There was a lot of movement ahead of last week’s MLB trade deadline, and we’ve now had a week of game play to see how teams’ new acquisitions are settling in, as well as the impact they might provide.

Despite not making any huge splashes at the deadline, the Brewers keep rolling and sit at No. 1 for the third consecutive week. Meanwhile, the Yankees, who made a number of moves and were deemed a deadline winner, have dropped five straight games since July 31 and fallen to their lowest ranking of the season at No. 12.

Boston was another team that didn’t see a lot of action around the deadline, but the Red Sox have won seven of their last eight games and jumped back into our top 10 for the first time since Week 5. And don’t look now but … could the Marlins, who have risen to No. 20 on our list, have a hot streak in them to make a playoff push?

Our expert panel has ranked every team based on a combination of what we’ve seen so far and what we already knew going into the 162-game marathon that is a full baseball season. We also asked ESPN MLB experts Buster Olney, David Schoenfield and Bradford Doolittle to weigh in with an observation for all 30 teams.

Week 18 | Second-half preview | Preseason rankings

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Record: 70-44
Previous ranking: 1

The Brewers continue to roll: 16-9 in June, 17-7 in July and 6-0 in their first six games in August, including blowout wins of 16-9 and 14-3 over the Nationals over the weekend. Brandon Woodruff continues to look great in his return (2.22 ERA in five starts) and All-Star Freddy Peralta is having his best season, but another key has been the emergence of Quinn Priester, acquired in early April from the Red Sox. He’s now 11-2 with a 3.15 ERA, has won five starts and 10 decisions in a row, and has a 2.45 ERA since joining the rotation on June 10. — Schoenfield

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Record: 65-49
Previous ranking: 6

Kyle Schwarber might not win the National League MVP Award, given how difficult it is for DHs not named Shohei Ohtani to win the honor. Schwarber currently ranks eighth in the NL in WAR, behind multidimensional players like Pete Crow-Armstrong, Ohtani, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Kyle Tucker. But Schwarber is going to make big money in free agency in the fall, no matter where he lands. Some friends of his in the game wonder if he’d prefer to play closer to his Midwest roots. — Olney

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Record: 66-48
Previous ranking: 2

The Cubs’ lack of impact moves at the trade deadline was widely criticized, and now it looks even worse as Michael Soroka pitched two innings in his debut for them, left the game and landed on the injured list with shoulder discomfort. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said the Cubs were aware of Soroka’s declining velocity over the past month with the Nationals but took the risk in acquiring him anyway. Ben Brown could rejoin the rotation, although the Cubs have off days on Thursday and Monday before then playing for 13 days in a row (including a doubleheader against Milwaukee on Aug. 18). — Schoenfield

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Record: 66-49
Previous ranking: 3

There are some great players with Teflon confidence who seem to assume they’ll thrive. Derek Jeter was like this, and Shohei Ohtani is like this now. Mookie Betts, however, has never been like that. “A perfectionist,” said one staffer, who has coached in the past. When Betts struggles, this staffer said, it gnaws at him and he beats himself up, feeling as if he’s letting down others. Betts has never posted an OPS below .800 in any season in his career, but that figure currently sits at .669. Since May 23, his batting average is hovering around .200 and he’s slugging below .300. — Olney

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Record: 66-50
Previous ranking: 7

The Tigers appeared to have weathered the worst of their slump. They still haven’t regained the torrid form that lifted them to a huge lead in the AL Central, but they have cleared a prolonged rough section of the schedule and are entering a much friendlier neighborhood. The offense has picked things up after a brutal stretch, with Kerry Carpenter, Dillon Dingler and Wenceel Perez all catching fire. After all that, the Tigers still hold a commanding lead in the division. — Doolittle

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Record: 68-48
Previous ranking: 4

Jays skipper John Schneider told reporters that Shane Bieber will need a couple more tuneup outings before joining Toronto after his rehab stint. When Bieber debuts in Blue Jay powder blue, he’ll become the 12th former Cy Young winner to pitch for the franchise, joining new rotation mate Max Scherzer. Four of the 12 won the award with Toronto: Pat Hentgen, Robbie Ray, Roy Halladay and Roger Clemens (twice). Joining Bieber and Scherzer on the list of Cy Young Jays who won for other teams are Mike Flanagan, David Cone, Pete Vuckovich, R.A. Dickey, Chris Carpenter and Dave Price. — Doolittle

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Record: 63-52
Previous ranking: 5

