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Athletics Rumors

A’s Release Luis Urias

By Anthony Franco | August 28, 2025 at 9:49pm CDT

The Athletics released infielder Luis Urías, according to the MLB.com transaction log. He’d been designated for assignment on Monday. Urías has sufficient service time to refuse a minor league assignment while collecting what remains of his $1.1MM salary, so a release was inevitable. The A’s preferred to give playing time to controllable infielders Zack Gelof, Darell Hernaiz and Brett Harris for the stretch run.

The 28-year-old Urías can now set out in search of a new opportunity. He’d need to sign somewhere by September 1, at least on a minor league deal, to be eligible for a postseason roster. Urías will be a free agent at the beginning of the offseason in either case, so he’ll presumably only draw interest from a contender that wants to strengthen its infield depth.

Urías got out to a decent start to the season. He hit four homers with a .245/.345/.490 showing through the end of April. He has an underwhelming .227/.309/.307 slash in 271 plate appearances since the beginning of May. Urías has sliced his strikeout rate to a career-low 13.6% clip, but he hasn’t been much more productive overall than he was between 2023-24. He rarely makes hard contact and hasn’t hit for much power since combining for 39 homers with the Brewers from 2021-22.

Defensive metrics grade Urías around league average at both second and third base. He’s a righty hitter who has generally been better against left-handed pitching, as one would expect. That hasn’t been the case this season, as he’s hitting .183 with one homer in 68 plate appearances with the platoon advantage. If he catches on with another team before year’s end, his signing club would pay him the prorated $760K league minimum.

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Oakland Athletics Transactions Luis Urias

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Athletics Select Mason Barnett

By Darragh McDonald | August 26, 2025 at 4:40pm CDT

The Athletics announced that left-hander Jacob Lopez has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a flexor strain in his left elbow, a move that was reported yesterday. Right-hander Mason Barnett has been selected in a corresponding move. The 40-man roster had a vacancy due to Luis Urías being designated for assignment earlier this week.

Barnett, 24, gets the call to the big leagues for the first time. A third-round pick of the Royals in 2022, he was one of three players who came to the A’s as part of last year’s deadline deal which sent Lucas Erceg to Kansas City.

The A’s have given Barnett his first taste of the Triple-A level this year, though the results haven’t been amazing. He has tossed 119 innings over 23 starts and two long relief appearances with a 6.13 earned run average. Part of that might be the hitter-friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League, as his 15.6% home run to fly ball rate is far higher than any other stop in his career. His 22.8% strikeout rate is close to average, though his 11.9% walk rate is a few ticks north of par.

Despite the uninspiring numbers, Baseball America still lists him as the #9 prospect in the system while MLB Pipeline has him in the #11 slot. Both outlets give him a shot at becoming a mid-rotation starter at some point, highlighting his pitch mix. His four-seamer sits in the mid-90s and he also throws a sweeper, curveball and changeup. He was going to be eligible for the Rule 5 draft this winter and would need a 40-man spot to be protected, so the A’s are giving it to him now.

It’s unclear if the A’s plan on dropping Barnett right into the rotation or perhaps having him begin his career in a long relief role. The Lopez injury does open up a rotation job but the club is off on Thursday and doesn’t play more than six games in a row for the rest of the season. They could run with a four-man rotation of Jeffrey Springs, J.T. Ginn, Osvaldo Bido and Luis Morales along with occasional bullpen games. Guys like Barnett, Joey Estes and Eduarniel Núñez could take on bulk roles. The A’s could also recall arms such as Ken Waldichuk or Mitch Spence with rosters expanding in September.

Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images

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Oakland Athletics Transactions Jacob Lopez Mason Barnett

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A’s To Place Jacob Lopez On Injured List With Flexor Strain

By Anthony Franco | August 25, 2025 at 8:50pm CDT

A’s starter Jacob Lopez has been shut down after sustaining a Grade 1 flexor strain, manager Mark Kotsay tells reporters (including Martín Gallegos of MLB.com). He’ll go on the 15-day injured list tomorrow. Kotsay said the A’s still hope Lopez can make it back this season, likely as a reliever in the final few days.

