It’s past. We double checked. The MLB trade deadline has come and gone, meaning we can safely publish this without — as it happened last night — a late-breaking trade making liars out of us. Here, for your perusal, is a list of all 32 trades that happened on the last day before the deadline (and one from Monday).
First, a catch-up on the 27 trades that happened from Thursday through almost the end of Monday.
On to the finale…
Late Monday Night …
Jorge Soler and Luke Jackson from Giants to Braves: This is the one that broke just after we published our Monday list. Soler and Jackson are making return trips to Atlanta, where the former won the World Series MVP in 2021. As Andrew Baggarly writes, this one had to do with getting under the luxury tax threshold. In return, the Giants get LHP Tyler Matzek, who has been on the IL since early May with an elbow flexor issue (but should return soon) and third-base/outfield prospect Sabin Ceballos.
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The Braves now employ Soler and Marcell Ozuna, who have combined this year for 730 at-bats and zero defensive innings. Not sure how the Braves are going to balance a double-DH lineup, but we’ll find out soon!
Tuesday
Mark Leiter Jr. from Cubs to Yankees: The Yankees needed more swing-and-miss from their bullpen. Leiter fits the description (53 Ks and 13 walks in 36 1/3 innings). He’s also under team control through 2026. The Cubs get two 24-year-olds in return: infielder Ben Cowles and RHP Jack Neely, which tracks with their apparent strategy: this isn’t a long-term rebuild; they want to compete next year.
Lucas Sims from Reds to Red Sox: The Red Sox have dealt with a number of injuries in their bullpen, so they went and grabbed the longest-tenured member of the Reds in Lucas Sims. Originally a first-round pick by the Braves, Sims put it together in Cincinnati after a 2018 trade that sent Adam Duvall to Atlanta. He’s a bit walk-prone, but the Red Sox needed depth, and they got it. All it cost them was 19-year-old RHP Ovis Portes.
Trevor Rogers from Marlins to Orioles: The first three trades featured AL East teams bolstering their pitching staff. This time it was the Orioles, who sent OF Kyle Stowers and IF Connor Norby to the Marlins for lefty Trevor Rogers. Rogers hasn’t quite been able to duplicate his success from 2021 when he was an All-Star and finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting. Further, his strikeout-to-walk ratio of 1.85 is a career-low (it was 2.92 for his career before this year).
Stowers and Norby are having very strong years in Triple A (and Stowers is hitting .306 in 36 at-bats this year). That’s a good haul for Miami.
Josh Bell from Marlins to Diamondbacks: For the Marlins, the return is $2.25 million, which is fine, for them. My son and I recently bought a cello for $75 because the store was going out of business. The cello was in need of repair and missing a piece, sure, but it seemed fixable. And for that price? Worth a shot. The store knew it wasn’t market value for a cello, but they were just happy to get a little closer to balancing their books. Actually, the longer I think about this, the more accurate this analogy gets. Next!
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Alex Cobb from Giants to Guardians: With the starting pitching prices we’ve seen in the last week, this was a creative solution: How about a guy who hasn’t thrown a pitch in the big leagues this year? Cobb, who is 36, went on the IL late in 2023 with a hip issue, and had his throwing program shut down earlier this year due to shoulder soreness (but should return soon). He’s been very good in each of the last two years with the Giants, posting a 3.80 ERA over 56 starts, and making the All-Star team last season.
Cleveland sends 19-year-old LHP Jacob Bresnahan to the Giants.
Caleb Ferguson from Yankees to Astros: With Leiter on his way from Chicago to New York, the Yankees turned around and created a roster spot for him by trading Ferguson to the Astros. Trades between rivals and potential playoff opponents are fun!
Ferguson has been a pretty good left-handed reliever for his career, posting a 3.43 ERA for the Dodgers in five years before joining the Yankees this year. His high 5.13 ERA this season is — as tends to be the case with relievers — due to a handful of crooked-number outings strewn about otherwise-successful work. But consistency is as important as talent in this business.
Still, he’ll help the Astros, who need all the pitching help they can get. Meanwhile, the Yankees get 23-year-old RHP Kelly Austin in return.
Lucas Erceg from A’s to Royals: Well, he’s not Mason Miller, but Erceg has been a pretty effective reliever for the A’s this year, allowing zero or one runs in 34 of his 38 outings, lighting up his Baseball Savant page with red. Erceg isn’t due to hit free agency until after the 2029 season, so what does it cost a team these days for an effective reliever with five-plus years of team control? RHP Mason Barnett, 23, RHP Will Klein, 24, and High-A OF Jared Dickey, 22. That’s not bad for the Royals.
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Andrew Chafin from Tigers to Rangers: The Rangers have been in need of solid left-handed relief for most of the season. Brock Burke was ineffective (and then broke his hand punching a door after a bad outing in Houston). Jackob Latz has been effective (3.63 ERA) but has walked 24 batters in 39 2/3 innings. Chafin has a 3.16 ERA and 50 strikeouts against 16 walks in 37 innings. He’ll join Kirby Yates, David Robertson, Josh Sborz and José Leclerc in what is becoming a pretty nasty bullpen in Texas.
