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2021 WINNERS/LOSERS OF THE TRADE DEADLINE
Well, a lot of outlets do a winners/losers review, so I thought I’d toss mine out there for discussion. Like Bene Futuis noted – this was a great deadline for baseball fanatics as there was action just about everywhere. Of course, the “just about” is important….
BIGGEST LOSER: COLORADO ROCKIES
Reality says the Rockies won’t compete in 2021 or even 2022. A really good GM would have found an inventive way to offload Charlie Blackmon. A decent GM would have found a way to get value for Jon Gray. GITH and I could have slammed half a dozen Ballast Point’s, argued about politics, drank more beer, and found a deal for Trevor Story that exceeded a compensation pick. And then had a good cigar.
And that doesn’t even count not finding a home for CJ Cron earlier, too.
BIGGEST WINNER: LOS ANGELES DODGERS
They cashed in some big chips, and it’s certainly possible that in just a few years, we’ll talk about the Josiah Gray deal like the John Smoltz deal. But they landed a top-end starter and a stud SS for a year and a half, minimum, and made their pitching staff stronger for the season in not just adding Scherzer, but also Danny Duffy. This team has prodigious resources, and knows how to use them. They’re going to be an absolute beast for any team to get by, and that even assumes the scumbag who will remain unnamed doesn’t come back.
LOSER: ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
So the Cards dealt for two ancient lefties who are both being pounded for 5+ ERAs, and will pay an additional roughly $4 million for the privilege of doing so. And gave up a much younger pitcher who was serviceable as a RP in 2018 and 2019, though admittedly has greatly outpitched some awful peripherals as a SP this year. And then Mozeliak had the gall to state the Cards had upgraded their team while not giving up any top prospects. I guess the last part is honest and accurate.
WINNER: SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS
I like what they did – Bryant covers 3B as long as Longoria is out, then moves to the OF, and Tony Watson is a pitcher they know well, and his velocity has been gradually increasing over the past couple of months. Canario has potential, but he’s not even universally agreed as a top-ten Giants prospect.
LOSER: CHICAGO CUBS
I’ll give them credit for having a plan. Plan execution…well, not so much. So, they dealt away these players since the start of the year: Yu Darvish, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, Craig Kimbrel, Andrew Chafin, Ryan Tepera, Trevor Williams, Joc Pederson, and Jake Marisnick. That’s an ace, a MVP candidate, quality veteran 1B/SS, a closer who re-found his dominant form, and two serviceable RPs.
For all this quality dealt, the Cubs received one maybe top-five prospect (Vizcaino), two marginal top-ten prospects (Canario and Espinoza), a high-contact, low-power young 2B, and two younger RPs. Sure, there’s a lot of quantity, but given the high-level players dealt, that’s a paucity of quality.
WINNER: WASHINGTON NATIONALS
I counted a restock of at least ten minor leaguers, but with their teardown, they managed to land two top prospects in Keibert Ruiz and Josiah Gray. And they managed to dump Jon Lester on the Cards for Lane Thomas. Thomas is cheap and fast, though he hasn’t hit a lick this year so far. The only thing they couldn’t do is dump Patrick Corbin’s contract, but that would have been miracle work. Juan Soto has to be wondering what he did to deserve this, but rebuilding around Juan Soto is a pretty good start.
LOSER: SEATTLE MARINERS
One can argue that Diego Castillo is an upgrade to Kendall Graveman, though Graveman sure has been impressive. And Abraham Toro is inexpensive with years of control. But to be as clueless as DiPoto was concerning the clubhouse impact with a team with some chance of a wild card – and not making any other significant moves – moves this into the loser category for me.
WINNER: NEW YORK YANKEES
Fixed the lefty-deficient lineup in a big way with Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo. Both bring different skill sets to the table, with Rizzo still being a high-contact, high OBP, though modest power hitter. And he’s solid defensively at 1B. Gallo is a three-true outcome guy, and his dead pull tendencies are favored in New York. Plus, he’s an absolute defensive stud – IMO, defensive metrics don’t tell the whole story on him. Everyone talks about his arm, but he gets great jumps and has very good range for a big man. Andrew Heaney has an xERA/FIP that’s much better than his base numbers, and he’s a lefty, but his flyball tendencies worry me. But the young guys just haven’t proven they’re ready, so I get why the Yankee went this way.