Lopez has quietly been one of the American League’s best rookie pitchers. Acquired from the Rays alongside Jeffrey Springs in a deal sending Joe Boyle to Tampa Bay, Lopez was on and off the active roster early in the season. The 6’4″ southpaw has grabbed a firm hold on a big league roster spot since late May. He fired seven innings of one-run ball against the Phillies in his first start after being recalled and has occupied a rotation spot since then. Lopez has had a few blow-up outings but has shown glimpses of dominance, including five scoreless starts over the course of the year.

Four of those came consecutively between July 26 and August 12. He had the two best performances by an A’s pitcher all season in back-to-back outings earlier in the month. Lopez punched out 10 over 7 2/3 scoreless innings in Washington on August 7, then blanked the Rays on nine strikeouts over seven frames five days later. He tossed another quality start — six innings of three-run ball with eight strikeouts in Minnesota — last Tuesday.

Lopez had by far his worst outing of the season yesterday. He walked six and gave up nine runs in two innings in Seattle. The A’s revealed postgame that he’d been dealing with forearm tightness that initially cropped up during his start against the Twins. Yesterday’s appearance pushed his season earned run average to 4.08, but he’d entered the game with a 3.28 mark while striking out 29% of batters faced. That’s excellent production anywhere and especially impressive considering the A’s temporary home field in Sacramento has been the most difficult park for pitchers outside of Coors Field.

The 27-year-old Lopez is arguably the A’s most promising pitcher going into next season. Highly-touted prospect Luis Morales is in the big league rotation now as well. Morales has erratic command but power stuff headlined by a 97 MPH heater. J.T. Ginn has posted better than average strikeout and ground-ball numbers over 60 MLB frames, though it hasn’t translated to great results. Springs and Luis Severino are each signed for next year and will probably be in trade rumors in the offseason.

Osvaldo Bido is listed as the probable starter for tomorrow night’s game against the Tigers. It’ll be his first start since mid-May. Bido has been working 3-4 inning stints out of the bullpen and could take a few turns through the rotation in Lopez’s absence. He owns a 5.37 ERA in 65 1/3 frames over 19 appearances.

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Oakland Athletics Jacob Lopez Osvaldo Bido

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Athletics Designate Luis Urías For Assignment

By Darragh McDonald | August 25, 2025 at 4:35pm CDT

The Athletics announced today that second baseman Zack Gelof has been recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas. Fellow infielder Luis Urías has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move.

Urías, 28, signed with the A’s in the offseason. The one-year deal guaranteed him $1.1MM, with some bonuses based on plate appearances also in the deal. There was a time where it looked like that deal was going to work out quite well for the A’s. Urías hit .245/.345/.490 through the end of April, with that line translating to a 127 wRC+. In May, his production dropped a bit but was still passable. He still had a decent .244/.333/.407 line and 105 wRC+ by the start of June.

Unfortunately, things have soured from there. Since the end of May, Urías has a .217/.298/.276 line and 63 wRC+ in 171 plate appearances. With Urías an impending free agent and the A’s out of contention, he was a logical trade candidate. However, that dip in performance presumably tanked his trade value, as the A’s didn’t end up flipping him anywhere. A stint on the injured list in July for a right hamstring strain presumably didn’t help.

As Urías has been slumping, Gelof has been getting back on track in Triple-A. His 2025 season was initially thrown off course by injuries. He started the season on the IL due to hamate surgery. While trying to work his way back from that, he suffered a stress reaction in his ribs. He was reinstated from the IL in July but then hit .080/.143/.080 in eight games, at which point the A’s optioned him down to Vegas.

