AL East Trade Deadline Roundup

The Yankees were quite busy over the final days before the trade deadline, and came away with some pieces that could potentially help them make a run over the final months of the season. Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo were the big names added, bolstering a lineup that has struggled for large portions of the season.

Besides them, there were plenty of other prominent players moved in what ended up being quite the crazy deadline, including some notable acquisitions within the Yankees’ division. Now that the dust has settled, let’s take a look at the rest of the AL East, and the new names we’ll be seeing the Yankees do battle with over the final couple months of the season.

Baltimore Orioles

The Orioles have dealt most of their moveable pieces away over the past couple seasons. The players left that other teams would want are still a few years away from free agency, and weren’t on the move. Therefore, Baltimore didn’t make a ton of deals at the deadline.

The more notable of the two trades they made was sending Freddy Galvis to the Phillies for pitching prospect Tyler Burch. Galvis has been about a league average player for Baltimore this year, while Burch is going on 24, having topped out at High-A so far in his career. The other deal they made was sending reliever Shawn Armstrong (8.55 ERA, 5.86 FIP, 1.900 WHIP in 20 innings) to Tampa Bay for cash.

Boston Red Sox

Over the course of the final pre-deadline days, the Red Sox were connected to several notable players, including eventual Yankee Anthony Rizzo. However, the biggest name they ended up acquiring was Kyle Schwarber from the Nationals, who they got for pitching prospect Aldo Ramirez. Schwarber’s been very good this season when healthy, but he has missed time with injury.

Beyond that, Boston added reliever Hansel Robles, who’s having a down year, but was very good as recently as 2019. They also opened some space for Schwarber by dealing Michael Chavis. A former top-100 prospect, Chavis never really broke out at the major league level, and has put up a .549 OPS this year. They acquired reliever Austin Davis for him, who similarly hasn’t been great in the majors.

Tampa Bay Rays

The Rays made one of the first big splashes of the deadline season when they got Nelson Cruz back on July 22nd. The slugger’s hit a couple home runs in his early days as a Ray so. Besides that, they made moves you wouldn’t necessarily expect contending team to make, although these are the Rays.

Although he had been struggling of late, Rich Hill had been having a pretty good season on the whole. Despite that, they sent him to the Mets for reliever Tommy Hunter and 2020 draft pick Matt Dyer.

That wasn’t the only notable piece they sent away, as reliever Diego Castillo, who is having another good season, was traded to the Mariners. In his place they get a reliever back in JT Chargois, and added an intriguing prospect in Austin Shenton.

The rest of their moves were fairly minor. As mentioned, they got Armstrong from Baltimore. They added outfielder Jordan Luplow and pitcher DJ Johnson from Cleveland, and sent catcher Deivy Grullon to the White Sox for cash.

Toronto Blue Jays

The Blue Jays rival the Yankees for the biggest splash made by an AL East team, as they got probably the second-best pitcher to move in José Berríos.

They certainly paid a hefty price to do so, sending Austin Martin and Simeon Woods Richardson to the Twins. Martin and Woods Richardson were seen as two of Toronto’s top five prospects, and were both ranked as top 100 prospects in all of baseball by several outlets. That said, Berríos is a multi-time All-Star in the midst of another good season. He has a chance to be a difference maker for the Jays.

The other notable moves Toronto made were in an attempt to boost their less than stellar bullpen by picking up Joakim Soria and Brad Hand. Neither have been impeccable this season, but the combined price for them was just two players to be named later and catcher Riley Adams. They also got rid of two pitchers from that substandard bullpen, trading both Joel Payamps and T.J. Zeuch for cash.