Effectively Wild Episode 2514: The Deadline, From Adell to Zeferjahn

Summary

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Effectively Wild Episode 2514: The Deadline, From Adell to Zeferjahn

Date: August 5, 2026
Hosts: Ben Lindbergh (The Ringer) & Meg Rowley (FanGraphs)
Podcast: Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast

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Episode Overview

This episode is a full breakdown of the 2026 MLB trade deadline—winners, losers, surprises, and the weirdness that accompanies a year with historic parity (and chaos) up and down the standings. Ben and Meg unpack the Dodgers’ further rotations hoarding, the blockbuster Adley Rutschman trade, the Phillies’ curious lineup maneuvering, the Blue Jays threading the thinnest of buy/sell needles, and much more. Notable trends, shifting strategies, memorable front office and player quotes, and the complex emotions and implications for fanbases all take center stage.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Dodgers and the Rotation Arms Race

• Dodgers’ Deadline Blueprint:
  • After the major Tarek Skubal acquisition, the Dodgers "double down" by grabbing Chris Bubic from the AL Central.
    • Ben: “They have completely broken baseball now.” [01:12]
  • Dodgers’ strategy is to stockpile theoretically effective, often-injured arms, hoping enough are healthy in October.
    • Ben: “We will have like nine guys who are good enough to start a game for a playoff team, and hopefully four of them will be healthy when we need them.” [03:54]
• Dodgers’ Risk Tolerance:
  • Meg: "Their high risk tolerance around the injury stuff... is a low key underrated advantage that they have." [04:49]
  • Dodgers’ depth is a privilege that lets them be bold (even reckless) compared to most clubs.
• League Response to Dodgers’ Aggression:
  • Ben: Cites public comments from Dave Roberts and Tarek Skubal that “any team could’ve traded for me,” but notes it’s not that simple, given the Dodgers' unique resources and risk absorption. [06:02]

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2. The Prospect Movement Trend

• This year, teams moved off “prospect hugging.” Ten top 100 prospects were moved, including multiple inside the top 50.
  • Meg: "It was a deadline where meaningful minor leaguers moved... this isn’t just like the 99th ranked prospect." [08:03]
• Notable that most top prospects moved for players with additional team control, not for pure rentals (Skubal being the outlier).
• The Red Sox’s blockbuster acquisition of Adley Rutschman from the Orioles stands as the headline trade.

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3. AL East Blockbuster: Adley Rutschman to the Red Sox

The Shock and Context

• Meg: "I'm still a bit surprised that they ended up doing that. I think that's maybe the biggest 'Oh wow, okay, you're doing this now' for me." [11:42]
• Orioles pivot to a significant retool, trading their franchise catcher inside their own division.
• Ben: “I wouldn't even call the Orioles a trade deadline loser because that would be too specific... they're losers in a bigger, broader sense than just trade deadline losers. They're holistic losers.” [38:50]
• Fan/Clubhouse Reaction:
  • Ben: “You can't sort of do one thing and then tell people another... you can't convincingly make the case that you buy it because your actions demonstrate otherwise.” [35:18]
  • Meg: “It’s really hard to avoid looking like, you know, the guy in the hot dog costume asking who did this? Right. We're all looking for the guy who did this... I don't know, Mike, I think that's you.” [40:39]

The Return and Intra-Division Drama

• Strong prospect haul for Baltimore—2 top 100 guys and another notable.
• Meg: "If Adley Rutschman hits a major home run for the Red Sox in the postseason, the good people of Baltimore will be within their rights to light something on fire." [45:13]
• Ben: Praises Elias for not shying away from an intra-division trade if it was the best offer, but stresses the boldness (and risk) of the move: “Bold strategy. We'll see if it works out for them.” [49:55]
• Historical Rarity: Few comps for a player as productive/important as Rutschman being dealt so early in his career.
  • Ben: Cites comps: Fred McGriff, Miguel Cabrera, Rocky Colavito, Mark Teixeira, Juan Soto. [52:35]

Red Sox Aggression (Breslow)

• Ben: “I have no idea what Boston's getting here... I'm definitely not confident that he's back to being early career Adley.” [55:43]
• Meg: Notes Breslow’s willingness to go against consensus: “He is not a stranger to being sort of outside the popular consensus in terms of valuations. That can be good if you're right...” [56:43]

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4. The Phillies: Arraez Addition, Defensive Musical Chairs

• Philly acquired Luis Arráez, triggering a bizarre defensive shuffle (Harper to RF, Bohm at 1B).
• Meg: “Here are the ways I’m confused... the injury risk increase to Harper alone makes this seem like a really bad idea to me.” [29:01]
• The crux: No in-house shortstop replacements means Turner sticks at SS, the team shuffles everyone else to keep bats in the lineup, despite clear defensive cost.
• Ben: “It's going to get weird. And this musical chairs, to what end, I wonder?” [32:00]
• Meg: "Are you really pivoting around Alec Bohm?... this man is a free agent after this year. What are you doing?" [33:35]
• Defensive downgrade is accepted out of desperation—a theme of the Phillies’ last several years.

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5. The Toronto Blue Jays: The Trade Deadline Contradiction

• Jays thread the “buy and sell” line: trade Gausman and Varsho, acquire Soriano, Smith, and Taillon, trade top prospect Arjun Nimmala.
• Ben: “They were definitely doing a lot... tap dancing. But to what end?” [64:12]
• Meg: Key critique: “It does kind of feel like they didn’t get a lot better for 2027... in their effort to both come and go, they got kind of caught in between a little bit.” [64:01]
• Noted struggles of Vlad Jr. ("He hasn’t hit a home run at home this year." [63:13]) as emblematic of Toronto’s weird 2026.

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6. Buyers, Sellers, and Tough Choices

• Several teams close in the standings chose to subtract anyway—Tigers, Nationals, Cardinals, Angels, Giants, Marlins—reiterating that being in the mix doesn’t always mean “go for it.”
  • Ben: “There is definitely part of me that wants to do a blanket condemnation of that and just say, hey, if you're three or four out... you owe it to yourselves... to stay in and go for it." [22:47]
  • Both hosts agree: Specific context for each club matters, especially communication and expectations (e.g., Cardinals’ message vs. Tigers’ fans’ justifiable disappointment).

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7. Winners of the Deadline

• Dodgers: Enhanced depth, acquired Skubal without giving up top prospects.
• Cubs: Addressed decimated pitching staff via Gausman, Braxton Garrett, Zeferjahn, etc. “They did pretty well to turn what was a really glaring weakness into, well, less than that at the very least.” [70:10]
• Pirates: Shored up bullpen with Duval, Yates, Bachar, Weaver; plugged obvious holes.
• Padres: Preller finds more prospects out of thin air, manages to add Casey Mize and Robbie Ray (both solid fixes).
  • Ben: “He just always pulls prospects out of a hat.”
• Giants: Full embrace of a sell-off; climb system rankings from 27th to 10th.
  • Meg: “Being able to have honest self-assessment and make something of that assessment... is a useful approach.” [82:08]
• Rays: Added Freddy Peralta, Liam Hicks, Tyler Wells, filling significant needs.

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8. Deadline Disappointments (“Losers”)

• Orioles: For trading Rutschman, seen as failing the fanbase’s trust for a second act of the rebuild.
• Rangers: No meaningful moves, spent deadline exploring but not executing blockbuster sell-offs.
• Diamondbacks: Only brought in Lars Nootbaar, whiffed on Clay Holmes, team decision-makers sounded disappointed.
• Braves: Under-addressed pitching shortfalls.
• Blue Jays: Caught between buying and selling, perhaps falling short on both fronts.

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9. Mixed Moves and Other Notables

• Brewers: Did not land Skubal but marginally improved; frustration acknowledged, but current team is already strong.
• Yankees: Minor adds, promote George Lombard Jr. to replace Anthony Volpe. [75:04]
• Mariners: Acquired Taylor Ward (good bat, suspect defense); wished they had landed a high-leverage reliever too.
• Astros: Got Dalton Varsho, lacked further prospect capital.
• White Sox: Good secondary moves—Doyle, Brazoban, Joey Bart.

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10. Deadline Trends, Quips, and Recurring Challenges

• Unusually lively deadline: "Trade deadline, life finds a way." [09:25]
• Prospect fatigue in cities like Baltimore—“At some point you need to show that bringing Anthony Ison in... is going to move the needle...” [45:13]
• Meg’s “Tyler Taylor” confusion segment, and MLB’s ongoing war with same-name players, as well as the “nightmare” of the Rays having Tyler Wells and Taylor Walls [16:00-17:22]
• Harrison Bader’s “scooter accident” and its place in the annals of MLB weirdness [85:23]
• James Wood’s “subtle oblique strain” as new injury descriptor [95:30]
• Reflection on fairness of selling while close in standings: It’s different with 6 teams in the mix for a spot, and with wild card value watering down postseason odds [99:07]
• “Winner” and “loser” discussion always colored by team context and playoff odds impact; most deadline moves ultimately nudge the odds only a little.

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Memorable Quotes

“They have completely broken baseball now.”
— Ben Lindbergh on Dodgers’ pitcher-hoarding, [01:12]

“Flags do fly forever. Let's try. And they decided to retool for next year.”
— Meg Rowley on the Tigers’ path, [27:16]

“It’s really hard to avoid looking like the guy in the hot dog costume asking, ‘Who did this?’... I don’t know, Mike [Elias], I think that’s you.”
— Meg Rowley on Orioles GM deflecting blame for the rebuild, [40:39]

“Adley Rutschman hits a major home run for the Red Sox in the postseason… the good people of Baltimore will be within their rights to light something on fire.”
— Meg Rowley, [45:13]

“It's going to get weird. And this musical chairs, to what end, I wonder?”
— Ben Lindbergh, on the Phillies’ defensive shuffle, [32:00]

“They were definitely doing a lot of tap dancing. But to what end?”
— Ben Lindbergh on the Blue Jays’ contradictory deadline, [64:12]

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Notable Timestamps

• 00:30–04:49: Dodgers’ arms race & approach to injuries
• 08:03–09:25: Prospect-movement trend at this deadline
• 09:25–13:20: Trade deadline unexpectedly active
• 13:20–16:43: Teams that held vs. sold; Mariners, Angels, Nationals
• 32:00–34:54: Phillies’ musical chairs defense after Arraez trade
• 35:18–47:41: Orioles / Adley Rutschman trade, PR/messaging, historical context
• 52:32–56:43: Precedents for trading young stars, doubts about Rutschman's future
• 61:29–64:12: Blue Jays’ deadline, Vlad Jr.’s power drought
• 68:36–71:47: Cubs/Pirates/Padres winners, Preller magic
• 78:55–79:33: Yankees’ cautious deadline, new faces
• 80:23–84:35: Rays and Giants’ impactful moves
• 87:00–89:21: Volpe demotion, Lombard Jr.’s promotion, and Red Sox’s Meyer move
• 95:30: “Subtle oblique strain” (James Wood injury news drops)
• 111:16–113:00: FanGraphs’ hard work & call for memberships; Spokane fires mention

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Closing Notes

This episode was a comprehensive, lively, and at times cathartic airing of 2026 trade deadline reactions. There’s something for every level of front office wonk, prospect-hound, and emotionally wrung fan—be it in statistical analysis, heartfelt exasperation, or a little gallows humor for historic moves gone sideways.

For further reading: Episode show notes on FanGraphs include links to all referenced trade analysis, staff deadline roundups, and off-site moves coverage.

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Transcript

[Ben Lindbergh]

We're gonna crunch those stats. We're gonna talk about baseball sticky stuff and torpedo bats. We'll talk about it all. If you want good takes on baseball and life, just tune in to Ben

[Meg Rowley]

and his lovely co host, Ben and Meg.

[Ben Lindbergh]

It's Effectively Wild.

[Meg Rowley]

Hello and welco. Episode 2514 of Effectively Wild, a fan Graphs baseball podcast brought to you by our Patreon supporters. I'm Meg Rowley of fangraphs and I'm joined by Ben Limburg of the Ringer. Ben, how are you?

[Ben Lindbergh]

I'm doing well. I think I probably had a little less editing to do than you over the past couple days, but I've been busy in other ways. I'm glad that we've gotten our work done, whatever it was. I wrote about Spider Man.

[Meg Rowley]

Oh, okay. I bet that. I bet that was just as hard. You know, I bet that took as much, much energy and brain space. I don't mean to diminish Spider man, but you know, the first Spider man movie that avoids the with great power comes great responsibility line will be the first one. Probably.

[Ben Lindbergh]

It's true. I mean, you got to play the hits sometimes. And talking about the trade deadline, that's one of the hits for fan graphs and for effectively wild. So we will be playing that too. And you know, last time we talked for, oh, an hour or so about the Dodgers trade for Tarek Scubal. So kind of glad we got that out of the way. We can mostly set the Dodgers aside for this episode. We have plenty of other trades to tackle. Although I regret to inform everyone that the trade for Tarek Skuble was not the last deal the Dodgers made with an AL Central team for a left handed rental arm coming off an injury who was an all Star last season. They also acquired Chris Boobich. So if you didn't think that the Dodgers had broken baseball before, maybe this is the straw that breaks the back. Chris Boobich. They have completely broken baseball now.