However, the Yankees didn’t get much in the way of bullpen help. And they gave up a lot of depth and players who appeared to be rising up in their ranks. But, overall, this is a team where “rebuild” is just not in their vocabulary, and they went out and landed most of the help they needed.
LOSER: SAN DIEGO PADRES
Sorry, GITH, but man, your competition landed some key help, and the Friars just didn’t keep up. It certainly wasn’t terrible, and this is only a slight loss. I do like the Daniel Hudson deal; if you can’t get a premium starter, get a premium reliever and try and shorten the game. But they just needed more.
MAYBE: ATLANTA BRAVES
They rebuilt their OF with a lot of mix and match parts. Maybe a change of scenery will improve Soler’s dismal performance to date. But RichRod has seen a big drop in spin rate with the elimination of sticky stuff, and his results have been down significantly since then. He may not prove to be the bullpen droid the Braves were looking for.
WINNER: MILWAUKEE BREWERS
I have this down lower as I’m not sure the Brewers did enough, but Eduardo Escobar is a great get, with multi-position flexibility and power the Brewers badly need. Norris can sop up some innings, and potentially help Brent Suter’s load go down. John Curtiss is a really great get – he’s under team control until 2025, and gives more bullpen help to a taxed group.
Nor did the Brewers give up any highly valued prospects to get any of these players. I’m just concerned it’s not enough to keep up with the arms race from the West.
WINNER: TORONTO BLUE JAYS
Jose Berrios and major bullpen help shows the Jays are going for it. The only reason they’re down lower is other than the Dodgers, they paid most dearly for it. But they’ve upgraded their pitching for a good run, and it just may be good enough to get them to the World Series.
Well, a lot of outlets do a winners/losers review, so I thought I’d toss mine out there for discussion. Like Bene Futuis noted – this was a great deadline for baseball fanatics as there was action just about everywhere. Of course, the “just about” is important….
BIGGEST LOSER: COLORADO ROCKIES
Reality says the Rockies won’t compete in 2021 or even 2022. A really good GM would have found an inventive way to offload Charlie Blackmon. A decent GM would have found a way to get value for Jon Gray. GITH and I could have slammed half a dozen Ballast Point’s, argued about politics, drank more beer, and found a deal for Trevor Story that exceeded a compensation pick. And then had a good cigar.
And that doesn’t even count not finding a home for CJ Cron earlier, too.
BIGGEST WINNER: LOS ANGELES DODGERS
They cashed in some big chips, and it’s certainly possible that in just a few years, we’ll talk about the Josiah Gray deal like the John Smoltz deal. But they landed a top-end starter and a stud SS for a year and a half, minimum, and made their pitching staff stronger for the season in not just adding Scherzer, but also Danny Duffy. This team has prodigious resources, and knows how to use them. They’re going to be an absolute beast for any team to get by, and that even assumes the scumbag who will remain unnamed doesn’t come back.
LOSER: ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
So the Cards dealt for two ancient lefties who are both being pounded for 5+ ERAs, and will pay an additional roughly $4 million for the privilege of doing so. And gave up a much younger pitcher who was serviceable as a RP in 2018 and 2019, though admittedly has greatly outpitched some awful peripherals as a SP this year. And then Mozeliak had the gall to state the Cards had upgraded their team while not giving up any top prospects. I guess the last part is honest and accurate.
WINNER: SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS
I like what they did – Bryant covers 3B as long as Longoria is out, then moves to the OF, and Tony Watson is a pitcher they know well, and his velocity has been gradually increasing over the past couple of months. Canario has potential, but he’s not even universally agreed as a top-ten Giants prospect.
