We are midway through the September stretch, more than sufficient time to assess which teams did the best at the trade deadline to enhance their playoff chances. And the overwhelming winners are the Tampa Bay Rays, with the Guardians, Braves, Red Sox \u2014 and even the Yankees \u2014 due credit for accomplishing what they had to. On the other hand, White Sox GM Chris Getz, who\u2019d been the overwhelming lead candidate for executive of the year honors off his flurry of trades that transformed them from 100-loss last place dregs to playoff contenders in one year, may have blown it all by striking out spectacularly at the deadline.<\/p>\n
The deadline report card:<\/p>\n
RAYS<\/p>\n
Even though they\u2019ve been in first place in the American League East since June 30, Rays GM Erik Neander had about the most lengthy laundry list of needs of any team \u2014 a catcher who can hit, a frontline starting pitcher, another power arm in the bullpen and a backup infielder \u2014 and amazingly he filled them all, beating out a host of teams for Marlins power-hitting catcher Liam Hicks, acquiring Freddy Peralta from the Mets and righty set-up man Tyler Wells from the Orioles, and claiming infielder Jorge Mateo off waivers from the Braves. As of Friday, Hicks was hitting .307 with 4 home runs and 17 RBI in 29 games for the Rays, Wells had a 1.69 ERA in 12 appearances, while Peralta, a bitter disappointment with the Mets, appeared re-born in Tampa Bay, yielding only two earned runs over 18 innings in his first three appearances. The signing of Mateo, meanwhile, couldn\u2019t have been more opportune with Rays shortstop Taylor Walls going down with a hip flexor last week.<\/p>\n
GUARDIANS<\/p>\n
The pitching-rich, offensively-challenged Guardians added a much-needed power outfield bat in Jo Adell (4 HR, 24 RBI in his first 33 games for them after coming over from the Angels) The results for lefty-swinging first baseman Nathanial Lowe (.223, 5 HR, 21 RBI in 30 games) acquired from the Reds, have been less encouraging but lefty starter Foster Griffin, who was having a standout season with Washington, adds depth to the rotation.<\/p>\n
BRAVES<\/p>\n
Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos always seems to gets what he needs at the trade deadline and this year was no different when he added depth and quality to his rotation in Tyler Mahle, who\u2019s fashioned a 1.24 ERA after coming over from the Giants. In addition Anthopoulos fortified his bullpen with lefty Brent Suter (1.71 in his first 9 appearances) from the Reds.<\/p>\n
YANKEES<\/p>\n
Brian Cashman was one of the few GMs who didn\u2019t need pitching at the deadline and his only real needs were a couple of bats to fill in until Aaron Judge hopefully came back \u2014 and Luis Garcia Jr. (.299\/.336\/.530, 7 HR in his first 32 games) looks to be a keeper although not-so-much Heliot Ramos (.155 through Friday). But it appears Cashman may also have added a valuable middle-innings guy, especially against right handers, with his deadline waiver claim of John Schreiber from the Royals.<\/p>\n
RED SOX<\/p>\n
In what may have been the boldest deal at the deadline \u2014 but one that could also have the most impact of any \u2014 Red Sox GM Craig Breslow sent 2021 No. 1 draft pick, infielder Marcelo Mayer, to the Giants for behemoth (6-5, 269 pounds) reliever Erik Miller, who, as of Friday, had been nearly unhittable in Boston (0.68 ERA, with 24 strikeouts in 13.1 innings). The back of the bullpen tandem of Aroldis Chapman and Miller may be the most formidable in baseball now.<\/p>\n
WHITE SOX<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a truly storybook season on the south side of Chicago with the White Sox, following three straight 100-loss seasons, leading the AL Central since June 22. But they\u2019ve been doing it with a perilously thin, innings-challenged starting rotation that has lately looked gassed, and bullpen games seemingly twice a week. But the best Getz could do to address it was the faded, eminently hit-able Luis Castillo (overall 4-11, 5.57 ERA) from Seattle, who\u2019s been awful. For good measure Getz acquired Mets reliever Huascar Brazoban, who was even more awful (6.30 ERA in 10 games) before going on the injured list with a lat strain. Despite their obvious need for rotation reinforcements, Getz has for some reason been resistant to calling up either Drew Thorpe of David Sandlin, the White Sox top two starting pitching prospects, who\u2019ve both been pitching extremely well at Triple-A Charlotte.<\/p>\n
IT\u2019S A MADD, MADD WORLD<\/p>\n
It\u2019s beginning to look like baseball\u2019s most endangered manager, Houston\u2019s Joe Espada, may have his job saved by 77-year-old Brent Strom, the Astros\u2019 long-time two-termed pitching guru who was lured out of retirement Aug. 27. Already Strom has been working wonders. As of Saturday, the Astros were 9-7 since Strom has been back and the Astros\u2019 3.06 ERA is more than a run per game improved since then. The biggest Strom beneficiaries have been Cristian Javier who appears to have returned to top-of-the-rotation form after missing most of 2025 with Tommy John surgery and two months of this season with shoulder inflammation, and Hayden Wesneski. Javier has been terrific in his last two starts, yielding just two runs in 11 innings with 13 strikeouts. Wesneski, who was struggling with a 4.23 ERA before Strom arrived, lowered it to 3.35 in his last three starts. You\u2019ll remember when Astros owner Jim Crane fired general manager Dana Brown on Aug. 24 there were also reports (since denied) that Espada had been informed his contract wasn\u2019t going to be renewed. But they have since steadfastly held onto first place in the AL West, even increasing their lead to three games since Strom\u2019s return. \u2026 Hearing a prime candidate for Mets general manager \u2014 assuming David Stearns decides to bring one in \u2014 could be Jim Cuthbert, the Royals\u2019 highly regarded Director of Pro Scouting. Cuthbert is a Brooklyn native and graduate of St. John\u2019s who has 17 years of scouting experience. Before joining the Royals as one of GM J.J. Picollo\u2019s top assistants three years ago, Cuthbert worked for the Nationals and was their advance scout for the 2019 World Series championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We are midway through the September stretch, more than sufficient time to assess which teams did the best…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,43770,3936,538,7728,4,297,89,2550,68,2551,2549,10281,396,142],"class_list":["post-803273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-rays","tag-baseball","tag-bill-madden","tag-brian-cashman","tag-guardians","tag-liam-hicks","tag-mlb","tag-rays","tag-red-sox","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabayrays","tag-trade-deadline","tag-white-sox","tag-yankees"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117258989279808495","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}