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The 2025 MLB trade deadline is Thursday at 6 p.m. ET. If last year is anything to judge by, Wednesday and Thursday are going to be chaotic, with several teams making last-minute decisions on whether to be buyers, sellers or some hybrid combination of the two.
The Athletic’s trade deadline live blog will be your go-to source for breaking news and instant analysis. We’ll have our usual in-depth coverage on the main site — and you’ll see plenty of links to that work here on the blog — but this will be our landing page for all things trade deadline.
We’ll be with you more or less all day, Monday to Thursday, presenting some of the reporting you might have missed and providing quick feedback when deals come together.
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Rosenthal: What I’m hearing about the Pirates’ trade deadline plans, Eugenio Suárez and more
Minnesota isn’t itching to move Joe Ryan, who is 29 and under team control for two seasons beyond this one, but it’s easy to understand why teams will be calling the Twins about him just in case. Coming off his first All-Star honor, Ryan is a proven front-line starter with a career 3.67 ERA who pounds the zone and racks up whiffs, posting MLB’s seventh-best K/BB ratio since his 2021 debut.
Ryan might be effectively off limits even if the Twins are in seller mode, but some contenders could try to blow them away with an offer. Among all qualified starters the past two seasons, Ryan ranks second to only Tarik Skubal in K/BB ratio (6.1/1) and is also fourth in opponents’ batting average (.207) and 10th in ERA (3.15).
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The Seattle Mariners, who’ve long needed a corner infield slugger to pair alongside switch-hitting catcher Cal Raleigh, acquired just that in a Thursday deal that sent Josh Naylor from the Arizona Diamondbacks to the AL West club.
Ahead of the July 31 deadline, Seattle appeared likely to target a third or first baseman. Rowdy Tellez, who was DFA’d in late June, and his 11 homers stand as the most from any Mariners first baseman. Donovan Solano, who’s played 63 games entering Thursday, has an 85 OPS+ with just three homers.
Read analysis of this deal below.
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After weeks of inadequate play at third base, the New York Yankees filled one of their biggest needs at the trade deadline.
The Yankees acquired Colorado Rockies third baseman Ryan McMahon for pitching prospects Griffin Herring and Josh Grosz on Friday. The 30-year-old is under contract for two more seasons and is owed $32 million, along with the rest of his $12 million salary this season.
McMahon has graded out as one of the 10 best defensive third basemen this season, but his offense is below average. Since debuting in 2017, McMahon has never had a year in which he’s been at least league average in wRC+, a statistic that accounts for external factors like the ballpark, but that’s with playing half his games at hitter-friendly Coors Field. Even though McMahon has never posted an above-average season offensively, it should still be better than what the Yankees are getting out of Oswald Peraza. Among all Yankees with at least 160 plate appearances in a season since 1961, Peraza’s 24 wRC+ is the second lowest; only Bucky Dent’s 10 wRC+ in 1982 is worse.
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The Kansas City Royals and right-hander Seth Lugo are in agreement on a multiyear extension, a league source confirmed Sunday to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. When official, the move will take off the board one of the trade deadline’s most desirable potential targets.
Lugo, who signed a two-year deal with the Royals ahead of the 2024 season, with a $15 million player option for 2026, was primed to not only be one of the most prominent names thought to be available leading into Thursday’s deadline, but also potentially a top target over the winter free-agency period. Instead, the extension will help him stick in Kansas City, where he’s posted a 2.95 ERA over 19 starts this season.
“We’re a much better team with Seth Lugo here than not here,” Royals president J.J. Picollo said over the weekend. “Whether that’s just ’25 or ’26, if you move a guy like Seth Lugo, you better be really sure that you’re getting something back that makes this team significantly better. You take a guy like that out of your rotation, you’re not the same team.”
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The Kansas City Royals, in an effort to bolster a long-slumbering outfield, have acquired veteran Randal Grichuk from the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday, the team announced. In exchange, the Diamondbacks received right-handed reliever Andrew Hoffmann.
The Royals’ outfield ranks last in the majors in offensive output, with a 64 wRC+, 17 percent worse than the second-worst outfield. Kansas City’s lineup ranks second-last in the majors in runs per game (3.52). Grichuk, who will play for his sixth team, owns a .243/.280/.462 slash line in 186 plate appearances this season.
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The Phillies have been one of the best teams in baseball this season but still sit 1.5 games behind the Mets in the NL East.
One of their biggest flaws thus far has been consistency from their relievers and per The Athletic's Matt Gelb, this is the organization's main priority as the trade deadline approaches.
Heading into today's action, Philadelphia ranks 21st in baseball with a 4.25 bullpen ERA.
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The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 MLB trade deadline.
