
MLB trade deadline winners and losers: Padres and Astros go big while Twins trade away a third of their roster and Dodgers stay quiet
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MLB trade deadline winners and losers: Padres and Astros go big while Twins trade away a third of their roster and Dodgers stay quiet
The 2025 MLB trade deadline finally arrived Thursday, and it didn’t disappoint. MLB teams executed 24 different trades, 14 of which came after 5:30 p.m. ET. Here are the winners and losers from this year’s trade deadline.winners: Carlos Correa, Mason Miller, Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez. losers: Joe Ryan, Luis Robert Jr., Sandy Alcantara, Dylan Cease and Mitch Keller, among others. The Mets added Edwin Diaz, Ryan Helsley and Gregory Soto from the Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles and San Francisco Giants, among other players, to strengthen their bullpen. The Padres added big-time relievers with J.P. Sears and Jhoan Duran, but didn’t need an overhaul as much as some other teams as that is an enviable position to be in with the Padres’ rotation. The Mariners got a new corner infield with first baseman Josh NTaylor and third baseman Eugenios Suarez. The Cardinals added Tyler Rogers and Tyler Rogers from the Giants and Baltimore Orioles.
From 4 p.m. ET to a little after the deadline at 6 p.m. ET, MLB teams executed 24 different trades, 14 of which came after 5:30 p.m. ET. It was a wild flurry of roster transactions in which some teams remade their rosters, for better and for worse.
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Not every notable player on the market was traded. Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Joe Ryan, Chicago White Sox outfielder Luis Robert Jr., Miami Marlins starting pitcher Sandy Alcantara, Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan, San Diego Padres starting pitcher Dylan Cease and Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Mitch Keller all stayed put despite days of reported discussions between teams.
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Here are the winners and losers from this year’s trade deadline.
Winners
Carlos Correa, Astros third baseman
If you’re a high-priced player on a team that has clearly decided it has zero interest in continuing to compete for this season and possibly longer (more on that below), a homecoming is always welcome.
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Correa was the first overall pick by the Houston Astros in 2012 and starred for the big-league team from 2015 to 2021. Despite exiting the team in free agency, he remains a popular figure with both the organization and its fan base. Astros players were reportedly elated to learn that Correa is coming back, and he confirmed to MLB.com that Houston was the only team for which he would’ve waived his no-trade clause.
His return to Houston will see Correa play a position other than shortstop for the first time in his professional career (all 1,492 games of it). The Astros specifically made this trade because a hamstring injury to Isaac Paredes opened up third base, and that’s where Correa will play for the foreseeable future. Correa was actually set to play third back in 2023, until his deal with the New York Mets went up in smoke.
This isn’t the same Correa that Astros fans might remember — the Twins were looking to move him for a reason and ate $30 million of his remaining $102 million to do so — but the chance to ride out your career with a franchise you’re more than comfortable with is something very few players get.
Mason Miller, Padres closer
The hardest throwing pitcher in baseball woke up Thursday on a bad team playing in a minor-league stadium and ended the day on a good team playing in a major-league stadium. That’s what we call an upgrade.
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With four years of team control left after this season, any Miller trade was bound to be huge, and the San Diego Padres didn’t disappoint, parting with MLB Pipeline No. 3 overall prospect Leo De Vries and three other youngsters for Miller and starting pitcher J.P. Sears.
That’s a staggering price to pay, but Miller could easily make himself worth it by throwing some key innings for San Diego in the playoffs. He’s flanked by three other All-Star relievers in the Padres’ bullpen, but this is still about as ideal an outcome as he could have found with the A’s set to play in Sacramento until at least 2027.
Jerry Dipoto, Mariners president
The Seattle Mariners approached this deadline tied for the final AL wild-card spot and were clearly in need of an upgrade. President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, baseball’s most prolific trade artist, delivered.
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In exchange for a collection of lesser-known prospects, the Mariners got a new corner infield with first baseman Josh Naylor and third baseman Eugenio Suarez. Suarez, who ranks fifth in MLB in homers this season with 36, was the big prize, and it’s a reunion with a still-popular player in Seattle to boot.
Naylor and Suarez both figure to join the middle of the Mariners’ lineup, marking the kind of shift the fan base has been wanting for a very long time. The Mariners could have gone a little further, especially considering Suarez is a pure rental, but this is suddenly a very interesting roster if the rotation stays healthy.
The Mets’ bullpen
The Padres and Philadelphia Phillies both added big-time closers with Miller and Jhoan Duran, but no team reinforced its bullpen quite like the New York Mets.
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Behind All-Star closer Edwin Diaz, the Mets added Ryan Helsley from the St. Louis Cardinals, Tyler Rogers from the San Francisco Giants and Gregory Soto from the Baltimore Orioles to a group that already included Ryne Stanek and Reed Garrett. The Mets didn’t need an overhaul as much as some teams, but that is an enviable group.
The NL East is a two-horse race between the Mets and Phillies, and both teams took measures to make sure it won’t be their bullpens that cost them the crown.