Their starting pitching is the primary reason why the Mets started off the year so strongly, but now, the rotation is the biggest question mark going forward. Frankie Montas, who signed to a two-year, $34 million deal in the winter, is going to get at least one more start, but the Mets cannot live with a 6.00-ERA-level performance much longer. Griffin Canning, whose contract might have been the best per-dollar value of last winter, is out for the year, and Clay Holmes has seen regression in his performance. — Olney

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Record: 64-51
Previous ranking: 10

Some other managers will be jealous of San Diego’s Mike Shildt, in the aftermath of the Padres’ trade for Mason Miller and the bolstering of what might be the deepest bullpen in the majors. In the team’s first game post-trade deadline, Miller threw the eighth inning, in relief of Nick Pivetta, and was followed by Robert Suarez. Two days later, Shildt called upon Jason Adam to throw the sixth inning, then Jeremiah Estrada for the seventh and Suarez for the ninth. Miller has pitched just once for the Padres; the bullpen is deep enough that Shildt can properly rest all of his key relievers down the stretch. — Olney

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Record: 64-52
Previous ranking: 13

Don’t look now, Yankees fans, but that red flash that just zipped by you in the AL East standings was Boston. The Red Sox have been smoldering on both sides of the ball for weeks now, and suddenly, the range of possibilities for a hoped-for playoff seed includes a shot at No. 1. For all the consternation among pundits about Boston’s tepid deadline, the disappointment does not seem to have filtered down to the clubhouse. It’s a stunning turnaround for a team that was 43-45 on the morning of July 4. — Doolittle

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Record: 64-51
Previous ranking: 8

After going 19-7 in June, the Astros had their worst month in July, going 12-15, and then began August by getting swept in Boston, a series in which they scored just five runs in three games. The pitching staff allowed a .259 average and .313 BABIP in July after entering the month with a .227 average and .277 BABIP. No doubt Jeremy Peña‘s absence for the entire month factored into those numbers as Mauricio Dubon and Zack Short filled in at shortstop. Peña returned Friday and went 3-for-5. Meanwhile, Carlos Correa, now playing third base in his return to Houston, went 6-for-21 in his first five games, including a home run. — Schoenfield

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Record: 62-53
Previous ranking: 9

The Mariners won three of four against Texas over the weekend, with J.P. Crawford’s two-run walk-off home run to give them a 4-3 victory on Friday the big highlight. Other post-deadline highlights: Eugenio Suarez hit his first home run since joining Seattle on Tuesday, his 37th overall; Cole Young bashed a 456-foot homer with an exit velo of 114 mph, suggesting he might have more power in his future; Bryan Woo has now pitched at least six innings in all 22 of his starts; and the Mariners acquired a sneaky stolen base threat in Josh Naylor, who swiped eight bases in his first 11 games with Seattle to give him 19 on the season (not bad for a guy who ranks in the third percentile of all players in top running speed). — Schoenfield

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Record: 61-54
Previous ranking: 11

Aaron Judge is back after a mercifully brief IL stint with an elbow injury. His return is the only good news for a Yankees team that is quickly approaching free fall status. The bullpen has flailed, even after the Yankees’ aggressive pursuit of relief help at the deadline, and the Judge-less offense was just so-so. More concerning has been a string of baserunning and defensive lapses that would have made Billy Martin lose his mind. Judge has handled it more stoically, at least in public. — Doolittle

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Record: 60-56
Previous ranking: 12

With eight scoreless, one-hit innings in Tuesday’s 2-0 win over the Yankees, Nathan Eovaldi has now allowed one run or fewer in 13 of his past 14 starts, lowering his season ERA to a microscopic 1.38. He has pitched 111 innings, so remains a few innings short of qualifying for the ERA title but does have a chance of getting to 162 innings by season’s end. The lowest ERAs for a qualifying starter in the live ball era (since 1920 and skipping 2020): Bob Gibson, 1.12 in 1968; Dwight Gooden, 1.53 in 1985; Greg Maddux, 1.56 in 1994; Luis Tiant, 1.60 in 1968; Maddux, 1.63 in 1995. — Schoenfield

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Record: 60-55
Previous ranking: 14

Zack Littell came up big in his first start since coming over to Cincinnati from the Tampa Bay Rays, allowing one run and three hits in seven innings in a 5-1 victory over the Cubs on Tuesday. Littell induced a season-high 15 swing-and-misses, relying on a splitter he said was as good as he’s ever had. The Reds needed a lengthy outing after Nick Lodolo left Monday’s game in the second inning with a blister (and landed on the IL, hopefully for a short stay) and Sunday’s rain-delayed game in Tennessee necessitated a bullpen game as well. — Schoenfield

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Record: 59-55
Previous ranking: 20

