21 facts from the '21 Deadline frenzy

Trade Deadline season is always busy, but this year, it went into overdrive.

The deals started as a trickle a couple of weeks ago and ended as a deluge leading up to Friday’s 4 p.m. ET Deadline, with contenders doing their best to upgrade for the postseason chase (and unable to wait for the August waiver period, which no longer exists). The result was a fast-paced final few days that could leave your head spinning.

• Catch up with every Trade Deadline deal

As we sort out all of the implications and adjust to some new-look rosters, here are 21 facts and figures to know about an exciting 2021 Trade Deadline.

The final numbers

• Trades came at a breakneck pace as the Deadline drew closer, with a whopping 27 -- involving 77 players (including players to be named) -- being completed on Friday alone.

• In all, 149 players were traded across 56 total swaps from July 15-30, beginning with Joc Pederson moving from the Cubs to the Braves on July 15.

• Ranking the 2021 Trade Deadline deals

• Nobody stood on the sidelines completely. All 30 teams made at least one trade since July 15.

• Seven teams in total made at least five trades by the Deadline, with the Cubs leading the way by completing eight deals after falling out of contention. The Pirates made seven; the Braves, Nationals and Rays all made six trades apiece; and the Yankees and Blue Jays both made five trades.

• Quantity is one thing, but quality is another. This Deadline had both. Check out this potential lineup, rotation and back-end bullpen you could make out of all of the players who changed teams over the past couple of weeks.

2B Trea Turner (Dodgers)
LF Adam Frazier (Padres)
CF Starling Marte (A’s)
RF Joey Gallo (Yankees)
DH Nelson Cruz (Rays)
3B Kris Bryant (Giants)
1B Anthony Rizzo (Yankees)
SS Javier Báez (Mets)
C Yan Gomes (A’s)

SP Max Scherzer (Dodgers)
SP José Berríos (Blue Jays)
SP Kyle Gibson (Phillies)
SP Rich Hill (Mets)
SP Andrew Heaney (Yankees)
RH RP Craig Kimbrel (White Sox)
LH RP Brad Hand (Blue Jays)

A star-studded affair

• There were 10 players traded this year who were 2021 All-Stars: Gallo, Cruz, Gibson, Frazier, Eduardo Escobar (Brewers), Kyle Schwarber (Red Sox), Scherzer, Kimbrel, Turner and Bryant. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, 2021 will now set a record for having the most All-Stars suit up for multiple teams in the same year.

• Per STATS, Scherzer, Turner and Schwarber -- all dealt by the Nationals -- make up the first trio of teammates to be traded midseason during the year they were All-Stars.

• Seven of the 10 teams in playoff position as of Friday added at least one 2021 All-Star to their roster, and nine of the 10 added a player who has been an All-Star at some point.

The Red Sox (Schwarber), White Sox (Kimbrel), Rays (Cruz), Brewers (Escobar), Giants (Bryant), Dodgers (Scherzer and Turner) and Padres (Frazier) got players who were All-Stars this year. The A's (Marte) and Mets (Báez) traded for past All-Stars.

• The Astros, who lead the AL West, are the only current playoff team that didn't make such a move.

• How about future All-Stars? Four of MLB Pipeline's Top 100 overall prospects were traded, in two deals. The Blue Jays traded Austin Martin (No. 16) and Simeon Woods Richardson (No. 68) to the Twins in the trade that got them Berríos, and the Dodgers traded Keibert Ruiz (No. 41) and Josiah Gray (No. 42) in their blockbuster for Scherzer and Turner.

Defending champs get it done

• The Dodgers' trade for Scherzer means they now have four Cy Young Award winners (Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw, David Price and Trevor Bauer) and four MVPs (Kershaw, Mookie Betts, Cody Bellinger and Albert Pujols), although Bauer is currently on administrative leave, with his future on the team in doubt.

When Scherzer makes his first start for L.A., the Dodgers will become the first team ever to have four MVPs and four Cy Young Award winners play a game for them in the same season, per Elias. Of course, this isn’t a new record. The Dodgers were already the first team to have three of each even before they got Scherzer.

• By adding Scherzer to a rotation that already included Kershaw and Price, the Dodgers now have three of the top 10 active pitchers in wins, strikeouts, starts, innings and pitching WAR.

• With Scherzer and Turner, the Dodgers will also have 17 players who have been All-Stars appear for them in 2021. In the last decade, the only team to have more All-Stars in one season was the 2012 Yankees, who had 18, per ESPN Stats & Info.

• The Dodgers' 17 All-Stars are also the second-most they've ever had in one year. There were 21 All-Stars on the 1941 Brooklyn Dodgers, who won the NL pennant.

Yankees go big -- really big

• The Yankees' trade for Gallo gives them three of the 15 MLB players who have hit at least 40 home runs in a season since 2017. Gallo hit 41 homers in '17 and 40 in '18, Aaron Judge hit 52 in '17 and Stanton hit 59 in '17.

• Gallo, Judge, Stanton and Gary Sánchez also hit some of the biggest home runs of any slugger. Only nine players in baseball have hit a home run 490-plus feet since Statcast started tracking in 2015, and those Yankees are four of them. That group has also accounted for six of the 12 total 490-footers hit MLB-wide in that time. In terms of exit velocity, the Stanton/Judge/Gallo trio is responsible for 63 of the 155 home runs (41%) hit at least 115 mph during that time.

• After the Gallo trade, the Yankees started all three of their sluggers in the outfield on Friday night at Miami, with Stanton (listed at 6-foot-6, 245 pounds) in left, Judge (6-7, 282) in center and Gallo (6-5, 250) in right. All other MLB teams combined have had only one other position player (Cleveland’s Franmil Reyes) listed at 6-foot-5 or taller and 245 pounds or heavier who’s appeared in a game this season.

A tale of two teams in Chicago

• While the White Sox are leading the AL Central, the fourth-place Cubs executed a long-rumored sell-off of their pending free agents. The 2016 champs made the most trades of any team, with eight, including stars Bryant, Rizzo, Báez and Kimbrel. Add in Trevor Williams (Mets), Ryan Tepera (White Sox), Jake Marisnick (Padres), Andrew Chafin (A’s) and Pederson (Braves), and Chicago sent nine players to seven different contenders over the past week. (That doesn’t even count recent former Cubs such as Schwarber and Jon Lester, who also got traded.) So expect lots of ex-Cubs facing each other in big situations this October.

• In recent history, the two Chicago teams, whose ballparks are separated by less than nine miles, have not been frequent trade partners. That certainly changed in 2021, with the Cubs dealing Tepera to the White Sox on Thursday and then working out a blockbuster on Friday afternoon that sent Kimbrel to the South Side for second baseman Nick Madrigal and reliever Codi Heuer.

That’s two trades in two days after the clubs previously had made three trades over a 23-year span after a July 1998 trade of Jon Garland to the White Sox. Of course, one of those prior moves was a big one that netted the Sox Eloy Jiménez and Dylan Cease in July 2017.

• The Cubs’ trade of Báez to the Mets reunited Puerto Rico's double-play combo from the 2017 World Baseball Classic: Báez and Francisco Lindor. In WBC '17, Lindor played shortstop for the Puerto Rican team that made the championship game, and Báez played second base. They'll likely return to that arrangement in New York, once Lindor is healthy.

• Another fun fact: The winning pitcher for Team USA in that championship game that beat Puerto Rico? Mets starter Marcus Stroman. The closer for Team Puerto Rico in the tournament? Mets closer Edwin Díaz.