A breakdown of all AL Wildcard contender trades
The Royals are affected by what all the other American League teams did too
If you were only paying attention to the moves the Royals made at the trade deadline, I wanted to give you a rundown of the competition. It is not only about your team getting better, but how the competition approached the trading frenzy that we saw as July ended. This will only focus on wildcard contenders as the league leaders are so, so far ahead that the Royals catching them would take some truly insane things. Let’s get things started with the New York Yankees.
New York Yankees
Some would say the Yankees are also out of reach. They are 60-49 and 6 games in front of Kansas City. I would agree with those people if Aaron Judge was not hurt, but he is. If he has trouble coming back and being insanely productive, that lineup is way worse than it has been to this point. They are vulnerable. Even his coming back and only being able to DH causes problems since Giancarlo Stanton is also only a DH. The Yanks made a bunch of trades, so we should get to it. I will only be talking about major leaguers, not the prospects, as they don’t change this year’s playoff race.
Additions:
- Camilo Doval - Has been in the Giants’ bullpen for most of the last five years. Solid, but not a true back-end guy last year or this.
- Jose Caballero - Utility guy, mostly an infielder. Not on the team to hit as he is not very good at that.
- Jake Bird - Bullpen arm from Colorado. Again, not really a back of the bullpen guy, but has put up mid-3s xERA/FIP/xFIP this season.
- David Bednar - Here is your good-to-great bullpen addition. Bednar has consistently put up sub-3 ERAs with the exception of 2024. Seems to have found his form again this season.
- Austin Slater - A 32-year-old outfielder who is slightly below average defensively and maybe average with the bat. Not a huge pickup.
- Amed Rosario - With Anthony Volpe’s continued issue with slumps, I guess Rosario is his insurance policy. Not sure how that will work with playing time, but we shall see. Volpe is much better defensively, but Rosario is consistently somewhere near league average with the bat.
- Ryan McMahon - Good power from the third base spot. It frees Jazz Chisholm to move to second. McMahon is good enough to make up for his inconsistency hitting because he is a very solid defender.
Losses:
- Oswaldo Peraza - Still young, and has shown flashes at times, but the bat has been very bad. Change of scenery time.
- Carlos Carrasco - He is not good anymore, so they let him go
- Alex Jackson - Journeyman backup catcher
The bullpen has been the biggest weakness, and adding three relievers may have given that away. Bednar is the big addition, but the other two will help solidify the bridge to get to Bednar and Devin Williams, though Williams has gone through some rough patches this year too. Overall, the Yankees got better, but not by a much, and really only in the bullpen and from a depth perspective on the offense/defense side. Again, sans Aaron Judge, they might have a problem that is not fixable through trade.
Boston Red Sox
The Red Sox are a game and a half behind the Yanks and four and a half ahead of the Royals. They were not as active around trading as New York, but neither was almost anyone else. What did they shop for?
Additions:
- Dustin May - Decent back of the rotation arm with some upside. He has been a #2/#3 at times, but not this year.
- Steven Matz - Nice bullpen piece, not the back-end guy, but you are not sad to see him in the 7th as a fan.
Losses:
- Blake Sabol - It’s hard to play a guy with a -12 wRC+, maybe addition by subtraction more than a loss
Boston’s big move was well before the deadline when they shipped Rafael Devers to San Francisco. Since that move in mid-June, the Sox have been 22-15. They are a very good offensive team with a lot of young talent. Their pitching has been more middle of the road, so they added a couple of arms. These two trades help, but does not change them very much, just adds some depth to the pitching staff.
Seattle Mariners
If you were saying one team went for it in this race, I think Seattle is the one. Sitting in the final wild card slot just one game ahead of Texas and 3.5 over the Royals, Seattle has made a push that makes them much harder to overtake.
Additions:
- Eugenio Suarez - One of the biggest bats moved at the trade deadline. They need a third baseman, and he slots in there nicely as a perennial 30 home run bat.
- Josh Naylor - Another very consistent hitter with iffy first base defense. Again, just have not had a consistent player at first being productive, so he fits nicely on the team.
- Caleb Ferguson - An okay bullpen arm. Just more middle relief depth.