[Meg Rowley]

It's just such an easy name to make jokes off of. You know it is.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah. And. And much as you don't mean to diminish Spider Man, I don't mean to diminish Chris Boobage.

[Meg Rowley]

No.

[Ben Lindbergh]

In fact. Well, I was going to quiz you on this, but just by asking, I'm giving away the answer. But. But do. Which starter, other than Tarek Skuble traded at the deadline has the best projected rest of season FIP on the fangraph step charts? Because there were many starters who changed teams and some prominent starters and Soriano and Gossman and Robbie Ray and we could go on and we will go on. But no, it wasn't any of them. It was, as you have probably surmised, Chris Boobich, the second best starter traded at the deadline. Technically, sort of.

[Meg Rowley]

It would be so funny if you did a little misdirect and you were like, it was Casey Mize actually.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah, he's another good starter the Tigers traded. But Chris Boobage is actually pretty good. Again, I don't mean to linger too long on Chris Boobage. He is kind of the classic Dodgers pitcher in that he's hurt in more than one way, but if and when he's healthy, he would actually probably be pretty good. I mean, it really does. I'm not going to say that their trading for Chris Rubic drives home their blueprint and, and the dominance of their pitching and the depth of their pitching more than the acquisition of Tarek Skuple, because that would be silly. But it does really lay bare their game plan, which is just let's stockpile as many theoretically effective arms as possible, right? And we will have like nine guys who are good enough to start a game for a playoff team and hopefully four of them will be healthy when need them to be, right? And anyone else we will just move to the bullpen or they'll just be on the IL or whatever and we will swallow that and no harm, no foul. But it is nuts when you look at the number of names on that starting pitcher. Defshar I know that he's like approaching a rehab assignment or not even yet. And by the time he works his way back, if he does, he might not have time to get stretched out as a starter. So he might just be a bullpen arm if anything. But this is what the Dodgers do. Let's just get an absolute embarrassment of riches with our embarrassment of riches and we'll have just two depth charts worth of starting pitchers and hopefully it will all work out one way or another.

[Meg Rowley]

Well. And it's funny because, you know, we touched on this a little bit last time when we were talking about sort of one of the ways that they press their advantage in the draft considering how late they are often selecting. But like, I do think that their high risk tolerance around the injury stuff, which is born by their borne out by their depth rate and supported by it is is a low key underrated advantage that they have. It's like, well, I don't know, it'll work out or it won't. We're not relying on this guy who's currently on the 60 day to to be able to make it to October or to throw meaningful innings for us now. There have been times when they've been like, I don' got like two and a half arms. So yeah, good luck to us out there.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah. And they still won the World series in 2024 even though that was the case. So maybe everything comes up Dodgers. Regardless, it has been somewhat striking that in the wake of that trade they have been saying more or less what I wrote and said, but without the qualifications that I applied to that which was basically anyone could have traded for ter school. Dave Roberts said there's nothing that we did that no one El else couldn't have done.

[Meg Rowley]

Right.

[Ben Lindbergh]

And Tarek Skubal said the same. I mean, what else is he going to say? He is a Dodger now. He has. He has joined the dark side. But he said every team could trade for me. Every team can make that acquisition. I don't really sympathize with people that blame the Dodgers for anything they've done. Obviously there are layers, there's nuance. That's not totally true that every team could have done it, and certainly not totally true that every team could have done it without risking as little as the Dodgers did or just with as as little cost to them as the Dodgers incurred in making that move. But there is a kernel of truth to that which I was touching on, which was why that trade frustrated me. Though my frustration was lessened somewhat by subsequent moves that teams that I or we were taking to task made, which we'll get into.

[Meg Rowley]

The valuable piece of that those sort of protestations on the part of the Dodgers is maybe just to remind people that it is not to say that every choice is equally good. It is not to say that every team could have fit a deal like this into its team building or roster building strategy and have it work out the same way it does for la. I do think it's useful to remind people that even if you are presented with a bad choice, you are making a decision, you're making a choice. Not inevitability here. It's not gravity. So I do think that there's some value in that. I take your point though, that there's context to these moves that is really important to understanding how practicable they actually are for every team, which is going to vary pretty significantly. Even as we noted last time among the clubs that had the firm system depth to do this. Although. And maybe we can use this as a jumping off point to the moves that happened yesterday.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Please, everyone is begging. Find some sort of segue away from la.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah, one of the things. And Ben Clemens made a note of this in his sort of winners and losers piece, which I'll just remind everyone is not meant to be exhaustive, but I certainly was clocking it sort of as we were going through the day. Just a lot less prospect hugging in general this year than we often see around the deadline. Which isn't to suggest that there weren't some prospects held very tight, particularly around Skubal. But we saw, at least by our valuations of guys, 10 top 100 guys move in the course of the sort of broadly understood deadline period. And some of those guys were pretty significant. You know, this isn't just like the 99th or, or in our case the 115th ranked prospect, right? Like we had two guys in top 30 go, we had four guys in the top 45, five guys in the top 50. It was a deadline where meaningful minor leaguers moved and many of those guys were involved in what I would classify as the other big blockbuster of the deadline, which was Boston's acquisition of Adley Rudman. So maybe, maybe we should start with Adlee, because that's the other big, big move here.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah, I was going to say there. There were notable prospects traded though in most cases, Skubal aside, and he's sort of an outlier. It was for guys who have additional years of team control. So it wasn't as if teams collectively decided actually rentals really are worth giving up tough prospects. It's just that there were some players who, who have years still to come with the team that they're currently contracted to. So, yeah, I have sort of five surprises and, and Rutchman is one of them. So. So we can definitely talk about Rutchman in some depth. And then I, I have some winners and losers of my own, as I imagine you might, and we can kind of compare notes there. But I think one of my big picture surprises is just that it was a pretty active deadline. I mean, and this is not the first time that we and others have said, oh, it's going to be a deadline this year because no one's going to be me. And then it just tends to work out. It's just trade deadline. Life finds a way, just one way or another. I feel like I'm going to try to refrain heading into future deadlines from forecasting a slow deadline because it just rarely does it happen because teams will make moves and every team made a trade. Technically, some of them barely did the minimum to satisfy that condition, which I'm sure we will discuss. But every team technically completed a transaction and there were some major moves. And I wouldn't say that that many of the players who were moved shocked me because they were all trade candidates to some degree before the deadline. And there were some prominent potential trade candidates who did not move, of course, but there were enough moves made that I felt sated. I didn't feel like, oh, that's it. And you probably felt busy because you had so many posts, but. And collecting your roundup posts. But, yeah, it worked out. It turned out to be pretty intriguing, despite all the obstacles to that being the case.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah, it was a really interesting mix. We had a number of teams with relatively similar records and even in some instances, similar playoff odds that took dramatically different postures toward the deadline in terms of being in buy or sell mode. The Blue Jays, who I imagine we'll talk about here, are sort of an interesting case of trying to thread a very narrow in between needle. We shall do both. We will sell, but also reinforcement. So, you know, we had. We had some of that. I know what you mean about most of the guys who moved being, you know, they were all mentioned at least somewhere in terms of their potential to be wearing a different club's uniform the next day. I. I will admit being surprised that Adley moved. I still. I still am a bit surprised that they ended up doing that. I. I think that's maybe the. The biggest. Oh, wow, okay, you're doing this now for me. Of the deadline. Second to that, maybe being Artie Moreno, being like, no, you can. You can move some of these guys, even if they didn't end up moving everyone. Right. They kept Netto. They didn't move Detmers, but they did enough. They moved enough guys that I am willing to, in a way that I'm often not with the Angels front office, give them the benefit of the doubt that they truly just were not blown away. For guys who are good and still have time remaining such that they wanted to keep them. So giving a passing grade to the Angels, shocking, you know, here we are. Good job.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah. I'm trying to think of the most prominent players who were rumored to be dangled, who didn't go anywhere.

[Meg Rowley]

That's quite a way to describe it. I hope that they have found a sturdy platform.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yes. But given that the Nationals did make multiple moves, C.J. abrams stayed put. I'm not saying he was a super likely guy to go, but he was definitely bandied about. And, and they did trade other bats. So it could have happened. There were various Rangers who were rumored to be maybe on the move or involved in talks at least. And, and all of them stayed put, which didn't shock me given where the Rangers are in the standings. And, and speaking of that, there were a bunch of Mariners who were maybe mentioned as trade candidates and maybe mentioned by us last time as trade candidates.

[Meg Rowley]

Sure. Yeah.

[Ben Lindbergh]

And they mostly stayed put too, which again doesn' shocked me because the Mariners should be in win mode. So yeah, it would have been hard to trade say George Kirby or, or Randy Rosarino or whomever, Emerson Hancock and,

[Meg Rowley]

and improve, but especially after George Kirby throws a beautiful start and then it's like, I'd like to stay, please. What are you going to do? You're going to trade that guy? You're going to trade. You're going to trade that guy after he asked to stay? I also would like to point out that while our long national Tyler Wade, Taylor Ward nightmare has largely resulted, my personal nightmare has only just begun because I, I just want to issue a blanket apology to our listeners. The odds that I say Tyler Wade when talking about Taylor Ward, the right handed outfielder who the Mariners acquired from the Orioles for very. We're going to talk about that. It's so funny because it's hard to say that Michael Ice did well at the deadline because that doesn't pay attention to the last, you know, while with the Orioles, the war trade. Shocking to me that the return was as light as it was because there just were not very many right handed bats at all, let alone outfield bats. And he's a good one now. Is he a good outfielder? You know, Ben, the less that we say about that, the better. Defense, Just a thing. The Mariners are punting this year. Clearly they're just like, whatever, good luck boys. Strike them out, why don't you. But that's, that's, that's. I bet how Jerry talks to the boys. I'm gonna call him Tyler Wade at some point. I'll probably do it on this episode and I'm, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[Ben Lindbergh]

There's a long legacy and a rich tradition of doing so. So you will not be the first. I've done it. We've all done it. If you talk about baseball, you've done it. I've documented many of the examples.

[Meg Rowley]

Right. But I've managed to avoid it. And then, and then, you know, Tyler Wade, he's just not nowhere to be found. He's a free agent this year. You know, he's just it doesn't. I didn't have to. I mean, he's free agent now.

[Ben Lindbergh]

The radar, really, so he shouldn't cause as much confusion. What I thought you were. You were gonna talk about when it comes to Tyler Taylor confusion, is that the Rays acquired Tyler Wells from the Orioles, which means that they now employ both Tyler Wells and Taylor Walls.

[Meg Rowley]

Walls.

[Ben Lindbergh]

I mean, that's the nightmare scenario because you've got the Tyler Taylor confusion and the Wells walls. That's just. Oh, my goodness, I pity everyone who has to talk about the race.

[Meg Rowley]

It is. It is a challenge. And. And look, I'm about to say something and I am. I am very much. No scoping Tyler Wells's politics here. I have no idea. But one way he could clear it up is he could put like a little rainbow patch on his hat and then we would never mix them up again, would we? Would we?

[Ben Lindbergh]

Possible. We've. We've never had issues with raised pictures and rainbow insignia.

[Meg Rowley]

I'm just saying that, like, we, to date, to my knowledge, don't. We don't know anything about him. How nice. You know, and by him, I mean Tyler Wells.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Right.

[Meg Rowley]

Taylor Walls.

[Ben Lindbergh]

That's going to be tough.

[Meg Rowley]

Dang it.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Minefields.

