MLB trade deadline 2026: Biggest winners and losers

This year’s MLB trade deadline is over, and, as is usually the case, the final hours before the 6 p.m. ET cutoff went down with a flurry of activity.

The biggest trade of this year’s deadline came Saturday night, when the Detroit Tigers dealt star ace Tarik Skubal to the reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Things heated up after that, with a few more big deals Sunday — Freddy Peralta to the Tampa Bay Rays and Kevin Gausman to the Chicago Cubs, to name a few — before Monday rolled around with all the action, including multiple intra-division swaps and a blockbuster trade. That was the Baltimore Orioles sending catcher Adley Rutschman to the Boston Red Sox for a haul of Boston’s top prospects in one of the more surprising deals of this deadline. Other big movers Monday included Luis Arraez, Clay Holmes, Luke Weaver and more.

Who came out on top as the biggest winners of the deadline? And who were the biggest losers, leaving much to be desired? Let’s dig in.

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Winners | Winner … and loser? | Losers

The general reaction around the sport after the Dodgers acquired Skubal for Zyhir Hope, River Ryan and Brady Smith: That’s all it took? Or: No, not the Dodgers! With many additional exclamation points.

Hope and Ryan are certainly good prospects, ranking fifth and the eighth in a talented Dodgers system before the trade, but Hope was the third-best outfielder on his team at Double-A Tulsa and Ryan has pitched so sparingly the past few years — only 36 innings this season in Triple-A, as he hasn’t pitched since June 17. Smith is, believe it not, 0-10 in his minor league career (OK, also with 113 strikeouts in 74 innings this year between Single-A and High-A).

Still, this is like a pinprick to the Dodgers, acquiring arguably the best pitcher on the planet without doing much damage to the farm system. Skubal was the clear difference-maker at this trade deadline and has pitched well since returning from his early-season elbow surgery. He gives the Dodgers a potential No. 1 starter to open the playoffs while providing insurance against the current injuries to Shohei Ohtani (a sore knee that is preventing him from pitching), Blake Snell (rehabbing in the minors) and Tyler Glasnow (expected to begin his minor league rehab Tuesday).

Importantly, the trade also means the Dodgers won’t have to face Skubal in the playoffs — oh, and it gives them an inside track to re-signing him when he hits free agency after this season.

If everyone is healthy in October, the Dodgers can dream of a playoff rotation featuring Skubal, Yoshinobu Yamamato, Ohtani and either Snell, Glasnow or Justin Wrobleski. Look, is it obnoxious that they pulled off this kind of move once again? Of course it is. The World Series favorites just got better.

The hope for other teams now rests on the idea that at least Skubal hasn’t been quite as dominant as he was before the surgery, including a slight drop in velocity (and, actually, the Mariners beat the Tigers in both games Skubal started in last year’s American League Division Series). Or that the Dodgers’ offense also hasn’t been quite as strong as recent seasons. Or, simply, that anything can still happen in the playoffs.

Other winners

Chicago Cubs: The Cubs needed pitching help of all denominations at the deadline, and they went out and got just that by adding Clay Holmes, Kevin Gausman, Braxton Garrett and Ryan Zeferjahn. They did give up one of their top prospects in shortstop Jefferson Rojas as well as fan favorite Moises Ballesteros, but Garrett and Zeferjhan come with future years of team control (and Holmes has a player option for 2027). It’s a bold series of moves given the Cubs are still 6½ games behind the Brewers, but a revamped rotation with Holmes, Gausman, Matthew Boyd and Shota Imanaga looks like one that, paired with a lineup that has scored as many runs as the Dodgers, could go on an extended playoff run.

San Diego Padres: A.J. Preller, we love you. Never change. The Padres, despite one of the weakest farm systems in the majors, managed to acquire Casey Mize and Robbie Ray to fix a rotation that had been starting J.P. Sears, Kyle Hart and reliever Bradgley Rodriguez. (Insert joke about Dave Friesleben, Rich Folkers and Dan Spillner.) They kept Mason Miller. They kept Adrian Morejon. They didn’t get a bat, so they’ll have to pitch their way into a wild-card spot, but with that bullpen, this Padres team is one you wouldn’t want to face in the playoffs if they make it.

Cleveland Guardians: The Guardians never make the big splash they need to at the deadline, and though Foster Griffin and Nathaniel Lowe aren’t exactly Moby Dick, it’s nice to see the Guardians making a couple of significant moves. Griffin provides rotation depth and Lowe helps fix either first base or DH, two spots where they’ve ranked near the bottom of the majors in production — and they did it without giving up any of their top 20 prospects.