Craig Breslow’s critics
The Boston Red Sox currently hold the second AL wild-card spot, and they did not act very interested in keeping it at the trade deadline, acquiring struggling Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Dustin May and reliever Steven Matz from the St. Louis Cardinals.
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But don’t worry. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, who caught plenty of flak in the Rafael Devers disaster, tried really hard to do more.
Losers
The Twins’ remaining players
Hoo boy, where to start?
We figured the Minnesota Twins would be sellers at this year’s deadline. They are 51-57 and 5.5 games out of the final AL wild-card spot, they had some players set to hit free agency, and they weren’t going to waste the chance to save some significant money. But no one thought they would go this far.
Here’s the full list of Twins players who play on other teams after Thursday:
Carlos Correa, SS (Astros)
Willi Castro, UTL (Cubs)
Jhoan Duran, RHP (Phillies)
Griffin Jax, RHP (Rays)
Danny Coulombe, LHP (Rangers)
Chris Paddack, RHP (Tigers)
Harrison Bader, OF (Phillies)
Ty France, 1B (Blue Jays)
Louis Varland, RHP (Blue Jays)
Brock Stewart, RHP (Dodgers)
That is 10 players, or 38.5% of the active roster. That’s their five (five!) best relievers and five players with multiple years of team control remaining. And the Twins could have done even more, as Joe Ryan was arguably more valuable than any player on that list.
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This all makes more sense when you consider the team is reportedly $440 million in debt (they save $70 million from the Correa trade alone), but that’s a galling amount of talent to part with and still consider yourself a big-league team. Fans can stop watching this team this year and, sadly, probably for a while.
The L.A. Dodgers
The Mets got better. The Phillies got better. The Padres got better. The Dodgers got … slightly better?
Even after a relatively inactive deadline, this is one of the best teams in baseball on paper, but that’s kind of the problem. The Dodgers are very talented, but injuries and a struggling bullpen have prevented them from breaking out of a crowded pack in the National League. The Padres are only three games behind them and now have good reason to believe they can catch them.
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To be fair, the Dodgers didn’t make bad moves. Brock Stewart gives them a very solid arm in a bullpen that needs it. Alex Call, acquired from the Washington Nationals, gives them a decent platoon in left field alongside Michael Conforto. And they probably weren’t going to get much use out of Dustin May going forward.
But those are just improvements on the margins, and we’re used to the Dodgers taking at least one big swing at the deadline. They brought in multiple key players to their World Series run last year and have previously acquired the likes of Max Scherzer, Trea Turner, Manny Machado, Yu Darvish and Rich Hill under president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman.
Consider this deadline a big bet by the Dodgers that they have enough talent returning from the injured list to remain the NL’s top dog.
Luis Robert Jr., White Sox outfielder
The luster was sand-blasted off Robert a while ago, but it’s getting ridiculous how long he has been surrounded by trade speculation.
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Once again, some teams were reported to be discussing the outfielder with the Chicago White Sox. And once again, the White Sox opted to keep him. He has two $20 million team options remaining on his contract.
Robert is essentially a reclamation project, given his struggles since his All-Star season in 2023, but you would have to imagine he’d be fine with removing himself from the White Sox organization in any way possible. Instead, he’ll remain with a team currently holding a 40-69 record.
At least there are fewer ignominious records for the Sox to break this season.
Carlos Correa is headed back to Houston, and Eugenio Suarez is headed back to Seattle after the flurry of trade deadline dealing. (Stefan Milic/Yahoo Sports)
Ben Cherington, Pirates GM
The Pittsburgh Pirates made quite a few trades, such as sending closer David Bednar to the New York Yankees and third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes to the Cincinnati Reds, but if you’re going to sell, you definitely shouldn’t be left with three players who are pending free agents.
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Tommy Pham, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Andrew Heaney are still Pirates, at least until the offseason, as is Mitch Keller, who received significant trade interest amid a career year.
It’s hard to say the Pirates didn’t leave talent on the table. Then again, they’ve never exactly been known for seizing the day under Cherington.
The Padres’ farm system
There might have been only one GM in MLB who would’ve made that Mason Miller trade from the Padres’ side: A.J. Preller.
Yes, Miller is amazing, but you know who else might be amazing? De Vries, a switch-hitting shortstop who might have the highest ceiling of any player in the minor leagues. The A’s loved Miller, but this was likely not a hard decision for a team prioritizing its future years in Vegas over its Sacramento present. Get ready for the Leo de Vegas shirts.
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Thursday might have been the apex of Preller as a concept; he has never been shy about trading high-ceiling prospects when a star is on the table. From Thursday morning to Thursday afternoon, the Padres traded away 13 prospects for Miller, designated hitter Ryan O’Hearn, outfielder Ramon Laureano, infielder Will Wagner and starting pitcher Nestor Cortes Jr.
These were not insignificant prospects, either.
You can probably expect the Padres’ farm system to go down a few rankings next time around. The baseball world keeps assuming Preller’s aggression will eventually catch up with him, but we all know what would make the prospect price worth it.