NEW YORK – New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Thursday he’s loved Major League Baseball’s trade deadline during his career as a player and a manager.
“It’s an exciting time of year,” Boone said.
Well, that would be determined by whether your team’s buying or selling. The Yanks were, course, buying, and added position players all week leading up to Thursday’s 6 p.m. ET witching hour. Exciting for the Yankees, who added Pittsburgh Pirates closer David Bednar, Colorado Rockies reliever Jake Bird and Camilo Doval from the San Francisco Giants to their bullpen only hours before Thursday’s deadline.
But on the third base side of the basement corridor at Yankee Stadium, the Tampa Bay Rays turned from buyers to sellers over the course of a four-game series. It created a sense of dread among the players as the series unfolded.
Three times in the four games, the Rays made changes as a game was transpiring. On Monday, they had to scratch catcher Danny Jansen from the lineup at the last minute when he was traded to Milwaukee. On Wednesday that night’s starting pitcher, Zack Littell, was shipped to Cincinnati in a three-way deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Then, to top it off, during the seventh inning of Thursday’s rain-delayed game eventually won by the Yanks, 7-4, they traded infielder Jose Caballero to the Yankees and had to remove him from the lineup when he came off the field from first base.
Littell started Wednesday night’s game, going five innings in a 5-4, 11-inning loss and was told immediately after it ended the trade had been completed, Rays manager Kevin Cash said.
By the time reporters were allowed into the clubhouse, Littell’s belongs were gone. Only his name plate above the locker remained.
Pete Fairbanks, the team’s long-time closer, waxed sentimentally Wednesday night about the loss of a friend in the locker catty cornered to Littell’s.
“It’s sad for me to think that tomorrow I’m going to look over to his locker and he won’t be there,” Fairbanks said.
In fact, on Thursday right-hander Ian Seymour inhabited that very same locker.
It was an experience shared by players throughout the Major Leagues.
Perhaps the most stunning trade of the day was executed by the San Diego Padres and the Athletics. The A’s sent two of their best young pitchers—All-Star closer Mason Miller and starter JP Sears—to San Diego in exchange for a group of minor league players including shortstop Leo De Vries, the No. 1 prospect in the Padres organization and No. 3 overall in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline.
For those who’ve followed the A’s back to the Oakland days and through the John Fisher ownership, the move should have come as no surprise. Both pitchers are approaching arbitration and a stiff raise in salary.
But for the Padres, the acquisitions are golden because the players are under control through the rest of the decade. Sears, 29, won’t become a free agent until 2029. Miller, who throws consistently in the 100s, is 26 and won’t become a free agent until 2030. Miller is earning the major-league minimum of $760,000 this season, while Sears, as a two-year plus player, is slightly higher at $770,000.
On paper, it’s a perfect deal for the Padres. General manager A.J. Preller has been under a dictate from ownership in the wake of Peter Seidler’s death almost two years ago to minimize spending. This fits the Padres financial picture in the short term, and they can either flip the players down the road or perhaps make do with their more expensive arbitration years once on better financial footing.
The Padres made another deal with the Baltimore Orioles that saw them pick up All-Star Ryan O’Hearn and Ramon Laureano to address voids in left-field and DH.
For the A’s, who aren’t anticipating a move to Las Vegas until a new ballpark is complete in 2028 or beyond, Fisher gets to reset the payroll with a group of minor league players obtained in the deal. And that’s been typical of his entire regime.
Elsewhere, the haves thrived, and have-nots continued to tread water.
As predicted by Yanks closer Devin Williams in this space Wednesday, the sinking St. Louis Cardinals traded closer Ryan Helsley to the New York Mets, who totally recast their bullpen in the past few days, also adding Gregory Soto from the Baltimore Orioles and Tyler Rogers from the San Francisco Giants.
The Mets also added more outfield strength grabbing Cedric Mullins from the Orioles.
The Arizona Diamondbacks, who’ve sunk like a lead balloon in the National League playoff race, helped the Seattle Mariners immensely by sending them third baseman Eugenio Suarez after moving first baseman Josh Naylor to Seattle a week prior. That now gives the M’s two of the top five home run hitters in MLB: Cal Raleigh, the leader at 41, and Suarez fifth with 36.
The D-backs also sent Randal Grichuk to the Kansas City Royals, and starter Merrill Kelly to the Texas Rangers receiving players to restock the minor league system in all four deals. Suarez, Naylor, Kelly and Grichuk are free agents at the end of the season and can’t be awarded qualifying offers by their new teams because they were acquired during the season.
Carlos Correa returned to the Houston Astros as the Minnesota Twins unloaded.
Bednar, Bird and Doval join Williams and Luke Weaver in the Yankees bullpen at the cost of Triple-A catcher Rafael Flores and four other minor leaguers. Unlike Williams, who’s a free agent at the end of the season, the Yankees have one more year of arbitration control on Bednar, who’s earning $5.9 million this season. Bird, meanwhile, won’t be a free agent until 2029. And Doval has a pair of arb years remaining until he hits free agency in 2028.
Bednar was 17 for 17 in save opportunities for the Pirates—better than Williams, who’s 17 for 19 after blowing a save in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s extra-inning victory. The 47-win Pirates are also in shedding mode, having already traded third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes to the Reds and reliever Caleb Ferguson to the Mariners on Wednesday.
