The dust has officially settled after a wild trade deadline last week. Now it's back to baseball, as our attention quickly shifts toward the home stretch and which teams will (and will not) be on the right side of the playoff picture when the music stops.
There were no shortage of kneejerk reactions in the wake of Thursday's deadline. The trades had hardly stopped pouring in before everyone was willing to declare winners and losers, teams who had punched their ticket to the World Series and teams who had let a golden opportunity slip away. And those could well turn out to be correct; fortunes are often made with the right pickup this time of year. But it's also worth noting that we don't know what we don't know, and that a lot of deals that might seem like busts at the time have a way of surprising us.
So let's put our contrarian hats on for a moment, and consider whether some of the teams and moves that have been buried over the past few days really deserve it. Here are four in particular that could be in need of reevaluation before too long.
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1. RHP Dustin May, Boston Red Sox
I won't try to argue that May on his own was an adequate trade deadline haul considering how badly Boston needed starting pitching depth. And certainly, the way Craig Breslow handled the Joe Ryan negotiations at the 11th hour leaves a lot to be desired. But there's a real chance that the Red Sox have stumbled on a diamond in the rough here: May has been bad so far this season (84 ERA+), it was just a couple of years ago that he was still one of the more promising young pitchers in the sport.
Granted, that was also one major injury ago. But he's still just 27, and the further he gets from that flexor tendon operation (which also included a Tommy John correction), the better he figures to be. It's also worth noting that he's been solid against righties even amid his struggles; if Boston's pitching development team, which has made significant strides under Breslow, can identify ways to help him out against left-handed hitters, he could take off.
2. RHP Michael Soroka, Chicago Cubs
See the above section about how this isn't an endorsement of a team's overall deadline. More than just about any other team, the Cubs had no excuse not to be all-in last week, and yet Jed Hoyer kept his powder dry and simply fiddled around the margins. That's an inexcusable calculation, one that could have serious repercussions for years to come.
None of that has anything to do with Soroka as a pitcher, though, and the fact remains that there's a lot to like here. The 4.87 ERA might not show it, but don't be fooled: The righty's strikeout and walk rates are well above average, and his breaking ball and changeup give him options against both right- and left-handed batters. Now he goes from one of MLB's worst defenses in Washington to one of its best in Chicago, and that (along with a bit better luck with men on base) should have his ERA moving closer to his expected mark of 3.33.
That may not be the big swing Hoyer should've taken, but it'll sure help.
3. RHP Taj Bradley, Minnesota Twins
Broadly, the Twins should be embarrassed by how their trade deadline played out; to call Thursday's razing of the roster a "fire sale" would be an insult to both fires and sales. But in the midst of all that mayhem, Minnesota did find some decent value. Foremost among them: Flipping reliever Griffin Jax to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for recently demoted righty Taj Bradley.
Granted, the fact that Bradley had recently been demoted should tell you how his 2025 season has gone so far. His 4.61 ERA was ugly, and he'll need to improve his command if he wants to make good on the prospect hype that accompanied him to the Majors in the first place. But that hype existed for a reason: Bradley's right arm remains electric, and his curveball and splitter are potentially devastating options against lefty batters.
He's still just 24, and there's still a ton of upside to dream on here. Minnesota has scored several pitching development wins in recent years, and turning a reliever into a potential mid-rotation starter with a few tweaks (and a much better home park to pitch in) makes a ton of sense for a team starting from scratch.
4. RHP Mason Miller and LHP JP Sears, San Diego Padres
Look, I won't fully defend the process here. Leo de Vries is a prodigiously gifted player, one of the most tantalizing talents in the Minors right now, a teenager who's more than holding his own already at Double-A. There's a chance we look back on this deal the way Padres fans look back on the trade that got them their previous shortstop prodigy, Fernando Tatis Jr., from the Chicago White Sox years ago.
But de Vries is still a teenager, one who has as many questions left to answer about his development as any teenager would. The Padres, understandably, want to try and win now, while this current core is still smack in its prime. And all the talk about what AJ Preller gave up (guilty!) has maybe masked the fact that they turned prospects into arguably the best closer in baseball — plus another starter who is much closer to league average than people probably realize.
Sears was just that until he was forced to pitch in the bandbox that is Sutter Health Park in Sacramento. Put him in Petco, up his slider usage a little more, watch his eye-popping 2.6 HR/9 come down along with his ERA. If he does stick as a No. 4 or No. 5 starter, and Michael King comes back healthy, the Padres have all the tools they need to be a force come October. I don't know whether I would've given up de Vries to get there, but I think there's a real chance that we're sending Preller some apologies before too long.