Since getting optioned, he has stepped to the plate 155 times for the Aviators. He has hit 11 home runs and drawn a walk in 11.6% of his plate appearances. His 27.7% strikeout rate is still high but something of an improvement for him. He has a 32.3% strikeout rate in his big league career. Even in Triple-A from 2022 to 2024, his 28.1% strikeout rate was a bit higher than what he’s done lately.

The A’s are 10.5 games back of a playoff spot, so they are in a spot where it makes sense to prioritize the future over the present. Urías was a few weeks away from returning to free agency, so he doesn’t do anything for them down the line. Gelof, on the other hand, could still be a part of the club’s future. He has just over two years of big league service time, meaning he hasn’t yet qualified for arbitration. He can be retained for four more years after this one. He will also still has two more option years after 2025, so future optional assignments could even extend the club’s window of control.

For now, it makes sense to give the second base job to Gelof. He has shown some good pop in his time, with 31 home runs in 875 big league plate appearances. He’ll need to cut down on the strikeouts but regular playing time could help with that. The A’s can give him the final few weeks of the season to see how he handles it. His performance in that stretch could determine if they look for external additions in the offseason or plan on Gelof being their second baseman in 2026.

Since the trade deadline has passed, Urías will be available on waivers in the coming days. There’s still about $200K left on his deal and he hasn’t been playing well lately, so it’s unlikely any club would claim him. If he if passed through waivers unclaimed, he has enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. The A’s might skip that formality and simply release him.

Photo courtesy of David Richard, Imagn Images

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Oakland Athletics Transactions Luis Urias Zack Gelof

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A’s Activate Jacob Wilson From Injured List

By Anthony Franco | August 22, 2025 at 8:24pm CDT

Jacob Wilson returns to action nearly a month after suffering a forearm fracture. The A’s activated the rookie shortstop from the 10-day injured list. He’s hitting fifth against Seattle starter Bryan Woo. The A’s optioned Max Schuemann to Triple-A Las Vegas in a corresponding move. They also made a couple changes on the pitching staff. Eduarniel Núñez and Joey Estes are up from Triple-A as Ben Bowden (lat strain) and Jack Perkins (shoulder strain) land on the 15-day injured list.

Wilson’s return is the most significant of those moves. The 2023 sixth overall pick had an outstanding first half. He’s hitting .312/.354/.439 with 10 longballs and 17 doubles. Wilson had struggled a bit in July but hit .323 or better in each of the season’s first three months. His return won’t mean much in the standings with the A’s sitting 11 games below .500, but they’re obviously a much better team when he’s in the lineup.

At the time of his injury, Wilson was the frontrunner for American League Rookie of the Year. Teammate Nick Kurtz has mashed his way to that spot and probably has the award all but secure at this point. Wilson still easily leads MLB rookies with 115 hits. He has a shot to finish in second for the award, though Boston’s Roman Anthony and the Yankees’ Will Warren are among those who also have reasonable arguments for that spot.

Anthony would earn a full year of service if he manages a top two finish. While he already signed a long-term extension with the Red Sox, that’d be important for his earning power considering his deal has significant escalators dependent on his Rookie of the Year placement. The ROY finish is less meaningful for Wilson. He has been on the MLB roster since Opening Day and will get a full service year either way. He cannot earn the A’s an extra draft choice by winning the award, however, because he entered this year with more than 60 days of service. Wilson spent five weeks on the MLB injured list late last season with a hamstring strain, which is why he had that much service time while remaining Rookie of the Year eligible.

Darell Hernaiz was called up when Wilson went on the shelf. The 24-year-old has turned in a solid .261/.337/.420 slash in 20 games. That’s enough to hold his roster spot. Hernaiz had played shortstop while Wilson was down but moves to second base tonight. He’ll probably get everyday run there, kicking impending free agent Luis Urías to the bench.

