Trading Frenzy

BY KEVIN KERNAN

As Sydney Sweeney told America, great jeans are back. After what happened Thursday in MLB, so is the trade deadline.

I was calling this the Blood in the Water trade deadline heading into Thursday because baseball is so bad so many teams have a real shot at getting to October, especially in the American League, which is wide open.

There were many winners, starting with the Astros, who brought back prodigal son Carlos Correa to play third base, a la Alex Rodriguez when he joined the Yankees, leaving shortstop to Derek Jeter.

That Correa deal was a financial shocker for the Astros and their luxury tax situation, but as I have often said, Astros owner Jim Crane is the closest thing to George Steinbrenner in baseball today – and while on KFAN with Dan Barreiro out of Minneapolis on Wednesday, I pointed out Correa going back to Houston makes sense; players don’t want to be in rebuilds at the age of 30 after signing on as free agents and Crane, as we know, will do anything to win.

The Twins are going to be sold so getting about $60 million off the books, my friend Bob Nightengale reported that the Twins will send $33 million to Houston for a player who is hitting .267 with seven home runs, makes great sense. Maybe Correa will find the magic once again in Houston. He also is the anti-Devers because he let it be known that he would gladly move to third base if he got back to Houston and give up his no-trade status.

Don’t forget when the Mets were looking to sign Correa the free agent, he was willing to move to third for them, too.

The Yankees countered with a turnover of their own this trade deadline, bulking up the bullpen. While the Astros got Correa to play third, the Yankees landed Ryan McMahon the other day and on Thursday added bullpen help trading for Pirates closer David Bednar – which was fully expected because when in doubt, Brian Cashman always runs to the Pirates Ben Cherington to make a trade. The Yankees also got another hard-throwing reliever, Camilo Doval from the Giants and another Rockie coming east in Jake Bird, who has a 7.40 ERA on the road. You just cannot have too many Pirates and Rockies if you are expecting to contend for the AL pennant, which the Yankees cruised to last year because the October competition were the punchless Royals and Guardians.

In another move the Yankees also put error-prone shortstop Anthony Volpe on notice by acquiring Jose Caballero from the Rays. The overrated Rays not only hand over ballgames to the Yankees, they hand over players too. The Yankees picked up veteran right-handed hitting outfielder Austin Slater from the White Sox. With Aaron Judge out the Yankees are short on right-handed bats.

Cashman had to clean up his bullpen but in typical Cashman style, it was not about landing the biggest bullpen weapon. That honor went to the Padres’ A.J. Preller, who lives for trade deadline day, acquiring flame-thrower Mason Miller from the A’s for a steep price that included shortstop prospect Leo De Vries, 18, a switch-hitter who was signed out of the Dominican Republic by the Padres and their scouting staff led by Logan White. Good for the A’s who are shooting to be a grownup baseball team in about five years. It’s always fun for A’s fans to think about the future with this kind of franchise, that Moneyball World Series is right around the corner, maybe next decade.

The Padres have plenty of shortstops and Preller is always willing to trade prospects. He made five trades involving 22 players, another slow day in America’s Finest City. Other significant names the Padres acquired include lefty-slugger Ryan O’Hearn and an always solid ballplayer in Ramon Laureano from the Orioles. Preller also had to beef up his catching and got The Ferminator, Freddy Fermin from the Royals.

This was the most hectic trade deadline day I can remember, and I haven’t even gotten to the haul the Mets made. It used to be about trading for starting pitching at the deadline, but the Nerd tide has turned, and it is now about loading up on bullpen help. The Nerds have turned the game into a bullpen war because they have destroyed starting pitching from within. Stearns got Ryan Helsley who throws 100 from the Cardinals, added submariner Tyler Rogers, who can pitch every day, and lefty Gregory Soto, giving Carlos Mendoza leverage options. The farce of having Jeff McNeil playing centerfield is over now, too, because the Mets reached a deal with the garage sale Orioles on centerfielder Cedric Mullins.

Mullins is a lot like the Yankees acquisition of McMahon. McMahon is a terrific third baseman, Mullins is a terrific centerfielder with a weak arm, but he can run balls down. Getting a solid veteran from a losing club is a strategic decision because taking that guy who is not surrounded by talent and putting him in a better lineup and you often get a better player.

