Every year in baseball, there are sellers, and there are buyers. Some teams buy to fill holes on their team for the long-term, or just rentals. The sellers do it because they’ve fallen out of Playoff contention, want to get some contract money off of their books, or simply can’t come to terms with a star player for an extension, among other reasons. We’ll be looking at some of the bigger trades of the 2023 deadline, and see who came out on top, or made the wrong move.
Winners
Dodgers – Lance Lynn, Joe Kelly have become superstars once again, Kelly with his second go around in Los Angeles. They also picked up Lynn has had a ridiculous run in August so far going 3-0 in 4 Starts with a 1.44 ERA; He’s thrown 25 Innings, while only giving up 4 ER, 5 BB, and struck out 25 batters for an insane ERA+ of 305. Joe Kelly has notched a single Win in relief while only giving up a single Hit, three Walks, and tallied seven Strikeouts in just under 4 innings of work, before having to go onto the 15-day IL with forearm inflammation. Ryan Yarbrough has done equally as well as Kelly in relief, snagging two Wins in four appearances of relief for the team. In the time he has seen, Infielder Amed Rosario has already hit three Homeruns, the same amount he hit with the Guardians in 94 Games, while also driving in a dozen runs. These moves have allowed the separate themselves from the Giants for the division title.
Rangers – The Rangers went out and got arguably the two biggest arms on the trade block not named Justin Verlander in Max Scherzer and Jordan Montgomery to help solidify their chances of a Playoff spot. Scherzer has run up a perfect 3-0 record with a 1.80 ERA in 4 Starts during August, and Montgomery has gone 2-1 with a 2.50 ERA in his 3 Starts for a combined 5-1 record and 2.15 ERA between the two. Chris Stratton came along with Montgomery to help out in the bullpen and has done just that, appearing in seven Games, finishing three of those. In those seven Games, he has a 1.42 ERA, 7K, and has only given up one free pass. To top things off, it seems as though the Rangers will continue to carry Austin Hedges on their roster, whom they got from the Pirates as a backup Catcher, seeing the need for a good defensive backstop, now that Jonah Heim has come off of the IL and can go back to being one of the best young hitting Catchers in the game. Hedges could have easily been DFA’d, but the other young Texas Catcher, Sam Huff, was optioned back to the Minors instead. With the pitching and catching situations all settled, the Rangers should easily find themselves in the Playoffs.
Losers
Angels – With the confirmation that Shohei Ohtani would indeed not leave Anaheim, though the front office claims that they fielded calls about his availability, they instead added several pieces to a far off chance in getting back into the Playoffs. First, they added Starter Lucas Giolito and Reliever Reynaldo Lopez for their top prospect in young Catcher, Edgar Quero to the fire sale that is the White Sox. Giolito alone has caused enough damage to make most Halo fans cringe, sporting a 8.14 ERA in 4 Starts, going 1-3 in that span. In just his second start as an Angel, Giolito gave up three Homeruns and nine Earned runs in less than four innings, before he was pulled. Lopez, luckily, has had a better time in Anaheim than he did with Chicago; As a short reliever, in nine appearances, he has a miniscule 1.86 ERA and has been able to nab two Saves while grabbing 16K and only giving up 3 Walks. The other two-player trade that the Angels made were out of necessity, grabbing C.J. Cron and Randal Grichuk from the Rockies. Cron only played in 14 Games and hit a measily .217 before finding himself on the Injured List; Grichuk has a storied history with the Angels, even though this was the first time he would ever wear the uniform at the Major League level. He came in hot, hitting over .300 with Colorado, and the beach put a stopper on that as he has a weak .167 Average and 18K in 19 Games played, although he has flashed signs of promise with three Homeruns and good defense in the Outfield.
Yankees – Brian Cashman took it to almost the literal last minute of the trade deadline before making a move, being the last team in the MLB to do so on August 1st. They grabbed relief pitcher Keynan Middleton from the White Sox to eat innings and help top ten pitching staff, a head scratcher seeing as they’re near dead last when it comes to batting average, hmm… But Middleton has held up his part of the deal, throwing just over eight innings in seven Games, carrying a 1.04 ERA with 10K to only 1 Walk. It’s almost as if the team would have been better off doing absolutely nothing, rather than trading for an arm who wouldn’t help their already lost season, and walk away as a Free Agent.
Hitters – I know this isn’t a team, but the hitters of MLB came out losers in this years trade deadline! There was no Soto-like deal, it was, for the most part, all arms who were shuffled around. Whether it was a Starter, Middle Relief, or Closer, those were the players in demand for 2023. A few small position players here and there were traded, but nobody near as recognizable as the two Mets’ Starters who were traded away, along with a boatload of cash.