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Oakland Athletics Ben Bowden Darell Hernaiz Jack Perkins Jacob Wilson (b. 2002)

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Athletics Release Gio Urshela

By Steve Adams | August 18, 2025 at 1:10pm CDT

The A’s have released veteran infielder Gio Urshela, whom they designated for assignment on Friday, per the transaction log at MLB.com. He’ll be able to sign with any team once he clears release waivers.

Urshela, 33, signed a one-year, $2.15MM contract in free agency this past offseason. He missed close to a month earlier this season due to a hamstring strain and struggled at the plate both before and after that IL stint. He batted .238/.287/.326 with no home runs, 14 doubles and a triple in 197 turns at the plate. His 20.3% strikeout rate was his highest (by a wide margin) since 2021.

It’s been a tough few years for Urshela, who experienced an out-of-the-blue breakout with the Yankees in his age-27 season back in 2019 and played well up through a strong 2022 showing with the Twins. For four seasons between the Bronx and Minneapolis, he posted a combined .290/.336/.463 batting line (118 wRC+) with 54 home runs, 90 doubles and five triples in 1643 plate appearances.

Urshela was traded from the Twins to the Angels following the 2022 season. He suffered a fractured pelvis a couple months into his Angels tenure, and he hasn’t looked the same since. While he was batting .299/.329/.374 at the time of the injury, he’s taken 658 major league plate appearances between the Tigers, Braves and A’s since returning and has mustered only a .246/.287/.351 slash (77 wRC+). His defensive grades at the hot corner have seen a downturn as well — particularly in 2025. Both Defensive Runs Saved (-6) and Outs Above Average (-2) feel he’s been well below average in just 421 innings of work.

Once Urshela clears release waivers, any team that signs him would only need to pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. That sum would be subtracted from what the A’s owe him, but they’ll remain on the hook for the vast majority of what’s left on this year’s salary.

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Oakland Athletics Transactions Giovanny Urshela

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Athletics Designate Gio Urshela For Assignment, Claim Jared Shuster

By Darragh McDonald | August 15, 2025 at 4:30pm CDT

The Athletics announced that they have claimed left-hander Jared Shuster off waivers from the White Sox and sent him to Triple-A Las Vegas.. The latter club designated him for assignment earlier this week. To open a 40-man spot, the A’s designated infielder Gio Urshela for assignment. Infielder Brett Harris has been recalled to take Urshela’s active roster spot.

Shuster, 27, was once a notable prospect in Atlanta’s system. He hasn’t yet delivered at the major league level, with a 5.27 earned run average in 141 2/3 innings. His minor league track record has been better overall but has been trending in the wrong direction lately. He tossed 212 1/3 minor league innings over 2021 and 2022 with a 3.69 ERA, 27.4% strikeout rate and 6.8% walk rate. But since then, he has 114 innings with a 5.37 ERA, 18.1% strikeout rate and 10.6% walk rate.

For the A’s, it’s understandable they’d grab him off waivers. They’re out of contention here in 2025 and can prioritize the long term. Shuster is in his final option year. He’ll be out of options next year but he can be stashed in Triple-A for now. The A’s can get a close-up look at him and see if he can get back on track in the next few weeks. If not, they can perhaps run him through waivers in the offseason and keep him as non-roster depth next year.

One way or another, if he clicks while in the system, there would be long-term benefits. He has just over two years of service time, meaning he hasn’t yet qualified for arbitration and could theoretically be controlled for four seasons after this one.

Urshela, on the other hand, doesn’t have any long-term benefit to the A’s. His 34th birthday is just over the horizon. He was signed in the offseason to a one-year deal with a $2.15MM guarantee to provide a stable veteran presence in an infield with a lot of youth and uncertainty. Unfortunately, he has hit just .238/.287/.326 this season. His wRC+ has dropped for a third consecutive year and is now down to 68. His previously-excellent defensive metrics have slid below the mean.