Trade deadline week is finally here. And so is the third and final version of The Athletic’s Urgency Index — our look at which teams need a boost the most over the next four days. It’s been fascinating to see the ways this list has evolved since it first ran on June 12 and again on July 2. Each time, for instance, the team that needed a bat the most acquired one: San Francisco brought in Rafael Devers, and Seattle traded for Josh Naylor. (We have a good feeling we’ll go 3-for-3 on that one.)
Like each of the last two times, it’s Tim Britton breaking down bats, Eno Sarris on starters and Aaron Gleeman on relievers.
Read more below.
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With less than a week until the MLB trade deadline, let’s ponder what could await once all 30 teams start wheeling and dealing.
Just for fun, here are five trades I’d like to see happen between now and July 31. Keep in mind these are not trades that I have confirmed are being discussed between teams; they are simply deal concepts I’m suggesting for everyone to consider and critique.
Please use the comments section to let me know what trades you’d like to see or how you would alter my trade ideas if you were one of the two sides.
Check out the five proposals below.
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Five MLB deadline trades I’d like to see, starting with a stunning three-team deal
Gentlemen, start your bear hugs.
In just a few, baseball’s annual midsummer bazaar will close at the July 31 trade deadline. Teams will be scrambling to do business. Players will be on the move. There will be goodbyes.
Some players, however, are more likely to do some hugging than others. Here’s a look, in no particular order, at who will have bittersweet embraces in their near future.
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One player from each MLB franchise who will be wearing a new uniform by July 31
Baseball fans, buckle up, the trade deadline is less than four days away. If last year is anything to judge by, Wednesday and Thursday are going to be chaotic, with several teams making last-minute decisions on whether to be buyers, sellers or some hybrid combination of the two.
So with less than 96 hours to go, let’s sift through the reports and rumors and see whether we can determine what’s real, what’s a maybe and what doesn’t pass the smell test.
First, a quick catch-up. Below are some of the moves that have already happened, some of which will help shape the coming days.
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MLB trade deadline primer: Everything you need to know heading into Thursday
One of the most fun aspects of the MLB trade deadline is fans and analysts alike firing up the trade machine, putting their general manager skills to the test.
The Athletic's Jim Bowden has gone through 21 selected trade scenarios submitted by our subscribers and answered “Who says no?” to each deal.
Check it out here.
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Evaluating 21 MLB deadline trade proposals from readers: Who says no?
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Not to brag, but I knew this story was coming. And when you know Andy McCullough has a story like this coming, you wait for it and mark the publication date on your calendar. And it never disappoints.
Andy’s latest gem is The personalities of MLB’s trade deadline: Hunters, Fishermen and the Cleveland Grind Machine. In it, Andy explores the various styles of different executives and front offices. Here’s a quick excerpt.
There are hunters who identify their targets and make clear their demands. There are fishermen who cast lines far and wide across the sport. There are volume shooters who believe completing a trade is more valuable than maximizing the return in every transaction. There is the skull-crushing ennui of dealing with the Colorado Rockies and the exquisite torture of trying to finalize a transaction with the Cleveland Guardians.
There are executives, like Milwaukee Brewers general manager Matt Arnold, who sketch elaborate, three-team deals. Others avoid gambits like that. “I’m not smart enough to do it,” Arizona Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen said. “Honestly. I mean, that’s the honest answer. Do you want me to lie to you?”
Some, like Tampa Bay Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander, prefer texting. Cashman can pepper his messages with GIFs. Others, like Anthopoulos and Preller, like to kibitz on the phone. In order to do the job, several executives explained, you need to know how to connect with your counterparts. “You talk to everybody a little bit differently, based on past history and what you think may resonate with them,” Preller said.
The story is an incredible mix of anecdotes and insight, a perfect read while we wait for this trade market to really take shape.
Aaron Judge is hurt. Does that mean the Yankees need to jump into the market for an outfielder? To find out, I’m asking my old friend Brendan Kuty, who covers the Yankees here at The Athletic.
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Jennings: Hi Brendan! Wait, can I call you Brendan? I’ve known you more than a decade, and I think I’ve only ever called you Kuty. But your name is Brendan, correct? Actually, don’t answer that. We should probably figure this out someplace that isn’t a live blog being published on the internet.
Anyway, I wanted to ask you this: Do the Yankees need to trade for an outfielder?
I ask, obviously, because Aaron Judge is hurt, throwing is the problem, and even if he comes off the IL fairly soon, there seems to be a chance he’ll need more time at DH going forward.
