Rival GMs laud flurry of Deadline deals

This year’s Trade Deadline will go down as one of the wildest weeks in baseball history, one which saw 23 current or former All-Stars change teams.

Roster chaos ruled the day on both Thursday and Friday, with contenders supplementing their rosters for the stretch run, while a number of teams began to look ahead to 2022 and beyond.

Max Scherzer and Trea Turner went to the Dodgers. Anthony Rizzo and Joey Gallo were dealt to the Yankees, while Javier Báez was sent to the Mets. Craig Kimbrel moved to the other side of Chicago, Kris Bryant was sent to the Giants and José Berríos went to the Blue Jays, just a handful of moves that will help shape the rest of the 2021 season.

• Here is every Trade Deadline deal

“I believe that we will look back at the 2021 Trade Deadline and marvel at the number of All Stars, MVP candidates, Cy Young winners and future Hall of Famers that were traded,” an American League general manager said.

Unsurprisingly, many executives pegged the Dodgers as the biggest winners of the week after Los Angeles added Scherzer and Turner to an already loaded roster.

“They were already the likely favorites to win the World Series,” an AL general manager said. “They just made themselves the overwhelming favorite.”

But the Dodgers weren’t the only teams that impressed front-office folks around the league. One AL GM picked the Yankees as the biggest winner of the week after they acquired Gallo and Rizzo while staying below the CBT threshold. Yes, New York dealt some well-regarded prospects, but the Yankees held on to their most coveted youngsters and utilized the depth of their system to augment the roster for the stretch.

“They filled needs and had money covered,” the GM said. “And they traded from their 40-man roster/Rule 5 crunch, mostly.”

It’s not often that a seller is mentioned as a big winner of the Deadline, but myriad executives lauded the Cubs and Nationals for their work this week. As difficult a decision as it must have been for Jed Hoyer and his front office to trade away players such as Bryant, Rizzo, Báez and Kimbrel, Chicago brought back a haul of young players that could help the Cubs contend soon without the pain of a lengthy rebuild.

“They sold rentals and restocked their system,” an NL GM said. “Next year, they can go out and get free agents, as well.”

“I thought the Cubs did a great job in their circumstances,” another NL GM said.

• Top prospects who moved at the Deadline

The Nationals traded away Scherzer, Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Daniel Hudson, Brad Hand, Yan Gomes, Josh Harrison and Jon Lester, many of whom were key contributors on the 2019 championship club, in a flurry of moves over the past few days.

“It’s unusual to have multiple teams -- the Cubs and Nats -- that find themselves both in a position to sell in the standings and yet having so much talent to move,” an AL executive said. “Usually it’s four or five teams with one or two players. This was two teams with five-plus players. I can’t imagine what it was like in their rooms. In my opinion, they were both methodical, rational, and came away with impressive returns that should help them in the long run while also shipping out talent that will help teams in the short run. It’s how the Trade Deadline should work.”

“While painful in the short term, both teams did very well to retool on the fly by adding upside controllable players,” another AL executive said.

Part of the reason for the strong returns for both Chicago and Washington was the additional year of control for both Kimbrel and Turner, while the Rangers received good value for both Gallo and Kyle Gibson, who are also under control through 2022.

“Lots of deals, lots of high-profile names,” an AL executive said. “There was seemingly a huge premium put on having the player for 2022 in addition to 2021.”

“Big-money behemoths blowing it up, causing the end of an era for the Cubs and Nationals made for some crazy names on the move,” added another AL GM.

While all six first-place teams made moves in an effort to hold off their challengers, a number of teams with their sights set on a Wild Card spot were aggressive. The Yankees, Blue Jays, Athletics and Padres are all at least 5 ½ games out of first place, yet those clubs added players in recent days.

“I liked that Wild Card teams were going for it,” an NL GM said.

“The teams that want to win go for it -- Dodgers, White Sox, Oakland -- and you are going to have to give up top prospects to get it,” an NL executive said. “I have to applaud the Yankees; they realized they had no left-handed hitting, so they went out and got it. There is a fine line between giving up your cornerstone pieces and winning now, but there comes a time you take a shot at it. Prospects are not guaranteed to pan out, rentals aren’t guaranteed to pan out; but if you never try, you’re always just playing for second place. I applaud teams who have a need, fill it, and realize that it may come back to bite in the future, but hey, they went for it.”

One of the biggest surprises of the past two days was the relative lack of movement by the Padres, who did add Adam Frazier, Jake Marisnick and Daniel Hudson this week. San Diego appeared to be on the verge of trading for Scherzer on Thursday, only to watch the three-time Cy Young winner get dealt to the rival Dodgers.

“It seemed like they had Scherzer,” an NL executive said. “Not only didn’t they get him, but the Dodgers did.”

Two teams that shied away from trading players on expiring contracts were the Rockies (Trevor Story, Jon Gray) and Tigers (Jonathan Schoop), which puzzled one NL executive.

“Those clubs had a clear opportunity to add future wins to their ledger but elected instead to punt that opportunity in favor of meaningless short-term wins,” the exec said. “It’s obvious that both decision-makers chose a self-serving path of ‘showing progress’ in an effort to preserve their own jobs rather than act in the best interests of their organizations. They have no chance at the postseason this year, next year, or any year in the immediate future and their inaction further delayed any hope to construct a real title contender at any point in the next half-decade. Their fan bases deserve better.”

“Seems like a great opportunity lost,” an AL GM said.

Interim GM Bill Schmidt told reporters Friday that the Rockies never received any offers that exceeded the value of the compensatory pick the club will receive if Story – who will receive a Qualifying Offer after the season – signs with another team as a free agent.

We may never know exactly what kind of offers were coming in for Story (or any other players who were ultimately not traded), but an NL executive believes the decision not to move Story shows that teams continue to have differing views on the value of certain players.

“The industry is extremely diverse in terms of how each club is looking at long term commitments, the impact of the CBA situation, potential rule changes, COVID, etc.,” the executive said. “Not only that, but there are so many different ways to evaluate talent now; it’s amazing how different teams view players and their respective values.”

Aside from Story, Gray and Schoop, other candidates who didn’t change teams included Byron Buxton, Raisel Iglesias, Michael Pineda, Zach Davies, Bryan Shaw, David Peralta, Paul Fry and Scott Barlow, some of whom could emerge as trade options this winter.

“I think most teams addressed what they needed,” an NL GM said. “There were a lot of calls early but limited action until late.”

The biggest winner of the week in the eyes of one NL executive? Baseball fans.

“The abnormally active deadline should generate a high level of fan engagement,” the exec said. “It sets up an intriguing two-month stretch prior to the postseason.”