By claiming Shuster and bumping out Urshela, the A’s add a younger pitcher who could potentially help them in the future. Meanwhile, Urshela’s playing time at third base can go to younger guys like Harris or Max Schuemann.

With the trade deadline having passed, Urshela will end up on waivers in the coming days. Given his performance this year and his salary, he’s sure to clear. He has enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency while still collecting the remainder of that salary. The A’s might skip that formality and release him. Once on the open market, they will still be on the hook for that money. If Urshela ends up on another big league roster, the signing club would only owe him the prorated portion of the league minimum salary for any time spent on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the A’s pay.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images

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Chicago White Sox Oakland Athletics Transactions Brett Harris Giovanny Urshela Jared Shuster

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A’s Move Austin Wynns To 60-Day IL, Reinstate Brady Basso From 60-Day IL

By Mark Polishuk | August 11, 2025 at 9:34pm CDT

The Athletics announced that left-hander Brady Basso was optioned to Triple-A after being reinstated from the 60-day injured list.  To create 40-man roster space, Austin Wynns was moved from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL, which means that the catcher’s 2025 season is officially over.

Wynns was acquired in a trade with the Reds in June, as the A’s needed some catching help when Shea Langeliers was sidelined by an oblique strain.  Wynns appeared in 22 games for the Athletics before an abdominal strain sent him to the 15-day IL earlier this week, and the injury has already been deemed serious enough to close the book on his seventh Major League season.

The backstop will finish with a .291/.321/.544 slash line over 110 plate appearances, with the big majority of that production coming over a scorching-hot stretch with Cincinnati.  Wynns hit .400/.442/.700 over 43 PA with the Reds, as opposed to a .222/.242/.444 slash in 67 PA with the A’s that bears a much closer resemblance to his overall career numbers.

While we’re dealing with small sample sizes here, the fact that Wynns has an .883 OPS over his last 130 trips to the plate at the MLB level should help him land another minor league contract this offseason.  The Athletics have arbitration control over Wynns for 2026 so it is possible the team might consider keeping him aboard as a veteran catching option behind Langeliers.  If he is non-tendered, Wynns will be on the move again after already suiting up for six different teams during his seven years in the bigs.  Wynns has hit .239/.282/.362 with 19 homers over 783 career plate appearances, with the bulk of that playing time coming as a backup with the Orioles from 2018-21.

A 16th-round pick for the A’s in the 2019 draft, Basso made his Major League debut last season and posted a 4.03 ERA over 22 1/3 innings, starting the last four of his seven total appearances.  Basso hasn’t been able to follow up due to a shoulder strain that arose during Spring Training, and then resurfaced in June to interrupt a minor league rehab assignment.  Basso has logged two appearances with Triple-A Las Vegas since restarting his rehab work earlier this week.  If healthy, the southpaw will likely get another look on the Athletics’ roster before the 2025 season is through.

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Oakland Athletics Transactions Austin Wynns Brady Basso

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A’s Place Luis Severino On 15-Day IL Due To Oblique Strain

By Mark Polishuk | August 9, 2025 at 3:17pm CDT

The Athletics announced that Luis Severino has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a left oblique strain.  Left-hander Hogan Harris was called up from Triple-A to take Severino’s spot on the active roster.

The severity of the strain isn’t yet known, but anything more than a Grade 1 strain (the least-serious type) could put the remainder of Severino’s 2025 season in jeopardy.  Since the A’s are out of contention, the team might choose to just shut the right-hander down if he’s going to miss anything beyond six weeks of action, as there would be little point in bringing Severino just to make a token start or two at season’s end.

Severino’s injury adds another layer to what has been an unusual first season for the veteran’s Athletics tenure.  The A’s shocked many in the baseball world last winter with an uncharacteristic spending splurge when they signed Severino a three-year, $67MM free agent contract.  Even if this deal and other relatively larger expenditures from the A’s were as much about avoiding a grievance from the players’ union as much as they were about improving the roster, on paper Severino certainly seemed like a solid addition to the club’s pitching staff.

