Lots of trades, little improvement by Royals’ competitors

There were a lot of trades, but little improvement, by teams gunning for the playoffs.

The Royals, in a fight for their first playoff appearance since 2015, made a number of deals in recent days to bolster the roster. But so too did every team fighting Kansas City for a chance to play meaningful baseball in October.

Our Guy Max (OGM™ ) delves into this Royals in his recent post.

Here, let’s take a look at the other American League teams jockeying to hoist the World Series trophy, starting with teams in the Central. This is not to grade the trades as I’m looking mainly at the pieces added.

Cleveland Guardians

In a trade with Washington, Cleveland acquired outfielder Lane Thomas, who is truly an outfielder: he can play any of the three outfield positions though the Nationals mostly had him in right this season. Thomas had his best year at the plate last year when he slashed .268/.315/.468/.783, that OPS being 16% above league average. His numbers dipped this year, most glaringly his slugging percentage, which was .407 at the time of the trade.

Cleveland also nabbed starting pitcher Alex Cobb from the Giants. Cobb, a 12-year veteran, hasn’t pitched at all this season after making 28 starts for San Francisco last season while making his first All-Star Game.

These deals are...fine? They seem underwhelming. Thomas only slightly improves the lineup, if at all, while Cobb’s going to take some time to break in. Good thing they’ve got a six-and-a-half game lead in the division.

Minnesota Twins

The Twins, currently tied with the Royals for the second Wild Card, might have forgotten about the trade deadline. They only added relief pitcher Trevor Richards from the Blue Jays. He could be best described as average, probably below-average. His 4.64 ERA in just over 52 innings is 12% below league-average. I imagine Twins fans pined for more action than this.

Baltimore Orioles

I’m including the Orioles here for two reasons. The first is that they are only a half-game up on the Yankees in the East, and so are five up on the Royals in the Wild Card race. The second is this could be a team the Royals face sometime in October, even if they hang on to win the East.

Baltimore landed a couple of starting pitchers in Zach Eflin (from Tampa) and Trevor Rogers (from Miami) plus a reliever in Gregory Soto (from Philadelphia).

Eflin doesn’t walk anybody, which is nice. Rogers is a former All-Star in 2021 and a lefty, but his strikeout-per-nine-innings has dipped quite a bit from last year. Soto’s walk rate and WHIP are rather high.

The most intriguing piece is outfielder Eloy Jiménez, acquired from the White Sox. Continuing a trend, his numbers have fallen off this year as he’s only played in 65 games—the dude’s always hurt. But, say this about the deal, the Orioles bought low on the 27-year-old. If he can stay healthy and quickly get back to his previous form, he could prove a steal.

Big if, though.

New York Yankees

Name the only player to hit four home runs in his first three games as a Yankee.

Yep, it’s ya boy, noted slugger Jazz Chisholm Jr., recently obtained from the Miami Marlins. Before the trade, he’d been slugging .407, so that blast of power has been out of character. Still, he’ll add a third competent bat to a lineup that so far has been Aaron Judge and Juan Soto and the Bad News Bears before Walter Matthau showed up.

Perhaps the biggest news about the Yankees was a trade they didn’t make, which was with the Tigers to bring in starting pitcher Jack Flaherty. The Yanks reportedly balked at Flaherty’s medicals, which allowed the Dodgers to swoop in and grab him. Is Brian Cashman getting too cautious?

Boston Red Sox

Boston landed a starting pitcher that the Dodgers had designated for assignment, the Blue Jays’ backup catcher, a very young pitcher (for an even younger bat) from the Pirates - Quinn Priester, and a couple of relievers - Lucas Sims and Luis Garcia.

The Red Sox under Craig Breslow have acted, and continue to act, like a small-market team. I’m sure it’s a directive from ownership, but I bet their fans yearn for the old Dave Dombrowski days, even if they won’t admit it.

Tampa Bay Rays

The Rays, only three-and-a-half back of the last Wild Card spot, pulled a Rays Special by honestly looking into the mirror and deciding to instead prepare for the future. They sold.

Seattle Mariners

You knew the Mariners would make some moves, and they did, but, again, how much did this team actually improve?

Justin Turner is 39 and had a 106 OPS+ with the Blue Jays. Randy Arozarena has career lows in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and, of course, OPS. J.T. Chargois didn’t even pitch 17 innings in Miami.

But, hey: Yimi Garcia’s had a good season.

Houston Astros

Houston needed starting pitching and got it in the form of Yusei Kikuchi, most recently with the Toronto Blue Jays. Kikuchi, a hard-throwing southpaw, made the All-Star Game in 2021 as a member of the Mariners, but even then ended the year with a below-average ERA (4.41).

Kikuchi is a bit of a puzzle as he’s got the stuff but the subsequent numbers don’t show it. His career ERA+ is 88. He’s finished five of his six seasons with an ERA below league-average. The only year that didn’t happen came last season.

Maybe the Astros can get the most out of this 33-year-old when the Mariners and Blue Jays couldn’t.

But once again, here’s a buy-low trade by a contending team.

Overall, teams aiming for the playoffs in the American League made quite a number of trades, but few of them, if any, will make much of a difference.

This trade deadline can be summed as such: quantity over quality.

That’s good for the Royals.