Four Post-Trade Deadline Takeaways
Padres POBO (Lindsey Wasson, Associated Press)
1. No Baseball America Top 100 Prospects moved at the deadline
You’ll typically see at least a couple top 100 prospects get moved in most deadlines, but not this year. The price of a deadline bat seems to be dependent on the eye of the beholder. We saw the Padres move a few of their good prospects, and the Mariners traded Aidan Smith. Still, no blue chip name got moved, like #2 ranked Jackson Holliday or even someone like #43 ranked Aidan Miller. On the MLB side, the best position player traded was Randy Arozarena, and we won’t get to see Luis Robert Jr. or Brent Rooker on a playoff team.
Randy Arozarena Profile (bRef)
2. The Padres basically bought a bullpen with prospects, reliever prices are very high
The Padres traded for multiple relievers and engaged with multiple orgs to get it done. Here are the main two deals Preller made for bullpen arms:
Miami Marlins traded LHP Tanner Scott and RHP Bryan Hoeing to San Diego Padres for RHP Adam Mazur, 2B Jay Beshears, LHP Robby Snelling and 3B Graham Pauley.
Tampa Bay Rays traded RHP Jason Adam to San Diego Padres for RHP Dylan Lesko, OF Homer Bush Jr. and C J.D. Gonzalez.
Of course there were other teams that traded for relievers for a relatively high price, but no one was offering the same level of prospects as the San Diego Padres. The Padres have done a great job of scouting and developing the last several years, which has allowed Preller to buy every year without fail. Neither of the Padres’ players ranked in the top 100 prospects were moved, but Dylan Lesko was in the top 100 before the season started. Even with his regression, the Padres sent their #5 prospect in Lesko, as well as their #8 and #12 for Jason Adam. Adam had a ridiculous 2.30 ERA over three years with Tampa and instantly made San Diego a bigger threat to hold leads in October. That said, this is a massive haul for 2.3 years of a non-closer reliever. In conjunction with the Tanner Scott trade, that’s 6 of their top 12 prospects for two high leverage relievers with a few years of team control.
Jason Adam Profile (bRef)
3. The Deadline was pretty boring, no big moves
Obviously, there was no Juan Soto blockbuster. The biggest bat acquired was Randy Arozarena a few days before the actual deadline, and 20 of the 34 players traded on Tuesday were relievers. Many of us don’t know (or care) about JT Chargois, unless you’re a Mariners fan. Even then, you still probably don’t care that much. Tarik Skubal wasn’t moved, and neither was Garrett Crochet. On the position player side, it’s disappointing that we didn’t see many middle of the order bats changing uniforms. Jorge Soler and Randy were the biggest bats moved, and IKF may have been the best middle infielder traded this week.
We all live for the blockbuster trades and $300+ free agent signings… at least I do. I love watching ball, don’t get me wrong, but I love watching the executives cook. With your job on the line, what are you gonna do? There are only a handful of execs with this mindset– I’m looking at you Preller and Dombrowski. When the execs go all in, it tells their teams they believe in them, and that they’re in the foxhole with them down the stretch. Since the nerds and dorks are taking over (sometimes to the game’s detriment), we’re seeing less of that sentiment. There are benefits to more analysis and logical processes, but sometimes we just want to see a big splash. Baseball is a game after all, entertain us!
Mike Lowell Quote (Baseball is Boring Podcast)
4. Some front offices know how to sell and some don’t
Of course, Crochet providing an ultimatum of not pitching in the postseason didn’t help Chris Getz, but Getz was timid and should have made bigger moves. How are Crochet and Robert Jr. still on that horrible team? What a massive loss for a terrible organization. How are the Tigers holding on to Skubal? I don’t see how Detroit is competing with Cleveland next year, so I don’t really see the point in holding back on what could have been a massive haul. If Detroit had moved Skubal, they would have been the only team trading a frontline starter, which of course almost every contender needs. On the other hand, the Rays and Marlins gutted their team. Bendix is a new POBO, but he did a good job going full send on the fire sale. As you can see below, the Marlins acquired four of the top ten prospects traded at the deadline.
Baseball America Top Prospects Traded At the Deadline
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*Stats are as of 8/1/2024