Ranking all 56 deals from a wild MLB trade deadline
By Jake Mintz & Jordan Shusterman
FOX Sports MLB Writers
We just witnessed 56 trades!!!
The MLB trade deadline has come and gone in a blaze of glory. The dust has settled and half the league seems to be on a different team. It’s an exhilarating and fast-paced time of the year, so we’ve got literally every freakin’ trade listed out below so you don’t miss a beat.
Dissecting the winners and losers and whatnots and whosits of the deadline is somewhat of a lost cause – we won’t really know how it all pans out ‘til November (or many years from now for the teams trading for prospects) – but what we do know with certainty is how learning about these trades made us feel in the moment.
This was the wildest deadline day in recent memory, so to commemorate the madness, we ranked all 56 trades that went down since the All-Star break in order of least to most shocking.
TRADES THAT APPARENTLY HAPPENED: You probably missed these, but we’re ranking all the trades so these have to go somewhere!
56. White Sox acquire Deivy Grullon from the Rays
55. Royals acquire Joel Payamps from the Blue Jays
54. Rockies acquire Ashton Goudeau from the Reds
53. Rays acquire Shawn Armstrong from the Orioles
52. Pirates acquire Dillon Peters from the Angels
51. Mets acquire Mark Payton from the Reds
50. Cardinals acquire TJ Zeuch from the Blue Jays (*Shaggy voice* Zeuch, Scoob! Like, that’s some nice pitching depth for St. Louis! – JS)
YOU HAD TO DO SOMETHING: Moves made involving lower-level pieces that will certainly get some playing time on good teams but likely won’t be making a gigantic impact. These trades make the world go ‘round.
49. Pirates acquire Michael Chavis from the Red Sox
48. Dodgers acquire Billy McKinney from the Mets
47. Phillies acquire Freddy Galvis from the Orioles
46. Rays acquire Jordan Luplow & D.J. Johnson from the Guardians
45. Cardinals acquire Jon Lester from the Nationals
44. Brewers acquire Daniel Norris from the Tigers – Daniel Norris has actually been on the Tigers since the year 1351, which is also the year he started growing his beard. End of an era.
43. Cardinals acquire JA Happ from the Twins for John Gant
42. Mariners acquire Tyler Anderson from the Pirates
41. Red Sox acquire Hansel Robles from the Twins
40. Astros acquire Yimi Garcia from the Marlins
39. Giants acquire Tony Watson from the Angels
38. White Sox acquire Ryan Tepera from the Cubs – MVP! MVP! MVP!
37. Brewers acquire John Curtiss from the Marlins – Reminder that John Curtiss appeared in NINE postseason games for the Rays in 2020. Don’t be shocked if he’s a big part of the Brewers ‘pen this October.
36. A’s acquire Andrew Chafin from the Cubs
35. Blue Jays acquire Joakim Soria from the D-Backs
34. Reds acquire Luis Cessa and Justin Wilson from the Yankees – There are only 40 spots on the 40-man roster and when you’re gonna trade for Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo in a few hours, you have to make some room.
THE BRAVES TRADES: Injuries have wrecked Atlanta’s season but they’re still hanging around in the NL East and quietly made a half-dozen moves to retool their roster. They are their own tier.
33. Braves acquire Stephen Vogt from the D-backs
32. Braves acquire Eddie Rosario from the Guardians
31. Braves acquire Adam Duvall from the Marlins
30. Braves acquire Joc Pederson from the Cubs
29. Braves acquire Jorge Soler from the Royals – Remember when Soler led the American League with 48 home runs a mere two years ago? Alex Anthopoulos does!
28. Braves acquire Richard Rodriguez from the Pirates – This was a fun finale of the Braves thrifty deadline shopping spree, especially because it wasn’t reported until nearly 30 minutes after 4 p.m. ED had passed. We were all looking around like, "Wait, why in the world is RichRod still on the Pirates?" and then bam.
HUH, THAT’S INTERESTING: These weren’t outright jaw-droppers, but each of them had an extra layer of intrigue that made us consider them for an extra few minutes before moving our attention to the bigger deals.
27. Yankees acquire Clay Holmes from the Pirates for Hoy Park – Okay, fine, we just love this trade because we just saw Hoy Park hit a home run on our trip and are 100 percent sold he’s a future Hall of Famer.
26. Phillies acquire Braeden Ogle from the Pirates for Abrahan Gutierrez – Ogle is a likely big league lefty reliever, but keep an eye on Gutierrez, who was the top catcher in his international signing class back in 2016 and is having a really strong offensive season in Low-A. The Pirates farm system is getting pretty ridiculous.
25. Padres acquire Jake Marisnick from the Cubs – Who had this deal being the only move AJ Preller would make on Deadline Day?
24. Astros acquire Phil Maton from the Guardians for Myles Straw – The Astros loaded up on bullpen arms at the deadline, but this would also appear to be a pretty strong vote of confidence for Mr. Chas McCormick as the everyday centerfielder in Houston.
23. Reds acquire Mychal Givens from the Rockies for Case Williams – What a whirlwind 12 months it’s been for young right-hander Case Williams. The Denver native was selected by his hometown Rockies in the fourth round of the 2020 MLB Draft only to be traded last offseason to the Reds for Robert Stephenson. And now, back to the Rockies this July. The Rockies continue to work in mysterious ways.
22. Mets acquire Rich Hill from the Rays
21. Astros acquire Kendall Graveman from the Mariners for Abraham Toro – An all-time no-feel trade from Trader Jerry, angering several players who couldn’t quite fathom why they’d trade away their best reliever while still being in the AL Wild Card hunt after two decades without postseason baseball.
