2026 MLB Trade Deadline Winners and Losers: Which Teams Fared The Best?

Pencils down! After the Dodgers struck early for the prize of the deadline, there was a flurry of activity in the final 24 hours as the Red Sox pushed their chips in for Adley Rutschman, the Cubs and Padres patched up their rotations, the Pirates loaded up on relievers and the Angels finally made meaningful moves to restock their farm system. Here are the winners and losers of the 2026 MLB trade deadline. The best team in baseball got the best player at the deadline, and they did it without losing any big-league talent or decimating their farm system. They also made an interesting low-risk, high-reward move for injured Royals starter Kris Bubic, who was an All-Star last year, and got some catcher reinforcements with Will Smith and Dalton Rushing on the shelf. Then again, who are we kidding? After landing Tarik Skubal, they could have snoozed through all that deadline day action and still been the winners of the deadline. Will Dustin May, JoJo Romero and Antonio Senzatela be helpful pieces for the Brewers? Absolutely. I have no doubt Milwaukee will get the most out of all of those arms, and they’ll all likely contribute to a fourth straight division title. But, c’mon, man! At some point, you’ve got to play for more than winning the regular season. If last year’s NLCS wasn’t a wake-up call to move some of their prospects for star talent, I don’t know what will be. The Braves needed a co-ace to pair with Chris Sale in October. They didn’t get it. Tyler Mahle will help with depth in the rotation for the next couple months and Lane Thomas will assist the outfield, but it feels like they’re going to regret missing out on an impact arm. The Cubs had needs throughout the pitching staff, and they overhauled the group. They got two of the best starters available in Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes, whose penchant for keeping the ball on the ground should play well with the exceptional defense behind him. They made an upside move bringing in Braxton Garrett. They paid a big price for those starters and for reliever Ryan Zeferjahn, whose high walk rate also comes with some of the best swing-and-miss stuff in the game. If they get where they hope to go, it will be worth it. These get grouped together, for obvious reasons. Two years from now, we might look back on the Adley Rutschman trade as a turning point for the Orioles, who received a massive haul back from Boston. For now, though, it’s all just hard to swallow. All that promise in Baltimore after the rebuilding years, the 101-win seasons in 2023, those first two years from Rutschman…and zero postseason wins before blowing up another core. To make it worse, O’s fans now have to watch Rutschman on a division rival for at least this season and next. Baltimore also traded Taylor Ward, Tyler Wells and Dean Kremer from a team that was 2.5 games out of a wild-card spot. Once again, it’s all about the future, not the present. Meanwhile, it’s the opposite in Boston. As incredible as the Red Sox turnaround has been on the field, trading for Curtis Mead and immediately watching him fracture his wrist made for a disappointing start to Boston’s deadline. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow made up for that with a major swing, rewarding his team’s resurgence by sending a stunning haul of prospects for Rutschman and adding a big arm to the bullpen in the Giants’ Erik Miller. The price was steep. There’s a lot riding on Rutschman, currently sidelined with a wrist issue, returning as an impact piece. But there’s belief in Beantown again. Relief pitching was Pittsburgh’s clear need, and the Pirates reconstructed the group entirely. They added some big arms at the back end in Luke Weaver, arguably the top reliever dealt at the deadline, and Camilo Doval, who might be a good change-of-scenery candidate to put his tools together, and also acquired Kirby Yates, Lake Bachar and Ron Marinaccio. There’s pressure on this offense to keep up its pace, but they answered their biggest need. At 59-53, the D-backs are trending toward a spot in the postseason. They had a clear need at first base, where they have the lowest OPS and wRC+ in MLB, but they watched Luis Garcia Jr. go to the Yankees and Nathaniel Lowe go to the Guardians. They didn’t get any arms to a staff that ranks 18th in ERA and will now be reliant on the returns of some of their injured arms. Their only addition at all was outfielder Lars Nootbaar, who has been a below league-average hitter in a limited sample this season. That’s…not enough. Never doubt AJ Preller’s ability to find a way to add. Despite depleting his farm system in recent years, he still managed to get two of the better rental arms available in Casey Mize and Robbie Ray. It would have been nice to find a bat, too, but with the offense starting to perform better, starting pitching help was clearly the biggest need. And the Padres got that done. Luis Garcia Jr. and Heliot Ramos should help an offense that needed reinforcements with Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton down. But while they watched Adley Rutschman go to Boston and Liam Hicks go to Tampa Bay, they did nothing to upgrade at catcher — why isn’t Tyler Stephenson, at the least, in the Bronx right now? — or the back end of the bullpen. The best teams in the division can’t figure out if they’re good or bad, and nothing they did this week will change that. The Mariners at least got some needed right-handed help with Taylor Ward, and I like what they did with the Luis Castillo deal, but nothing they did significantly changes my opinion of them. Houston’s inaction was more disappointing. Daulton Varsho isn’t going to singlehandedly fix the Astros’ outfield hitting woes, and they not only failed to add to their rotation, but they sent starter Spencer Arrighetti away in that Varsho trade. The Rangers, meanwhile, basically sat out of deadline day entirely. Maybe these teams are more snoozers than losers, but I expected a little more. It wasn’t supposed to go this way. Not after signing Framber Valdez. Not after holding onto Tarik Skubal this winter. Prospects Zyhir Hope and River Ryan could both end up to be great players in the years to come, but I’m still surprised they couldn’t get more out of the Dodgers — or from another more needy team — in the trade for Skubal. Still, I can understand them trying to get a return for the back-to-back Cy Young Award winner rather than watching him walk for nothing. So, their placement in this category is more about what happened next. Only 2.5 games out of a playoff spot, maybe they could have sold their fans on a second-half surge with Valdez, Casey Mize, Troy Melton, Keider Montero and Jackson Jobe nearing his return. But then they traded Mize at the buzzer. If you’re going to do that, why is Gleyber Torres still a Tiger? Or Kenley Jansen? Or Kyle Finnegan? John Mozeliak stepped in as interim general manager and immediately went to work restocking the farm system, making changes that have been sorely needed for years. The Angels added nine prospects, including a top-100 talent in Arjun Nimmala, while trading away a group of big leaguers who probably wouldn’t have been around to see the next contending team in Anaheim anyway. The moves are finally an acknowledgment of reality. Congrats, guys. You did it.