The Guardians are the defending AL Central champs and are a strong weekend away from right-now wild-card position. Their trade deadline basically consisted of trading the actual current Shane Bieber for a promising young hurler in Khal Stephen, who, if all goes well, might eventually turn out to be a solid facsimile of Bieber. Yet, if there is a candidate to follow last year’s Tigers as a team that squeezes into the playoff bracket despite a lack of front office aggression, it might well be the Guardians — at least if their pitching can catch up to a hot offense. — Doolittle

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Record: 58-57
Previous ranking: 15

When Rafael Devers was at his best with the Red Sox, his swing was perfect for Fenway Park, where line drives and fly balls to left and left-center field would often find the Green Monster, or clear it. Oracle Park is very different, with its vast space in that part of the park. While it’s way too soon to draw conclusions, Devers is slashing .160/.289/.280 in his new home park. — Olney

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Record: 57-59
Previous ranking: 16

Tampa Bay’s deadline approach defined easy classification. The Rays traded some vets, but added some vets and kept walk-year second baseman Brandon Lowe. They added some prospects but also traded some prospects. The addition of walk-year, stopgap starter Adrian Houser suggests the Rays still hope to make a run in 2025. Alas, they came out of the deadline still ice cold on the field until finally breaking loose Tuesday with a win over the Angels, a victory sparked by a Lowe home run. Guess it’s a good thing the Rays kept him. — Doolittle

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Record: 57-58
Previous ranking: 21

Until running into problems in Boston, where the AL’s second-hottest team collided with its hottest team, the Royals were rolling on the strength of a resurgent offense. One driver of that was Royals-like: Since June 28, Kansas City has the third-best offensive strikeout rates in the majors. The other key was not too Royals-like: an eighth-ranked home run rate and No. 6 ranking in isolated power over that stretch. Leading the way have been Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez, who have combined for 18 dingers during that span. — Doolittle

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Record: 58-58
Previous ranking: 17

Ivan Herrera has had an excellent offensive season, sandwiched around two separate stints on the IL. Herrera hasn’t caught since returning from his second stay on the IL, however, and it’s possible his days as a catcher are over after throwing out just four of 70 base stealers over the past two seasons. He had seen most of his action at DH but has now started three games in left field since late July. His top sprint speed ranks in the 25th percentile, so full-time outfield duty might be a stretch, but it would at least give him a little versatility. — Schoenfield

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Record: 56-57
Previous ranking: 22

The Marlins are now committed to Sandy Alcantara for the rest of this season, as they make a push to get over .500, and rival evaluators will be tracking his progress. Over back-to-back starts in late July, he allowed no earned runs in 12 innings against the Padres and Cardinals — while on the flip side, he has surrendered five or more runs in four of his past eight outings. Alcantara might simply need more time to find consistency as he works his way back from Tommy John surgery. — Olney

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Record: 54-61
Previous ranking: 18

A week before the trade deadline, other teams had a sense that Zac Gallen might not be dealt with the other wave of D-backs who were moved because his value disintegrated this year. In the end, the Diamondbacks decided to leave themselves with the option to give Gallen a qualifying offer after this season — about $22 million — and get draft-pick compensation if he signs elsewhere, or perhaps retain him on a one-year deal in 2026 if he accepts the qualifying offer. — Olney

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Record: 55-60
Previous ranking: 23

Kenley Jansen has quietly had a solid season as the team’s closer, going 20 for 21 in save chances with a 2.79 ERA. He had that one loss in early May, in which he allowed six runs, including three home runs, against the Tigers, but has otherwise been reliable. He’s fourth on the all-time saves list, just 11 behind Lee Smith, so Jansen could pass Smith by season’s end or early next year. Although you could argue that Jansen’s last truly dominant season came back in 2017, he has been good enough to rack up 237 saves with an ERA around 3.14 since then, and that gives him a chance at the Hall of Fame down the road. — Schoenfield

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Record: 54-60
Previous ranking: 19

Once their tears dry after a soul-killing deadline, Twins fans might notice a pretty interesting revamped starting rotation by season’s end. Joe Ryan is somehow still around, and along with Pablo Lopez (hopefully back from a shoulder problem relatively soon) and Bailey Ober, the top three is familiar. Now exciting rookie Zebby Matthews could be joined by talented acquisitions Taj Bradley and Mick Abel. Also, infielder Luke Keaschall just returned after a three-plus month absence and, in his first plate appearance back, clubbed his first career homer against Detroit. It’s not all bad! — Doolittle

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Record: 52-63
Previous ranking: 25