20. Mariners acquire Diego Castillo from the Rays – Okay, so this maybe made the Graveman trade hurt a little less for M’s fans, but as a wise little girl in a taco commercial once pondered: Why don’t we have both?
19. Dodgers acquire Danny Duffy from the Royals
MAKES SENSE: All of these swaps involved fairly significant teams and/or players, but they almost made too much sense that we weren’t exactly shocked when news of them scrolled across our Twitter timelines.
18. Yankees acquire Andrew Heaney from the Angels
17. A’s acquire Yan Gomes and Josh Harrison from the Nationals
16. White Sox acquire Cesar Hernandez from the Guardians
15. Brewers acquire Eduardo Escobar from the D-backs – In our minds, Escobar had already been on the White Sox for like a month, but even though Chicago had been connected to the Venezuelan pocket-slugger forever, a deal never got done and he’s now a Brewer. Escobar is a perfect fit on a low-budget Brewers team that hasn’t had full-blast Christian Yelich this season yet finds themselves with a hefty lead atop the division.
14. Padres acquire Adam Frazier from the Pirates
13. Padres acquire Daniel Hudson from the Nationals – Okay, so it’s not like Preller didn’t do anything. These were both super solid pickups.
12. Blue Jays acquire Brad Hand from the Nationals
11. Phillies acquire Kyle Gibson and Ian Kennedy from the Rangers for Spencer Howard – The Phillies really only had one prospect bullet to spend, RHP Spencer Howard, and they chose to use it on this duo of hurlers from the Rangers. It’s the opposite of a jaw-dropping move, but it gives the Phils some much-needed stability in the rotation and the bullpen. Sometimes the obvious thing is the right thing.
WHOA, THAT’S COOL!: These trades may not have totally shocked us, but they’re super fun and we’re especially excited to see these guys in their new threads.
10. A’s acquire Starling Marte from the Marlins for Jesus Luzardo – A perennially underrated star outfielder for a young flamethrower going to the team he grew up rooting for? Sounds pretty fun to me!
9. Red Sox acquire Kyle Schwarber from the Nationals – Sure, he’s still hurt and we don’t know exactly when he’ll be back or where he’s gonna play, but this guy was literally homering every single day for like two weeks just last month. They’ll find a way to get this bat in the lineup.
8. Rays acquire Nelson Cruz from the Twins – For casual fans to stay somewhat interested in teams that pop up in the postseason year after year, those teams have to shake the roster up a little bit from season to season. Unless you’re from Tampa, no one wants to watch the exact same very solid Rays roster deep into October every year. Along those lines, the addition of Nelson Cruz is a total delight. A veteran, beloved by many, in search of his first career ring, Cruz gives folks like me a reason to think about pulling for the Rays come postseason time.
7. Giants acquire Kris Bryant from the Cubs – Once the rest of the 2016 World Champion Cubbies had been sent packing by mid-day on Friday, it was pretty obvious that Bryant would be on his way too. There’s something fitting about the franchise’s best player over the last decade, the man who finally broke the curse, being the last one out the door. If I’d told you back in March that he’d be playing for the Giants, you’d never have believed me but now it makes too much sense.
HOLY F------ S---: Forgive the language, but there aren’t any other words to describe our reactions to these moves. These were the stunners. The jaw-droppers. The eye-poppers. The phone-throwers. The blockbusters. The moves that will shape the rest of the 2021 season.
6. Blue Jays acquire Jose Berrios from the Twins for Austin Martin and Simeon Woods-Richardson – Berrios getting moved wasn’t all that shocking, but the return sure did shock the prospect-loving community and a lot of Jays fans who couldn’t believe the team would already move on from their 2020 first-rounder in Martin. The Jays are back in Toronto, though, and they’re clearly ready to go for it. The price may have been steep but hard not to love the aggressiveness.
5. Yankees acquire Joey Gallo from the Rangers – We all knew Gallo was going to get dealt, but the Yankees swooping in and poaching him a full 24 hours before the deadline was definitely a shocker.
4. White Sox acquire Craig Kimbrel from the Cubs – Even though they only play one another six times a season, the crosstown challenge trades between the Cubs and White Sox are always fun. On a one-year deal with a team option, Kimbrel was always going to be a part of the Cubs teardown, but few expected the White Sox to be the landing spot and no one expected the south siders to part with their second baseman of the future.
3. Mets acquire Javier Baez from the Cubs – After months of Mets Twitter desperately trying to manifest a Kris Bryant-to-Queens scenario, it turned out it was El Mago that Sandy Alderson and Co. had their eye on the whole time. Now we all get to watch Baez and Francisco Lindor turn double plays like it’s a middle-infield AND1 mixtape, and it will be glorious.
2. Yankees acquire Anthony Rizzo from the Cubs – Yes, we know he was on the Red Sox for 10 minutes way back when, but seeing Rizzo in another uniform is the absolute weirdest. The two shocking components to this were (1) He was the first Cub to go, which is not what we expected and (2) He went to the Yankees. Like, what?
1. Dodgers acquire Max Scherzer and Trea Turner from the Nationals – Remember how ridiculous it felt to watch the Dodgers add Mookie Betts to their roster? This felt like that all over except far more chaotic and extreme because of the timing and surrounding context. With the Nationals spiraling as of late, we all had a pretty good sense that Scherzer would be on the move. Turner, meanwhile, seemed like more of a longshot, even after it was reported that the Nats weren’t gonna extend him. Combine that context with the rumor earlier in the day that the Padres were closing in on landing Mad Max, and that made this mega-deal our No. 1 HOLY F------ S--- moment of the 2021 trade deadline.
Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman, creators of the Twitter account Céspedes Family BBQ, write about all things baseball for FOX Sports.
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