MLB trade deadline winners and losers: Dodgers, Cubs and Padres all go big, while the Mets sell nearly a third of their roster

It will be a long time before we understand the full ramifications of these trades due to the volatility of prospects, but no day on the MLB calendar shows which way the wind is blowing more than deadline day.

Let’s dive into what all of this means, starting with the team that will be the talk of baseball well beyond the 2026 season.

If the Detroit Tigers were going to admit defeat and trade Tarik Skubal, the Dodgers loomed as the inevitable destination. And not for a boorish “The Dodgers get EVERYBODY!” reason.

There were basically four, maybe five teams good enough this season to justify giving up the price of two top-100 prospects and more that the Dodgers paid: the Dodgers, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Atlanta Braves, the Tampa Bay Rays and maybe the New York Yankees or Red Sox. Of that group, only the Dodgers, Brewers and Rays really had the prospect depth to make the deal happen.

The thing is, though, the Brewers and Rays usually need those prospects in a way the Dodgers don’t. Those teams build their contenders via affordable pre-arb and arbitration talent, with free agency as an occasional indulgence. Meanwhile, Zyhir Hope, the crown jewel of the Dodgers’ prospect package was — and we’re not joking here — the third-best outfielder on L.A.’s Double-A team, according to most prospect rankings, behind Josue De Paula and Mike Sirota.

All of that left the Dodgers without another legitimate suitor to compete against. They paid a completely reasonable (but still considerable for a rental) price, Hope and two high-risk, high-reward pitchers in River Ryan and Brady Smith, in exchange for maybe the one guy available at the deadline who could have meaningfully improved their World Series odds.

They didn’t stop there, either. Despite a comically large rotation depth chart, especially with Eric Lauer and Emmet Sheehan not being traded, L.A. still went for Royals starter Kris Bubic, a 2025 All-Star who is currently on the injured list but could be useful down the line.

And with Will Smith and Dalton Rushing both now on the injured list, the Dodgers brought in familiar faces Ben Rortvedt and Hunter Feduccia, who can at least offer an improvement on their worst-case scenario at the position.

No organization in all of sports combines resources, competence and the urge to bathe in the blood of your enemies quite like Andrew Friedman’s front office. It was no different at this year’s trade deadline.

The Dodgers might have made the biggest splash, but the crown for most total value added at this year’s deadline belongs to the Cubs, who overhauled a rotation that badly need overhauling.

The team had already acquired David Peterson from the New York Mets, and the left-hander has been more than solid outside of a bizarre meltdown early last month. Then they got Kevin Gasuman from the Toronto Blue Jays, Clay Holmes from the New York Mets and Braxton Garrett from the Miami Marlins.

Gausman should offer instant impact. Holmes was the Mets’ most reliable starting pitcher before he fractured his right fibula in May, but his return from the injured list is imminent. Garrett has looked promising in the past, though he’s still trying to find his footing after undergoing internal brace surgery in 2024.

Chicago also landed reliever Ryan Zeferjahn from the Los Angeles Angels and outfielder Tyrone Taylor from the Mets, filling two other notable needs.

This team is definitely better than it was a couple of days ago, and it wasn’t cheap, with top-100 prospects Jefferson Rojas and Moisés Ballesteros among the several prospects leaving the organization. It probably won’t be enough to nullify the Brewers’ 6.5-game lead in the NL Central, but this squad suddenly looks like by far the best wild-card team in the NL.

Never change, A.J. Preller. We really do mean that.

For the past few years, the San Diego Padres have been seeing the bill come due. They once had one of the most enviable collections of young talent in baseball (maybe the most enviable other than their neighbors to the slight north), but that has deteriorated through a series of win-now trades.

Now, the Padres sit at 58-54 entering play Monday, which is a vast improvement on where they were 10 games ago, and they’re one game out of a competitive wild-card race. They have a minus-12 run differential. Their high-priced core is visibly aging.

This time, San Diego improved a bad rotation by bringing in Robbie Ray from the San Francisco Giants and Casey Mize from the Detroit Tigers, sending away the No. 2, 4 and 9 prospects in a weak system, according to MLB Pipeline.

The Padres will remain competitive this season. They will have more questions to answer in the offseason, when top starter Michael King likely opts out and Ray and Adrian Morejon hit free agency.

That’s for future Preller — or, and we say this ominously, someone else — to figure out.

It’s refreshing to see a Pirates team try, even from 3.5 games out of the last wild-card spot entering Monday.

Pittsburgh ranks second in MLB in runs scored and seventh in runs allowed. There’s enough talent in the rotation that the bullpen was clearly the place for improvement, and improve they did.

In deals for Luke Weaver from the Mets, Kirby Yates from the Angels and Lake Bachar from the Marlins, the Pirates bought as hard in the bullpen as any team at the deadline this year.

This is still a team with holes, and one that definitely needs to pray Paul Skenes’ recent velocity issues are a temporary nuisance. And yet, this is now Pittsburgh’s best chance in years to end a decade-plus playoff drought.

