Yankees, Rangers The Big Winners At Trade Deadline

The 2016 Major League Baseball trade deadline has passed after a flurry of late deals. Here’s a look at the winners and losers from this year’s trading extravaganza.

WINNERS

New York Yankees

The New York Yankees were sellers at the trade deadline? Yep, that’s a thing that happened in 2016. The Bronx Bombers rightly decided they were old, out of contention and had a middling farm system, so they bolstered it by unloading their valuable assets.

By parting with Andrew Miller, Aroldis Chapman, and Carlos Beltran the Yankees loaded up with high-end prospects. New York added Clint Frazier, Gleyber Torres, Billy McKinney, Justus Sheffield and Dillon Tate. That’s quite a haul and those players instantly make up five of the team’s top 16 prospects, including the top two (Frazier and Torres).

While the Yankees are conceding for this year, they just gave their rebuild a big jump start.

Texas Rangers

The Texas Rangers needed catching help and landed the top guy on the market in Jonathan Lucroy while also getting Jeremy Jeffress to help the back end of their bullpen.

Texas also nabbed a solid bat to fill in for Prince Fielder at DH by getting Carlos Beltran from the Yankees. Texas was able to add much needed starting pitching depth by acquiring Lucas Harrell from the Atlanta Braves. Harrell came along with Dario Alvarez in exchange for Travis Demeritte.

The moves cost the Rangers their No. 2 and No. 3 prospects in Lewis Brinson and Luis Ortiz (for Lucroy) and 2015 first-round pick Dillon Tate. Still, the Rangers are now the clear favorites in the American League West as they address three of their major holes. They are in win-now mode and didn’t have to surrender consensus top prospect Joey Gallo to get a deal done.

Matt Moore

Matt Moore was traded to the San Francisco Giants just before the deadline on Monday in exchange for three prospects. The lefty went from a team with the fourth-worst record in baseball to the Giants in an even year. You can bet he’ll be prepping that ring finger to take some extra heft on his flight out West.

San Diego Padres

While not all of the moves came near the deadline, the San Diego Padres were able to rid themselves of James Shields, Matt Kemp, Fernando Rodney, Andrew Casher and Melvin Upton Jr., while also flipping Drew Pomeranz for their new top prospect.

Most of the moves added prospects, including Anderson Espinoza (team’s new No. 1), Josh Naylor (No. 4), Chris Paddack (No. 8) and Hansel Rodriguez (No. 19).

The Friars also shed a ton of salary that will give them flexibility. That included sending Kemp to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for domestic abuser Hector Olivera, who will be designated for assignment or released in short order.

While San Diego didn’t move catcher Derek Norris, there was no rush to do so, since he’s under team control and can be moved this offseason.

Milwaukee Brewers

Like the Padres, the Milwaukee Brewers sold off a few guys and pulled off excellent returns. In exchange for Lucroy and Jeffress they received Lewis Brinson and Luis Ortiz who will slot in as the team’s No. 2 and No. 5 prospects.

Meanwhile, they also traded lefty reliever Will Smith to the San Francisco Giants and picked up Phil Bickford and Andrew Susac in exchange. Bickford will be the team’s sixth-ranked prospect and should move quickly through the system as a hard-throwing righty starter.

For the second-straight year, the Brewers added a lot of young talent at the deadline.

LOSERS

Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs surrendered four players to acquire a two-month rental of Aroldis Chapman, and two of those players are highly regarded prospects (Gleyber Torres and Billy McKinney). They also added Joe Smith from the Angels, which was a bit of an under-the-radar move.

While the two moves helped bolster a questionable bullpen, the Cubs have taken a massive public relations hit by trading for Chapman. Yes, he’s an exciting, dominant closer, but he was also suspended 30 games earlier this season for a domestic violence incident involving his girlfriend. For a franchise that has prided itself on investing in “good guys” this was a questionable move. On top of that, surrendering two well-regarded prospects and four total players for a two-month rental was also puzzling.

Cincinnati Reds

After more than two years discussing it, the Cincinnati Reds finally traded Jay Bruce. In exchange for shipping Bruce to the New York Mets, the Reds received minor leaguers Dilson Herrera and Max Wotell, neither of whom will blow anyone’s skirt up. An earlier version of the deal had the Reds receiving former first-round pick Brandon Nimmo, but a reported medical issue wound up derailing the first version of the deal.

Bruce is currently leading the National League in RBIs with 80, has blasted 25 home runs and is hitting .265. His contract also has a $13 million club option for 2017, so he’s not a rental. The Reds likely could have gotten far more in exchange for him, especially if they had waited until the offseason. Instead they settled for Herrera — a decent Triple-A second baseman without a ton of upside — and Wotell, who checks in at No. 22 on their prospect list. They sold low on Bruce, who is having a nice comeback season.

Jonathan Lucroy

The Rangers are almost certain to pick up the $5.25 million option on Lucroy’s contract for 2017, which means he’ll be one of the biggest bargains in baseball. By hitting the open market he could have raked in the dough in a weak catching market this offseason.

Houston Astros

The Houston Astros are 2.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot in the American League, but they mostly stood pat at the deadline. Other than shipping Scott Feldman to the Blue Jays for 18-year-old Guadalupe Chavez, they didn’t make a move.

The Rangers lead Houston by six games in the American League West and just got a whole lot better. The Astros had holes to fill and didn’t do it. They better hope Alex Bregman and Cuban signing Yulieski Gurriel add some punch to the offense.

Kansas City Royals

The Kansas City Royals are currently 8.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot, which means they almost certainly won’t be headed to the postseason. It was a perfect opportunity to turn some assets into prospects, but nothing happened.

The Royals weren’t able to move Edinson Volquez and Wade Davis’ injury completely derailed his trade value. Meanwhile, Kendrys Morales was a target of a few teams but wound up not moving at the deadline. It was a missed opportunity for Kansas City to extract some value from a lost season.