The MLB trade deadline had some major deals, and a lot of those trades involved teams that reside in the American League West. The New York Mets spent big money over the past two winters to bring in two Hall of Fame bound starters. Both of them ended up in the American League West. The Chicago White Sox had some major pieces to move this deadline. Many of those pieces also ended up in the West.
As we enter August, the Texas Rangers (60-46) hold a half-game lead over the Houston Astros (60-47) in the West with the Los Angeles Angels (56-51) and Seattle Mariners (55-51) still within striking distance of coming away with the division title. Even the A’s, who are 30.5 games back in the West, made an interesting trade that could have an impact in the future.
But for now, let’s concentrate on which team helped their cause for 2023 the most.
Related: Top five takeaways from the 2023 MLB trade deadline
Texas Rangers to the Max with Scherzer
The Rangers made a huge splash by acquiring Max Scherzer from the New York Mets, giving them a playoff-tested ace to lead the team into the postseason.
The Rangers have been leading the American League West for much of the 2023 campaign, but they are 3-7 in their last 10, which includes a series loss to the Astros. They have also lost Nathan Eovaldi and Jonah Heim to the injured list in the past few days. So, when you look at the addition of Scherzer, it feels more like the team is holding steady for the time being as opposed to getting a big boost.
Texas also added catcher Austin Hedges, starter Jordan Montgomery and reliever Chris Stratton. Hedges is batting just .180 with a .237 on-base percentage (OBP), but he ranks in the 96th percentile in catcher framing. There are only two catchers more valuable defensively than Heim, and Hedges is one of them. He may not provide the same level of offense, but he’s a solid under-the-radar pickup.
Jordan Montgomery was moved at last year’s deadline, going from the New York Yankees to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for Harrison Bader. This year he landed with Texas, bringing a 3.42 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP with him. He’s a solid pickup. Chris Stratton is reunited with his former manager in San Francisco, Bruce Bochy. He has a 4.36 ERA with a 1.174 WHIP and solid peripherals of 2.9 BB/9 and 9.9 K/9.
Scherzer and Montgomery will grab the headlines post-deadline and could play a big role in how well the Rangers do in the postseason, but Stratton and Hedges will see playing time more often and could end up as low-key big additions that determine whether or they win the AL West.
Related: Grading each MLB trade deadline deal
Houston Astros reunite with familiar faces
Leading up to Tuesday, the major deadline talk had been whether Justin Verlander would waive his no-trade clause. He did, and he waived it to end up back with the Houston Astros where he has won two World Series. His stats aren’t as sterling as they were last year when he won his third Cy Young, but he still holds a 3.15 ERA, 1.145 WHIP, 3.0 BB/9 and 7.7 K/9.
Verlander joins the rotation along with Framber Valdez (3.29 ERA), Cristian Javier (4.33), Hunter Brown (4.12), and J.P. France (2.85) –a group that already ranked third in rotation ERA this season. It’s also one that should see the return of José Urquidy “in the coming days.”
The other big addition for Houston was the return of Kendall Graveman, who was traded to the Astros from Seattle at the deadline in 2021. He held a 3.13 ERA with a 1.391 WHIP with the team in 23 innings that season, then signed with the Chicago White Sox in the off-season. Now he is back, sporting a 3.48 ERA and a 1.205 WHIP. His strikeout rate is down (8.6 per nine), and his walk rate is up (4.1 per nine) from where they have been in previous seasons.
The Astros have been getting contributions from unfamiliar names this season and while they may not be at the top of the division like they’re used to just yet, they just added some big-time MLB veterans that may help them get there before long.
Los Angeles Angels go all-in
There’s no way to tell whether the path the Angels have chosen to walk will be the right one just yet. Making the playoffs would be a great checkpoint, but the ultimate goal for the team this season is to retain Shohei Ohtani once he reaches free agency this off-season. It would appear that L.A. thinks the best way to do so is to at the very least make the postseason, if not go on a run.
Angels’ GM Perry Minasian did his best to make a splash at the deadline, pulling from his 28th ranked farm system to swing deals for Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López, and then swung another deal to land C.J. Cron and Randal Gruchuk from the Colorado Rockies.