New York Yankees: The Yankees needed offense, and they got the National League leader in slugging percentage in Luis Garcia Jr. — and they needed a right-handed bat and got that in Heliot Ramos, who crushes lefties with a career .847 OPS. As is the Yankees’ recent strategy, both come with additional years of team control (Garcia through 2027 and Ramos through 2029). And they acquired the pair while giving up only one of their top 10 prospects. But, yes, Yankees fans, you’re still stuck with Austin Wells at catcher. Hey, he’s due to get hot … right?

Tampa Bay Rays: As always, the Rays quietly do big things at the deadline. They got Freddy Peralta on Sunday, and though he hasn’t been that good with the New York Mets this year, he was really good in 2025 and the Rays have a way of making pitchers better when they get them. Then they got one of the best bats of the deadline, acquiring catcher/DH Liam Hicks from the Marlins, a player with a high OBP and years of team control left (through 2030). The Rays did enough to fend off the Yankees and Red Sox, although the AL East race should be one of the best subplots the rest of the season.

St. Louis Cardinals: Of the teams trading players, St. Louis president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom did an excellent job, acquiring two potential impact outfielders in Alexander Frias and Josiah Ragsdale from the Brewers for Dustin May and JoJo Romero, and then a possible starting pitcher in Daniel Eagen from the Diamondbacks for Lars Nootbaar. The Cardinals’ makeover in a short time has been impressive, as they now feature one of the youngest lineups in the majors, with two stars in Jordan Walker and JJ Wetherholt, and now one of the more intriguing farm systems in the sport (Frias and Ragsdale both now fit into the organization’s top 10).

Baseball fans: There was an idea that the Dodgers’ acquisition of Skubal would crush the deadline, with teams reluctant to make trades in what might be a futile push to beat the even-more-fortified reigning champs. Instead, we ended up with one of the most exciting and interesting trade deadlines in years. Yes, Skubal was the only true superstar traded, but there are rarely superstars traded anyway. Besides the usual list of short-term trades with pitchers and relievers, we got plenty of deals featuring players with additional years of team control, including Rutschman, Luis Garcia Jr., Heliot Ramos, Marcelo Mayer, Luis Castillo, Luke Weaver and others.

In less than three years, the Orioles went from 101 wins — a season that many believed might begin a potential American League dynasty — to dumping at the trade deadline. They traded Rutschman to the Boston Red Sox and Taylor Ward to the Seattle Mariners, among a few other deals, essentially waving the white flag on their 2026 season. But they received a massive haul from the Red Sox, with three of Boston’s top five prospects for a player with only one-plus seasons remaining of team control. Given Rutschman’s inability to stay healthy and numbers that fail to match his reputation, it’s hard to argue that trade from a baseball standpoint. The Orioles did enter Monday with about a 17% chance of making the playoffs, via FanGraphs, but this never felt like a playoff team.

Still, it’s always a gut punch when a team within shouting distance of a playoff spot decides to trade key players rather than adding, and more painful in a season in which the AL is so wide open. But more than anything, it’s symbolic of everything the Orioles have done wrong since that 2023 season, and all the once-promising prospects and players who never quite developed as expected.

The Orioles have a replacement for Rutschman in Samuel Basallo, and they received two nice pitching prospects in the Boston trade — so maybe, once again, the future looks bright. But does anyone believe the Orioles will take the extra steps to win when that day arrives?

Should Brewers fans be mad at the Dodgers, who are simply playing within the rules of the system? Or should they be angry at their own team for not pushing its chips to the table? If any team would have been able to outbid the Dodgers for Skubal, it would have been the Brewers, who could have kept top prospect Jesus Made and still had plenty of talent to offer from a loaded farm system.

This absolutely should have been the season the Brewers went all-in trying to claim the first World Series title in franchise history. Imagine facing Skubal and Jacob Misiorowski a combined three times in a best-of-five series or four times in a best-of-seven. Factor in that nobody knows what Misiorowski’s future holds and whether he can remain healthy throwing 100-mph pitch after pitch after pitch, and it just felt as if this was the time for the normally cautious Brewers to be a little adventurous and risk long-term value for a short-term push to maximize their World Series chances.