Losses:
Juan Burgos - I hesitate to include him at all, but he has pitched a little out of their bullpen this season with some success and has been good in the minors. Might be a bit of a loss from a bullpen depth perspective.
Seattle has struggled to score runs the last couple of years. They rank inside the top half of offenses this year, mostly because Cal Raleigh has been awesome. This probably makes them a top ten offense the rest of the way. Nice pickups for a team that really wants to get back to the playoffs.
Texas Rangers
The Rangers are a bit Royalsesque. They are the best run prevention team in baseball this season, but they struggle to score runs. Just one game out of the wildcard, they decided to make a few additions to bolster their chances.
Additions:
- Merrill Kelly - One of the best starters moved at the deadline, but without a huge haul, so maybe why the Royals kept Lugo? He probably becomes their #2 starter behind DeGrom and a playoff starter. Big get.
- Danny Coulombe - Adding another dynamic arm to the back of the bullpen along with...
- Phil Maton - With Danny, this makes their back end much more formidable.
- Jose Ruiz - Also in the bullpen, but the 8.82 ERA and spotty track record make him more mop-up guy than someone who might really change this team’s odds.
Losses:
- Dane Dunning - This got them Ruiz, so kind of a your trash for mine trade? He has been really bad for a couple of years now.
Again, they are good at preventing runs, and they are doubling down on that theme. The offense is still the same, though, so I guess they are counting on Marcus Semien, Adolis Garcia, Evan Carter, and Wyatt Langford to up their game down the stretch.
Cleveland Guardians
And now we start getting to the sellers, despite the fact that they are a half game up on KC. They shipped Shane Bieber and Paul Sewald out. Starting pitching has been a problem for them and Bieber is in a rehab stint trying to come back from last year’s injury. Does not really change them as constructed, but keeps them from getting him as an addition to the rotation or bullpen at some point.
Tampa Bay Rays
Busy, busy deadline for the Rays. They bought and sold as they are want to do.
Additions:
- Griffin Jax - Good bullpen arm from the Twins. ERA is a bit elevated this season, but his peripherals have still been stellar like last season.
- Adrian Houser - A career of unspectacular starting dating back to 2019, but this season he has a 2.10 ERA in 11 starts. Maybe a nice get?
- Hunter Feduccia - A catcher who might play some, but they sent him to AAA for now
- Nick Fortes - Another backup catcher type.
- Tristan Gray - Has seen MLB time the last three seasons. It has not gone well. Not sure what they want out of him.
- Bryan Baker - Middle-inning reliever. Nothing spectacular
Losses:
- Taj Bradley - Has started 21 games for Tampa this season with a 4.61 ERA. Continues to struggle to be more than a 5th starter type.
- Curtis Meade - Infielder who can’t really hit, but has a little position flexibility off of the bench.
- Jose Caballero - Utility guy I talked about in the Yankees section
- Zack Littell - Another full-time starter traded away along with Bradley. He’s been okay, but the peripherals are meh.
- Paul Gervase - Quad A bullpen guy
- Ben Rortvedt - Has been up and down for the last half-decade and continues to struggle to establish himself at the majors. Not much of a loss.
- Danny Jansen - Added a couple of backup catchers out, so shipped one out too. He is fine in that role.
It is hard for me to evaluate this team. They thinned their starting pitching out, but maybe Houser and some replacement-level 5th starter is better. They didn’t give up or add any significant bats. Kind of just shifted a bunch of things around, not sure it did much one way or the other.
Sorry, I am not interested in writing up the Angels, I think they are very done and were lucky to be in shouting distance of the wildcard. The Twins and Orioles are also done and made themselves even more done by selling. Whatever the Twins were before, they are now going to probably be one of the worst teams in baseball after a complete fire sale.
The Royals have a steep hill to climb. It doesn’t sound like a lot when you say 3.5 games back, but they need to jump over three teams to get there without Tampa Bay leapfrogging them. Most of those teams got better, with Cleveland being the only exception. On the bright side, the Royals' schedule probably got a little easier thanks to the Twins and Guardians. The Rangers and Mariners are still on the schedule too, creating opportunities to pick up games against other teams in the race. I still don’t like the Royals' chances, but I like them better than I did before Thursday.