Back when you and I were on the Yankees beat together, I knew their depth chart like the back of my hand, but what is the outfield situation in the Bronx without Judge? I know Giancarlo Stanton is a complicating factor, but do the Yankees need to add at least some outfield depth to feel protected out there? Should we think of them as a team that could sneak into the mix for a good fourth outfielder type?
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Kuty: I don’t acknowledge my first name. I’m Kuty — kind of like Madonna. Or like Cher. Or Hansel from Zoolander. So hot right now.
Your question is valid, but I don’t see the Yankees pushing much for a fourth outfielder. The Yankees believe Aaron Judge will recover from his flexor tendon strain. They believe he’ll return to the lineup close to when his 10-day IL window is up, and while he might DH for up to two weeks as he ramps up his arm, the Yankees are covered in the outfield with Cody Bellinger, Trent Grisham and Jasson Domínguez. Dusting off Giancarlo Stanton and sticking him back into right field after not playing there at all last year doesn’t seem like the best idea, but Amed Rosario has mixed in a little bit of right field in recent years, and they could call up Everson Pereira or Bryan De La Cruz in a pinch.
I say that with a caveat, however. The Yankees are 104 games into the season. The switch-hitting Domínguez has been good vs. righties (.795 OPS) but not against lefties (.575). The Yankees might like the idea of trading for someone to platoon with Domínguez. Rosenthal has said the Mariners have made utility man Dylan Moore available, and he’s historically hit lefties (career .734 OPS), but he’s also in the midst of an eye-popping slump (2-for-54). Maybe a righty platoon for left field would make some sense at this point in the season.
While the trade-deadline activity has indeed begun — with Ryan McMahon, Josh Naylor, Gregory Soto and Randal Grichuk already moved, and Seth Lugo staying in Kansas City — we have yet to see any players ranked No. 1 at their position in our trade deadline Big Board traded.
That’s because this is, unofficially, still Price Check Season. If a seller has the best option at a position, their first asks are going to be high. Sometimes stupid high. A buying GM will check in, giggle at that price and then check back in a few days later if that player is still available. As the deadline nears, prices often drop. Not always. Some selling GMs are OK if the result is that they keep their player. But many times sellers will decide sometime early this week that to move the player they’ll need to start budging on the ask.
For now, enjoy Price Check Season.
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MLB trade deadline Big Board 3.0: The Top 50 players who could be on the move
Bullpens are important. Blow a lead in the eighth inning, and a good bullpen suddenly feels like the most important thing in baseball. And that’s especially true in the postseason. It’s one reason nearly every contender, to some extent, seems to be eyeing available relievers.
But Ken Rosenthal wrote this morning that the market for relievers — especially this market for relievers — is forcing teams to make a difficult decision: what’s a truly elite reliever really worth? The Twins and Guardians are, of course, asking for a ton of talent to move Emmanuel Clase or Griffin Jax. Are they really worth the price? Or, is it better to acquire a slightly underperforming rental like Ryan Helsley at a lower price? Ken writes:
✍️ Relievers are so volatile, so prone to fluctuate from season to season, even month to month, additional years of club control matter less than they do with more stable performers.
The teams peddling those pitchers, of course, see it differently, valuing them as long-term assets in trade discussions and asking for big returns.
This market has a fascinating mix of seemingly available relievers. Multi-year solutions like Clase, Jax, Jhoan Duran and Mason Miller are probably at the top of the class — though the asking prices, perhaps, suggest they’re not really all that available — but there are other closers like Helsely, Kyle Finnegan, Raisel Iglesias and perhaps Robert Suarez who could be available as rentals (with varying degrees of success this season). Seranthony Domínguez is interesting if you can stomach some walks. David Bednar and Dennis Santana have become two of the best trade chips for the Pirates, and the Rockies have Jake Bird, Victor Vodnik and Seth Halvorsen to offer.
Again, though, what’s it going to take to actually make a deal? And which of these guys is going to flourish for the next two months, and which are going to fall flat? The role is notoriously prone to ups and downs. Again, here’s Ken:
✍️ Not all of those relievers will change teams. The perception within the industry is that the Guardians and Twins will not move one or more of their top relievers unless they win the deal. As The Athletic’s Andy McCullough writes, the Guardians can be such a difficult trade partner; some other front offices refer to them as “The Cleveland Grind Machine.” The Twins, Pirates and Rockies are not exactly known for their deal-making prowess.
The Yankees, Phillies, Dodgers, Blue Jays and Mets are among the many contenders that could be interested in meaningful bullpen upgrades, and the Red Sox had a minor scare last night when Aroldis Chapman had to leave a game with back tightness. Bullpens are incredibly valuable. But what a reliever is worth on the trade market remains one of the deadline’s most difficult questions.