LOSER: CHICAGO CUBS
I’ll give them credit for having a plan. Plan execution…well, not so much. So, they dealt away these players since the start of the year: Yu Darvish, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, Craig Kimbrel, Andrew Chafin, Ryan Tepera, Trevor Williams, Joc Pederson, and Jake Marisnick. That’s an ace, a MVP candidate, quality veteran 1B/SS, a closer who re-found his dominant form, and two serviceable RPs.
For all this quality dealt, the Cubs received one maybe top-five prospect (Vizcaino), two marginal top-ten prospects (Canario and Espinoza), a high-contact, low-power young 2B, and two younger RPs. Sure, there’s a lot of quantity, but given the high-level players dealt, that’s a paucity of quality.
WINNER: WASHINGTON NATIONALS
I counted a restock of at least ten minor leaguers, but with their teardown, they managed to land two top prospects in Keibert Ruiz and Josiah Gray. And they managed to dump Jon Lester on the Cards for Lane Thomas. Thomas is cheap and fast, though he hasn’t hit a lick this year so far. The only thing they couldn’t do is dump Patrick Corbin’s contract, but that would have been miracle work. Juan Soto has to be wondering what he did to deserve this, but rebuilding around Juan Soto is a pretty good start.
LOSER: SEATTLE MARINERS
One can argue that Diego Castillo is an upgrade to Kendall Graveman, though Graveman sure has been impressive. And Abraham Toro is inexpensive with years of control. But to be as clueless as DiPoto was concerning the clubhouse impact with a team with some chance of a wild card – and not making any other significant moves – moves this into the loser category for me.
WINNER: NEW YORK YANKEES
Fixed the lefty-deficient lineup in a big way with Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo. Both bring different skill sets to the table, with Rizzo still being a high-contact, high OBP, though modest power hitter. And he’s solid defensively at 1B. Gallo is a three-true outcome guy, and his dead pull tendencies are favored in New York. Plus, he’s an absolute defensive stud – IMO, defensive metrics don’t tell the whole story on him. Everyone talks about his arm, but he gets great jumps and has very good range for a big man. Andrew Heaney has an xERA/FIP that’s much better than his base numbers, and he’s a lefty, but his flyball tendencies worry me. But the young guys just haven’t proven they’re ready, so I get why the Yankee went this way.
However, the Yankees didn’t get much in the way of bullpen help. And they gave up a lot of depth and players who appeared to be rising up in their ranks. But, overall, this is a team where “rebuild” is just not in their vocabulary, and they went out and landed most of the help they needed.
LOSER: SAN DIEGO PADRES
Sorry, GITH, but man, your competition landed some key help, and the Friars just didn’t keep up. It certainly wasn’t terrible, and this is only a slight loss. I do like the Daniel Hudson deal; if you can’t get a premium starter, get a premium reliever and try and shorten the game. But they just needed more.
MAYBE: ATLANTA BRAVES
They rebuilt their OF with a lot of mix and match parts. Maybe a change of scenery will improve Soler’s dismal performance to date. But RichRod has seen a big drop in spin rate with the elimination of sticky stuff, and his results have been down significantly since then. He may not prove to be the bullpen droid the Braves were looking for.
WINNER: MILWAUKEE BREWERS
I have this down lower as I’m not sure the Brewers did enough, but Eduardo Escobar is a great get, with multi-position flexibility and power the Brewers badly need. Norris can sop up some innings, and potentially help Brent Suter’s load go down. John Curtiss is a really great get – he’s under team control until 2025, and gives more bullpen help to a taxed group.
Nor did the Brewers give up any highly valued prospects to get any of these players. I’m just concerned it’s not enough to keep up with the arms race from the West.
WINNER: TORONTO BLUE JAYS
Jose Berrios and major bullpen help shows the Jays are going for it. The only reason they’re down lower is other than the Dodgers, they paid most dearly for it. But they’ve upgraded their pitching for a good run, and it just may be good enough to get them to the World Series.
Maybe division champs Minnesota Twins! Wild card contender for sure!
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