Cron and Grichuk are two under-the-radar players that weren’t going to grab a lot of deadline headlines, but they’ve both been having tremendous seasons when healthy. Cron, 33, has been tremendous since his return from a back injury, going 24-for-77 (.312) with five homers and three doubles in 21 games. Grichuk, 31, is batting .310 with a .366 OBP and nine homers in 66 games this season. In their first game with the Angels on Monday, Cron singled home a run and Grichuk hit a solo blast in their road win over the Atlanta Braves.
The Angels currently have 18 players on the IL, including Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon, so adding Cron and Grichuk to help build out that offense around Ohtani is crucial to the Angels having a shot at the postseason.
López looks like a solid setup man to get to All-Star closer Carlos Estévez, and Giolito is somewhere between elite and league average depending on the day. The Angels are in a better position to win games than they were a week ago, but they are three back of the third wild-card and 4.5 back in the West. There’s plenty of time to make up ground, but the teams around them have also gotten better.
Related: MLB Playoff race with updated standings
Seattle tinkers
The Seattle Mariners biggest move was arguably trading away their closer Paul Sewald. The 33-year-old right-hander has 21 saves on the season in 24 chances and holds a 2.93 ERA with a 1.02 WHIP. Pretty solid numbers. But if there is one thing that Seattle has proven to excel at in recent years, it’s finding arms to excel in the bullpen. Don’t believe it? Name a Mariners reliever. Hard, right? Well Seattle also ranks third in bullpen ERA at 3.63. They do this every year.
So, trading Sewald may seem like waiving the white flag on the 2023 season to some, but that deal also brought in Josh Rojas and Dominic Canzone. Rojas played second base on Tuesday, a position that has belonged to Kolten Wong for 65 games this year. Wong was also DFA’d. Wong was hitting .165 with a .241 OBP this season and held a 36 wRC+ (100 being league average). Rojas is batting .228 with a .292 OBP and has a 61 wRC+ while also providing slightly above average defense. It’s a modest upgrade.
Canzone comes in with 15 games of big-league time and ranks as Seattle’s #13 prospect on MLB Pipeline. He was hitting .354 with a .431 OBP and 16 homers in Triple-A Reno. Arguably the most exciting stats he has is that he has walked (39) almost as much as he’s struck out (40) in the minors this season. He may not provide a huge boost to Seattle immediately, but he’s a nice addition for next year and beyond.
The Mariners also traded away A.J. Pollock and recent waiver claim Mark Mathias to the Giants. Pollock was batting .173 and held a 51 wRC+. This move opens up playing time for Canzone.
The most interesting move that Seattle made was trading away 28-year-old infield prospect Mason McCoy for Trent Thorton. Thorton has appeared in the Majors with the Blue Jays each of the last five seasons and has been solely a reliever since last year. In 5.1 innings with Toronto this year he holds a 1.69 ERA, his walk rate was down (1.7 per nine from 3.3) and his strikeout rate was up (8.4 per nine from 7.2). Obviously hit numbers from this year are in a pretty small sample, but last year he also ranked in the 89th percentile in fastball spin and 98th percentile in curveball spin.
The Mariners have a knack for finding guys for their arm barn, and Thorton could be a name to watch out for.
Who won the American League West arms race?
Winning the trade deadline typically means which team grabbed the most headlines. In that sense, the Rangers, Angels, and Astros all have a pretty good case for “winning” the deadline. If the Angels are able to make the playoffs and retain Ohtani long-term, they won. If the Astros are able to win another World Series, they won. The Rangers have also set themselves up nicely for 2024, adding Scherzer to the mix in addition to a (hopefully) healthy Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi. By subtracting underperforming players, the Mariners have better playoff odds today than they did a week ago.
The Angels only added a 0.3% chance to their playoff odds, which now sit at a 16.6% chance of making the postseason. The Mariners are at 17.7%. Houston is actually favored to win the West, holding a 59% chance of doing so, and an 85.4% chance of making it to October. The Rangers’ odds have fallen slightly due to recent injuries, and now have a 74.9% chance of being postseason-bound.
Each of these four teams can claim they won the MLB trade deadline, because all four teams have different goals. The main goal is to win the World Series, but the Astros are going for this year, the Rangers have a couple of seasons with their monster roster, the Mariners are close to being “there” but aren’t just yet, and the Angels would love to just make the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
For those that need a definitive answer, the Astros won the deadline. Until someone can knock them out of the postseason before they reach the ALCS, whatever they do is working just fine.
Jason Burke covers Major League Baseball for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.