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How was everybody’s Wednesday? Mine? Oh, it was pretty cool. I took the train down to Baltimore to surprise a nephew at his first baseball game and cheer on the O’s in the Battle Of The AL Birds. As a Yankees fan, it was nice to be able to actually root for the Orioles without any compunction, even if they couldn’t pull off the comeback. I could definitely have done without the 100-degree weather, which apparently had a “Feels Like” temp of 110. Really, just don’t care for that at all. But hey, got to crack open a Natty Boh with my father-in-law-to-be, so that’s fun.
Wednesday’s headlines are all trade-related, but this is not going to be an exhaustive trade update/recap. Steve will have one of those ready for your edification on Friday, so today I tried to just stick with the really big deals and ones that I thought had fun facts to go with them.
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Today’s Headlines
NL bEast
Of course, it would be the two closest division rivals who kicked the hot stove up a notch during this Trade Deadline Szn with some blockbuster trades to bolster their respective bullpens.
The Phillies swung a deal for lockdown closer Jhoan Duran. There had been rumors about some movement on a potential deal between the Twins and Phillies for Duran earlier in the week, but they also included a note that Minnesota was making a firm demand for top starting pitching prospect Andrew Painter in the negotiations, which meant things were a bit stalled out. In the end, the Twins will be getting back not-as-top starting pitching prospect Mick Abel, along with top catching prospect Eduardo Tait. Abel has thrown 25 innings for the Phillies this season over six starts, and while his 5.04 ERA isn’t great, he’s only 23 and still has mid-rotation upside. Tait, meanwhile, is an 18-year-old catcher playing in High-A and is currently ranked 56th on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100.
Duran is doing Duran things again this year; he leaves Minneapolis as No. 9 on the all-time saves leaderboard for the Twins. This year, he’s recorded 16 saves with a 2.01 ERA and looks to retain the closer role in Philadelphia, whose bullpen has been… a bit wobbly so far.
With Duran on board and the recent signing of David Robertson, Dombrowski says the Phils are done adding bullpen arms:
Dave Dombrowski said the Phillies are done with bullpen additions. They will continue to seek a possible outfield reinforcement before Thursday’s deadline.
— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) July 31, 2025
Meanwhile, up the coast, David Stearns was hard at work adding a pair of arms to the Mets’ bullpen. First, it was everybody’s favorite submariner, Tyler Rogers from the Giants. He’s having a career year so far, posting a fantastic 1.80 ERA across 50 innings of work. He’s never been much of a strikeout arm, but his absolutely miniscule 2.1% walk rate means his K-BB% is 18.1%, which would be his best for a full season by an entire percentage point. Add an incredible 64.4% GB rate on top, and it’s not hard to see why the Mets wanted him so bad. The return that SF got was Blade Tidwell, Drew Gilbert, and José Buttó. At first blush, that seems like quite the package for a rental, but both prospects had been trending down as of late, and Buttó may have several more years of team control, but no options to go with them at this point.
But that wasn’t the end of the Mets’ Wednesday work, as they also picked up Ryan Helsley from the Cardinals. Helsley’s been the subject of trade rumors for a while now, which isn’t too surprising given the Cardinals’ general mediocrity the past couple of years and Helsley’s consistently excellent performance. He’s only thrown 36 innings so far in 2025, but they’ve come with 21 saves, a 3.00 ERA, and a 26.1% K rate. In return, St. Louis received 3B/SS Jesus Baez, along with pitchers Nate Dohm and Frank Elissalt, all of whom are at High-A currently. I would have thought Helsley would warrant somebody closer to MLB-ready, but again, I have to impress upon you all I’m just a weirdo writing baseball articles and not a fancy FO member.
Unlike with Duran in Philly, the Mets aren’t gonna be asking either of their new addition to take over the closer spot, instead likely using them as their setup men in front of Edwin Díaz. That’s a pretty scary proposition for any opposing batter.
The Mets and Phillies played some baseball on Wednesday, too. Both teams lost.
Making Hayes At The Littel House On The Prairie
It’s unsurprising that the Phillies and Mets are going all in on buying, but the Reds are also making a real push for at least a WC spot in the Central. They made a pair of moves on Wednesday, one of which lets me indulge in one of my favorite little bits of baseball wordplay and tell you how while we already discussed the Twin RP that was traded, and we also even got to talk about the Giants’ twin RP getting moved, we now get to talk about the other giant twin RP who got moved off the Reds. That’s right, Taylor Rogers was traded on Wednesday as well. He went to the Pirates as part of the return for Ke’Bryan Hayes. Hayes was another name we saw in all sorts of rumors this year, given the very marked need for a 3B among several contending teams (and that was before the Astros lost Paredes for the season). In the end, it was Cincinnati that landed him, which is slightly surprising given that Noelvi Marte is currently putting up a 125 wRC+ from the hot corner in a rather small 39-game sample, although his defense has left something to be desired (-2 OAA).
Hayes certainly brings plus defense to the lineup, with +15 OAA this year, leading all 3B by a very healthy margin (there are six third basemen tied for second place in OAA. They’re all at +4.) Unfortunately, that comes with a 57 wRC+ number on the year, and an 84 wRC+ for his career. The Reds are also taking on roughly $30 million in total salary obligations in the form of four remaining years and a club option/buyout (that $30m is assuming the buyout since they’re not obligated to use said option).