[Meg Rowley]

It's really rough because the Rays are good and so it's not like, you know, if he was on the Marlins, it wouldn't matter. We wouldn't have to talk about it very much. I mean, in this episode, because they made some moves. But also I'm thinking of the Marlins and there's just like, I know the banger of a headline that is sitting in the FanGraphs queue right now from Michael Bauman, and I cannot wait for it to find its way to the world. It involves the Marlins. That's why it's relevant to this particular moment. I messaged him in our slack and I said, you genius. You can God damn genius. So I'm. I'm really excited for that. To come across the transom for everybody.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Well. Well, anyway, by the time this episode is posted, that post will have been published. So go check it out. Tyler Taylor, Soldier Spy. Watch your words. And your words related to the takeaway that there was more activity than I had banked on is the teams that made trades. Some of them could easily have gone the other way because the thinking behind the idea that there wouldn't be that much activity was that there were so many teams in contention, just a few games out, and it was historic comparing to the same point in previous seasons going back decades. Obviously, conditions have changed there more Playoff spots and everything. But nonetheless, there are a lot of teams within striking distance and few that seemed to clearly be in the seller lane. And so that's why the conditions seemed to be ripe for not that much to happen. And so one of the conditions that had to be satisfied for things to happen was for some of those teams that absolutely could have convinced themselves that they were contenders, to essentially not take themselves out of the race because they could still wind up winning, sure. But to at least declare themselves fake contenders, you know, pretenders to the throne. Right. Like, yeah, if. If everything works out, that would be great. But we are actively subtracting from our chances that that will happen. And it really varies in terms of my willingness to condemn them for making those decisions. So we talked about the Tigers last time and their decision to trade Scubal, and they continued to trade Mice, as you mentioned. So even though they were quite close and had underlying strength that resembled a contending team, they decided to hurt their chances. Then you had the Rangers, who did nothing, essentially, and not for lack of trying because it seemed like they were trying to trade people like Jacob deGrom, Corey Seeger, et cetera. Yeah, heard a lot more about players they were trying to trade away than players they were trying to trade for. Yeah, the Orioles, obviously, with Ward, Rutchman, Wells, et al. They clearly got worse for 2026. The Marlins, as you mentioned, they were just a game and a half out, and they traded Liam Hicks, one of the more productive catchers this year. The Cardinals were further out four. I think they dealt Dustin May, Lars Newbar. So there were a bunch of teams that were close that absolutely could have kept one foot in, which I guess the Rangers did. They didn't get actively worse, though, if you're treading water and everyone else around you is trying to get better than you effectively are. But there were a bunch of teams, the Nationals, we could include them too. Right. I mean, they were certainly within striking distance and they made multiple kinds of moves. Some that were sort of net neutral, maybe for 26, but. But also some that clearly made them worse. So there were several teams that could have considered themselves contenders, could have been considered contenders by their fans. And they clearly said, we don't buy it. Right. We don't buy ourselves as legitimate contenders, or we're just willing to accept the risk that we have screwed ourselves out of a playoff spot this year because it'll help us more later. And there is definitely part of me that wants to do a blanket condemnation of that and just say, hey, if you're three or four out or whatever it is or less. With a couple months to go, you just, you owe it to yourselves. You owe it to your players, you owe it to your fan base to stay in and go for it. And maybe you don't push all your prospect chips in, but you at least do whatever you can, make some marginal upgrades, you know, do what the Twins did, for instance. Right? I mean, you know, they, they got a little bit better around the edges and they didn't get worse. So they're, they're in it. They helped their chances. If anything, there are some teams in that category that I can kind of excuse or I, I, I see the vision, I suppose, but, but it's an awkward thing because historically speaking, it's, it's something that you really would have been criticized for, right? I mean, people still talk about the, the white flag trade, White Sox in 1997 or whatever. Like, you, you just can get lambasted for pulling the plug too soon because the playoff odds might say whatever, and your internal projections might say something. But when the standings say you're that close, you know, some of your fans and certainly some of your players, especially if you have exceeded expectations to that point, as many of those teams did, who are just going to feel like you cut the legs out from under them or you pulled the rug out or whatever expression you want to use.

[Meg Rowley]

I do think that having, like, franchise specific context there is, is important. I struggle to think of it as something that requires blanket condemnation. I think there are instances where there can be a good bit of condemning, but it doesn't necessarily strike me as something that, like, applies equally in every instance. And I think part of it depends on, like, how have you messaged your understanding of the season both at the beginning and as it's been going along with your players? Because I think you can make an argument if you're, you know, the Cardinals, okay, this is really exciting. And we definitely have exceeded expectation relative to where we thought we would be in this reset or step back or whatever you want to call it. But also, we're a game under.500. We know that the brewers and Cubs are going to add. The Pirates have a whole new bullpen now. You know, we've been kind of skidding a little bit of late. We think that we are in position to have a really good competitive club next year, and we don't want to compromise that. And we think we can go get guys who will help us with that endeavor. I think that it's a, an approach that you can communicate both to your team and to your fans. Now, they might not buy it, and it might not be viable in every instance. I think it's a really different argument for, you know, the Cardinals to make than it is necessarily for the Tigers to make, even though the Cardinals have a better record because, you know, the Tigers are closer and they had better guys to theoretically bolster them. So I think if you're a Tigers fan and you're pissed about the approach they took at the deadline, even though I like the return that they got, I think that's totally justified. And I don't know that I would have made the same decision if I had been them. Especially because you know that, like, in all likelihood, the teams ahead of you, maybe, maybe you're not quite dialed in on what you think the deadline behavior of a suddenly competitive White Sox club is going to be, but you kind of know the sorts of moves that the Guardians are going to make. They made those exact moves. Right. Like, they did exactly the kind of move that you expect for a close, talented, but not overwhelming Guardians team to make. They made some moves to supplement their outfield with guys who can't really. They got, you know, they got a better first baseman. He's not good at being a first baseman, to be clear, and he'll probably still need a platoon, but he's a better option than Kyle Manzardo, who they optioned. Right?

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah. Honestly, I. I wouldn't put the Guardians quite in my winner category, but they probably exceeded my expectations because we.

[Meg Rowley]

For what they did.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah, we. We grade the Guardians on such a curve, which is frustrating because they're often a team that should absolutely be acquiring people and upgrading. They're so often just guys. You're one good outfielder away. Just go get one for one.

[Meg Rowley]

I mean, to be clear, they're often like two good outfielders away, but I take your point.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Maybe a whole outfield, but at least go get one. It would help a lot. And they're always sort of in that place on the wind curve where a marginal upgrade would be really beneficial. And there are always places where they could easily upgrade. So it's for. Very frustrating. And it's not like they're running high payrolls and they always, theoretically should have some room to add, but the bar is so low because they just have no history of making moves like that, really, ever at the deadline or over the winter, for that matter.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah.

[Ben Lindbergh]

And as good as they are at development, they. They can't fill all the holes that way. And so I sort of my baseline expectation for them is that they're just not going to do anything and I'm just going to throw up my hands and say, well, that was a waste. So. But. But this time they did some stuff. They traded for Foster Griffin, they traded for Joe Adele. They traded for Nathaniel Low. It's not overwhelming or anything. There are things that they could have done that would have made a bigger impact. It's just that the bar is in the basement basically, for. For how much I expect them to bolster that roster via transactions from outside players. So well done by Guardian standards.

[Meg Rowley]

Sure. I didn't dislike their deadline necessarily, and I. I think that their moves are sensical. You know, they are aware of the curse that lays upon their outfield. So maybe they don't want to put guys, good guys out there because what. What good is that going to do? I mean, no offense to Chase the Lauder, who is legitimately talented, but my point is, from the perspective of the Tigers, you probably are able to dial in how much activity there's going to be ahead of you. You had an opportunity to say, you know what? Flags do fly forever. Let's try. And they decided to retool for next year. I think the Tigers are going to be a going concern in 2027 from a playoff perspective. I also think that, you know, they had an opportunity to really put their foot on the gas and they opted not to. And then there were clubs that like, let's decide what order we want to talk about these things in because I don't want to lose track of them. We obviously have to talk about Adley and the Orioles. We have to talk about what the Phillies are doing because it feels like a psyop.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Those are two of my surprises. One is certainly the Adley deal and another, the fifth one I was going to get to, is that Bryce Harper is an outfielder again. I know he had volunteered and said he was willing to do that. It almost feels to me with this kind of cold war of words that Harper and Dave Dombraski have going here, that Dombrowski was just like calling him on that. It's just like, oh, you're so willing to play outfield to enable me to make moves. Okay, go do it then. I'm. I'm gonna go hold you to that. But yeah, that was a weird one. Like getting Luis arise. I'm. I'm never going to complain about. But the fact that it just totally scrambles their defensive alignment. Didn't see that coming.

[Meg Rowley]

They are now just like worse everywhere. Right. And I like the lineup edition of Luis Arise. Yeah, I think that makes a ton of sense for them. I think they can have a really fun consistent contact on base with speed and power behind him and Trey Turner depending on how they line up their lineup. Although they might just keep batting Schwarber leadoff. But here, here, the, here are the ways. I'm confused. Okay, let's, let's walk through the ways I'm confused. First of all, Clemens made this point in his reaction to the whole thing too. Just the injury risk increase to Herper alone makes this seem like a really bad idea to me. So there's that. All of this is really pivoting around the fact that they have to keep Trey Turner's bat in the lineup and he's a bad shortstop but they don't have anyone to replace him. We talked about this last time, right? Like Aiden Miller is hurt and so they can't call him up. He also was hurt so they couldn't really trade him in a way that was going to make that better. They don't want to kick Turner out to the outfield and they can't do it anyway because they don't have an internal replacement at shortstop. Okay, well one option would be kick him out to the outfield trade for just a glove guy. Also, why are we so insistent on keeping Alec Bowman the frickin lineup? I. Look, I know that it has been a land of contrast with Alec Baum over the years and I, I appreciate that. Alec Bohm has some like off field personal stuff that might be impacting his performance the plate. I don't know. I have never had to sue my parents for fraud. Okay, I don't want to make light of that. But also this man, Ben, this man has a career 100 WRC plus. He is hitting.226.283.362. He has a 76 WRC plus this year. He is below replacement level. He is underwater just. Benjamin, what's happening? What is Ben? I don't now part of me, the, the, the mean spirited part of my personality is like well, I can't wait to watch this tire fire unfold.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah.

[Meg Rowley]

But there are simply too many Phillies fans in my life and in my timeline for me to think that's going to be fun for more than exactly one day because everyone on, everyone on on Sports Blue sky is a Phillies fan. It's crazy. I mean not all of them but like a lot. There are so many. So, so what they are proposing to do is they are Proposing to put Bryce Harper in the outfield, Arise at second, boom at first, and then start at third. But. But why are you doing that? To keep at what.

[Ben Lindbergh]

It's. It's good. Yeah. And Bryce Harper hasn't regularly played right field Since. In years 2021. It's been five years. Right.

[Meg Rowley]

And he's shocking.

[Ben Lindbergh]

He wasn't a great defensive outfielder then.

[Meg Rowley]

No.

[Ben Lindbergh]

So now.

[Meg Rowley]

Shocking to me. It is shocking to me that he even still has the glove. What are we.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah, it's weird. And, and I hope that Arise will maintain his defensive performance even though he will be separated from Ron Washington. I. I believe that he can. So that'll. That'll help cover up the cracks a little and paper over some of the defensive flaws. But yeah, it's going to get weird. And this musical chairs to what end, I wonder? And I guess the best you can say is that Bryce Harper will probably not be the worst defensive right fielder the Phillies have played lately, which is a pretty low bar. Again, the bars in the basement. And it probably won't be the worst defensive team that the Phillies have fielded. But yeah, it's definitely going to get weird. If only only Mike Trout had said hey already. Hey, hey, jmo, send me, send me to Philly. Just would have been a perfect fit. This all could have been avoided.

[Meg Rowley]

It would have been a perfect fit. You'd still have the problem of the fact that Trey Turner doesn't know how to be a shortstop anymore. I mean, it is like, it's not good out there. It's not good. You know, here I am, I'm like, oh, the Mariners are just punting on defense and the Phillies are like, hold my beer, man. Like, what? I'm so. For Alec Bohm. For Alec. Boom. Why? I mean, it's not really pivoting around Alec Bohm, as I mentioned. I think that the real, the real original sin here is like the Turner of it all and not being able to sort that out. But like, this man is a free agent after this year. What are you doing? What does it matter?

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah, Ben, if Miller and Crawford had been better for them, that would have helped a lot or healthy or both. But. Right.

[Meg Rowley]

As I mentioned, like, that was, you know, the, the I'm, I'm hardly breaking news here. Right. Like, everyone who follows the Phillies knows this. The long term trajectory for Trey Turner was always, well, we're going to kick him out to center field. Right? And they might not have said that, but everyone understood that as like the, the reality of the back half of his Contract because he was never good. He's not a good shortstop. Even when he was a better shortstop than this, he wasn't a good shortstop. So it's like, okay, you're going to kick him out to center, fine. But you, you have to have a healthy and productive Aiden Miller in order to do that. And they just, they don't like, they. You don't want to hear radio frequency ablation of the facet joints. You don't want to hear that about a 22 year old. If you said Meg needs that procedure, I'd be like, yeah, probably like a couple years ago. Get on it. Let's. Well, let's see what, you know what I. The hospital bed thing where they like prop you, that was real murder on my lower back in the, in the colonoscopy sense. I didn't care for that at all. It really worked me a little bit, you know, in a way that I was like, oh, surely it was the colon. No, I think it was that hospital.

[Ben Lindbergh]

But anyway, supposed to be first, do no harm.