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In looking to add a top reliever at the trade deadline, contenders face a conundrum
Just a few days ago, a third baseman was the last thing the Astros needed. Isaac Paredes was an All-Star, he was getting hot at the plate, and there were far more pressing concerns in the team’s pursuit of another deep playoff run.
Then Paredes strained his hamstring after the All-Star break, and suddenly the Astros were in the market at the hot corner.
Chandler Rome reports that the Astros have reached out to the Arizona Diamondbacks about slugging third baseman Eugenio Suárez, who’s generally considered the top third baseman on the market (if not the top position player, period). But the Astros have also been eying Minnesota Twins utility man Willi Castro.
Suárez’s power would be useful in Houston, but the Astros also have worked hard to improve their infield defense and take pride in putting the ball in play, two things Suarez does not do especially well. In that sense, Rome writes, Castro could be a better fit:
✍️ Castro is a switch hitter with starts at six different defensive positions this season, versatility that would be valued as the Astros’ nine injured position players are activated. Castro has made 26 starts at second base and 25 in left field — the two most unsettled positions on Houston’s major-league roster.
Clearly the Astros could use a third baseman. Whether they get one, and which one they target, remains to be seen.
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If there aren’t many top-of-the-rotation starting pitchers available to trade this season, which starters actually are available to potentially make a difference down the stretch?
The Athletic’s latest Big Board includes 17 starters. Some are more readily available than others (we can scratch Seth Lugo already), and some have more impact potential than others (we didn’t rank Dylan Cease, though perhaps there’s a creative way for the Padres to trade him without fully selling).
Here are our top available starting pitchers — if Cease is moved, he might belong in the top five on this list — along with their overall Big Board ranking and a few notable starters who missed our top 50 cutoff.
There’s a world in which Freddy Peralta might have been available at this trade deadline, but the Brewers got hot and became buyers. Zac Gallen and Sandy Alcantara seem to be on the table, but neither has pitched to their past standards. Nathan Eovaldi has two years of team control remaining and seems likely to stay in Texas. Dylan Cease is heading to free agency, but are the Padres willing to sell? Seth Lugo looked like a trade chip until he signed an extension.
This trade market is deep in starting pitchers, but it doesn’t seem to have a single readily available starter who would qualify as a legitimate top-of-the-rotation difference maker.
“There’s a lot of names,” one club official told Patrick Mooney and Will Sammon. “But all the guys are going to have a little bit of warts on them. You just got to figure out what you’re willing to deal with.”
That lack of reliable alternatives is one reason Twins starter Joe Ryan rose to the top of The Athletic’s latest Big Board of trade candidates. The Twins might not be willing to trade Ryan — he has team control remaining — but if they do, he would almost certainly be the best pitcher to change teams.
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MLB trade deadline Big Board 3.0: The Top 50 players who could be on the move
The task assigned by our editors was simple enough: Pick the one player from each franchise who seems most likely to be traded. Straightforward assignment without a clear right or wrong set of answers.
Here’s what we came up with.
Visit the link to see our complete set of 30 most likely trade candidates, but here on the blog, we’ll single out three of them.
Los Angeles Angels: 3B Yoán Moncada
One of the game’s most tantalizing talents for a decade now, Moncada was one of the biggest prospects in the sport when the Red Sox traded him for Chris Sale in 2016, and he seemed to be living up to that promise with a 140 OPS+ in 2019. But he’s since struggled with injuries, and his defense isn’t great, but he’s having another solid offensive season. Could be an interesting wild-card addition for a team that misses out on Eugenio Suárez.
Atlanta Braves: DH Marcell Ozuna
The Braves just never gained any traction, and they’ve lately been splitting their DH at-bats between catchers Sean Murphy and Drake Baldwin. That leaves basically no reason to hold onto Ozuna, who’s 34 and heading to free agency. But for an acquiring team, Ozuan is a tremendous buy-low possibility. He can’t play defense, and he hasn’t been nearly the hitter he was in 2024 and 2023, but he still has a high OBP and a 112 wRC+. He’s also still making hard contact at a reasonably high clip. Does Ozuna have two elite offensive months in him? Some acquiring team is about to find out.
Philadelphia Phillies: RHP Mick Abel
Typically we focus on big league players who could be traded, but for a buying team like the Phillies, its prospects who are most notable on the block. The Phillies are especially fascinating because they have every reason to be aggressive buyers, and they have a top-heavy farm system with three preseason top-50 prospects (Andrew Painter, Aidan Miller, Justin Crawford), plus a resurgent Abel who’s pitched his way back into top 100 consideration. That’s a lot of potential to swing a huge trade if the Phillies are willing to do so.
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One player from each MLB franchise who will be wearing a new uniform by July 31
