This isn’t the only “winners and losers” article you’ll find in response to the MLB trade deadline, but most come at it from a real-world perspective. They focus mainly on team-wide outcomes — the Cubs did this, the Braves didn’t do this — which is understandable given that baseball is a team sport.
But in Fantasy Baseball, we care more about individual outcomes, namely which players gained or lost value at the deadline. The players most impacted aren’t always the ones who were traded.
With that in mind, I’ve come up with what I think are the 12 biggest player-specific winners and losers of the trade deadline. I throw in some honorable mentions for good measure.
Luke Weaver
PIT Pittsburgh • Age: 32
The Pirates haven’t officially designated Luke Weaver as their closer yet, but rarely do teams adhere to such formalities these days. They were the contender with the most obvious need for a closer, and Weaver was the most obvious closer candidate of the middle relievers on the market. The fit was easily telegraphed and indeed came to fruition on deadline day. My one reservation going in was that the Pirates were lefty-heavy at the back end of games, with Gregory Soto and Mason Montgomery being their highest leverage relievers, which might incentivize them to keep the one late-inning righty, Weaver, flexible, but they addressed that concern by also landing Kirby Yates and Lake Bachar at the deadline. I suppose a committee approach isn’t out of the question, particularly to start out, but the more likely scenario is that Weaver takes the job and runs with it.
|
||||||||||||
Kade Anderson
SEA Seattle • #13 •
The Mariners held onto George Kirby and Emerson Hancock at the deadline, which tamps down the urgency to promote Kade Anderson. Trading Luis Castillo brought their rotation down to five, and they can work with that, as most teams do, but they ran six deep for so long that they’ll likely be willing to do so again to get their top prospect involved. Anderson has been a force of nature at Double-A, as you can see from the numbers, and the Mariners have a long history of promoting their top pitching prospects directly from that level, as was true for Kirby, Bryan Woo and Bryce Miller. Maybe they stick with a five-man rotation and deploy Anderson out of the bullpen at first, but the Castillo trade makes a rotation bid possible for the 22-year-old. It’s just a question of now or two weeks from now, thus preserving Anderson’s rookie status for next year, but with the Mariners slipping in the standings, I’m not sure they can afford to wait.
|
||||||||||||
Freddy Peralta
TB Tampa Bay • #51 • Age: 30
So ends Freddy Peralta’s turbulent stint with the Mets. The 30-year-old seemed as steady as they come during the previous five years with the Brewers and, in fact, had his best season in 2025. He managed to do that despite cutting the use of his best pitch, the slider, in half, and he halved it again in his partial season with the Mets. Perhaps that was the tipping point, or perhaps straying from the slider in the first place was always the wrong idea, even if he got away with it in 2025. The results on it are still phenomenal, but he’s throwing it just 6 percent of the time. It’s why I’m so hopeful the Rays can fix him. They have a reputation for getting the most out of pitchers, including ones of far lower stature than Peralta, usually by accentuating their strengths. The fact that they gave up real prospect capital to get him shows the strength of their convictions.
|
||||||||||||
Jeff Hoffman
MIN Minnesota • Age: 33
It’s not 100 percent that Luke Weaver is the new Pirates closer, and it’s not even 50 percent that Jeff Hoffman is the new Twins closer, at least not right away. But I think he immediately becomes the Twins’ best reliever, which means it’s only a matter of time before he steps into the top role. But wait, doesn’t Yoendrys Gomez, who has settled in as the closer over the past couple months, have the better ERA at 3.42? Yes, but all of the damage against Hoffman came in the first two months. Since the start of June, a span of 23 appearances, he has a 1.21 ERA, 0.94 WHIP and 12.1 K/9. Those numbers are certainly closer-caliber. Granted, Gomez’s numbers also look better when you reduce them to just his time with the Twins, but he’s simply not as dominant as Hoffman at his best. Maybe manager Derek Shelton sticks with Gomez for now because the right-hander hasn’t given him a reason to make a change yet, but there will come a point when he does. And Hoffman will be waiting.