[Meg Rowley]

So the Phillies, I don't know what the deal is and what the long term plan will be. I don't think the short term plan is good either.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah, well, it will be interesting. And the Phillies are always that at the very least. Yeah, but yeah, that was, that was one of my surprises. But to go back to Adley and.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah, let's talk about Adley.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Teams that decided to sell kind of controversially because the Orioles fit into both of those categories. It puts the leaders in an awkward position of trying to have it both ways. To say, well, we made this move with the future, future in mind. But we still believe in our guys and we still think we've got a good team here and we can still make a run and everything. And maybe they believe that on some level. And again, there is some truth to it. It's such a jumble that all the teams are so clustered together that absolutely a team could on paper get worse and, and then play better and sneak in. It could happen. But I feel like you're just not in a position to send that message. If you are, the person who punted is perhaps too strong, but certainly significantly reduced your odds. Because I don't think anyone in the clubhouse wants to hear that. Right. Like no one in the clubhouse wants to hear, oh, we believe in you. When you have made a move that signals the opposite. It's just actions speak louder than words. And I don't know that the fan base wants to hear that or finds that Mollifying either, because again, you just, you can't sort of do one thing and then tell people another. And so I understand what the Nationals did, but Paul Taboni is in a difficult spot when it comes to the PR approach, and he had this long comment about this, and he talked about how painful it is and how he believes in this team and thinks they're still good enough, but also understands that it's hard to say that when you've done this and this elaborate metaphor about how maybe the foundation isn't fully firm yet and if they try to sort of skip ahead to contention, maybe the flaws in the foundation will be exposed. And I get what he's saying. I didn't expect the Nationals to be this good or this close to contention this year. And yeah, that club isn't fully baked, and maybe it would be wrong to commit to this year. And you cost yourself, really having a core that comes together for the next several years. Then again, the Orioles are a good illustration of the fact that you can't take anything for granted and you can't count on a core that seems like it's set up for the next several years, actually panning out that way. And Michaelias had some of the same messaging after the Adley trade. I assume that owner David Rubenstein is not going to be out here saying he still thinks this team can win 7 out of 10 the rest of the way and that's all they need to do to make the playoffs. But. But Elias did say we're going to be playing for the postseason the rest of the way. Well, yeah, I mean, technically, sure. The reality is that our record and the odds that come with that record were not strong enough for me to go into the deadline with 2026 as the sole focus. Fair enough. We had to start looking at future years and take those into account as we assessed moves. But we did not dismantle the team. I guess, hang the banner, right? We did not dismantle the team. Small victories. We still have a very good team. Debatable, right? So it puts you in a pretty tough spot. Obviously, you don't want to say, like, we have no chance and our remaining roster sucks. But also, you can't convincingly make the case that you buy it because your actions demonstrate otherwise. The Adley trade. I know that this was rumored. I know that it makes a certain sort of sense. I wouldn't even call the Orioles a trade deadline loser because that would be too specific. That would be right, too, too narrow a description of the ways in which they're losers. They're losers in a bigger, broader sense than just trade deadline losers. I don't want to limit them to that. They're holistic losers. And if you just take the trade deadline in isolation and say, well, if you decide to deal Adley and Wells and Ward, they did okay, I guess. Right? At least. All in all, I mean, they got a pretty good haul for Adley.

[Meg Rowley]

At least.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Right?

[Meg Rowley]

They got a great haul for Adley. I think it is how it washes over fans is gonna. Well, it's gonna vary within the fan base even. And I don't mean to say that there aren't Nationals fans, for instance, who are frustrated by the futility of the team since the World Series win, who don't have care that Taboni and Co is like a new administration and that it is going to take them time to sort of shape the roster in a way that they think is good and that there's all this promise. And, you know, I think if you're a Nationals fan and you're inclined to be optimistic about the team, there's a lot for you to reasonably sort of hang your hat on. And you have a new voice. Right. You have a new approach to the club. Again, that doesn't mean that there aren't going to be Nats fans that are like, I'm exhausted by you guys. Call me in a couple years when you're ready to actually try to go win this thing.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah, because it's been so long for them now and the decline from the World Series was so precipitous and they've been in future oriented mode for a long enough now that that starts to wear thin.

[Meg Rowley]

Yes. And so, you know, I want to acknowledge that, but also I think that there are a number, there are a fair number of Nats fans who are like, like pretty happy with how this group is trying to shape and redirect the franchise. And I think that, you know, a lot of the things that they're doing are going to take time to bear fruit, but what evidence we have seems to be pretty positive. Right. So there is a. An optimistic gloss that you can put on the direction of the franchise, even if there are individual traits that sting. It's just a fundamentally different conversation if you're Michael Elias. Because is it's really hard to avoid looking like, you know, the guy in the hot dog costume asking who did this? Right. We're all looking for the guy who did this. It's like, I don't know, Mike, I think that's you. He's been in position with the team long enough that for him to go into. I. I don't think that what they're doing is a rebuild. I wouldn't characterize it that way. But they are engaged in like, at least a pretty dramatic retooling for right now. And. And the drama of it being centered around Rutchman. Right. That's what makes it high drama is like he was the first guy. He was the first guy who they brought in and it was like, okay, here. Here we are. Like, we did play badly for Adley and now we have him and he's great and it's so exciting. And we're gonna bring up all these other talented, indistinguishable in the face whites, and they're all really well together, and you're gonna go win a world World Series, and they won a hundred games and. And then, you know, you have these unceremonious dismissals from the postseason. The pitching never comes together in the way that you need it to. I don't know what to make of Elias as like a baseball thinker at this point. It doesn't feel like there has been an evolution in his approach to roster building, and it doesn't really seem like there's been a ton of innovation within that organization, which doesn't say that they're like, like fuddy duddies or that they're anti analytics or anything like that. But I, I feel like they're getting passed by and some of that might be that, you know, Elias has a very snapshot in time, Astros perspective on how to build a team. And some of those methods are still effective and some of them aren't. And I don't know that he's been able to really bob and weave all that well. There are baseball leaders who I think are genuinely hamstrung by their ownership when it comes to spending money, who, if they were given more payroll room, would be excited to deploy it. I think that Michael Ice has like, a fundamental allergy to trying to use the money to the extent that you would expect him to be able to, given the change in their ownership situation, which, again, like, they did spend some money. They spent it. Weirdly, they spent their. They like, shot their shot on Pete Alonso. That's weird. Yeah, that's weird. Given their needs.

[Ben Lindbergh]

We know that. That he has a demonstrated capacity to assemble a strong collection of prospects, whether from other organizations, drafting, developing them.

[Meg Rowley]

Sure.

[Ben Lindbergh]

And so maybe he's doing that again now with this Adley deal, and that's nice. But Every other skill that you want a pobo to possess, he has not demonstrated. So whether that is spending adequately or intelligently to supplement your homegrown core or evaluating your own guys to know which ones to keep and which ones to trade and when to do that.

[Meg Rowley]

Right.

[Ben Lindbergh]

He has not done those things as of yet.

[Meg Rowley]

And I don't want to sound like a, you know, like an Elias Truth or an Orioles truther, but also, you know, is it really that hard to get Adley Rutchman and Gunnar Henderson? Right. You know what I mean? Like, and that isn't say that they haven't had developmental successes and, you know, you gotta. You gotta do it across the board. They have a very exciting system now. But I think he, at the very best, gets an incomplete in terms of his grade to be able to actualize those guys. So. So evaluating this trade in isolation is to miss important context and nuance. The. When the deal came across the Transom, like, they got good return here on the prospect side, I'm like, Carlos Narvaez is an interesting big league piece for them, right? So it's not like there was nothing here. They got a global top 30 prospects. They got guys who are interesting and might continue to move up. Like, they. They got two top 100 guys and another guy that the prospect team is excited about and think has potential here. So it's not like they didn't do well, but it's like, at a certain point, you need to show that bringing Anthony Ison in it is. Is going to move the needle for you. Right? You need to show that you know how to help actualize Kayson Witherspoon. I don't know that you know how to do that, Mike. And if you're going to trade the guy who was the face of the rebuild, it would be nice to be able to reassure your fans that you do, especially if you're trading him in division. And I know that Adley, you know, he's had his ups and downs lately. He's on the injured list right now. He feels a major need for the Red Sox. And I'm not even necessarily opp. Like in division trades, but I think you really got to freaking nail them because they are. Your fans are going to remember. And here I will swear, intentionally, they're going to remember that forever. If Adley Rutchman hits a major home run for the Red Sox in the postseason, the good people of Baltimore will be within their rights to light something on fire. I mean, like, it just. This is. This is how these things. Things Go. So, yeah, I don't think that this team is doomed to, as I said, doomed to rebuild. I think that there's a good case to be made that they'll be competitive again in 2027, particularly if they make other moves. If some of their guys who are in the high Miners are, are sort of major league ready. Like, there's interesting grist for the mill here, but I don't know that I have confidence in Eliza, his track record or ability to really make what he can of this group. And I think Orioles fans are within their rights to say, like, are you the right person to be doing this still? And if the answer to that is no. Right. And I don't know how David Rubenstein feels about Michael Ice. Like, I don't know what his, you know, assessment of him is at this point. The worst case scenario in a weird way for the Orioles would be, and I don't know that this is likely to happen, would be for them, would be for Runestein to decide at the end of the year that he's done with Elias. And then you let that guy trade Adley Rutchman.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah. Well, it's interesting actually. So. So their system, as you said, much improved. They have vaulted to second on the fangraphs Farm rankings behind the raise.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah, it's a good, it's a really good farm.

[Ben Lindbergh]

And I know Orioles fans are sort of sick of hearing about how great the prospects are. At some point you need to.

[Meg Rowley]

I would be too.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Now, those things aren't mutually exclusive, obviously get you a pobo who can do both, preferably if you can maintain a strong system and also win and be competitive like the Dodgers or other teams for that matter. I mean, the, the top eight teams or the top, I don't know, nine teams on the fangrass Farm rankings right now are all teams that are at least close to contention. So they have managed to have a credible major league roster and also still have some prospects on the way in some cases. Maybe some of those guys haven't graduated from being prospect eligible.

[Meg Rowley]

But yeah, although I, I will point out that like most of the, most of the big guys who were graduating this year not on their forklift anymore.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah, so. So that's not bad. It's not pure prospect hugging necessarily. But though he has been guilty of and accused of that in the past. But in a way and again in a very narrow sense, I applaud him almost for making the move because there is that moral hazard aspect to things because as you said, he's on pretty Thin ice right now.

[Meg Rowley]

Right.

[Ben Lindbergh]

And so if the Orioles miss the playoffs, can he convince Rubenstein that he's the guy to keep leading them if they miss the playoffs again? Sometimes if you're Scott Harris, maybe you can say, okay, I'm trading Scuba, I'm trading my's, Etc, like, all right, I'm sort of shifting the timeline a little and now you can focus on what the Tigers do the next few years and maybe that actually helps him. It's the path of least resistance to say, ah, we'll just reset and sell and, and we'll get him next year. But Elias may not have a next year or many more years. And so to save his job, he could have said, no, I'm buying, I'm going for it because my leash is pretty short right now and I don't know if I'm going to be given the grace to stay if this team doesn't make the playoffs. Pretty darn. So if I get some prospects but they're not ready right now or next year, then that might not help me. That'll help my successor. So credit to him despite that, I suppose, for doing what he evidently thought was best for the organization. And also if he did think that trading Adley was the right thing to do, provided he got an appropriate prospect package and he thought that the best offer was from Boston, which I could certainly believe given the Red Sox need for a catcher and the guys they gave them. Yeah. Then I credit him for ignoring the taboo against trading within your division because I do think that's a bit overblown and a lot of it is the kind of COVID your ass. This is going to look bad for me, obviously. Yeah, it'll hurt the Orioles more directly if Adley is good for a division rival. But overall, I think probably intra division trades should happen more often than they do. Yeah, but you know, if you're going purely by the expected value for your team, even factoring in the head to head competition aspect. But teams don't like to do it, especially if you're giving away someone who is seen as a franchise cornerstone to a direct rival, that's going to come back to bite you if he's good for them. So bold, right? Bold strategy. We'll see if it works out for them.

[Meg Rowley]

Sure.

[Ben Lindbergh]

This is pretty devastating though for Orioles fans. I have to speak for them. But even if the writing was on the wall because this, it's not an unprecedented trade, but there are few precedents for a trade like this. And I asked Michael Mountain, who is an Orioles fan. So condolences to him about this because I was trying to come up with comps for players who were as good and as productive early on for a team that traded them as quickly as the Orioles have because he's still in his fifth season. And this was a guy who was a depending on which were you use of 4 to 6 ish win player from the get go. I mean even in his partial first season he was fantastic and then he was still like a 5ish win player the next season. So to come out of the gate like that and then all the other baggage that was associated with him or the hopes and aspirations as as you said badly for Adley and number one overall pick and the fact that when they got him it just seem like we found our guy and he can do it all and he can hit and he can field and he's a leader and we're going to build around him. I saw Andy Koska of the Baltimore Banner putting a a message out to solicit responses from Orioles fans who named their kid andor pet after Adley. I'm sure he's going to get some responses. So brace yourself for a tear jerker of a story. Orioles fans hopefully more pets than kids. And maybe you like the name anyway. Maybe it reminds you of your kid and not Adley Rudman.

