5 winners from MLB trade deadline

1. Houston Astros

After it became evident the New York Mets weren’t going to trade Noah Syndergaard, no one would have blamed the Astros for calling it a trade deadline and moving on with their pursuit of a second World Series title. Instead, the Astros pulled off the stunner of the trade deadline, landing All-Star and former Cy Young Zack Greinke without surrendering any of their best young bats. The addition of Greinke gives the Astros the best rotation in the American League and makes them the odds-on favorite to win the pennant and return to the World Series.

In a year where offense has reigned supreme, the Astros now feature four of the top-15 pitchers in baseball measured by ERA in Greinke, Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Wade Miley. This is now the third major deal the Astros have made to acquire a frontline starting pitcher, and the first two experienced massive upticks in performance after Houston’s analytics department got a hold of them. Imagine Greinke’s ever-changing repertoire and ability to spin the baseball and change speeds ratcheted up even more with analytics. Watch out, baseball.

The Astros now have the best rotation of any contender and a dominant lineup. They’ll also be able to mix and match with their bullpen in the playoffs to create matchup nightmares for opposing hitters. This is how a rebuild is supposed to work. The Astros built one of the deepest farm systems in baseball, got their cheap, homegrown talent to the big leagues and then supplemented their core with big acquisitions. They were only able to take on the big contracts of Greinke and Verlander because of how well the rest of their roster was constructed.

It’s obviously still too early to crown the Astros, but they did the most to upgrade their team of any top contender and already had the second-best record in baseball. On paper, they are now the team to beat, by a fairly wide margin.