In exchange, the Tigers are getting two pitchers. The first is side-arm reliever RHP Chase “The Viper” Lee — who has a degree in aerospace engineering, but not a cup of coffee yet, despite recent success in Triple A. He’ll probably get to Detroit before the 22-year-old RHP Joseph Montalvo, who currently has 73 strikeouts and 19 walks in 59 innings in High A.
Paul DeJong from White Sox to Royals: One of the strangest parts of any deadline is when a player is traded to a team that he was supposed to face that night. That’s what happened in Chicago, as DeJong was mercifully jettisoned from a 15-game losing streak and walked across the stadium to join the team that had just handed Chicago that record-breaking 15th loss.
DeJong played primarily shortstop for the Sox — that obviously won’t be the case in Kansas City with Bobby Witt Jr. manning the position — but has played second and third base in the big leagues and has 18 home runs this year.
The White Sox get 22-year-old RHP Jarold Rosado (1.85 ERA in 27 games in Low A.)
Paul Blackburn from A’s to Mets: Blackburn, the longest-tenured member of the A’s and an All-Star in 2022, was off to a good start this year before a foot injury sidelined him for almost three months. He had one rough inning (four runs in the first) upon his return this weekend, but that was all he gave up in a win over the Angels. He’ll help ballast a rotation that expected to be getting Kodai Senga back for the rest of the year, only to have the Japanese pitching star suffer a calf strain that is expected to keep him out for an extended period, possibly even the rest of the regular season.
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The cost: 22-year-old RHP Kade Morris.
JT Chargois from Marlins to Mariners: Chargois didn’t make his 2024 debut until June 12 (neck issue) but is having a fine year, posting a 1.62 ERA, even if it is just 16 2/3 innings over 15 games. He hasn’t been a high-strikeout guy this year, with just 12 (against seven walks) but that 6.5 K/9 is the lowest of his career (8.8 K/9 in 208 games before this season).
Mariners fans shouldn’t see the ERA and expect this to be a mega-impact addition. But he was effective the last time he was in a Mariners uniform (3.00 ERA in 31 games in 2021), so for the price of one 23-year-old RHP Will Schomberg, it’s not a bad risk to take.
Trevor Richards from Blue Jays to Twins: Despite “financial inflexibility” due to their TV deal, the Twins did finally go grab a pitcher, albeit not really the starter that fans might have been hoping for. Not that Richards hasn’t ever started, but the last time he did it regularly was in 2019. The 31-year-old reliever is a rental, due to hit free agency at season’s end, and is 2-1 with a 4.64 ERA in 45 games this year. All it cost the Twins was 22-year-old shortstop Jay Harry.
Tanner Scott from Marlins to Padres: For the second time in the last few days, the Padres have paid a hefty price for a Florida relief pitcher. Just days after sending a haul of prospects to Tampa for Jason Adam, here’s who they sent to Miami for Scott, widely regarded as the best left-handed reliever on the market: LHP Robby Snelling, RHP Adam Mazur, INF Graham Pauley, INF Jay Beshears.
Put another way, per Keith Law’s pre-season Padres prospects rankings, they sent Nos. 4, 8, 11 and a 22-year-old infielder who has a .750 OPS in High-A in his second year in pro ball.
The Padres also got right-handed reliever Bryan Hoeing, a sweetener in the deal, but not really a needle-mover. His 2.70 ERA this year looks nice, but it’s worth approaching with caution, since his career ERA before this year was 6.48 in 41 big-league games.
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Bryan De La Cruz from Marlins to Pirates: The Pirates finally got some pop in their lineup with De La Cruz. The .289 on-base percentage isn’t going to wow anyone, but 18 home runs and a strong arm in the outfield isn’t nothing. Miami gets two minor-leaguers: 20-year-old RHP Jun-Seok Shim and 22-year-old C/3B/1B Garret Forrester.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa from Blue Jays to Pirates: The Pirates then moved on to pick up Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who can play anywhere. No really — he has played eight of the nine positions (and I have to think that first base is doable for a guy with that resume). They sent 22-year-old OF Charles McAdoo (who has a .932 OPS across two levels this year) to Toronto.
Eloy Jiménez from White Sox to Orioles: After all the will-they-won’t-they on the White Sox dealing Luis Robert Jr, it’s Eloy Jiménez who is departing. When healthy, he’s been a very good hitter in the past: he finished fourth in AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2019 and won a Silver Slugger in 2020. But a cornucopia of injuries has plagued him (this year, it was a left adductor strain and a left hamstring). The 120 games he played in 2023 were a career high, and he’s at just 65 this year.
Of note: in those 65 games this year, he has posted a slash line of just .240/.297/.345 (.642 OPS), all of which are career lows, and in the case of slugging, drastically so. Coming into this season, his career line was .275/.324/.487 (.811 OPS).