[Meg Rowley]

But I think the Adley is nice.

[Ben Lindbergh]

It's a fine name.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah, it's a nice name. I can't imagine there are very many A.D. yeah, so.

[Ben Lindbergh]

So there are only a few players or hitters at least who fit this description. There are four according to Michael's querying position players in the integration era who were dealt with fewer than five years of service away from the club with whom they made their major league debut having been as productive prior to that as Adley Richman was in Baltimore. So you have Fred McGriff who put up 19.7 fan graphs war in four years of service plus a cup of coffee with the Blue Jays who traded him in the 1990 off season for Roberto Alomar. You had Miguel Cabrera sort of similar when when he went from Miami to Detroit. And again not that that makes sense, makes it better. But it's the Marwins, they do that. You know, it's, it's a little different when the Orioles do it and then pre free agency. But Rocky colito, of course 18.4 fan graphs were in four full seasons with Cleveland when they traded him to the tigers before the 1960 season. And that's a notorious cursed trade. Even if he didn't turn out to be the hall of famer that McGriff and Cabrera did. And then Mark Teixeira, who was traded with a year and a half of team control left at the deadline in 2007. One of the Teixeira trades and, and that brought back a big prospect package, too, but he had 17.6 fan graphs were with the club to that point. Adley is at 17.3 with the Orioles. So that's it. It's, it's just really hard to find examples of someone who was that productive early on and then were out there, welcome or for whatever reason got dealt by the same team that quickly. It just doesn't happen because usually you get a guy like that, you're at least going to keep him until free agency or when he's on the verge of free agency a la Mookie bets. Right? Or, you know, maybe you've. Oh, and, and, and Juan Soto, right. He was traded at the deadline in his fifth season also. So, you know. But with Soto, like there had been a big public extension offer. Rutchman, it's not clear whether there was an actual offer. Like, they'd had conversations, but terms hadn't really been reported. So it's weird and, and I get it because Adley has had a weird career and, and I don't know what to make of him. So yes, you can blame the Orioles and Elias for being in this position. It's also somewhat on Adley for, for not sustaining that early promise. And it's been mystifying to me and to many his decline since then and going from being an absolute superstar to a pretty good player to a not very good player, back to being okay again. You know, he's been, he started hot this year, but he has cooled off considerably since then and now he's hurt and, and has been hurt. So I don't actually know what Boston's getting here. I mean, it's a pretty bold move by Craig Breslow, too.

[Meg Rowley]

Sure is.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Because like, the Red Sox definitely needed catching help, but will he be better enough than the guys they had to justify the prospects they gave up? Again, kudos to him for, for really going for it. You certainly can't, can't accuse him of being overly conservative or cautious or anything, but I have no idea what they're going to get out of athlete. I, I just, I'm definitely not confident that he's back to being early career Adlee, and I'm not, not totally confident that, that he's going to be better than say 2025 Adley or 2024 Adley at least. So I have no idea. So it's, it's certainly that helps explain why this anomalous move was made because he's had an anomalous career path to this point. But, but man, if you had told me after 2023 that Adley Richman would be traded in less than three years, you would have had a hard time convincing me that there was any way that would happen.

[Meg Rowley]

You bring up a good point about like there is risk going the other direction here. Right. And it does seem like Breslow has sort of a, he is not a stranger to being sort of outside the popular consensus in terms of valuations. He puts on deals that can be good if you're right. Yeah. You know, and it can really come back to bite you. Although I think they have a deep enough system that even with the, the guys they gave up, you know, it, it seemed justifiable. It's like this is, you made these moves, you spent this money on this pitching. You have an obvious need. You get him for one more year. And, and the for one more year part does, I think if we want to be fair to Elias, put important context here because if he views this as sort of the make or break point for that decision and they aren't, you know, their internal numbers tell them they're not going to contend this year, which I think they're not getting consent, I don't need any numbers about that. You're not getting this prospect return from him for him a year from now. Right. You know, we saw what the best guy, the best guy at his position just got for a rental and it was more than we expected. Again, depending how you feel about River Ryan. So you are maximizing what you're getting for Adley and especially with a team like you said, that is in this position of like, wow, we have a real demonstrated need. We have a super deep farm system. We ran, we won 15 games in a row. Let's, let's ride. You know, there is a, I don't want to say that Craig Preslo is like the new AJ Preller, which also like at some point, Sandyo, what, what are you doing over there, man? But you know, so he, I think that there was like a demonstrated aggression on the part of Breslow and to some, I don't want to say to take advantage necessarily because I don't, I think, you know, I'm sure Craig Breslow was clear eyed about what he was doing, but I think that, that Elias was able to leverage that into a really good return. Good for you. But again, he didn't do anything with that. And, you know, I think I don't know how Orioles fans feel about Gunner Henderson right now because obviously his season has been very disappointing. But you know, this kind of move has ripple effects beyond just the trade itself. Right? Like the odds that you were going to extend Gunner before were low. I feel like they're, they have to be subterranean now. Right. We already knew that he didn't like the idea of an extension based on how the front office was conducting itself. So you, you put yourself in a spot where, like you said, sort of at the top of the episode, you have to justify yourself to not just your fans, but to your clubhouse. And you just traded their field marshal.

[Ben Lindbergh]

So, yeah, you have to zoom out and pull back a bit to take in how bonkers it is that that trade happens because with that larger context, it's, it's just pretty jaw dropping. And I know that they have Basayo and they extended him and they hope that he can be their catcher of the future and that he can catch well enough to do that, but still, it's just quite a turn for this team to take. Now, my other surprise was the other AL east team or one of the others. There are four others, but one of them is the Blue Jays. And they really defy categorization and classification, and it's hard for me to quite call them a winner or a loser. I would probably lean more toward the latter just because I can't quite figure out what they were up to. But boy, boy, they were up to a lot because they trade Gossman, they trade Dalton Varsho, but they acquired Jose Soriano and Josh Smith. They also acquired Jameson Tyone, who if the Cubs are. Are jettisoning a pitcher, then that does not portend anything good for that pitcher. And they also traded Jeff Hoffman. And so they're trying to sort of set up their rotation for next year, I guess, and get some of that done. And we've seen a lot of teams be coming and going at the same time and it is possible to execute that approach, but it is tough to do both of those things. And they traded Arjun Namala, who's a really good prospect. And so it's. And I get that they got Soriano and he's under team control and everything, but that's a tough player to surrender. So I don't know, it's tough to pull off what they were attempting to do here. And I'm not sure that they did.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah, I agree. I wonder if they would have been better. I understand the logic that you can make trades for now and you can make trades for later and that you can be doing both. You can be parallel pathing those two timelines. Namala is not without his risks as a hitter. Right. And you just. I never want any prospect I like to get traded to the Angels because it's just like, are the Angels gonna be able to help him actualize? I, I mean, come on, man.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah.

[Meg Rowley]

So down on them. But they're just. They've never given me a reason to think that they're good. So why, why would I. Why would I think that they're good? You know, why would I think that they're good at this? They're not good at this.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Pretty good. So I don't know if that's because of the Angels, but at least there's precedent for the Angels promoting a pretty good shortstop. It could happen. Maybe lightning will strike twice.

[Meg Rowley]

Maybe they will be able to help Arjun Namala curb his swing and miss and answer that question all up and down the ladder because that's what he's gonna have to do. Maybe they'll be able to help him maintain his strength gains. Everyone who goes through the Blue Jay system comes out like super swole. It's amazing. Their strength and conditioning is out of control. Seriously. I'm not doing a bit like, like that. This, this young man was like 170 pounds when he was drafted. And that's not his, not his weight anymore. But it, it does kind of feel like they didn't get a lot better for 20, 27. And maybe again, like, maybe that's an unrealistic expectation. You know what, you know what I heard the other day? And now I'm going to pull up his splits to make sure that this hasn't changed in the couple of days since I've heard it. Ben, did you know, know that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Has not hit home run at home this year?

[Ben Lindbergh]

I did know that, yes.

[Meg Rowley]

He hasn't hit a. He.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah.

[Meg Rowley]

First of all, he hasn't hit very many home runs period. So like this is the, the bigger concern is the number six probably, but not a single one at home. They've all come on the road.

[Ben Lindbergh]

That's. I think it was, it was Vlad and Chandler Simpson among players with that much playing time.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah, those are the same, same profile.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Those players should not be really on any kind of splits list. That's. That's not good. It's not great. You know, Chandler Simpsons. He's doing some things that Vlad is not doing. At least I'm not saying he's any great shakes either, but, but Chandler Simpson. I understand, but when Vlad's not doing that, that is not at all how he drew it up.

[Meg Rowley]

Not everything they did was bad. They got some, some interesting guys back. But yeah, it does feel like they kind of, in their effort to both come and go, they got kind of caught in between a little bit.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Simpson, by the way, has not hit any home runs in his two seasons

[Meg Rowley]

thus far, but that isn't surprising.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Those guys should not be mentioned in the same breath unless it's to say that they're at opposite ends of the spectrum or something power wise. So very weird, but lots of strange, frustrating, disappointing aspects to this Blue Jays season. And, and they were far enough away that I, I would not fault them for subtracting or selling. But yeah, I'm not, I'm not sure exactly what was happening there. They were definitely doing a lot. It was just a lot of. They were doing a lot tap dancing. But to what end? It did make me think. The fact that the Angels did make some moves, that they traded Adele and Soriano and Zephon, the fact that they got Nimala made me think, well, doesn't that make Neto more expendable? In theory. And, and it does bode well, I think for Namala, given that the contact is the concern that he seems to have improved that as he has climbed the ladder. So that's. Yes, that's good. Right. He, he started super young, but he was striking out way more in a ball than he is in double A now. Right. So that's, that's the progression you want to see. I would say so. So I do kind of wish that given that the Angels did decide that they were going to sell some people or that Moselak persuaded Moreno to let you do that. Yeah, I know. Blanket apology for referring to the sale of human beings. It's. It's trade deadline convention. You know what I mean?

[Meg Rowley]

No. James Wood is hurt. No.

[Ben Lindbergh]

How hurt? In what way?

[Meg Rowley]

Mild oblique strength strain.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Oh, well, could be worse, but could be a, a more than mild oblique strain. But still, that stinks because they just lost a lot of offense on purpose anyway. And you know, speaking of James, what I mentioned the, the precedents for, for dealing Rutchman and that Soto was one of them. Obviously that's the best case scenario that you get a SODO level haul. You can't count on that happening for the Orioles. But. But fingers crossed for then, I suppose. But given that the Angels decided to do as much as they did, I do wish they had gone whole hog. And I use that term advisedly because we've talked about hogs in other contexts in baseball this year. It was not, not hog out, as Mike Ruko said. But. And no trowel was, was being dropped. But. But I wish that they had said, well, we might as well go all in then if we're, if we're going to do it because hey, we just got a great shortstop prospect that makes Neto more expendable. And if we're trading Soriano, why not deal Detmers too? Because he's got to have even more value and just why keep anyone. I understand that you have to find the right trade partner and there has to be the right offer and easier said than done to trade several guys. Maybe it's a logistical issue at a certain point, but you don't have to wait till the last day or two before the deadline, even though everyone does. So. So I do kind of wish that they had just said let's go full rebuild. And you'd think that they would be in a position to. Because if you think, as Artie Moreno seems to that Angels fans aren't primarily motivated by winning, then they should be less dissuaded from doing so. Because if you think that Angels fans will be more tolerant of losing than the typical fan base or that you're just going to draw people who are going to Disney regardless that then then why not? Right? It's not like you, you are offering any substantial hope or great watchability to those fans as it is. So I, I do wish that they had done more. But again, we grade the Angels on the curve and, and they did something. So that's good, that's a win. Even if I can't quite call themselves a winner, as you said, passing grade, which is an improvement.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah. Like I said, they, they did enough where if you told me that they tried to do more and they just couldn't find the the right fit and they didn't want to like panic sell Red that, that I would believe it. Which is. It's an improvement. And they have, they're in this weird spot with, you know, Mosac being interim or whatever. Although if you're going to tear it all down, the cynical thing to do is to make him responsible for it and then just t him at the end of the year.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Exactly. Built in scapegoat Perfect. Yeah. All right. So winners that we haven't talked about at length, obviously, I would put the Dodgers on that list. Inevitably, they got Tarik Skubal. They didn't give up anything that should come back to bite them in the short term or ever, for that matter. So putting aside boobage and reacquiring a couple of catchers because Dalton rushing is hurt and Will Smith, they just, they got Scubal. They didn't have to give up any of their top prospects. They're a winner. Sorry, everyone. Also, though, one of the teams that I was somewhat exercised about not trading for Skubal was the Chicago Cubs. And I will moderate that language somewhat because though I still think they would have been better off with Derek Schcoupal. I know. Bold, controversial of me. They did manage to acquire about half a pitching staff eventually. So given that they lost most of a pitching staff to injury, they had a lot of work to do and they did it. In addition to having added David Peterson previously, they got Kevin Gossman, they got Clay Holmes, they got Braxton Garrett, they picked up Zephyr John. That's a lot. They, they did a lot. Now they still lack a top of the rotation guy, really, even though they have some guys coming back. And maybe, maybe Gossman can be that, maybe Cabrera can be that, maybe even could be that. They have candidates to be that. But obviously they don't have a sort of slam dunk ace as Scuba would have been. So.