When you cannot improve the middle of the road starting pitching, the Mets rank 15th in starters ERA since the middle of May, you beef up the bullpen with rentals – burn ‘em up Carlos – and also beef up the defense.

The Phillies got one of the best closers on the board from the Twins in Jhoan Duran who is pitching to a 2.01 ERA with 16 saves with a four-seam fastball that averages 100.2 mph. The Phillies have had to navigate without a closer, and that was not easy for Rob Thomson’s club. They also needed an outfielder and got ex-Met, ex-Yankee, ex-Twin Harrison Bader, who has a way of turning it up in big games. The Phillies and old school baseball boss Dave Dombrowski did okay.

I won’t go completely around the baseball horn with all the deals, but a number of teams really did makeovers with this trade deadline. I really, really liked what the Mariners did. They can pitch but they can’t hit so they added the big hitter – two hitters actually. The M’s got Eugenio Suarez back from the Diamondbacks to play third base and hit bombs. Suarez has 36 home runs and was with the Mariners when they snapped a 20-year playoff drought in 2022. Along with Big Dumper Cal Raleigh and his 42 home runs, the Mariners now have some serious thump.

The Mariners with Suarez and Raleigh are the only team in major league history to have multiple players with 35 or more home runs heading into August, other than the 1961 Yankees with Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle.

In addition to Suarez the Mariners also got lefty hitting first baseman Josh Naylor from the Diamondbacks.

“We feel we acquired the two best bats available,’’ Mariners boss Jerry Dipoto said. “Our batting lineup is pretty stunning.’’

Noted Suarez of his return. “I’m so happy to be back. I always say God’s plan is better than us. This is a gift.’’

The Mariners needed the help because since the All-Star break they have an MLB-worst .615 OPS. Raleigh said the Mariners have let the pressure get to them. “Maybe guys are trying to overcook things,’’ he noted. One way to settle down a team that is trying too hard is to bring in a big-time power hitter and Dipoto did just that.

The AL West is on fire now with the Astros, Mariners and Rangers all getting upgrades. The Rangers, – who have starting pitching veteran aces in Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi – needed bullpen help, so of course, added another plug-in playoff starter in Merrill Kelly from the Diamondbacks. They also added lefty reliever Danny Coloumbe to help Bruce Bochy navigate late innings. Rangers starters had an MLB-best 3.16 ERA so GM Chris Young, a former starting pitcher, is going with his strength. Don’t be surprised to see the Rangers take one of their young starters like Jack Leiter and put him in the bullpen, the way it used to be done with young pitchers.

The craziest of trade deadlines is over. No more help is coming. As Kenny Loggins sang: This Is It.

The thing I like about Kelly is that he knows how to pitch in an era where that is a lost art. He doesn’t light up the radar gun, but he owns a 3.22 ERA in 22 starts.

The Red Sox did not do a lot at the deadline, acquiring right-handed starter Dustin May from the Dodgers, who also did not do much because it appears they have plenty of help coming from the injured list. Steven Kwan would have been a nice addition, but the Guardians did not want to trade Kwan to LA. Like all Dodgers starting pitchers, May has been set back by injuries.

It is the Dodger Way for the defending champs. There are no perfect teams out there in MLB these days, the Nerds have had plenty of time and years to weaken all the teams, but that is what made the trade deadline such an entertaining day for baseball fans. So, thank the Nerds for making every team pretty much mediocre and also, this is important, focus so much on metrics that players no longer really can do the fundamentals of the game or think for themselves on the field.

It is the Drone Age in MLB.

Heck, players can’t even focus for a TikTok minute as shown by Yankee catcher Austin Wells who simply walked off second base in the ninth inning Wednesday night, representing the winning run, thinking there were three outs when there were only two – and even though he had just been advanced to second base on a bunt by Trent Grisham.

Teams that do the fundamentals the best and pitch the best and get the big hit will be the teams advancing to October and beyond. The craziest of trade deadlines is over. No more help is coming. As Kenny Loggins sang: This Is It.