|
||||||||||||
Moises Ballesteros
LAA L.A. Angels • Age: 22
Moises Ballesteros wasn’t even the headliner of his deal. Most outlets stated it as Angels reliever Ryan Zeferjahn going to the Cubs. You have to dig in to find out what they gave up for him, and wow, it’s a guy who was on every top prospect list coming into the season. Baseball America had him 36th overall, even. Ballesteros got off to a roaring start, batting .338 with a 1.012 through April 30, but then slumped badly enough that he got sent to Triple-A, where he’s also scuffled. Still, he’s demonstrating tremendous bat-to-ball skills, a quality batting eye and good enough exit velocities, so at 22, his stock should be holding fairly steady. The more likely reason for this trade is that he was always an awkward fit for the Cubs, an organization replete with catching talent. They couldn’t justify having a work-in-progress like him behind the plate, and his short and stocky build made him unplayable anywhere else on the diamond. He had to hit well enough to be a full-time DH for the Cubs, and that’s a high bar for any 22-year-old to meet. He’ll get a more honest look behind the plate with the Angels, who just traded away primary catcher Logan O’Hoppe a few days ago, and early indications are that it’ll happen right away.
|
||||||||||||
Joshua Baez
STL St. Louis • #22 • Age: 23
We can only speculate as to how soon Joshua Baez will be stepping in for Lars Nootbaar, who was dealt to the Diamondbacks on Monday, but surely he’s the best in-house candidate to do so. It’s probably just a question of whether the Cardinals do it now or wait a couple more weeks so that they preserve his rookie status, thus making them eligible for certain draft pick incentives. It’s complicated, but the motive is real, particularly for a team that’s operating as if it’s out of the playoff race. Another complicating factor is Baez’s 30 percent strikeout rate at Triple-A, which president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom has hinted needs to improve before the Cardinals expose the 23-year-old to major league pitching. This is the same organization that delayed promoting JJ Wetherholt late last year even though it was even clearer that he was ready, so it’s no certainty that they’ll turn Baez loose, for as promising as his power is. If they want to, though, the path is now open.
|
||||||||||||
Other winners: Luis Arraez, 2B, PHI; Kevin Gausman, SP, TOR; Bryce Harper, 1B, PHI; Heriberto Hernandez, OF, MIA; Clay Holmes, SP, CHC; Dustin May, SP, MIL; Jose Soriano, SP, TOR; Daulton Varsho, OF, HOU
Emmet Sheehan
LAD L.A. Dodgers • #80 • Age: 26
The acquisition of Tarik Skubal meant somebody in the Dodgers rotation was out of a job, and we now know that somebody was Emmet Sheehan, who was optioned to the minors Monday. He’ll be back, of course — and perhaps even this year with the way Justin Wrobleski’s and Roki Sasaki’s innings are escalating — but it wasn’t a shock to see him sent down with the way he’s performed this season. The low point for his ERA was 4.50. There’s still plenty to like here, from the Dylan Cease-like swinging-strike rate to the better than 3-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, but at this point, it’s fair to wonder if Sheehan will ever find stable footing with the Dodgers. Some early reports of the Skubal trade had Sheehan himself in it, and perhaps it’s telling that no pundits even batted an eye at the possibility.
|
||||||||||||
Charlie Condon
COL Colorado • Age: 23
Charlie Condon has been among the most stashed prospects since way back in spring training, when he was supposedly in the mix for the starting first base job and showing signs of meeting the potential that made him the third pick in the 2024 draft. He’s continued that success in the minors, but the problem is that the Rockies have stumbled upon quality options at all the positions he plays. The trade deadline offered a chance to relieve that bottleneck, whether by shipping out Jake McCarthy, Mickey Moniak or both, but that didn’t happen. And in fact, there are now reports of Moniak signing an extension. Maybe Condon still gets a shot in a couple weeks with Troy Johnston showing signs of fading, but maybe Zac Veen gets first dibs over him, already being on the 40-man roster.