When each club’s Heart & Hustle Award winners were announced by the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association on Tuesday, second-year Oriole Jackson Holliday was selected as Baltimore’s winner. The selection, made by a committee of former players, is a nice nod to a young player who entered the majors with all kinds of hype but has battled through some growing pains. Holliday has shown solid improvement this season, and with a big finish, he could set himself up for a 2026 leap. For now, at least he’s clearly approaching the game the right way. — Doolittle

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Record: 47-66
Previous ranking: 24

In the end, the Braves did little at the trade deadline because they’re in a strange spot: They have most of their core secured for years to come, while some of the guys headed into free agency in the fall have struggled this season. Maybe the biggest question going forward is whether they can find a long-term solution at shortstop. Nick Allen is a high-end defender, ranking second among all shortstops in Defensive Runs Saved, but his wRC+ is 60. Atlanta needs more from that spot. — Olney

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Record: 50-66
Previous ranking: 27

Shea Langeliers had a game to remember when he was moved into the leadoff spot for the first time Tuesday. He hit three home runs in a 16-7 rout of the Nationals, becoming the second catcher to have a three-homer game while batting leadoff, matching Travis d’Arnaud. Perhaps more remarkably, he became just the fourth catcher to have two three-homer games in his career, matching Hall of Famers Johnny Bench and Gary Carter, plus d’Arnaud. Oh, by the way, Nick Kurtz finished July hitting .395/.480/.953 with 11 home runs and 27 RBIs — one of the greatest months ever. The A’s might be in last place in the division, but they’re fun. — Schoenfield

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Record: 49-66
Previous ranking: 26

Paul Skenes was named NL Pitcher of the Month in July, the first time he has won that honor. He went 2-1 with an 0.67 ERA on the month, allowing just two runs in 27 innings with 36 strikeouts and three walks. (He did allow four runs against the Rockies in his first start in August.) With a 2.02 ERA, he could top Bob Veale’s 2.05 ERA in 1968 as the lowest for a Pirates pitcher in the live ball era. The Pirates do continue to handle Skenes very conservatively. He has exceeded 100 pitches just once in his past 12 starts and hasn’t pitched more than six innings since June 8. — Schoenfield

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Record: 42-72
Previous ranking: 29

The White Sox have played winning baseball for over a month now, mostly on the strength of a potent, youth-infused offense. The outlook on the South Side could not be more different than it was at this time last season. Rookie Colson Montgomery has led the surge and has arguably already become Chicago’s most dangerous hitter only a month and change after his big league debut. Consistency isn’t there yet, but the quality of contact is eye-popping. Montgomery doesn’t qualify for the Statcast leaderboard, but if he did, his xSLG would rank 14th in the majors. — Doolittle

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Record: 45-68
Previous ranking: 28

The payoff for the Nationals going young was that they were supposed to be set up for years to come with a strong young core of players. But that hasn’t really happened as planned, and Keibert Ruiz is perhaps the embodiment of that. The 27-year-old is in his fourth full season in the big leagues, and he seems stuck in place offensively: He has two homers in 68 games this season, with a .277 on-base percentage. A centerpiece of the Nationals’ trade of Trea Turner and Max Scherzer to the Dodgers, Ruiz is signed through the 2030 season, with club options for ’31 and ’32. — Olney

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Record: 30-84
Previous ranking: 30

Seth Halvorsen might be a working example of why it’s best to take advantage of reliever value when you have the chance. The 25-year-old, a seventh-round draft pick in 2023, established himself in the big leagues as a hard-throwing, potentially high-impact reliever, and rival execs wondered if the Rockies — in the midst of a lost season — would make him available for trade before the deadline. Colorado did not do so, and in the first days after the deadline, Halvorsen went down with what is an apparently serious elbow injury. — Olney

What the 2025 Major League Baseball trade deadline lacked in blockbusters it made up for in volume. From the first deal on July 24 to the last at 5:59 p.m. ET on July 31, teams made 63 trades and exchanged 179 players (including those to be named later).

One team dealt away 10 players from its big league roster. Another added seven new faces. Every team made at least one move. All of it served to reinforce an indisputable truth: Nobody does a deadline like baseball.

To honor that, we present an award ceremony like no other: Honors for the dozen most interesting elements of the 2025 deadline, starting with an atypical biggest winner.

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The Best Deadline Belonged to a Dealer Award: The Athletics

Plenty of impact players moved to contenders at this year’s deadline, so for the A’s to be the big winners took the sort of trade that almost never gets made anymore. Heading into deadline season, Leo De Vries, the 18-year-old, switch-hitting shortstop who was the prize of the San Diego Padres’ farm system, was considered off-limits in any trade conversation. Three days before the deadline, though, Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller showed a willingness to discuss him in potential deals for A’s closer Mason Miller and Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan. The A’s pounced, including Miller and left-hander JP Sears to net De Vries and a trio of right-handed pitching prospects: Braden Nett, Henry Baez and Eduarniel Nunez.