Instead, Severino has a 4.82 ERA over 136 1/3 innings, as well as very poor strikeout and whiff rates.  While Severino hasn’t missed many bats over his last few seasons, he has allowed far more hard contact this year than he did during his more successful 2024 campaign with the Mets.

The story of Severino’s 2025 season may lie in his home/road splits, as the righty has a 3.17 ERA over 65 1/3 away innings and a garish 6.34 ERA in 71 innings at Sutter Health Park.  Severino has been public about his displeasure with playing in the minor league ballpark, and this reportedly made A’s management eager to trade the righty.  Despite some rumors, no deal was struck prior to the deadline, which isn’t surprising given how the Athletics reportedly weren’t keen on eating much or any of Severino’s salary to accommodate any potential move.

Severino is owed $20MM in 2026, and he has a $22MM player option for the 2027 season.  Given his feelings about Sutter Health Park, an opt-out might seem like a possibility even if his numbers continue to be uninspiring, which perhaps creates an unusual situation for both the player and the team down the road.  Barring a trade for another team’s unwelcome contract, Severino’s opt-out clause and recent performance would make an offseason move tricky, and this oblique strain now adds another wrinkle to the situation.

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Oakland Athletics Transactions Hogan Harris Luis Severino

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Poll: Who Had The Best Deadline In The AL West?

By Nick Deeds | August 7, 2025 at 4:10pm CDT

The trade deadline has come and gone. While trade season was slow to get started this year, when all was said and done, there were several dozen trades made in a flurry of movement over the final few days before the deadline arrived. The full impact of these trades won’t be known for years to come, but that doesn’t mean we can’t analyze the deals and decide whose haul looks the best right now. Over the next week-plus, MLBTR will be running a series of polls asking which club in each division had the best deadline. So far, the Phillies, Reds, and Padres have each come out on top in their respective divisions. Today, we’ll be moving on to the American League with the AL West. A look at each of the five clubs, listed from best to worst record in 2025:

Houston Astros

The Astros made one of the most shocking moves of the deadline when they brought Carlos Correa home in a trade with the Twins. Adding Correa back to the mix creates something of a positional logjam on the infield for the club in the long-term, but with third baseman Isaac Paredes unlikely to return this season due to a severe hamstring injury, Correa shores up the infield in a big way and cost the club virtually nothing other than money. Two more players were acquired to help round out the club’s position player mix: infielder Ramon Urias and outfielder Jesus Sanchez.

All three are controlled beyond the 2025 season, and while Sanchez cost the Astros rookie right-hander Ryan Gusto, no upper-level prospects changed hands in the club’s trio of deals. That ability to add long-term talent without surrendering the best prospects in the system was impressive, though the roughly $70MM they’ll be paying Correa over the life of his contract is a significant outlay and they failed to add the starting pitcher they were hoping could fill out the middle of the rotation behind Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown.

Seattle Mariners

The Mariners’ moves at the deadline were arguably even splashier than those in Houston. While the club acquired three rental players without any team control beyond the current campaign, it’s hard to argue against the fact that they’ve significantly upped their chances of winning both the AL West and even the World Series this year. Adding Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor to the infield corners in separate deals with the Diamondbacks represents a sizable upgrade over Luke Raley and Ben Williamson.

Meanwhile, the return (Tyler Locklear and a quartet of pitching prospects outside of Top 100 consideration) was lighter than what was required to bring in high-end controllable talents at this deadline. The Caleb Ferguson trade with the Pirates follows a similar path. The swap gives a club in need of left-handed help in the bullpen a steady, capable setup man who throws from the left side and can partner with Gabe Speier. That deal cost only Class-A pitching prospect Jeter Martinez, who has a 6.18 ERA in 16 starts this year. The Mariners opted to maximize short-term impact while doing so on a budget, and if they can overtake Houston in the West down the stretch, it would be hard to argue with them as the winners of the deadline.

