The Major League Baseball trade deadline passed on Tuesday with the New York Yankees and New York Mets making some moves, but also not making the blockbuster trades that some fans expected.
With both New York teams in first place in their respective divisions and among the World Series favorites, both clubs chose to hang on to their key prospects and didn’t make plays for Washington’s Juan Soto, Chicago’s Willson Contreras, or Boston’s J.D. Martinez.
Starting with the Yankees, who entered play on Wednesday with the American League’s best record at 70-35, started early by trading for Kansas City outfielder Andrew Benintendi, sending three pitching prospects to the Royals in return.
The Yankees then acquired pitchers Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino from Oakland for three pitching prospects and second baseman Cooper Bowman. Outfielder Joey Gallo was then sent to the Dodgers for pitcher Clayton Beeter.
Finally on Tuesday, the Yankees made somewhat of a surprise move by trading starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery to St. Louis in return for centerfielder Harrison Bader. The 28-year-old Bader is hitting .256 this season, which is 10 points higher than his lifetime average.
Mets Get Help at DH but Don’t Make a Bullpen Splash
Many observers expected the Mets, who are in first place by 2.5 games over Atlanta in the National League East going into Wednesday’s action, to make a big move to acquire a left-handed relief pitcher, but that did not happen. They did acquire righty reliever Mychal Givens from the Cubs for a pitching prospect, but that was largely it on the pitching front.
The Mets did acquire three hitters in the past week that will help them with the lack of productivity they’ve had from the DH position. Just before the trade deadline, New York acquired Darin Ruf from San Francisco for J.D. Davis and three pitching prospects. Last week, the Mets added Cleveland outfielder Tyler Naquin and Pittsburgh DH Daniel Vogelbach, so they now have options at DH from both sides of the plate.
Some baseball insiders, however, feel like the Mets didn’t do enough to address their weak points when it comes to the other elite teams in MLB.
Both Teams’ World Series Odds Didn’t Change Much
The Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t make much of a splash at the deadline either, and they and the Yankees remain co-World Series favorites at around +350 at the various sportsbooks.
Houston closed the gap and saw their odds drop around 100 points to +475 after trading for outfielder Trey Mancini and catcher Christian Vasquez along with left-handed reliever Will Smith (Atlanta received starting pitcher Jake Odorizzi in that deal).
The Mets continue to have the fourth-lowest odds in the World Series futures odds market, sitting at +650. While it wasn’t a trade-deadline acquisition, New York does get a boost to its starting pitching rotation with the return of Jacob DeGrom, who made his first start of the season last night in Washington, allowing one run over five innings pitched.
The big winner at the trade deadline was the San Diego Padres, sending a package of key prospects to Washington in exchange for Soto. The Padres leapt over Toronto and Atlanta and are at +1100 odds to win the World Series.