De Vries is the No. 3 prospect in baseball on Kiley McDaniel’s updated top 50 ranking. He has more than held his own in High-A as a teenager and figures to be in the big leagues — perhaps as a shortstop, perhaps at third base — by the time he’s 21. And there, he would join what’s quickly becoming one of the best lineups in baseball, loaded with Nick Kurtz, Brent Rooker, Jacob Wilson, Lawrence Butler, Shea Langeliers, Tyler Soderstrom and Denzel Clarke.

“I’m so pissed we didn’t get De Vries,” one evaluator said.

“They got De Vries for a guy who pitches one inning at a time,” another lamented.

These sorts of deals simply don’t happen. In a prospect-hugging world, deals that include top-five prospects are once-in-a-decade occurrences. Literally. The previous time a prospect of De Vries’ caliber moved was when the Chicago White Sox landed the consensus No. 1 in MLB, Yoan Moncada, from the Boston Red Sox in the 2016 deal for Chris Sale. Sale was coming off five consecutive seasons receiving Cy Young votes.

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The Who Needs Those Kids Anyway Award: The San Diego Padres

De Vries & Co. were not the only Padres prospects to move. In deals that netted them Ryan O’Hearn, Ramon Laureano, Freddy Fermin, Nestor Cortes and Will Wagner, San Diego dealt 10 more players still rookie-eligible. Nobody is willing to sacrifice the future for the present quite like Preller.

Even if the A’s letter grade for the deadline matches their nickname, it doesn’t doom the Padres to an F. On the contrary, there are situations that warrant risky decision-making, and San Diego exemplifies that. Michael King, Dylan Cease, Robert Suarez and Luis Arraez are headed to free agency. Manny Machado isn’t getting any younger. The Padres’ window is now. In the franchise’s 56-year history, it has made two World Series and won none. The previous time the Padres participated in the World Series, the year’s first two digits were 19.

The Padres now have the best bullpen in baseball, and O’Hearn, Laureano and Fermin round out a lineup with Machado, Arraez, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jackson Merrill, Jake Cronenworth and Xander Bogaerts. There is not a weak spot in their order or bullpen — and if King gets healthy, Nick Pivetta keeps shoving and Cease or Yu Darvish find themselves, they will be as dangerous as anyone in the National League come October. San Diego might wind up the No. 6 seed, but so were the Texas Rangers in 2023, and that didn’t stop them from getting their franchise’s first ring.

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The Joël Robuchon Award for absolutely cooking: The Seattle Mariners

Give the Mariners credit. They got the best bat at the deadline in Eugenio Suárez, filled a position of need at first base with Josh Naylor, deepened their bullpen with left-hander Caleb Ferguson and did so without sacrificing Colt Emerson, Jonny Farmelo, Ryan Sloan, Jurrangelo Cijntje, Michael Arroyo, Lazaro Montes, Harry Ford or Felnin Celesten, all top 100-caliber prospects.

The new-look Mariners took three of four from the Rangers, with whom they entered their series tied, over the weekend. Seattle is almost fully healthy — and with Bryce Miller carving in his rehab assignment with a fastball tickling 98 mph and Victor Robles potentially back in September, the Mariners are two recalls away from having the scariest squad they have had since their resurgence started in 2021.

By no means did they fleece the Diamondbacks for Suárez and Naylor. Arizona needed pitching and got quality arms in both deals, and Tyler Locklear should be the team’s first baseman for the next half-decade. But this deadline was about an organization that has drafted as well as any in the 2020s shedding its relative conservatism to take a run in a year where there is no favorite. That’s worthy of some Robuchon potatoes.

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The Cubs and Red Sox entered deadline season in search of the same archetype: a high-end starting pitcher with multiple years of club control. Both exited with that need unfulfilled.

Boston came close. The Red Sox were willing to part with a number of high-end prospects to land right-hander Joe Ryan from the Minnesota Twins. But that wasn’t expressed until the deadline was nearing, and the Twins were so deep in other talks to disassemble their roster, the prospect of moving Ryan had lost appeal. The Cubs landed Michael Soroka from the Washington Nationals the day before the deadline, but the trade demands for Ryan, Nationals left-hander MacKenzie Gore and right-handers Sandy Alcantara and Edward Cabrera of the Miami Marlins were too high for Chicago’s liking.

