Every MLB season, there are players that non-contending teams need to dump at the trade deadline to maximize their return for an exiting free agent. This year, there appeared to be a few great candidates that would end up being passed over. But a flurry of deals right before the 4 p.m. ET deadline saw the New York Yankees move pitcher Ivan Nova and outfielder Carlos Beltran, the Oakland Athletics deal outfielder Josh Reddick and the Los Angeles Angels trade reliever Joe Smith.
Usually when we talk about the biggest mistakes at the deadline, they are made by teams that won’t admit their playoff chances are non-existent and didn’t sell enough. This includes the 2015 Cincinnati Reds, who received a much smaller return for Aroldis Chapman and Todd Frazier by waiting until the offseason to unload their assets. This year, however, even the Yankees were able to admit that they don’t have a clear path to the postseason and sold off their top relievers and their big-name free agents not named Mark Teixeira.
But teams can also get prime value for dealing players under club control for an additional season. Examples of that this year were the Milwaukee Brewers in trading catcher Jonathan Lucroy, the Pittsburgh Pirates unloading pitcher Jon Niese and the Tampa Bay Rays dealing pitcher Matt Moore. However, the team that may have squandered the best opportunity to move a player before the deadline was the Los Angeles Dodgers with Yasiel Puig.
This is a problem of the Dodgers’ own making, as they told Puig that he would either be traded or demoted on Aug. 1. He didn’t travel with the team and at this point, there is so much bad blood between the player and the organization that it’s hard to believe they will ever reconcile. This was never going to be the normal veteran, free-agent-to-be dump, as Puig is signed through 2018 on a very team-friendly deal. (He’s set to be paid a combined $14 million during the next two seasons.) Because of this, even teams that are generally out of the postseason race this year were interested, including the White Sox, who had great reported interest.
Given that Puig has so little value to the Dodgers that they aren’t even bringing him on the road (despite him taking up a spot on the 25-man roster), it’s very difficult to believe that an opposing team couldn’t have offered up something of interest. The Dodgers have already likely decreased the trade value for Puig by not moving him after last season and this public disturbance isn’t going to help. When they ultimately trade him, it will be for much less than it should have been.
Beyond L.A., probably the biggest name not traded was one that was never even rumored: Teixeira. This could be because no team was interested, but with some creative maneuvering the Yankees could have at least got something from another team, especially considering how crazy they’d have to be to tender the first baseman a qualifying offer this offseason. Teixeira is owed the remainder of $23.125M for this season and has been hitting extremely poorly this season, but has hit .286 during the past week. The Yankees already have to pay him for the rest of the season and, while they have avoided giving out cash in their other prospect-gaining deals, if they were to pay the majority of his salary for the remainder of 2016, they could have received some kind of minor leaguer in return who may have been able to contribute down the line.
CHICAGO, IL – MAY 23: Chris Sale #49 of the Chicago White Sox pitches during the third inning against the Minnesota Twins at U.S. Cellular Field on May 23, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Mike McGinnis/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Chris Sale
While the White Sox were rumored to be interested in moving pitcher Chris Sale or possibly Jose Quintana, trading one of the top left-handed starters in baseball would be very short-sighted for a team that could possibly contend as early as next year. Instead, if the White Sox were thinking about moving a player, Dioner Navarro would have been a good choice.
It’s unfortunate for Chicago that fellow 2017 free agent catcher Alex Avila was injured recently and couldn’t be traded, but given the market for catchers that saw the Indians, Mets and Tigers all looking for catchers and not getting them at the deadline, there was room for a few more moves to be made. (The Twins also should have dealt Kurt Suzuki and the A’s missed a chance to move Stephen Vogt.) The quality of minor leaguers rumored in these deals was so great, that even a player with lesser value than Lucroy could have brought something back in return.
In the end, it was a pretty successful trade deadline for the selling teams, as a number of high-level prospects switched hands. Other than Puig, the few players listed above won’t really kill their teams by sticking around a little longer. However, those clubs would have benefited by getting at least some talent in return, since all are below the qualifying offer threshold. But many players could still be traded before Aug. 31 by filtering through the waiver wire, particularly any who are owed a high salary or have played poorly this year.
