGrom is out for the season, and Nathan Eovaldi just hit the injured list due to elbow trouble — and sought immediate relief in the form of Max Scherzer from the Mets and Jordan Montgomery from the St. Louis Cardinals.

Both of these teams look like threats to go deep in the playoffs. And both will be motivated to further their goals by first winning the AL West.

Winner: Future Mets

It was painful but necessary. After starting the season with the highest payroll in the sport's history and never finding their stride, the Mets reached the deadline at 50-55 and took a sledgehammer to two offseasons of Cooperstown-caliber free-agency ambition. Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and David Robertson are gone after team owner Steve Cohen authorized a swift step back that coincided with an advantageous market for sellers.

By greasing the wheels with cash, the Mets turned aging pitchers into a barrage of high-ceiling prospects, including four — Drew Gilbert, Ryan Clifford, Luisangel Acuña and Marco Vargas — likely to rank among the game’s consensus 100 best this winter.

GM Billy Eppler already acknowledged lower expectations for the 2024 major-league team, a buzzkill after Cohen’s attempt to spend the Mets into the game’s upper echelon, but the short-term pain of this rapid-fire restocking will likely ward off much grimmer times in Queens. As everyone will quickly point out, improving the farm system won’t hang that World Series banner Cohen so stridently desires. But whatever you think of this implication and its reflection on the sport, this version of spending — paying down mega-contracts to acquire top prospects — might actually get the Mets there faster than signing pitchers pushing 40.

It was undoubtedly fun to watch the Mets lure Hall of Famers, but free agency as a necessity was never a strategy that would leave hearts unbroken for long. The burst of talent coming in from this deadline will allow Eppler and whomever Cohen intends to hire above him to chart a better, less perilous course less constrained by top players’ ticking clocks. A more tempered (if less interesting) offseason strategy that spreads, say, $86 million per year over six or eight helpful bets instead of two huge ones might help, too.

We can wish that offseason fireworks were more correlated to summer victories, but recent history has shown us that a lot of a baseball team’s success lives in the foundation. It won’t be easy, and it might not be as fun, but the Mets spent this week digging so that they can lay down something more sturdy.

Winner: The month of September

Hey, hey, hey! This might be a September worth remembering.

Out of 15 National League teams, only five — the Mets, Nationals, Pirates, Cardinals and Rockies — wound up acting like sellers, and the only one of those that wasn’t widely known more than a month ago was the Mets. In the American League, the buyer/seller decisions were a bit less clear, but 11 of the 15 teams enter Tuesday’s action with at least an 18% chance of October.

The Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres were the main fence-sitters who made the leap to the buyer side, determined to pursue 2023 success, despite longer odds and a very crowded field. With uproarious winning streaks ruling the day in the NL Central, general tumult the name of the game in the NL wild-card race and battle royales ensuing in the AL East and AL West, the trade deadline did nothing to dissuade a fan from thinking there might be multiple down-to-the-wire races come Game 162.

In the end, the wide array of teams chasing the playoffs will still be split into winners and losers, but at the beginning of October instead of the beginning of August. That’s a win for spectators, if nothing else.

Loser: Seattle Mariners

Look, trading closer Paul Sewald won’t crush this team’s chances. No reliever carries that much heft. Yet despite a team that could’ve reasonably gone either way or stood pat, GM Jerry Dipoto seemingly pulled the trigger on a seller’s move for a less enticing return than others netted for pitching at this trade deadline.

Sewald, who is under team control for 2024, brought back three hitters — rookie outfielder Dominic Canzone, third baseman Josh Rojas and middle-infield prospect Ryan Bliss — from the Arizona Diamondbacks, but none of them charts as a likely difference-maker for a team lacking offensive punch and still craving moments in the sun of the playoffs. Even if the value calculation works out in the long term, it smacks of the same middling defeatism that nearly caused a team mutiny over a similar deal sending Kendall Graveman away in 2021.

There is enough eye-popping starting pitching talent in Seattle to make waves, but Dipoto keeps churning the rest of the roster without taking enough decisive action to put a full-fledged contender on the field. This feels like another example of that.

Loser: Aaron Judge

After the Yankees slipped to fifth place in the AL East in his absence, Judge had to wait until 5:57 p.m. ET Tuesday before the front office made any trades to address a floundering season. The first move … was not momentous, with a swap for relief pitcher Keynan Middleton from the Chicago White Sox.

At 31 years old and in the first season of a nine-year contract, Judge has been the Yankees’ entire offense for two years at this point, and GM Brian Cashman evidently did not feel confident enough in the team’s chances to supplement the 2023 team.

If they have any hope of making up a 3.5-game deficit in the wild-card race, the Yankees will need a bottom-10 offense to enliven itself with internal changes. Judge’s return from a toe injury should help, but the rest of the lineup has suffered from issues of age, health and ineffectiveness that don’t seem ripe for easy solutions.

Winner: Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays

The Orioles and Rays — two deliberate front offices that have consistently focused on maintaining long windows of contention and preserving prospect capital — didn’t set the world on fire in pursuit of the AL East crown. The top two teams in the American League wound up adding one significant starting pitcher apiece: Aaron Civale for the Rays, Jack Flaherty for the Orioles.

The Orioles needed a starter more, given the unproven status of most of their existing rotation, and were good candidates to make an even bigger splash than Flaherty, whose command has hampered him for the past two years. It just didn't come to fruition.

However, both teams have to count as winners for the sheer lack of pressure they are getting from the aforementioned Yankees and Boston Red Sox (who basically sat out the deadline, except for buying extremely low on Milwaukee Brewers infielder Luis Urías, owner of a 51 OPS+ this season). Red Sox executive Chaim Bloom, in comments to reporters after the deadline, seemed to cede the floor to the less-moneyed atop the standings.