The balance the majority of front offices try to strike is not easy. They want to win this year, but they also want to win going forward. What’s most telling is that these are two organizations with enormous expectations — and limitations. When the Red Sox dealt Yoan Moncada in 2016, they were consistently a top-five payroll team. Hoarding young, affordable players wasn’t nearly the imperative it is now, when for the past three seasons Boston has entered Opening Day with a payroll outside the top 10. When the Cubs made the Aroldis Chapman deal in 2016 and the Jose Quintana deal the next season, they were consistently a top-six payroll team. Over the past five years, their Opening Day payrolls have ranked 12th, 14th, 11th, ninth and 12th, respectively.

Could their front offices have ignored those realities and gone for broke? Sure. And none of their fans would have minded. For now. But if they lost in October this year and one of the prospects they moved broke out, not only would the deals be seen as failures, but because they would’ve been made against the advice of analytical models, they would’ve been of the you-should’ve-known variety.

Running a team isn’t easy. Running a team that has pulled back on payroll for seemingly no good reason is a particular sort of challenge. The fact that there is no true World Series favorite this year makes the frustration from fans especially warranted, but it’s also a reminder that no decision is made in a vacuum. Context with the Red Sox and Cubs matters.

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The Juggling Octopus Award: The Minnesota Twins

The Twins are for sale. What had one meaning going into the deadline — the franchise has been on the market since this past October — took on a completely different one in the final 48 hours of trade season, when Minnesota shipped off 10 big leaguers and completely altered its trajectory.

The bloodletting was stunning in its scope. The Twins traded their highest-paid player, shortstop Carlos Correa, to Houston. They moved their closer, Jhoan Duran, to Philadelphia, which later acquired center fielder Harrison Bader from Minnesota. They sent right-hander Chris Paddack to Detroit, unloaded their bullpen of Brock Stewart (Los Angeles Dodgers), Danny Coulombe (Texas) and Louis Varland (Toronto Blue Jays, along with first baseman Ty France). Super-utility man Willi Castro went to the Cubs. And finally — and most surprising — relief ace Griffin Jax landed in Tampa Bay.

Just like that, players making around $65 million this year were gone in an instant, replaced by a mixture of big leaguers (right-hander Taj Bradley and outfielders James Outman and Alan Roden), high-end prospects (catcher Eduardo Tait, right-hander Mick Abel, left-hander Kendry Rojas) and lottery tickets. Days later, the industry remains stunned by the extent of the dump.

How much of it is attributable to clearing the books for the sale of the team is unclear. But what shouldn’t be lost in it is that the Twins still find themselves in a reasonable position to compete going forward. Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez are an excellent 1-2 atop the rotation. The everyday lineup, with Byron Buxton, Royce Lewis, Matt Wallner and Ryan Jeffers, will soon be complemented by top prospects such as Walker Jenkins, Emmanuel Rodriguez, Luke Keaschall and Kaelen Culpepper. They’ve got excellent starting-pitching depth. And suddenly they’ve got plenty of payroll flexibility for the winter.

Will the new owner use it? That’s the key, of course. A fire sale is to tear down. A recommitment of resources is a strategy most teams don’t have the gumption to undertake. Which course the Twins chart won’t be clear until next spring.

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When it was first reported that the Astros were keen on reacquiring Correa, a linchpin of Houston’s run to seven consecutive AL Championship Series, the news registered as a shock. Correa’s journey — free agent market craters, signs short-term with the Twins, opts out, has deals with San Francisco and the New York Mets fall apart, returns to Minnesota — seemed like it had reached an end.

Particularly when the Astros insisted on the Twins eating upward of $50 million of the $104 million owed Correa through the end of 2028 and throwing in a reliever like Jax. Minnesota wasn’t against trading Correa; it was against stupidity. The deal looked dead going into the last 24 hours before the deadline.

It was defibrillated when the Astros moved off the additional-player ask and upped their end of covering Correa’s salary to $71 million. The deal came together about two hours before the deadline, helping Houston get past the season-ending right hamstring tear of third baseman Isaac Paredes and bolster itself as its two closest competitors, the Mariners and Rangers (who acquired right-hander Merrill Kelly and right-handed reliever Phil Maton along with Coulombe), saw the AL West crown within reach.

To pave the way for the deal, Correa waived his no-trade clause. He never left Houston, keeping a home there, and when the Astros return from their current nine-game road trip on Aug. 11, the ovation will be deafening. For all the foundational players who have left the Astros, the sight of Correa and Jose Altuve sharing an infield will conjure memories Houstonians won’t ever forget.