Remember when we said there were four or five teams good enough to have reason to acquire Skubal? Let’s go through what those teams did.

The Braves, meanwhile, have a haul headlined by fourth outfielder Lane Thomas. They got a salary dump in Tyler Mahle and minor-league depth in Bailey Falter. They got Brent Suter and Tyler Uberstine, relievers who hardly scream “confident innings in October.”

The Braves overall have been excellent this season. Only the Dodgers have better odds to win their division than Atlanta. But, uh, what’s the plan once you’re facing the Dodgers and their gatling gun of multi-million-dollar arms?

The answer to that can’t be “well, the Dodgers are going to win anyway,” like some fans will say. Fire any executive who says that. Success is fleeting in MLB, and you can’t treat a 100% playoff team like a bonsai tree, making only the most delicate of tweaks, while all the other heavy hitters slam the buy button.

Atlanta obviously isn’t done for, but there’s no way to describe this deadline as anything better than a disappointment for president of baseball operations Alex Anthopolous.

The Red Sox are going for it! It is legitimately thrilling to see a team go from dead in the water to one of the deadline’s biggest buyers, even if Boston’s second-biggest acquisition, infielder Curtis Mead, immediately fractured his wrist.

But let’s talk about that Rutschman deal.

Rutschman isn’t quite the superstar he looked like he would be when he first reached MLB, but he’s still one of the game’s better catchers and under team control for 2027 too. Boston is probably going to love him.

As for the price general manager Craig Breslow paid for him, let’s go to a talent evaluator quoted by Sean McAdam of MassLive.com: “I’m absolutely dumbfounded by this…This is literally one of the most ridiculous trades I’ve seen in 30 years.”

In exchange for a season and a half of their new catcher plus another catcher in Jake Rogers, Boston sent away pitching prospect Anthony Eyanson (their No. 2 prospect at MLB Pipelin), pitching prospect Kyson Witherspoon (No. 4), outfield prospect Enddy Azocar (No. 5), current back-up catcher Carlos Narváez and a player to be named later.

The baseball world is prone to overrating the value of prospects, but that’s still a considerable price for a guy whose median outcome is a quality starter and not much more.

Yes, we just talked about what a haul the Orioles got for Rutschman. It was a good deal, but also one that showed all the bad building up under the supposed mastermind in Baltimore.

Remember 2023? The Orioles won 101 games, they still had the best farm system in baseball, they were about to get a new owner in David Rubenstein who was supposedly willing to spend in a way the Angelos family never did. And at the center of it all was Mike Elias, the former Astros player development lead who was demonstrating the power of alchemy in Baltimore.

What happened next might be the most stark example of a would-be contender failing to take a step forward in recent memory. The Orioles never had the pitching to back up their enviable collection of hitting talent, and then all that hitting talent collectively took a step backward. They went from 101 wins in 2023 to 91 in 2024 to 75 in 2025. They are on pace for 78 wins in 2026, with a farm system that was middling before that infusion of talent from Boston.

The Rutschman trade represents the final stretch of a cycle. Elias appeared incredibly adept at the first part of the cycle, building up talent without having to care about the results on the field. He proved disastrous at the next leg, waiting for a contender to assemble itself in front of him. And now he’s sending away the vanguard of that first wave of talent for fuel for the next lap.

There is little evidence the next ride will be any different, but at least Elias is doing what he loves again.
and Roki Sasaki (and Eric Lauer and Emmet Sheehan)

Moving back to the Dodgers, not everyone in that building will have reason to be pleased with what they’ve done.

Consider the case of Justin Wrobleski, who has been a pleasant surprise in his first year as an MLB starting pitcher. He entered Monday ranked 11th in MLB in ERA while ranking behind only Yoshinobu Yamamoto in innings pitched for the Dodgers. He made his first-team All-Star team last month, and would be one of the most valuable components of nearly any other MLB organization.

He is also likely to be pitching out of the bullpen this postseason if everyone is healthy. As is Roki Sasaki, who is suddenly fulfilling his potential as one of the most-hyped pitching prospects in MLB history. The Dodgers are undefeated in nine appearances by Lauer and he is one injured list return from falling out of this rotation. Sheehan got optioned like 10 minutes after the trade deadline.

In an organization with Skubal, Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, it’s not enough to be good for a season. We’re just not sure how any young pitcher is supposed to accomplish more than that in this monstrosity of an organization.

We didn’t really expect anything different, but the New York Mets have officially pulled the plug on the most disappointing season in MLB.

With Holmes, Peralta, Taylor, Weaver, Huascar Brazobán, Brooks Raley, A.J. Minter and Rortvedt, the Mets traded away eight players over the past two days. That is 31% of an MLB roster. They got back some decent talent overall, but that’s not the win they wanted this season.

It’s not a full rebuild in New York, but it’s at the very least a moment for reflection. This team was supposed to be Dodgers East with David Stearns running the show with a near-unlimited checkbook, but little has gone right since their magical playoff run in 2024.