The biggest winners from the 2026 MLB trade deadline who aren't the Dodgers

The 2026 MLB trade deadline has come and gone, and while some front offices definitely did not understand the assignment — please, hug a Yankees fan in your life — plenty of fan bases should come away from Monday's flurry of activity feeling very good about the direction of their favorite teams.

Of course, at the top of that list are the Los Angeles Dodgers, the two-time defending World Series champions who also added arguably the best pitcher on the planet without making too much of a dent in their farm system. But enough ink has already been spilled to tell you what you already know. So instead, we're going to focus on every other winner from deadline season — from players to teams to executives to even, yes, Rob Manfred.

Tarik Skubal

We said this wouldn't be about the Dodgers, and it's not — at least technically. For Skubal personally, though, this is very much the best-case scenario. Sure, he's become public enemy No. 1 in the eyes of neutral baseball fans around the country, but so what? He gets to front the rotation for the two-time defending World Series champions, a collection of talent he could scarcely have dreamed of in Detroit. And he also gets to pitch on the biggest possible stage right before he hits free agency and asks for a potentially record-setting contract. (Well, unless there's a lockout, but more on that later.) There is no better place to spend one's contract year.

Boston Red Sox

My feelings about the Red Sox trade deadline in a vacuum are pretty mixed. Curtis Mead's breakout sure seems real, but giving up controllable lefty starter in Connelly Early for a corner bat months removed from getting DFA'd seems like strange process to say the least. So too did cutting bait with Marcelo Mayer, a consensus top prospect not all that long ago who still has droolworthy physical tools, for Giants reliever Erik Miller. And while Adley Rutschman is undoubtedly a massive upgrade at a position of need, it came at a pretty steep cost — especially after Breslow had already dipped into his team's pitching depth.

But the fact is that Boston is a substantially better team now than they were a couple of weeks ago. And when you look around the rest of the AL landscape, which would-be contenders can you really say the same of? The Rays added Freddy Peralta and Liam Hicks, neither of whom move the needle all that much for me. The Yankees fumbled the bag despite Brian Cashman's 11th-hour attempts to save face. The AL Central did AL Central things, while the Mariners and Astros made half-measures at best. Craig Breslow had a bit of a weird one, but he could well get the last laugh.

Toronto Blue Jays

It's of course disappointing that a team that came within two outs of a World Series title last fall became straight-up sellers at the trade deadline. But considering the situation they found themselves is, I thought Ross Atkins and the Toronto Blue Jays front office did pretty tidy work. They flipped shortstop prospect Arjun Nimmala to the Los Angeles Angels for Jose Soriano, a solid mid-rotation starter with upside to spare and team control through 2028. And they exchanged a rental outfielder in Daulton Varsho for a potential rotation stalwart in Spencer Arrighetti. This pitching staff is shaping up pretty nicely in 2027, health permitted, and if the Jays can just figure out this lineup over the winter, they might be right back in the mix.

Buster Posey

Say what you will about Buster Posey's forays in big-league free agency, but the man apparently knows how to identify young talent. No, the Giants weren't able to offload any of their hefty contracts, but they did take a very interesting flier on Mayer while picking up enticing pitching prospects in Ramon Marquez, Henry Lalane and Miguel Mendez in deals for Luis Arraez, Heliot Ramos and Robbie Ray, respectively. All of those deals represented good value and sound process, and suddenly this is a very high-upside farm system. The future is looking pretty bright if Posey can ever get out of his own way on the open market.

Chicago Cubs

OK, so the end result was bound to feel disappointing after the Reid Detmers tease. But in Kevin Gausman, Clay Holmes, Braxton Garrett and reliever Ryan Zeferjahns, the Cubs added legit pitching depth to a staff that needed it — both in the rotation (where Gausman or Holmes could take the ball to start a playoff game) and in the bullpen (where Zeferjahns is a ton of fun, and even Holmes could pivot come October). Add in the fact that the rest of the non-Dodgers contenders in the NL whiffed on their biggest swings — neither the Braves nor Brewers landed a frontline starter — and you can argue that Chicago improved its odds the most of challenging L.A.

MLB owners

This played out more or less exactly how Rob Manfred and the owners who employ him wanted. There was plenty of activity and interest in this year's trade deadline, which is undoubtedly good for the league. And the Dodgers landed Tarik Skubal, which is undoubtedly good for their odds of a three-peat — and an existential crisis that will continue to earn public support for a salary cap. The rest of us, on the other hand, stand to be losers.

St. Louis Cardinals

Granted, giving up MLB talent is the easy part. But it's hard not to feel pretty good about what Bloom has done since taking over in St. Louis. The developmental overhaul that began in the offseason continued at the deadline, where he was able to score two top-15 prospects from a strong Brewers system in exchange for a pair of rentals in Dustin May and JoJo Romero.

Would I have maybe liked to have seen a trade for Riley O'Brien, or even Ivan Herrera given how hot the catcher market turned out to be? Sure. But the Cardinals keep on stockpiling young talent, and it's hard not to be excited about where this team is heading.

John Mozeliak

The man Bloom replaced in St. Louis also had himself a pretty tidy deadline, both personally and organizationally. It was a bit of a surprise that the Angels didn't hold a full-on fire sale, holding on to both Zach Neto and Reid Detmers. But their trades of Jose Soriano and Ryan Zeferjahn netted a pair of exciting youngsters in shortstop Arjun Nimmala and catcher Moises Ballesteros. And selfishly, embracing this lengthy of a rebuilding timeline would seem to suggest that Mozeliak does in fact have his grip around the permanent job in Anaheim.

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