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For all the talks Cleveland held with other teams about left fielder Kwan — and there were plenty — the Guardians wound up not moving the two-time All-Star despite a number of strong offers. Perhaps no team in MLB navigates trade talks of veteran players with the discipline and conviction of the Guardians. They set their trade demands for Kwan, and no one met them. So, they held him.

And that’s a good thing for a city like Cleveland, which has never gotten used to its team’s propensity to extract value out of tenured players before they reach free agency. There is a specific sort of pride in Cleveland, which has suffered without a championship longer than any other baseball team, and the prospect of kicking the can down the road again invoked painful memories of the departures of CC Sabathia, Francisco Lindor, Cliff Lee and plenty of others.

Between José Ramírez and Kwan, the Guardians have two of the steadiest players in the game. Building a lineup around them — and fashioning a proper rotation as well — is the trick on a skimpy payroll. A deal for Kwan could materialize again over the winter, which tends to be when position players get a greater return than at the deadline. Might the runners-up for free agent Kyle Tucker see Kwan — a lesser player, but a damn good one still — as a reasonable fallback plan? Sure.

It’s all part of life for the Guardians, who reflexively shuffle as if they’re stuck in an endless game of three-card monte. For now, they held off. And perhaps they can use the next three months to fashion the sort of contract-extension offer that would convince Kwan to remain in a Guardians uniform for a long time to come.

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The One Big Move Can Change Everything Award: The Philadelphia Phillies

The Phillies wanted — needed — a late-inning relief solution after the past calendar year reminded them of the necessity of bullpen stability. As good as their relievers were this past year during the regular season, the bullpen faltered spectacularly during their division series loss against the Mets. Compound that with the struggles of closer Jordan Romano, the loss of José Alvarado for the coming October due to a previous performance enhancing drug suspension and the fragility of their other relievers, and there was no team that needed a player more than the Phillies did a fireman.

Enter Jhoan Duran. The fit was perfect. It cost the Phillies in Tait and Abel — a prospect haul they were willing to part with because it didn’t include Andrew Painter, Aidan Miller or Justin Crawford, their top three. And it gave them a lockdown closer with arguably the best pure stuff in baseball. His “splinker” and curveball are his two best pitches, which is saying something considering Duran runs his fastball up to 103 mph and has hit triple digits 161 times this season.

Beyond Duran, the Phillies can turn to Orion Kerkering and Matt Strahm and hope they fare better this October than last. David Robertson will arrive soon to bolster the group. Tanner Banks has been good. They’re not the Padres. They’re not the Brewers. But with the best starting rotation in the NL, they don’t need to be. Philadelphia’s relievers simply need to be good enough, and after the addition of Duran, they are.

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The October Is For Relievers Award: The New York Mets and Yankees

About 59% of innings this year have been thrown by starting pitchers. In recent seasons, that percentage has dropped demonstrably come the postseason. Relievers account for around 50% of the innings pitched in the playoffs. And teams at this deadline acted like they understood the necessity for bullpen help.

Nobody added more relief help than the New York teams. The Mets gave up a lot to add Ryan Helsley and Tyler Rogers to a bullpen that already included Edwin Díaz, Brooks Raley and Reed Garrett, and as much as it cost in prospects, they didn’t have to move any of their troika of top-flight starting pitchers (Jonah Tong, Nolan McLean and Brandon Sproat) or their positional standouts (Jett Williams and Carson Benge).

The Yankees not only got relief arms in former Pirates closer David Bednar, Giants closer Camilo Doval and Rockies setup man Jake Bird, but control them for multiple years. As grisly as Bednar, Doval and Bird’s debuts were with the Yankees — the sweep at Miami’s hands over the weekend was the nadir of New York’s season — they ultimately will make the bullpen better.

Is it good enough to help them traverse the AL? The team that has spent most of the season atop the standings table, Detroit, thought enough of bullpen depth to acquire four relief arms at the deadline. The Astros, currently atop the West, have the second-best bullpen ERA in the AL — behind the Red Sox, who leapt ahead of the Yankees in the standings over the weekend. And the Blue Jays’ relief corps has the second-highest strikeout rate of any big league bullpen. The Mets and Yankees simply did what they needed to do to compete.

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Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak could have gone out and floated any number of desirable players, from Brendan Donovan to Ivan Herrera to Lars Nootbaar, and found a market worth pursuing. Instead, Mozeliak kept things simple, and it was the right thing to do.

He’s leaving his position at the end of the season, ceding to former Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, and in unloading only Helsley, Maton and Steven Matz — all impending free agents — Mozeliak did not overstep his bounds and make deals that should be the purview of his replacement. Other executives might have let ego get in the way in trying to put one final stamp on a franchise they’ve run for more than a decade. Mozeliak instead recognized this is Bloom’s team going forward, and figuring out how to pilot a group that’s good but not good enough is no longer Mozeliak’s responsibility.

