The 2019 MLB trade deadline -- the only trade deadline as of this season, you'll recall -- ended with a bang. A number of contenders in the days, hours, and even minutes leading up to the deadline bettered their lot as we move into the stretch drive. Others didn't get much done despite obvious needs.
To get up to speed on all the goings-on, dig into our deadline trade tracker. Meantime, we'll go Full Schoolmarm and hand out some grades for the sellers this time around. Let's get to it ...
Grade: A Can't say I expected the Diamondbacks to trade Zack Greinke rather than Robbie Ray, but here we are. Arizona cleared roughly $50 million in future salary obligations with the trade and also added four pretty good prospects. Flawed prospects? Sure, but they are talented young players. Corbin Martin has rotation mainstay potential and sleeper Josh Rojas looks very much like a future valuable role player for a National League club. | |
Grade: D To be fair, the Orioles didn't have much to move this season. Last year they shipped out Manny Machado, Zack Britton, Kevin Gausman, and others. This year they had, uh, Mychal Givens? Baltimore held on to Givens and Richard Bleier too long -- they really should have traded them over the winter -- and saw their value sink, so they're still holding on to them. Doing nothing really should get an "incomplete" trade, not a "D," but it sounds like there was enough interest in Givens to work something out. Alas. | |
Grade: F The White Sox didn't have a ton to sell at the deadline and they still managed to keep everyone. Ivan Nova, Alex Colome, Kelvin Herrera ... all still ChiSox for some reason. Chicago's lone move was salary dumping the injured Nate Jones on the Rangers. It cost them international bonus money and they received two unheralded prospects in return. The deadline was a great big meh for the White Sox. They could've done more than this, right? | |
Grade: C I appreciate that the Reds didn't completely tank this year and instead tried to win. When that didn't work, they dumped impending free agents Scooter Gennett and Tanner Roark at the deadline, and brought in Trevor Bauer to help them win next year. The price was awfully steep though. Taylor Trammell is one of the top prospects in the game and they threw in the remainder of Yasiel Puig's contract year as well. Look at what the Mets gave up for Marcus Stroman, then look at what the Reds gave up for Bauer. There's a disconnect there. | |
Grade: D The Rockies did pretty much nothing at the deadline. They sent an unheralded lower minors prospect to the Yankees for right-hander Joe Harvey, a perfectly cromulent up-and-down reliever. And that's it. Opportunities to turn Jake McGee, Bryan Shaw, Scott Oberg, and others into prospects were either passed over or did not present themselves. For a team tumbling down the standings, the Rockies did not act very decisively at the trade deadline. | |
Grade: B With the understanding Matthew Boyd probably wasn't going to move given the asking price, the Tigers did well at the deadline. They received two prospects for Shane Greene and another two prospects for Nicholas Castellanos. Players like Castellanos usually don't fetch much at the deadline. Detroit getting two interesting enough prospects is a win. Selling high on Greene was a smart move too. Nice little deadline for the Tigers. | |
Grade: D Why in the world is Ian Kennedy still with the Royals? Realistically, his trade value is never getting higher than it is right now, and Kansas City decided to keep him. Reportedly they did not want to eat (much) money to facilitate a trade, which I guess is fine, except now they still have to pay him his full salary and don't have any prospects to show for it. And seriously, no contender would take Billy Hamilton for the bench? The Jake Diekman trade keeps this from being an F. | |
Grade: B If nothing else, the Zac Gallen for Jazz Chisholm trade was the most fascinating move of the deadline. Prospect-for-prospect trades are rare. I will always and forever prefer the guy with star-caliber tools over the guy with a higher floor, especially for a team so deep in a rebuild, and a player with star-caliber tools is what Miami acquired in Chisholm. The Marlins also did well in the Sergio Romo trade, though swapping Trevor Richards (and Nick Anderson) for Jesus Sanchez (and Ryne Stanek) is a tad curious. | |
Grade: D The Pirates did the bare minimum at the trade deadline. They turned Jordan Lyles and Corey Dickerson, two impending free agents, into an interesting enough prospect and international bonus money. Ace closer Felipe Vazquez stayed put, as did useful veterans Melky Cabrera and Francisco Liriano. GM Neal Huntington told reporters, including 1020 KDKA's Eric Hagman, he kept Cabrera and Liriano to provide veteran leadership. That seems ... unnecessary. | |
Grade: A The Padres did a little buying (Carl Edwards Jr.) and a little selling (Franmil Reyes and Logan Allen) at the trade deadline. For their seller move, gosh, that is a slam dunk. The Franimal is awesome, I greatly enjoy his majestic dingers, but the fact of the matter is he is a DH playing the outfield in an organization loaded with outfielders. Any time you can turn that guy and a potential back-end starter in a potential star like Taylor Trammell, you do it and don't think twice about it. | |
Grade: B I'm torn. On one hand, I thought the Giants should've moved Madison Bumgarner and Will Smith. I'm not sold on San Francisco being a contender when they're winning nothing but one-run games because guys like Austin Slater and Alex Dickerson are playing way over their heads. On the other hand, I respect keeping Bumgarner and Smith and going for it, which surely fired up the clubhouse. Also, hot damn, they really unloaded Mark Melancon's entire contract? And got two players back too??? | |
Grade: B Mike Minor remained, Lance Lynn remained, and Jose Leclerc remained. The Rangers still did very nice work turning impending free agent reliever Chris Martin into Kolby Allard, a quality prospect, and essentially buying international bonus money from the White Sox by taking on the contract of the injured Nate Jones. Also, don't sleep on Texas turning Peter Fairbanks into Nick Solak, then getting Ian Gibaut for cash. The Rays offered Gibaut for Fairbanks, Texas pushed for Solak instead, and they wound up with Solak and Gibaut. Nifty. | |
Grade: C The Marcus Stroman trade returns seems awfully light, especially considering a) the Blue Jays traded him four days before the deadline (was that offer really not going to be on the table had they squeezed the market until Wednesday?), and b) the Trevor Bauer trade return. It's not that Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods-Richardson are bad prospects. It's just that it feels like Toronto could've gotten more. Shipping out spare parts Eric Sogard, David Phelps, and Daniel Hudson for acceptable returns is largely inconsequential to this grade when you move a big fish like Stroman. | |