It could be that the Tigers demanded Made or Luis Pena and the Brewers said no way. Or that the Brewers didn’t want to part with Logan Henderson, who has a 2.66 ERA in nine starts (lower than Skubal’s 2.79 ERA, by the way). Milwaukee did end up adding a starting pitcher, Dustin May, in a deal with the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday, but that’s no Skubal-Miz 1-2 punch.

It’s possible the Dodgers and Brewers meet again in the National League Championship Series — where Milwaukee was swept by L.A. last October after boasting the best regular-season record — but now, beating the Dodgers will be even more difficult.

There’s little doubt that blowing a 7-0 lead last Wednesday to the Orioles — with Skubal on the mound — cemented Detroit president of baseball operations Scott Harris’ decision to trade his ace. It was fair to watch that game and think, “This team isn’t a playoff team, let alone a World Series team, so let’s trade Skubal for future assets.”

It’s also fair to criticize an organization that just traded its best player on a Saturday night that saw them end the day just 2½ games out of a wild-card spot. Keep in mind that since MLB expanded to six playoff teams in 2022, we’ve seen the 2022 Phillies, the 2023 Diamondbacks and the 2023 Rangers reach the World Series as wild cards, with the Rangers winning it all. Given the overall weakness of the American League, just getting into the playoffs gives a team a reasonable shot at the World Series. Via FanGraphs, the Tigers had a 20% chance of making the playoffs entering Sunday.

They took that 20% and threw it back in the face of their fans, who haven’t seen the Tigers in a World Series since 2012 and haven’t seen them win the trophy since 1984. Look, it could still work out for them. They traded Jack Flaherty and several others at the deadline in 2024 and then had a miracle run the rest of the way to reach the playoffs. Maybe River Ryan joins the rotation and goes 6-0 down the stretch and Zyhir Hope wins back-to-back MVP awards in 2031 and 2032. But for now, trading Skubal to the Dodgers is a choice the Tigers made to make themselves worse the final two months — and made the best team in baseball even better.

Other losers

Boston Red Sox: Look, the Red Sox might turn into winners, but the Rutschman and Mayer deals are pretty bizarre. Giving up three of your top five prospects — of a very good system — is a wild pay for Rutschman. Mayer, one of the top prospects in the game not so long ago, was flipped for a lefty reliever who walks six batters per nine innings. You have to admire chief baseball officer Craig Breslow going absolutely all-in when so many front offices are reluctant to do so, but the Red Sox better rally past the Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays and win the division or Boston could easily find itself eliminated in an anything-can-happen-in-three-games wild-card series.

Atlanta Braves: The Braves did the least of the first-place teams, acquiring only lower-tier players such as Tyler Mahle (5.13 ERA), Bailey Falter (13.97 ERA), Lane Thomas (.719 OPS) and Brent Suter (4.12 ERA). They could have used a better starting pitcher, and Mahle is unlikely to make a significant impact.

Philadelphia Phillies: You knew president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was going to do something reasonably big, and he did, adding Arraez to provide some much-needed OBP at the top of the lineup plus relievers Brooks Raley and Caleb Kilian for key bullpen depth. However, this plan apparently includes playing Arraez at second base, shifting Bryson Stott to third base, Alec Bohm to first base and Bryce Harper to the outfield, where he hasn’t played since 2022 (and not regularly since 2021, and he wasn’t good out there then). Given Stott’s inexperience at third base, the Phillies are arguably making themselves worse on defense at all four positions if they stick to this plan, which is why they’re a loser and not a winner. Oh, and with the Phillies suddenly fighting just to win a wild-card spot, they could have used a starting pitcher, but Dombrowski failed to land one on a day when so many were traded.

Chicago White Sox: The White Sox are ahead of schedule, so it’s understandable why they weren’t more aggressive, but they didn’t do much to improve the team. Luis Castillo hasn’t been that good with the Seattle Mariners and will cost $24 million next year. Brenton Doyle is a good defensive outfielder but can’t hit. Huascar Brazoban might help the bullpen, but there were more impactful relievers who were traded. Joey Bart might help only because Chicago’s catching situation has been so bad (last in the majors in the offense).

Miami Marlins: The Marlins are 1½ games out of a wild-card spot and their big move was to trade Liam Hicks, who was second on the team in OPS and controllable through 2030. Adding more prospects might be the smart long-term play, emphasis on might, but you know what’s fun? Making the playoffs.

Baseball fans: Well, Skubal still ended up on the Dodgers.