Texas Rangers

With one-and-a-half games currently sitting between the Rangers and a postseason berth, it’s understandable that they acted quite aggressively this trade season. The focus of their haul was a trio of veterans: starter Merrill Kelly, setup lefty Danny Coulombe, and relief arm Phil Maton. Kelly stands out as arguably the best starting pitcher traded this summer, and the high cost (by the standards of a rental player) reflects that. The Rangers had to surrender their #5, #9, and #13 prospects according to MLB.com to get the deal done. Coulombe and Maton weren’t quite that expensive, but cost Texas a trio of prospects led by southpaw Garrett Horn, who was recently added to the club’s top 30 prospects list over at Baseball America at #25.

Shelling out significant prospect talent in order to make a serious run at a Wild Card berth is understandable, but what’s worth noting is that the Rangers also blew past the luxury tax in order to make those additions. Texas had worked meticulously throughout the season in order to stay below the first threshold and reset their penalties, but all of that work has now been thrown out in an effort to maximize their odds at making the postseason in 2025. The potential impact is clearly significant, but was that worth it for a team not even in playoff position on deadline day?

Los Angeles Angels

The Angels had a quiet deadline that was somewhat incongruent with their status as fringe (at best) contenders. The Halos are currently six games out of an AL Wild Card spot with a middling 55-60 record, but that didn’t stop them from doing some light buying this summer. Adding former top prospect Oswald Peraza in a minor swap with the Yankees made some sense, given the club’s long-term needs on the infield, Peraza’s many years of remaining team control and a low cost of acquisition.

Acquiring a pair of rental veterans for their bullpen in the form of Andrew Chafin and Luis Garcia was a bit more questionable, but the cost do so was low. Former 13th-round pick Sam Brown and 26-year-old lefty Jake Eder (whom the Angels had picked up off waivers earlier in the year) went back to the Nats in that swap.

The Angels didn’t really damage the farm, but they missed an opportunity to listen on players like Yoan Moncada, Taylor Ward, Luis Rengifo, and maybe even Reid Detmers. Selling even some short-term pieces could have helped restock a farm system that’s been viewed as below-average for quite some time. The urge to push in during a rare, mostly-healthy season for Mike Trout is an understandable one, but it’s hard to say with confidence that doing so was the right move.

The Athletics

Unlike the rest of the division, the Athletics were sellers this summer. They made just two trades. Shipping Miguel Andujar to the Reds wasn’t a major move but netted a 2022 fourth-rounder (right-hander Kenya Huggins) who now sits 25th among their prospects at MLB.com.

The vast majority of their deadline focused on the single biggest blockbuster that happened this July: the deal that sent closer Mason Miller and lefty starter JP Sears to the Padres. Acquiring a consensus top-five prospect in the sport by bringing in Leo De Vries is arguably enough to win the deadline by itself, but he was also joined by well-regarded prospects Braden Nett and Henry Baez, Double-A starters who could be part of the rotation mix in West Sacramento sometime next year.

Rounding out the package is rookie reliever Eduarniel Nunez, who struggled in his first appearances with the A’s but could bolster their bullpen in the future. It was a very strong return, with De Vries in particular standing out as the sort of elite prospect that almost never gets dealt at all, much less in a deadline trade for a reliever. On the other hand, giving up Miller with four-plus years of team control remaining (not to mention the possibility he could be converted into a rotation role in the future to further raise his value) could make this deal a tough pill to swallow, particularly if the 18-year-old De Vries does not blossom into an All-Star caliber player.

A number of different approaches characterized this deadline for the AL West. The Rangers and Mariners were very aggressive on bringing in short-term additions, while the Astros focused on bringing in controllable talent, the A’s brought in a haul for the future and the Angels largely stood pat. Who had the best deadline of that quintet? Have your say in the poll below:

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