Major League Baseball

Ken Rosenthal stops by 'Flippin' Bats' to recap a wild MLB trade deadline

Published Aug. 3, 2021 8:45 p.m. ET

The 2021 MLB trade deadline was one for the ages, and who better to discuss it than one of the best baseball writers in the business?

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic joined Ben Verlander for "Flippin' Bats" to recap a wild MLB trade deadline that was among the most active he has covered in his career.

"In 2019, we saw 22 trades on deadline day," Rosenthal said. "This year we saw 21, but the period leading up to it, the six days leading up to it, were more frenzied, and I think there were 42 trades in all over those six days."

In those 42 trades, nine All-Stars were shipped to new destinations, and the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers were fortunate enough to acquire two of those, adding Max Scherzer and Trea Turner from the Washington Nationals.

That follows the blueprint of the franchise's aggressive nature at the deadline over the past few seasons.

"They've always been under [Andrew] Friedman pretty aggressive at the deadline," Rosenthal said. "[Manny] Machado that one year, [Yu] Darvish, of course."

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While the Dodgers were big winners of the deadline, the Chicago Cubs underwent a complete deconstruction of the roster that won the 2016 World Series.

The Cubs shipped out Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Javier Báez, all of whom started for their championship team, as well as All-Star closer Craig Kimbrel.

A fire sale of this nature by a team that recently won a World Series was something Rosenthal said he hadn't seen in his career.

"I don't know that I've ever seen it at the deadline quite like this, and that is what kind of distinguished this," he said. "The one thing that surprised me was that they went to the extent that they did."

When the smoke cleared and the dust settled after the trade deadline, the two biggest winners, according to Rosenthal, were the teams in the two biggest markets: the Dodgers and the New York Yankees.

"They [Dodgers] acquired two of the best players in the game and solidified themselves against two division rivals who did not get those players," he said. "They are clearly winners.

"I thought the Yankees were winners simply because they addressed one of their biggest problems, which was a lack of left-handed presence in their lineup, with [Joey] Gallo and Rizzo. So they did really well, in my opinion."

For more from Ken Rosenthal and the MLB trade deadline, watch the full episode of "Flippin’ Bats" below:

Ben Verlander is an MLB Analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the "Flippin' Bats" podcast. Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Verlander was an All-American at Old Dominion University before he joined his brother, Justin, in Detroit as a 14th-round pick of the Tigers in 2013. He spent five years in the Tigers organization. Follow him on Twitter @Verly32.