|
||||||||||||
|
Taylor Ward
SEA Seattle • Age: 32
A year after hitting a career-high 36 home runs, Taylor Ward has suffered through the worst power outage of his career, but judging by his 81 percent roster rate in CBS Sports leagues, you’ve likely held on, contented enough with his high on-base rate while trusting that his larger home run track record would win out. I think you can stop trusting. The move from Angel Stadium to Camden Yards wasn’t much of a park downgrade, if at all. The move to T-Mobile Park, on the other hand, is about as bad as it gets. We can look beyond the theoretical in this case, given that Ward has spent the majority of his career in the AL West. In 127 career plate appearances in Seattle, he has hit .195 with two homers and a .533 OPS. The only reason Ward isn’t No.1 on this list is because he’s been so disappointing already. We can only hope his arrival doesn’t relegate Dominic Canzone back to a platoon role, making him a trade deadline loser as well. It shouldn’t, but what should happen isn’t always what does.
|
||||||||||||
Tyler Wells
BAL Baltimore • #68 • Age: 31
This one is straightforward and about as decisive as a slammed door. Tyler Wells, who was positioned to be the Orioles closer at least until Ryan Helsley returned (and quite possibly the rest of the season), was dealt to the Rays, who already have an excellent closer in Bryan Barker (who they also got from the Orioles, coincidentally). So … that’s that. He goes from having some Fantasy value to having basically none, apart from maybe holds leagues that go deep into the middle reliever pool. The worst part is that there’s no obvious heir in Baltimore. The Orioles will likely deploy some mashup of Andrew Kittredge, Yennier Cano and Rico Garcia, making none of the three of particular interest in Fantasy.
|
||||||||||||
|
Liam Hicks
TB Tampa Bay • Age: 27
You may wonder why Liam Hicks’ move to the Rays is such bad news for his Fantasy value if the lineup and venue both rate similarly to what he’s leaving behind with the Marlins. Isn’t it good news that the Rays will actually be using him as a catcher? No, not really. He was already playing the position enough to secure eligibility there next year, but his role with the Marlins was more “run producer,” leading to everyday at-bats in prominent lineup spots. In such a role, the first base and DH spots were available to him as needed, but that’s not going to be true in Tampa Bay, where Jonathan Aranda and Yandy Diaz are occupying those spots. The only path available to Hicks now is catcher, and seeing as he’s a defensive liability and a left-handed hitter with some pretty gnarly splits, he won’t be playing there every single day. His power production has also mostly evaporated the past couple months, which seemed inevitable given the poor exit velocity readings, so he may not offer more than a hollow batting average in part-time duty moving forward.
|
||||||||||||
Marcelo Mayer
BOS Boston • #11 • Age: 23
This one may have slipped by you on deadline day because the player going to the contender, which is normally the headliner of the deal, was only a left-handed reliever, Erik Miller. That’s all the more damning for Marcelo Mayer, who’s only a year removed from being a consensus top 15 prospect. In fact, he had a four-year run in the top 15 for both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline. How could he have fallen out of the Red Sox’s favor so quickly? Well, poor performance over 114 games this year and last is surely part of it. He’s had his share of injuries even going back to the minors and has been out since late June this year with a stress reaction in his forearm. You won’t find much reason for optimism in the underlying data either, but again, we’re talking about a 23-year-old with a top prospect pedigree and only 114 major league games under his belt. Part of me wonders if this is another short-sighted moment from a Red Sox front office that’s been piling them up lately, but even if so, San Francisco isn’t the best place for a left-handed hitter like Mayer to regain his footing. He’s nickels on the dollar right now in Dynasty leagues.
|
||||||||||||
Other losers: Kris Bubic, SP, LAD; Luis Castillo, SP, CHW; Yoendrys Gomez, RP, MIN; Lane Thomas, OF, ATL