[Meg Rowley]

Right.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Might have been nice. But when you are that thin on pitching, you sort of settle for bulk and average and credible with maybe some upside. And so I thought they did pretty well to turn what was a really glaring weakness into, well, less than that at the very least.

[Meg Rowley]

I agree. I think that they are on much surer footing than they were previously. They can't compete, I think, even with the rotation that's immediately ahead of them in their division standings. But a lot of that's tied up in Misarowski. So I, I thought that they did pretty well and they didn't. They, they gave up, you know, some prospects, but they didn't, like, you know, bankrupt the farm to do what they did. Yeah, I liked it. And now I need them to put out a video of Kevin Gasman being like, come to Chany. We're going to win the Central. He just looks like a three musketeer. I'm never going to be t pointing this out. He. He could cut his hair. And I'd still say it.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah, I would. Also sticking with The NL Central, I'd call the Pirates a winner because I think they did exactly what they had to do.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah.

[Ben Lindbergh]

And we talked about this last time when they had acquired Camille Duval, and we said, well, they have more to do. They need to get many more relievers than that, but it's a start. And they did. They did exactly that. They got Kirby Yates, they got Lake Bacher, and. And they got Luke Weaver, who was probably the best reliever acquired at the deadline. Maybe.

[Meg Rowley]

I think I.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Raising my. My intonation higher and higher.

[Meg Rowley]

That's meant to denote your confidence in the statement. Right. That's a. To really, like, nail it. I. I would agree with that. Especially since Mason Miller stayed put.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Right. Exactly. So they had one obvious weakness, and they did about as much as you can do at one deadline to address it, so good for them. I don't know if it'll be enough, but mission accomplished, I think.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah.

[Ben Lindbergh]

And. And they did a lot of work over the off season, which has worked out better than I expected it to. To put them in position where they really just had to. To polish off that one weakness and. And put themselves in position to win. So. Good on them.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Also, speaking of Miller not moving, I do have to hand it to AJ Preller to some extent, because he just always pulls prospects out of a hat. I don't know where he gets them, but he always has more. It's always. The cupboard is bare. He can't possibly do it again. And it's not like total blue chippers or something he dealt or acquired. And they're now dead last by a lot in the fancraft's farm system rankings. Not that they've ranked really highly before, but they managed to pick up a couple solid starters, which is.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah, they got Casey Wise.

[Ben Lindbergh]

They got Casey Wise. That's, you know, that's some solid work. Casey Mize and Robbie Ray. Right. I mean, that's not bad because they desperately needed starting pitching, too. And also the Padres were one of those teams that could have gone either way and could have said, oh, a lot has gone wrong for us and we're kind of in it. But. And not really.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah.

[Ben Lindbergh]

And. And they didn't. And. And some of their hitters who started so slow have heated up of late. Tatis and Merrill and Machado. And so they really needed pitching. And there was just question. Even though Preler has done it time and time again, despite the doubts that he just always manages to make a move or multiple moves, he did it again. So there are teams that had more prospects that just sort of sat on their hands and you know, he's never going to do it unless he is handcuffed to his chair. So I had to give some, some kudos. I don't think they like upgraded the most of any team, but given the constraints, given the other ways they could have gone, I, I sort of celebrate that Preller to the last true to himself.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah, I don't know if I think that it really is going to change their forecast for this year very much. Mys is obviously not a long term piece for them because he's a free agent agent come this off season. A fact that I've always remembered on this podcast and never had to re record. They didn't give up a ton because they didn't have very much to give. Right.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yes, you might as well just scrape the bottom of the barrel that you have already poured out. And that's another one where, how, how long can Preller possibly hold on to that position if the Padres don't make the playoffs? So maybe it behooved him to do this what with new ownership and everything. But, but still, I, I say you might as well. It's like you're too far gone to really rebuild at this point. If anyone does, it's probably not going to be Preller and you might as well make one more run. I would also, I don't know if I'd quite put them in the winner category, but I thought the Yankees did decent work here.

[Meg Rowley]

Did they? They barely did anything.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah, I, I would not call them a winner because they could have done more. So much of, of their fortunes are just, it's going to come down to is Aaron Judge healthy? Right. So they're kind of in a tough spot there. And, and definitely they could have, I mean they could have used Adley Rushman. You know, there were other positions that they could have upgraded more, but I thought getting Luis Garcia Jr. Was, was nifty work and, and they can platoon him, make him part of the platoon at first with Goldschmid who has cooled off and, and, and then adding Elliot Ramos. It's not flashy, it's not splashy. And, and that's why I wouldn't put them fully in the winner category. But I would say that they made themselves better and also they're a pretty decent team to begin with. And probably the most heartening move that they made at the deadline for Yankees fans was demoting Anthony Volpe and promoting George Lampard Jr. Yeah, the top prospect in that organization whom I, I mentioned they, they did not want to part with for Tareks Goble and if you're not going to part with your top prospect, then it's, it's pretty nice to just call him up the next day and say, hey, here's what we retain. So he's going to play for us right now. I don't know if he'll be great right away. He's, he's been pretty productive in the Miners and has been hitting well of late and is a really impressive prospect. So, so maybe. But yeah, it's kind of nice when, okay, if you don't deal the top prospect, you could have dealt for some established player then just call him up immediately and say, hey, here's why we didn't deal him. Now you get to enjoy him.

[Meg Rowley]

They're in a weird spot because their rotation they don't have to worry about. Right. Like they have the pitching that they need. They didn't address the catching position which was a glaring hole. So like that isn't great. I don't know what appetite right. Baltimore would have had trading Adley to them. I don't know if they were even in that market or trying to be. I'm a little surprised that they didn't manage to turn around sort of a more mid tier option. Like why, why didn't they trade for Liam Hicks? You know, why, why didn't they go after Stevenson? Like there, there were options that they, that they didn't. I don't know if they didn't pursue them or if they just weren't able to make them happen. So, you know, it's always hard to know what the exact TikTok of these things is. I think that George Lombard Jr. Is a good prospect. I think that he will be a good big leaguer. I will admit to feeling nervousness and trepidation on the young man's behalf because yeah, you know, they did have a need there and we know how Yankees fans responded to the last guy who wasn't able to live up to expectations. So it's just a lot of pressure to put on, you know, a 21 year old. But also he, he's a good prospect and we'll see how it goes. I think you're right that like they, I'm sure rightly understand that their fortunes are very much tied up in their injured veterans coming back healthy. You know, judge primarily Bellinger to a lesser but still important degree. And then, you know, Stanton is just like whatever you get out of that guy, you're feeling like, like it's you know, sort of found money or whatever. But I think that they, and I don't mean this in like a sports talk radio way, like they probably could have stood to be more active if you're going to do this. If you think, like, we don't have to worry about shortstop. We have that guy internally. Okay, great. But like, catcher is still like a pretty important need there. And I, I think that they probably could have made upgrades in, in the trade market and kept Lombard. But, you know, I don't know. I don't know what, what their phone calls are like. You know, I'm not in on those calls.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yes. And, and look, I certainly didn't expect Austin Wells to be this bad. I thought was. Was pretty darn solid. So he's had a rich man esque, sort of precipitous decline. So that's odd. And if they're banking on, well, maybe he's not actually this bad. It's possible, but it is risky. There was a couple quote the other day from Aaron Boone about Stanton where he said it was good to see him outdoors and moving, which sounds like something you would say about me, not a professional athlete.

[Meg Rowley]

It was good to see him outdoors and moving. He's no longer afraid of the sports.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah, you never catch me outdoors, but

[Meg Rowley]

we can bring him out of doors again. He's no longer afraid of the various

[Ben Lindbergh]

guys consumptive or something. He's taking the air. We're moving him to the seaside sides.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah, he's going to Bath.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah. Anyway, I, I would be more willing, I think, to pronounce the Rays a winner because, and again, they were one of the teams. I was saying, well, wouldn't ter school have looked good in a raise uniform? And yes, he would have. But failing that, they did get Freddy Peralta. As we talked about last time, they did get Liam Hicks and for all we know, kept him from the Yankees. They got Tyler Wells, they got Jack Swinsky. I'm going in descending order of how excited I am about these additions, but that's not nothing. Getting Freddie Peralta and Hicks alone. Yeah, I mean, that's a sizable upgrade.

[Meg Rowley]

I liked their deadline. I thought that it was modest in keeping with their payroll, but once the Scuba of it all was sort of off the table, I thought that they pivoted it in a way that was, was, that was good. I'm a little surprised just given how frequently they trade with each other that, that one of the Mariner starters didn't end up in tape.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah, it's true. Although you did still get the X rays connection with Peter Bendix and linking on the Hicks trade. And, and my last clear winner. I, I would say, even though they were one of the more aggressive subtractors, I mean, sometimes you should put a seller in the winner category, which sounds weird, but sometimes trading away players is the do. And if you commit to that strategy, then that deserves to be applauded. I thought the Giants.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah.

[Ben Lindbergh]

At least in terms of the number of moves they made. Like, this is a team that absolutely should have traded guys away and had guys to trade. And they did. They traded a lot of them. So even more so than the Angels, they said, yeah, we, we know who we are and, and we have all these guys and you want them, you can have them. So they traded Arise, they traded Ray, they traded Tyler Malley, they traded Caleb Killian, Eric Miller, Elliot Ramos. Yeah, I mean, six guys and you could probably evaluate the returns better than I could. But they also certainly climbed the farm system rankings. They're up to 10th now as, as one would expect with the number of moves that they made. So they clearly realized which lane they were in and, and they, they fully embraced that role.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah, I think it's interesting. The turnaround that they have had in their farm is, is not insignificant. You know, Ben noted this when he did his winners and losers, like coming into last year, they were like 27 7th. They're up to 10th in our farm system rankings. And that's with them having graduated Bryce Eldridge. So he's not even accounted for on their list anymore in terms of that value. So, yeah, I thought that they did well. You know, they got a top 100 guy in Ramon Marquez. They got a couple of 45s and 40s. So I think that they, not only did they manage to get like a good amount of sort of potential top end value, but they also just repopulated the depth of that system in a way that's important now, similarly to Baltimore. I mean, hang with me, we know all the ways in which they're wildly dissimilar. In fact, if you were to pick two front office executives and ask me to put them at opposite ends of the continuum of analytical to not Baltimore and San Francisco might be the ends there, but will they be able to like actually do anything with those guys? I don't know the answer to that. We will see. You know, they've sort of taken some pretty sharp turns in their approach to player dev as they have transitioned from the Farhan era into the Posey era. And so I Don't know that we know yet, but I think that they clearly had a moment of self reflection that I think comports well with the collective understanding of where their team is right now. And it would be pretty delusional to not look at this club and be like, well, you're not going anywhere. You know, you haven't, you've. You're 48 and 65. Yeah. As we're recording now. But. But also being able to have honest self assessment and make something of that assessment, bring in guys and see kind of what you have have, I think is a. Is a useful approach. And you know, they picked well in terms of who they dealt. I don't think that it changes like the understanding we have of them right now in terms of like the quality of their 20, 26 season. You know, it's not that much of a vibe shift, but it's at least something. So that's good.

[Ben Lindbergh]

And every year when we have Grant Brisby on for the Giants preview, he says that it'll be a success if they at least figure out if they have a core coming and who might be members of that core. And it's been pretty hard to envision that for a while now. And so now if they have at least a number of prospects, you can dream on and you can forecast and you can say, you can fill out a fantasy lineup and say this is the next good Giants team. Maybe we have a number of those players in place, even hypothetically, that sort of a win. But. But Elliot Ramos was supposed to be one of those guys and. And now he's gone. Right. Because the rest of the potential prospects never actually panned out. So no guarantees.

[Meg Rowley]

But we haven't even talked about Harrison Bader and the scooter. We haven't even talked about that.

[Ben Lindbergh]

I. I did. When?

[Meg Rowley]

Oh, you did last week.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yes, but.

[Meg Rowley]

Okay.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah, we gave that plenty of. Plenty of room because it deserves some.