The Toronto Blue Jays made some bullpen additions and acquired Paul DeJong as insurance for Bo Bichette’s knee issue but didn’t change the complexion of their team.

Anything can happen in a long baseball season, but if the Orioles and Rays drop off the top lines of the league’s best division, we probably won’t blame it on the trade deadline.

Winner: San Diego Padres

In an extremely different position, the Padres gritted their teeth through a 52-55 record and daunting NL wild-card deficit and made small upgrades all over the roster.

Most notably, they added right-handed first baseman Garrett Cooper and left-handed first baseman Ji-Man Choi to fill an absolute abyss on the roster with useful major-league hitters. That duo figures to spend time at first and designated hitter and boost the Padres’ floor in the back half of the lineup. When healthy, which isn’t a guarantee with either player, they have almost identical OPS+ marks of 112 (Cooper) and 111 (Choi) since the start of 2021, a vast improvement over what San Diego has been getting from the existing roster.

The Padres also grabbed starting pitcher Rich Hill from the Pittsburgh Pirates and relief pitcher Scott Barlow from the Kansas City Royals without giving up any particularly acclaimed young players.

San Diego has the talent — and the underlying numbers — to support a run this year. It might still fall short, but the Padres gave themselves a puncher’s chance with some creative maneuvering that didn’t endanger 2024.

Loser: Los Angeles Dodgers

Still leading the NL West despite a torrent of pitcher injuries and general problems preventing runs for the first time in recent memory, the Dodgers did not land a major pitching upgrade. Even once Clayton Kershaw returns, they'll have to depend on some combination of Lance Lynn, who has a 6.47 ERA and a major case of homer-itis, and improvement from a class of rookies understandably taking some lumps.

Part of that inactivity, admittedly, appears to have not been their fault. A deal for Detroit Tigers starter Eduardo Rodríguez reportedly fell through when he invoked his no-trade clause.

Elsewhere in the NL West, the Arizona Diamondbacks added closer Paul Sewald and outfielder Tommy Pham — not momentous, season-swinging changes, but real help. The San Francisco Giants did little of note but are breaking in a number of rookies with upside. The Padres, while stumbling so far this season, did not opt to sell.

That might mean the Dodgers can hang on to their advantage on the pure might of Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and whatever they can get out of Kershaw and Julio Urías. Still, for a franchise that often feels loaded for bear at this time of year, the 2023 squad looks uncharacteristically vulnerable.

Loser: Detroit Tigers

The Tigers had two of the most coveted pitchers in a market that clearly set up well for sellers. They didn’t do much with that. They flipped All-Star Michael Lorenzen to the Philadelphia Phillies for 20-year-old middle infield prospect Hao-Yu Lee. Good, fine, sounds about right.

But Eduardo Rodríguez, the left-handed starter with postseason experience and seemingly a robust market for his services, remains in Detroit to ply his trade for a team going nowhere fast. Rodríguez reportedly invoked his no-trade clause after the Tigers arranged to deal him to the Dodgers, as is his right. The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya reported that Rodríguez, who missed part of last season while dealing with family issues, wanted to remain closer to family on the East Coast.

Perhaps Rodríguez wasn’t going to waive his no-trade clause in any circumstance, but he has been a rumored trade candidate since roughly January. That makes it seem like the Tigers failed to gauge Rodríguez's expectations or proceeded too far into negotiations before considering what their player would be willing to accept. No-trade clauses are common — and more often used to secure some benefit or dictate the circumstances of a deal, rather than outright quash a trade.

In a market in which the Mets, St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago White Sox infused their organizations with talent, the Tigers swung and missed in a big, embarrassing way.

Doing a lot of things to neither win nor lose: Miami Marlins

In: First baseman/DH Josh Bell (96 OPS+). Out: First baseman/DH Garrett Cooper (96 OPS+).

In: Powerful hitter Jake Burger (OBP .279, who accentuates the team’s defensive mess). Out: Weak and declining hitter Jean Segura (OBP .277, who did at least provide defensive flexibility).

In: Struggling reliever Jorge Lopez. Out: Struggling reliever Dylan Floro.

In: Relief pitcher David Robertson. Out: Minor-league catcher Ronald Hernandez and infielder Marco Vargas.

In: Young pitcher Ryan Weathers. Out: Pitching prospect Jake Eder and shortstop prospect Kahlil Watson.

Things happened. I’m not sure any of them will affect the swirling, downward force tugging on the Marlins’ season.

Loser: Cincinnati Reds

The Reds, bursting with top hitting prospects turned major-league bats, are playing with house money this season. It’s a lot more fun, however, if you actually do something with it.

Their decision to not add a pitcher smacks of accepting the excitement as a salve, whether the winning continues or not.

Loser: Dylan Cease

The Chicago White Sox starting pitcher, runner-up in last season’s AL Cy Young race, was the hottest name still bubbling up in rumors when the deadline hit. Having a tougher year in 2023, Cease has maintained his terrific strikeout rate but allowed more hard contact. Still, the 27-year-old profiles as a top-of-the-rotation option who will remain under team control through the 2025 season as the White Sox face an uncertain immediate future.

All of those arrows pointed the same direction: Cease made a whole boatload of sense for some of this year’s most intriguing, rising contenders — the Orioles, the Reds. Alas, he stayed put, as apparently no one ponied up the significant haul of talent that would've been required to get him for 2.5 seasons.

It’s sort of a shame. Cease was a great candidate for the unexpected mover who could rock this season’s pennant race and provide new texture to a young team’s ongoing storyline. Maybe the White Sox will muster an unexpected leap forward in the weak AL Central, but for now, it’s hard to think of this as anything but a missed opportunity.