Winners and Losers from the August 31 Trade Deadline

The waiver wire trade deadline passed three weeks ago, and while the playoffs are a handle full of games away, I think there are clear winners and losers as we head down the stretch.

While most attention is on the NON-Waiver wire trade deadline on July 31, there are historically big trades that have happened between both deadlines that could alter teams’ short term and long term on field and financial situations.

Looking for this season only, here are the winners and losers as we head towards the end of the regular season.

Losers

Nationals

Very few teams have had the regular season success that the Nationals have had. They were the first team to clinch their division, have the second and third ranked players in all of MLB in WAR (Both pitchers!) AND lead the National League in runs scored.

So… WHY do I consider them losers, you ask?!?

They didn’t do anything to make their club better! This is a franchise that hasn’t even played in the NLCS yet, despite making the playoffs in 2012, 2014, and 2016.

With the current Bryce Harper era about to either come to an end, or be a very expensive new era, the Nationals should have shown a bit of urgency and gotten some help with the bat.

Granted, key off-season addition, CF Adam Eaton, who was lost for the year in the spring, cost a few sparkling prospects due to his affordable contract and strong On Base Percentage. SS Trea Turner coming back from an injury is kind of like an in-season addition, there is no reason to think the core of this team will break through after years of coming up short in heartbreaking fashion.

Dodgers

It is hard to put a team that was once 52 games over .500 in this category, but while they received rave reviews for the Yu Darvish trade, I disagree with the overwhelming assessment they are "all-in." They added a top tier starter that does not have any long-term financial commitment, but only that.

While they must be given credit for their first 115 games of the season that put them in position to still be eight games ahead in first place after losing 15 of their last 16 games, including ten in a row at one point, here are reasons for Dodgers fans to be concerned:

• Alex Wood has a 2.3 WAR, but no postseason starts, and a 4.91 postseason ERA, and he only threw two innings last year out of the Dodgers’ 11 playoff games.
• Hyun-jin Ryu hasn’t pitched in postseason since 2014. While he is having a fine year with a 3.71 ERA, he might not even be in the playoff rotation.
• Rich Hill — He actually won Game 3 of the NLCS last year with six sparkling shutout innings, but Dodger fans should not feel confident as the previous Series against the Nationals, he had an ERA of 6.43 in two starts.

There is little excuse for the Dodgers to not have moved some of their higher rated prospects for more elite players. They have led MLB in payroll since 2014, are the beneficiary of a large yet controversial TV deal, and have many young controllable players and prospects.

There should have been no excuse for another postseason shortcoming.

When a team does well but struggles on the big stage, they seem to find ways to lose, snatching defeat from the jays of victory. This type of mentality of results is consistent throughout all sports. It isn’t so much about X’s and O’s and more a mental block. For Dodgers fans sake, hopefully I am wrong, but they should not wake up super confident about October.

I think it is too early to call the Dodgers the new Braves — a team that excels in the regular season but continuously struggles in the postseason — but with five straight division titles, and eight playoff appearances since 2004, the Dodgers are not helping their cause by coming up short and not pushing their chips all-in.

Winners

Orioles

They rolled the dice with their current team, and while they have been in the wild card, they are beginning to trail off and may have wasted a valuable opportunity to trade away some of its older talent for young, controllable pieces to compliment Tim Beckham, Jonathon Schoop and Dylan Bundy.

Manny Machado, Adam Jones (he has a full no-trade clause), and Zach Britton’s contracts all expire after the 2018 season, and the Orioles missed a chance for some short-term pain of trading them (in the form of fan backlash, lower ticket sales this year and next) in order to get better for the long term.

While there will most probably be a good market for all of those players at the Winter Meetings and then the 2018 trade deadline, the yield could have been more had those players been able to add at least TWO post-season appearances to a club, rather than one.

Cubs

While they didn’t make any significant additions and lost out on Justin Verlander, their opponents didn’t make any significant changes, as noted above. Judging by their past histories, there is no reason to think that the Dodgers and Nationals will, all of the sudden, turn it around and beat the Cubs. It’s still the Cubs’ league to lose, so don’t be surprised to see and hear this scene again.

Tigers

They got out from Justin Upton and Verlander’s cumbersome contracts and also received some good prospects, especially for players with an opt-out after this season, and one with multiple years left, a full no-trade clause and a minimum of $60 million left on his contract, respectively. No matter how much money there is in baseball, those numbers are hard to digest, even for the latter who has led the AL in inning pitched three times and games started four times already.

City of Montreal

There are strong rumors that the City of Montreal reached out to the MLB offices to host the Astros as Hurricane Harvey decimated the Greater Houston area, and then again while Hurricane Irma ran through Tamp Bay. This by a city that draws well for their two Blue Jays exhibition games per season and is trying to make a bid to regain the MLB team they lost after the 2004 season.

While they didn’t host those games, they showed they are ready to step up to the plate (sorry not sorry) and have a venue ready to go when need be.