[Meg Rowley]

Okay. Because like, like, I like Harrison Bader. Harrison Bader seems like a good hang. My dude. What are you. What are you doing? Also, you know, the, the two people I associate most with scooting with scooters are the Barbara boys. Because I have seen Jake and Jordan be like, we're, you know, in downtown Phoenix. This was during the draft combine a couple years ago, and it was surface of the sun hot and. And they were like, we're scooting back to the hotel from dinner because it's just too. It's just too hot. So Jake and Jordan, you be careful out there. You're Both married. Now you got to be, you know, responsible. You can't be running into. So he ran into the fire truck and then the fire truck ran over him.

[Ben Lindbergh]

That's right. Yeah. I don't fully understand the sequence of events there, but maybe more will come to light.

[Meg Rowley]

I wonder if Harrison Bader remembers you.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah. He might not be the most reliable witness.

[Meg Rowley]

It's been a long time since we've had a team refuses to pay contract.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yes.

[Meg Rowley]

Situation. It's been, it's been a minute since we've had one of those for, you know, like, guys go on the restricted list or whatever. But like, this is body. Come on.

[Ben Lindbergh]

And in the life comes at you fast category. It wasn't coming at bay or fast, as far as we know. I mean, we don't know how fast he was scooting, but. Yeah, but I, I did mean to mention, because Anthony Volpe was demoted, Lombard was promoted. Anthony Volpe was George Lombard Jr. Just a few years ago.

[Meg Rowley]

Right. This is why I'm nervous for him, Ben.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah. He was a similarly highly rated prospect. And look, I don't dare to tread into Anthony Volpe discussion, but I know there are people who look at Anthony Volpe and all the consternation that he has generated and say, this guy is your bet noir. Like, would that. That this was the worst outcome for us. That a guy is like a 2 to 3 war per 600 plate appearances player. I know that more was expected of him and that he can be very frustrating offensively and everything, and that defensive systems disagree, but he hasn't been that bad. It's not like total bust or something, but when you, you fail to pan out the way that was projected for you and you're a Yankee and you're expected to be good enough for the team to contend, you don't get a lot of rope, really. And. And he's gotten far more than I think any Yankees fan was happy with. But. But now he's out. And by the way, Jason Dominguez, who has also failed to launch, was sent down at the same time, too. And, and that's all it takes. Takes Anthony Volpe's 25. He turned 25 a few years ago. It's not like his, his life is over or something, but already he has been replaced. He has been supplanted by another. There's always. It's like in the Phantom Menace, there's always a bigger fish. Right. There's always a better prospect or a younger prospect at that position who is coming up behind you. Hot on your heels, and so you have to perform. It's a tough business. And I was thinking of this. Speaking of. Of former shortstops who haven't panned out, the other move the Red Sox made, trading Marcela Meyer to the Giants for Eric Miller. Now that's a move that again, Craig Breslo being bold. It seemed like they were just eager to move on from the Marcelo Meyer era, I guess, and that they had really been frustrated by his stagnation or. Or his backsliding as a prospect. But this was a guy who. Who was expected to be kind of a cornerstone of future Red Sox teams, and he did not even get nearly as as much of a trial in the big leagues as Volpe. And I can't say he's been knocking down the door or anything in the minors either.

[Meg Rowley]

He's been hurt a lot. Is. Is a big part of the problem for him.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah. But boy, Eric Miller is. Is who you're getting again. It's a very quick comeuppance, and I don't know whether that will come back to Breslow, and maybe this was just. Just a change of scenery sort of situation for whatever reason, but, boy, I would not have expected Marcel Meer to be gone that soon for an effective but fairly generic reliever, really.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah, I. I get what you mean. I do think that, like, there comes a point where the bloom is just so far off the rose that it's better for everyone to be able to move on. It also, you know, strikes me is sometimes it's just they're not your guys, you know, and they overlapped meaningfully. Right. Like, Marcelo came in. He was 20, 21 draft, and Breslow was. When did he start in the front office?

[Ben Lindbergh]

Couple years after that, because he was with the Cubs in 23, so.

[Meg Rowley]

Right. So. But, you know, so he. He was in the organization been for. Yeah. Because he was hired in October of 23. So Meyer had been in the organization for two years, so it's not like it was nothing. But I do think that when these guys don't draft the top dudes, like, they are a little more disposable to them. They're like, yeah, it's not my kid. You know, I don't have to take care of that kid.

[Ben Lindbergh]

That does make them a good buy, low candidate potentially. You can be vulnerable. Yeah. Who swoops in and says, okay, yeah, so they've soured on this guy. Maybe we can be the beneficiaries of that.

[Meg Rowley]

Right.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Okay. And then a couple of the teams we haven't really talked about much because they didn't do much. Who thus ended up in my loser category. Sounds so harsh but, but deadline loser. At least not a a huge loser like the Orioles, but just deadline loser. So I'd probably put the Rangers in that category, I'd probably put the Diamondbacks in that category and I'd probably put the Braves in that category again, mostly due to to inactivity. Yeah, we talked about the Braves additions the other day and you know, they didn't do nothing. But yeah, they got Lane Thomas, they got Billy Falter. It wasn't a lot given their needs and they certainly could have used some starting pitching, what with all the injuries and everything. So, you know, even like Padres caliber starting pitching acquisitions might have gone a long way in Atlanta. And then the Diamondbacks picked up Lars Newt Bar, who has seemed to be on the verge of being good for a really long time, but just hasn't been for sustained stretches. And, and I think the Diamondbacks had a, a we tried a close call with Clay Holmes maybe, but again, they could have used some, some pitching too. Just didn't really get it. So maybe Corbin Burns comes back, I don't know. But, but they didn't do do much at all. And then the Rangers really just, just didn't do much at all. I mean, they were seemingly more interested in trading DeGrom or Seager and other guys than in adding and they're right there in that division and they seem like they should be making some moves to try to bolster that team. It's not like the Astros did a ton and it's not like the Mariners did a ton either. Right. They got Dalton Varsho and Taylor Ward respectively. But that's more than the Rangers did, which was almost zilch.

[Meg Rowley]

I do wonder. So let's take, let's take these in order. So I am inclined to believe sometimes you hear like the we treads and you don't. You're like, yeah, I bet. I bet you did. You know, I'm sure you, I'm sure you did try that. Like there was that Will Warren Adrian Morihone rumor floating around all weekend and then got finally, I think, squashed. But I am inclined to believe the Diamondbacks got really close on Clay Holmes and then maybe had the rug pulled on them a little bit because Hazen sounded really annoyed that they didn't get more done. So that makes me think that like they kind of got left at the altar a little bit there. I I like, like the large Newpar is not A game changing player at this point in his career. I think that he is a good addition for them. Like, they need that help in the outfield. I will stop calling him Shmari Schmooba. I just. There's something about his name that I.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah, there's a lot of. Lot to love about.

[Meg Rowley]

There's a lot about his name, isn't there? There's. There is just so much one could say about his name. It's. It's a great. You know what? It's a great name. When it comes to the Rangers, I wonder if two forces were sort of simultaneously at work, one smaller and one larger. The smaller being that they had just been swept by the astral. And so do you feel like your fortunes are fundamentally different when the team at the top of the division is just like beating up on you? So there's. There's that also. It sounds like the caliber of move that they were trying to execute something in the Seeger and degrom territory. Like you mentioned that it can just be a logistical issue at a certain point if you're trying to move guys like that and then you can't do it. Well, you've spent a lot of time trying to get those dudes out the door, especially in deGrom's case because it sounds like he's. He put the kibosh on a deal. He exercised his rights of no trade. So it wouldn't surprise me if they were kind of half in, half out, not sure what to do because of the recent losses to the Astros. And then they were like, well, let's try to move the really big expensive guys. And then they couldn't get that done. And then they were like, ah, Josh Smith, I don't know. Like, you know, like, get out of here. You're not useful anymore. You're annoying. Go. You know, So I wonder if it was. I'm sure they said it exactly that way. Yeah, because they're monsters. No, their owner wasn't in the room for a conversation with Josh Smith. What am I talking about? That's me being rude about their owner. I'm right.

[Ben Lindbergh]

I just discovered, by the way, that James Wood's oblique strain was not only described as mild, but also by Blake Butera, manager, as subtle. A subtle oblique strain.

[Meg Rowley]

A subtle oblique strain.

[Ben Lindbergh]

How.

[Meg Rowley]

How is. How is how. What does that mean? A subtle oblique strain? Meaning, like, when they went to do imaging, they couldn't find it for a minute or something. Like, what is that? Yeah, I don't understand what that means.

[Ben Lindbergh]

It doesn't draw attention to itself. It's just, you know. Yeah, it's just a little, a little twinge every now and then.

[Meg Rowley]

It's just a little modest.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Not out for attention.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah, yeah. I just wanna, every now and again I'll remind you I'm here and I'm

[Ben Lindbergh]

just, you know, know. So Mariners, Astros. I assume you may have had more Mariners thoughts.

[Meg Rowley]

I liked that move. I think that Taylor Ward nailed it is a good addition to their team. They desperately needed a right handed bat. I mean, candidly, they needed any kind of bat that can hit. Hasn't been going great lately. I keep comping them to the 2015 Mariners, which for our listeners who were not in the mines that year isn't a good comp. It's a flawed comp because the pitching was sure Garbo that year and it's a lot better this year. But they have a similar vibe, you know, similar feeling to them where I'm glad I'm not on the beat. I was glad they didn't trade George Kirby because I like watching George Kirby pitch for the Mariners. You know, I wouldn't have hated to see them do a little more and it sounds like they tried to, but I think that, that they were right to not like sell low on George Kirby if they didn't like the potential returns there. They're a weird team to upgrade. Candidly. The one area where I really wish that they had figured something out is like they really could use another high leverage arm man like that. Pole pen's been kind of rough lately. And Munoz, I feel nervous when I'm watching. I, I said this on Blue sky over the weekend that I feel like I when I'm talking to the Mariners on tv, if I'm watching them, I sound a lot like Hank Hill being disappointed in Bobby. Yeah, it's my energy with this club. I was like, hold on.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Now I'm sort of surprised that Louis Robert Jr. Didn't get dealt. But that's neither here nor there.

[Meg Rowley]

But that's neither here nor there.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Made so many other moves that he was just one of those that seemed like, well, he's going to go somewhere. But I guess he had not really played himself into position to be done.

[Meg Rowley]

I think that's right. And then in terms of the Astros, well, I think that we, you know, on the one hand the, the Padres managed to make some moves and they also have a very bad farm system. So you could say, hey Houston, why didn't you do more? I think the nature of the move they did make I like as addressing a very real big league need for them. They really needed a defensive option and a reasonable, like, you know, everyday bat in the outfield. So now Dalton Barto, come on down. But I also think the fact that they, like, traded Spencer ARR. Getty to get him, which is fine. That's fine. I don't think they were like giving up on a guy who they shouldn't

[Ben Lindbergh]

have player of the month just a few months ago

[Meg Rowley]

is indicative of just how little they had on offer. Right. Like when you're trading out of your, you know, a guy who's been in your big league rotation, it suggests that you have very little in the way of prospect capital. And I think that that's an accurate assessment. They have very little in the way of prospect capital.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Pitcher of the month, not player of the month. I don't want to overstate bonafide credentials. Yeah, I know.

[Meg Rowley]

Get it together, Ben. Come on.

[Ben Lindbergh]

And I did want to say, even though I'm putting some of these inactive contenders in the loser territory, I didn't fully finish this thought earlier because there is such a snarl, such a logjam in the standings, I think it is fair to look askance at the idea that, oh, well, we're just three out or four out or whatever it is, and therefore we are barred from being sellers because. Well, a couple of things. It's a lot of teams. Right. And so it's a lot of teams. Yeah, it, it's in isolation, being three games out or something. Well, maybe that's, that's too close to wave the white flag or whatever you do with a flag. I guess you don't really wave it. I was thinking of waving a towel. But don't you wave the.

[Meg Rowley]

Don't you wave the white flag?

