MLB Trade Deadline: Top 25 midseason deals of all-time

12. Braves acquire Mark Teixeira, July 31, 2007

Sometimes a trade deadline deal has a bigger impact on the seller than it does on the buyer. In 2007, the Texas Rangers traded slugger Mark Teixeira to the Atlanta Braves. Fans in Atlanta were happy the club acquired the former Georgia Tech star, though the move itself did not have the intended consequences.

When the Braves acquired Teixeira, they were 3.5 games out of first place in the NL East. Atlanta finished five games back, in third place and out of a Wild Card spot. Nearly one calendar year later, eight games under .500 and well out of playoff contention, the Braves traded Teixeira to the Angels.

But lost in the shuffle of the deal itself was the prospect haul the Braves traded to Texas, which included Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison and Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Andrus, Feliz and Harrison all took the field for the Rangers in the World Series a few short years later, Feliz was the AL Rookie of the Year in 2010 and Adrus made two All-Star teams and remains one of the best all-around shortstops in baseball.

But the unintended consequences of acquiring Teixeira don’t end there. After he was traded to the Angels for Casey Kotchman, Teixeira helped Los Angeles win the AL West by hitting .358/.449/.632 with 13 home runs and 43 RBI in 54 games. He then filed for free agency, and was signed by the New York Yankees.

Under the rules of the time, the Angels were given a draft pick from the Yankees as compensation – the 25th-overall selection in the 2009 MLB Draft, which the club used to select a relatively unknown high school outfielder from Millville, New Jersey: Mike Trout.