He’ll also be a free agent at the end of this season if the Orioles decide — they’ll hold team options for 2025-26.
The White Sox get 26-year-old LHP Trey McGough.
Tanner Banks from White Sox to Phillies: The Phillies really did shuffle their bullpen quite a bit at the deadline. They picked up Banks as the White Sox continued their sell-off, sending 19-year-old INF William Bergolla to the Sox.
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Kevin Kiermaier from Blue Jays to Dodgers: Gotta be tough to announce that you plan to retire, and rather than throw you a retirement party, your team says, “Actually, how about you do that somewhere else?” Jokes aside, Kiermaier makes great sense for the Dodgers as a defense-and-speed outfielder, while recently-DFA’d Ryan Yarbrough goes back to Toronto.
Jack Flaherty from Tigers to Dodgers: With about five minutes to go before the deadline, the Dodgers finally pried Flaherty away from the Tigers, giving them the impact starter they had been looking for. Given the return the Blue Jays got for Yusei Kikuchi, I expected an absurd return for Flaherty, but in the end, it was a reasonable two-prospect deal: High-A catcher/first baseman Thayron Liranzo and Triple-A shortstop Trey Sweeney,
Dylan Carlson from Cardinals to Rays: An interesting big-leaguer-for-big-leaguer trade here — the Cardinals beef up their bullpen by acquiring Shawn Armstrong from the Rays, and send a former Top-10 prospect in need of a change-of-pace to Tampa (who, I’m calling it now, will flip him for prospects in a year or two).
Luis García from Angels to Red Sox: I’m a little surprised (but am I, really?) that the Angels didn’t make more deals on Tuesday, but they got four prospects for the one deal they did make, sending 37-year-0ld reliever García to Boston for IF Matthew Lugo, 1B Niko Kavadas, RHP Ryan Zeferjahn and RHP Yeferson Vargas.
Enyel De Los Santos from Padres to Yankees: Like the Phillies, the Padres shook up their bullpen. They sent De Los Santos — a high-strikeout reliever who has been hit hard when batters make contact — and minor-league pitcher Thomas Balboni Jr. to the Yankees for an on-base and speed guy: 27-year-old minor-league outfielder Brandon Lockridge, who is hitting .295/.405/.383 at Triple A.
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Mark Canha from Tigers to Giants: Canha heads back to the Bay, this time for the other team — he played for the A’s from 2015-2021. He’s bounced around a bit since, but comes back to help the Giants replace the right-handed hole that Jorge Soler’s departure created. The Tigers get RHP Eric Silva, who was 19th on Keith Law’s pre-season top 20 Giants prospects list.
Austin Slater and Liván Soto from Reds to Orioles: Slater’s time with the Reds was brief — just eight games — and Soto (the first of two Sotos the Orioles would acquire in the waning moments before the deadline) is actually on his third tour of duty with the franchise this year, having been selected off waivers from the Angels on two separate occasions. The Reds received cash.
Dylan Floro from Nationals to Diamondbacks: For a guy who has bounced around as much as Floro has — the Diamondbacks will be his eighth team in nine years — he’s been a pretty good reliever. He’s having his best season this year though, his 201 ERA+ even better than the 181 he posted between the Reds and Dodgers in 2018. That’s a good pickup for the Diamondbacks, even if it did cost them minor-league third baseman Andres Chaparro, who has a .967 OPS at Triple-A Reno this year.
Gregory Soto from Phillies to Orioles: A two-time All-Star in Detroit in 2021-2022, Soto came to the Phillies before the 2023 season along with Kody Clemens in exchange for Nick Maton, Donny Sands and Matt Vierling. That trade looks pretty good for Detroit now, as Soto struggled to throw strikes this year in Philadelphia. He goes to Baltimore for Double-A starting prospect Seth Johnson.
Martín Pérez from Pirates to Padres: Pérez rejoins GM A.J. Preller, who has had a penchant for acquiring players who were with the Rangers when he was an assistant GM there. Pérez joins Jurickson Profar and Yu Darvish (who is currently on the restricted list dealing with a personal issue). Pérez has been the weak link in the Pirates rotation this year, so it will be interesting to see if the Padres plan to shift him to the bullpen, where his numbers were drastically better with the Rangers in 2023.
Minor trades:
- The Pirates acquired recently-DFA’d LHP Josh Walker from the Mets for 18-year-old LHP Nicolas Carreno.
- The Angels picked up recently-DFA’d RHP Mike Baumann from the Giants for cash.
- The Mets received RHP Tyler Zuber from the Rays for RHP Paul Gervase.
- The Mets also scooped up RHP Huascar Brazoban from the Marlins for INF Wilfredo Lara.
- The Reds got recently-DFA’d infielder Davis Wendzel from the Rangers for cash.
(Top photo of Jorge Soler: Stan Szeto / USA Today)