In addition to Rogers, the Pirates are also getting SS prospect Sammy Stafura and cash. Stafura has an 80-grade name, but not much when it comes to a carrying tool aside from some good defense. It seems like Pittsburgh is mostly getting salary relief out of the deal. I’m sure Paul Skenes is overjoyed.
The Reds also picked up Rays SP Zack Littell, who has apparently decided he just doesn’t really wanna walk anybody anymore.
Zack Littell:3.9% walk rate is 2nd-lowest among qualified SPs behind Skubalfunny enough, his 4 BB tonight vs. NYY were a season-high but it was also his first scoreless outing of the seasonalso: 16 starts of at least 6 IP; only Woo, Wheeler, Framber have more
— Céspedes Family BBQ (@cespedesbbq.bsky.social) 2025-07-31T02:52:46.073Z
Littell also has a homer problem, so we’ll see if GABP helps with that at all…
But I’m mostly including the Littell move for two reasons. First, it was announced roughly five minutes after the Rays/Yankees game he just started was over, which makes me think there was some kind of “well, if he does alright tonight we’ll take him” going on, which is funny to me. But also because this was actually a three-team trade:
Three-way trade, per ESPN sources:
Dodgers receive: LHP Adam Serinowski, RHP Paul Gervase, C Ben Rortvedt
Rays receive: C Hunter Feduccia, RHP Brian Van Belle
Reds receive: RHP Zack Littell
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 31, 2025
It took a bit for the Dodgers’ end of this to come to light, so we had a confirmed, executed trade with an honest-to-goodness MYSTERY TEAM involved for a bit last night, and that’s just always fun.
I Suarez I’ve Been Here Before…
If Josh Naylor was feeling a little bit lonely after his trade to Seattle last week, he won’t be soon. The M’s have gone out and picked up Eugenio Suárez. Again. They’re sending three Top 20 prospects back to the desert:
Full trade, sources tell MLB•com…
• Mariners receive: 3B Eugenio Suárez
• D-backs receive: 1B Tyler Locklear (Mariners’ No. 9 prospect by @MLBPipeline), RHP Hunter Cranton (No. 16), RHP Juan Burgos (No. 17)
— Daniel Kramer (@DKramer_) July 31, 2025
This will be the second stint for Eugenio in Seattle after two full seasons there in 2022 and 2023. The Mariners are hoping it’s more of a repeat of 2022, where he put up a 132 wRC+ season with 31 HRs, as his power took a big hit in 2023. Those two seasons in Seattle also saw a marked drop in his AVG, so as a big Geno drafted in fantasy this year, I’m not super-enthused for this move. It’s a no-brainer for the M’s, though, who have gotten pretty much no production from their third basemen this year (lots of that going around).
Reunited and it feels so good
Best Moments From Yesterday
Grand Theft Mullins
It was a weird back-and-forth game in Baltimore on Wednesday, and Cedric Mullins helped keep the O’s in the game with this incredible home run robbery to end the top of the sixth inning:
Cedric Mullins with one more (last?) web gem in Baltimore:
— Sam Dykstra (@samdykstramilb.bsky.social) 2025-07-30T18:29:09.067Z
The way he gets up over the wall and just kinda hangs up there so effortlessly is incredible. The Blue Jays did eventually take the day, winning 9-8, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort.
Who Can Keep Track Of These Things?
Speaking of weird back-and-forth games in the AL East, the Yankees and Rays played one of the most maddening games I’ve seen in quite some time, which featured this absolutely amazing and yet for the Yankees somehow routine mental lapse from Austin Wells:
From some reason Austin Wells probably thought the inning was over before he was tagged out to send the game into extra innings
The Yankees gave up a run in the top of the 10th, then managed to re-tie the game and walked it off in the 11th, which was a historic performance:
Crazy note from our pals at STATS Perform:“The Yankees are the only MLB team in the modern era to erase a deficit in the 8th, erase a deficit in the 9th, erase a deficit in the 10th and then win in the 11th.”
— James Smyth (@jamessmyth621.bsky.social) 2025-07-31T03:17:55.467Z
They’re still four games behind the Jays as of Thursday morning.
No Can Zone
And we’ll bookend the moments with another home run robbery, this one the vibe opposite of Mullins in that Lawrence Butler is just entirely too casual with this one:
fence is too low
Injuries and Other Moves
⚾ It is looking very likely that Isaac Paredes will miss the rest of the season and potentially need surgery for his hamstring injury. Houston traded for Ramón Urías to take over at third, which does not bode well for a return from Paredes.
⚾ The A’s didn’t use Mason Miller to close the game on Wednesday night, and Mark Kotsay was clear that he was unavailable, but not due to an injury. Hugwatch engaged.
⚾ The White Sox scratched Adrian Houser from his start due to an expectation that he’ll be traded.
⚾ Shohei Ohtani left the mound with a trainer last night, although it was just due to some lower-body cramping, and he remained in the game as DH.
Articles You Should Read
Perfection in Cleats: Ryne Sandberg (1959-2025) – Jay Jaffe, FanGraphs
So You’ve Decided To Change Some Rules – Russell A. Carleton, Baseball Prospectus (sub req’d)
Fantasy Baseball Coverage