There is urgency for change with the Cardinals; it’s just not the sort of urgency that needed to be met by an outgoing executive. For all the disappointment the Cardinals have provided in the last three seasons — attendance is down in that time from more than 40,000 per game to less than 29,000 — they’ve got plenty of room to expand their payroll, a future star on the cusp of the big leagues in JJ Wetherholt and a wide suite of options going into this winter. In a division as competitive as the NL Central will be over the next half-decade, they’re going to need everything they can get.

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Know thyself. It’s perhaps the most important characteristic for any front office. Know the quality of your big league team, know your personnel, know your strengths, know your weaknesses, know your purpose. A cursory glance at the Royals could have left outsiders wondering what business a sub-.500 team had adding at the deadline. And yet it was the perfect example of the Royals understanding themselves.

Even with ace Cole Ragans sidelined and All-Star left-hander Kris Bubic out for the season, both with left shoulder injuries, the Royals know their market. They know Kansas City suffered too many non-competitive seasons to spend the final two months of this season reliving those memories. They know that they want to get a new stadium built, and the first effort at that led to voters rejecting a proposal that would have helped erect one. They know that they’ve got only so many years of Bobby Witt Jr. before he can opt out of his contract. They know, more than anything, that a wild-card spot in the AL can be back-doored — because they saw Detroit, nearly 10 games under at the deadline this past year, do just that.

So, yeah, if the price isn’t prohibitive, why not try to win? Kansas City got outfielders Mike Yastrzemski and Randal Grichuk along with pitchers Bailey Falter, Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek without giving up a top prospect. The best player the Royals dealt was catcher Freddy Fermin, and considering their top two prospects are catchers Carter Jensen and Blake Mitchell, they moved from a position of strength. The Royals telegraphed this tack when they signed right-hander Seth Lugo to a two-year, $46 million extension, but it still caught some in the industry off-guard.

Perhaps it shouldn’t have. The desire to win is easy to talk about and far tougher to prove through action. The Royals remain a long shot to make the postseason, but inside the clubhouse, the players are appreciative of that shot, and it’s the sort of goodwill that, while immeasurable, is absent in the clubhouses of the teams that closed the deadline with a whimper.

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The Let’s Win One for the Gipper Award: The Tampa Bay Rays

The Rays could have been the Twins. They could have gotten a huge return for Yandy Diaz and Brandon Lowe, moved closer Pete Fairbanks, made a half-dozen other moves and culled their already-low payroll to an embarrassingly low mark — under that of what Juan Soto makes all by himself.

Instead, the Rays played the deadline like only the Rays can. They got rid of their two most desirable expiring contracts in starter Zack Littell and catcher Danny Jansen. And they backfilled those spots via a deal for right-hander Adrian Houser (who has been tremendous this year), a three-way deal that landed them a controllable catcher (Hunter Feduccia) and the most surprising non-Correa trade, landing Griffin Jax for Taj Bradley at the deadline buzzer.

Why didn’t they go full dump mode? Beyond a similar rationale to that of the Royals — the league puts the AL in awful — they wanted to give owner Stu Sternberg, whose sale of the team should be complete sooner rather than later, one last shot at a playoff run.

Sternberg is beloved by Rays employees who appreciate his willingness to allow them to run an experiment in baseball operations. Under Sternberg, the Rays have managed to remain among the most successful teams in the game despite a distinct lack of payroll resources. What Sternberg gave them was leeway. To value things other teams didn’t. To build a front office that has figured out how to marry scouting and analytics to great effect. To create a culture that has kept employees engaged where in other organizations they would have grown bitter.

He was not the best owner, by any objective measure. He was far from the worst, though. And even if the Rays don’t claw their way back in the standings — at 55-58, they’re five games back of the final wild-card spot and must leap four teams to get there — they’ve got a chance, and that’s all they ever really want.

Athletics reliever José Leclerc, who was shut down for the season July 25, underwent successful surgery on his right shoulder, the club said Wednesday.

Dr. Keith Meister performed the procedure in Arlington, Texas. The A’s said Leclerc, on the injured list since April 23, will remain in Dallas to go through rehabilitation.

Leclerc, 31, appeared in 10 games for the A’s this season after signing a one-year, $10 million contract in January. He posted a 6.00 ERA with eight strikeouts over nine innings.

Leclerc has a career record of 12-21 and 41 saves with a 3.34 ERA in 369 1/3 innings in 360 games with 481 strikeouts since breaking in with Texas in 2016. He was with the Rangers through the 2024 season.