[Ben Lindbergh]

I guess you could. Yeah. You, you hold it up and attach it to a stick and. And you come to parley and anyway, yes, I guess you can wave it. So whatever you do with the white flag flag, it's meaningfully different when there are like six other teams that are in that same situation because obviously that affects your playoff odds. And while I do want to almost be an absolutist about it and just say, well, if you're this close, it's very conceivable that you could contend you do if you're in that position and you have to make those hard decisions, have to evaluate the actual probabilities and the probabilities are lower of you making the playoffs if you're three games back with four other teams right there than if you're three games back with like one team between you and the playoff spot. So those are significantly different situations and should be evaluated and treated differently. And also a wild card. Now, this could come into criticism of how expanded the playoff field is, but a wild card is, is just not worth as much as another playoff spot and it should be valued more lightly, which sort of stinks to say, because it's also true that if you get into October and you get any kind of playoff spot, good things can happen and randomness and small samples and you can still absolutely win. So I don't really believe in the idea that, oh, they're good enough to sneak in, but they can't win. Anyone who's in can win, conceivably, but it is different and your probabilities are different. And that's just the system that we have now. For better or worse. Often I think worse in some respects. But if you have this system, well, you're one of 12 teams. And also you're not one of the 12 with the higher probability because of the wildcard round and everything. So you do have to evaluate those things differently. And that's fair. And that's why a team like the Nationals may have done what it did where it didn't just make the mead for early trade, which you could say, well, they're, they're just as strong after making that move, but also made the Garcia deal and the Griffin deal, et cetera. Right. So, yeah, I get it. It's sort of defensible. Even if it stinks, at least it's defensible for some teams. And you look at the differences in playoff odds and World Series odds, as Dan Zyborski ran courtesy of Zips, they're just not that big in most cases. And the deadline does tend to be overrated because it's so intriguing and fun to talk about and be rumor mongers about. But other than the Dodgers, we talked about how much they boosted their already robust World Series odds. Most other teams didn't change them that much. The, the Yankees, somewhat surprisingly, were second there, and the Red Sox were third, less surprisingly. And then the brewers were actually fourth when it came to improvement in World Series winning percentage. And I didn't know what to do with the Brewers. I was initially inclined to put them in the loser category because I wanted them to do something sexier. And I think a lot of people did. And it seemed like they were trying to and it seemed like they wanted to and were willing to to some extent. And then when they didn't and they couldn't quite get the Scope deal done. Well, anything that's going to happen after that is obviously going to be a bit of a let down. But a, they are already a really good team, right. And there were only so many ways they could meaningfully upgrade. And Matt Trueblood just wrote a piece for BP the other day about the brewers, which was headlined something like, what do you get the team that has everything right. They didn't have that many glaring weaknesses. And then ultimately they did make some additions and some moves, and they made a trade, another intra division trade with the Cardinals to pick up Dustin May and JoJo Romero. And then they picked up Antonio Citella from the Rockies, and the Rockies actually, actually did make some moves. You know, some of the guys who were maybe theoretically big candidates to be traded, like, I never believed that Byron Buxton was going to be traded, and he wasn't. I didn't really buy that Hunter Goodman was either, and he wasn't. I don't know whether they got close to anything. At least they made some moves. Like in the past, the Rockies would have said, we will extend Antonio. So to tell him. I mean, they did. I guess they had him forever.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah, they did.

[Ben Lindbergh]

In fact, when he reached a new level, they would have, oh, let's keep him. And I guess they did just sign Mickey Moniac to a two year extension. But, but at least they, they correctly recognized that, hey, this guy has had a bit of a breakout for us and maybe we helped and we should capitalize on that. So the brewers did get better and they traded some prospects to do that. And, and yes, I wish they had gone and gotten someone with an even bigger impact because they have been good and they've been in the running for so long and it just feels like you need to make that one move because you've been so stymied in the postseason. But at least they did some stuff in the end, so I don't know. I can't wholeheartedly declare them a loser.

[Meg Rowley]

I think that they did fine. You know, I think it was fine. I think that once, once Skubal doesn't happen happen, you know, it's going to be hard for it to be great.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah.

[Meg Rowley]

Because, boy, would that have been a fun one too, you know, come October. Good. Good luck. Good luck. But they're a really good team and they also have a lot of potential internal reinforcement from their farm system. So I thought it was, I thought it was okay. Even if I. I wish that it had been a Little different. Good for, you know what, like, good for Dustin May, man. Like, yeah, yeah, Dustin May also good for the Cardinals. Good for the Cardinals being like, I don't know, I think I have something in this guy. And then like, they gotta. I mean, we. We're the high. We're the high outlet, I think, on the prospect that they sent the brewers, but they got a. They got a real dude in that trade, so, you know, I thought it was fine. And JoJo, they get. They get JoJo. JoJo. I love saying JoJo as a name. The brewers, that is, they. They got JoJo from the Cardinals.

[Ben Lindbergh]

So I was a long time believer in Dustin May and. And even I had abandoned much of my hope for him. So, yeah, good job by the Cardinals by getting good work out of him and then also flipping him for someone. And they are in that category where. Okay, it was. It was a pleasant surprise that they stayed in it this year. But, yeah, no one really expected. Did too. And. And they were more entertaining team than you really could have hoped. And also they figured some stuff out about the guys that they're going to keep and be able to depend on. So it has been a somewhat successful season given the expectations coming in. But, yeah, the brewers themselves sounded somewhat frustrated or flummoxed that they didn't get scubal. And there was a. A quote by Murphy which was kind of cryptic and I wasn't sure exactly how to interpret it because our brewers preview guest described this as eye opening comments. And I, I don't know that I would say that because I'm. I'm still not sure entirely what it was implying, but maybe eyebrow raising comments, at least where Pat Murphy said it isn't as simple as. That's a better package. It's not as simple as the. That there's a lot more. A lot more layers to it. To say the brewers didn't try is simply incorrect. This is when it comes to trading for Skubal. And so it sounds like they're saying in so many words that they thought they had put a pretty compelling offer together for Skubal and that for whatever reason, the Tigers went in a different direction. And as we said the other day, sometimes teams just have an internal evaluation of a certain guy that differs from the public consensus. And they just might have really liked Zaire Hope or whoever. And. But we were saying, yeah, or River Ryan.

[Meg Rowley]

Or River Ryan. I think, I suspect that the mismatch was with him rather than. Is that your hope?

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yeah. And maybe they just wanted a big league ready Pitcher. And the brewers weren't going to give up Logan Henderson or something. But. But they seemed to think that they had put together a strong offer and that maybe. I mean, I read various articles where unnamed sources were saying that some people thought it was a better offer than the one that the Tigers ultimately accepted and that the brewers had been willing to include Luis Pena, who is generally, I think, a higher rated prospect than Hope.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah.

[Ben Lindbergh]

According to the public sources. So if that's true, if they were willing to put him and other. Other top 100 guys, or at least one other top 100 guy, as was reported in that deal, and the Tigers just preferred the Dodgers package, well, I guess you win some, you lose some, and the Dodgers win a lot of them. But. But I can understand why they might feel like we. We made a real effort to do this and the ball was in Detroit's court and it just didn't go our way.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ben Lindbergh]

And.

[Meg Rowley]

And this is where it's like, you wish you could, like, administer truth serum to everybody and be like, so who did you.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Yes. Because we are firmly in. We tried territory, so take it with a grain of salt.

[Meg Rowley]

Who did you really offer? Because if. If they really did say, hey, we will send you Luis Pena and another top 100 guy, Marty is off the table. But, yeah, you know, and Detroit just was like, we really love River Ryan. Well, what do you. What do you do? You know, that's the. The. That's the best you can do? I would have taken Milwaukee's package, but also, I don't know if one that happened to who the other top 100 guy is, like, there. You just need the particulars of it. It sounds like from the public reporting that they were, like, more in on trying to get it done than, say, Tampa Bay was. But again, it's. It's always hard to really, you know, know, it's hard to really know.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Matt Arnold said, we certainly talked about doing some quote unquote, irresponsible stuff as well, but we tried to thread the needle, as Murph says, we were prepared to push a lot of chips in, and look, I think we did. So, yeah, they did some decent work, and it's a really good team, regardless. So we've talked about just about everyone. I. I guess I approved of what the White Sox did as well. Sure, they did decent work. We talked about the Castillo trade last time, but in addition to that, they made a few other moves. Right. So, yeah, I thought decent stuff from them. They picked up Brenton Doyle. Right. Another Rocky's cast off. And yeah, like, they were in, in decent position. They. They picked up Waskar Brazaban.

[Meg Rowley]

Yeah, so.

[Ben Lindbergh]

So, yeah, I, I think, you know, they're in, in decent position in the Central and they needed a little help and they got a little help. They got Joey Bart from the Braves as well. Yeah, that's right.

[Meg Rowley]

They got Joey Bart. Yeah, they're lousy with catchers, but Joey is. Joey's the man, man. Yeah, get Joey.

[Ben Lindbergh]

All right. Anything noteworthy that we haven't touched on? We touched on a whole lot of trades. There were, there were a ton of them.

[Meg Rowley]

There were a lot of trades. Grades. I would like to express my gratitude to the Fan Graph staff for their excellent work because I think that they did a great job both in terms of their quality of analysis and the rapidity with which it was done. And thanks to everyone for reading. And also, these are the times of year where I feel like I should remind everyone that running a site like vangrass takes a lot of work around deadlines like this. So if you're in a position to become a member, we hope you'll consider that because it's the best way to support the site and also the best way to experience it because, boy, your ad's a bummer. And we did a little, we did a little sidebar, Ben. We did a little right hand sidebar on the site. So it's all right there. So easy to find everything. I was like, oh, we should have that. And then. And then Sean was like, no problem. I got you. So I don't know, I feel very tired. But I thought it was an exciting deadline. I thought that it was a really interesting deadline. And now everybody has two months to show us what they're made of. Oh, and also, can I. Can I end on a slightly bummer note? That's unrelated to baseball? The. The fires that hit Spokane, Washington, were just like, really super devastating. And this is like a pretty densely populated area that they were in. This is like a, you know, it's a, it's a small city. It's the second largest city in Washington. The northern suburbs were hit really hard. Hard. A lot of people displaced, a lot of homes that burned. So if you're in a position to help folks out there, that would be nice. It was really rough and really devastating. So my thoughts are with folks back home because it's pretty gnarly up there from a fire and air quality perspective right now. So hope everybody's hanging in there.

[Ben Lindbergh]

Indeed. I will link to any resources you send me on the show page.

[Meg Rowley]

Thank you.

[Ben Lindbergh]

All right. Guess who homered in his Yankee debut? That's right. George Lombard Jr. Accounted for the second run in a 2 nothing Yankees victory. Also added a walk. Could Anthony Volpe do that? I mean, yeah, maybe, but not regularly. I got a message from a friend who said, man, if only John Sterling were around for Lombard. He'd come up with something truly unhinged. And I know he wouldn't have disappointed. It definitely would have been something like Georgie Porgy. A power orgy. And the Yankees take a two nothing lead. Well, how do you like that, Susan? Or maybe it is high, it is fun, it is gone. It's a solo shot for Lombard. The gladness of King George. And the Yankees take a two nothing lead. Well, can you believe it, Susan? I mean, can you believe it? And it's gone. Gorgeous George juices one a little Lombard supplied support. And the Yankees take a two nothing lead. I tell you, Susan, that one got out of here in a hurry. Get a load of that. George Lombard goes to the lumberyard. And the Yankees take a 2 nothing lead. It's a home run for Furious George. A Lombardment. And the Yankees take a two nothing lead. Man, I miss him. I can hear him in my head. I feel like I'm channeling his spirit. Spirit gone but not forgotten. RIP John and welcome to the bigs, George. A few other minor moves we forgot to mention. The Angels did deal Brent Suter as well to Atlanta. The Cubs acquired Tyrone Taylor in the Clay Holmes deal. Or from Tyrone Taylor's perspective, they acquired Clay Holmes in the Tyrone Taylor trade. We had also already discussed the Bo Nailer deal, the Logan oh Hoppy trade and Chase Sil Seth. I like the Angels getting Moises by Asteros in the Zephyr John deal. The Rockies also traded reliever Victor Vodnik to Miami. And if you were hoping, as I was, that these Rockies relievers trades would open up some space on the big league roster for our boy John Brebia. Well, no such luck. In fact, he was released from the AAA Albuquerque Isotopes. His trials and travels continue. Anyway, you too can look up a list of every single trade that was made. But I think we hit the high points and the low points. It's always one of the high points of my day when someone signs up to support effectively Wild on Patreon because in addition to support fan graphs a worthy cause, of course you can support the podcast directly. Just visit patreon.com effectivelywild and sign up to pledge some monthly or yearly amount to help keep the podcast going. Help us stay ad free and get yourself access to some perks as have the following five listeners, Nathan Morello, Riley Moran, Tim Whitaker, Justin Dottie and Adam Bremmer. Thanks to all of you Patreon Perks include access to a third unrestricted episode each week. Coming up next time, monthly bonus episodes, membership in our Discord Group for patrons only, exclusive live streams, personalized messages, prioritized email answers, shoutouts at the end of episodes, potential podcast appearances, Fangraphs memberships and more. Check out all the [e-mail] effectively wild if you are a Patreon supporter, you can message us through the Patreon site. If not, you can contact us via email. Send your questions, comments, intro and outro themes to podcastamcrafts.com youm can rate, review and subscribe to Effectively Wild on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Music and other podcast platforms. You can join our Facebook [e-mail] group effectivelywild. You can find the effectively wild subreddit at r effectivelywild and you can check the show notes in the podcast posted fan graphs or Patreon or the episode description in your podcast app for links to the stories and stats we cited today. Thanks to Shane McKeon for his editing and production assistance. We'll be back with one more episode a little later this week. Talk to you then.

[Meg Rowley]

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