Yankees, Mets give New York winner, loser at trade deadline

At the MLB trade deadline, marginal hitters were in high supply but low demand. Pitchers took center stage in negotiations.

Before the final week of trades, names like Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Eduardo Rodríguez and National League Cy Young favorite Blake Snell were all thrown around. 

Cody Bellinger and Lane Thomas were arguably the two biggest bats. The Chicago Cubs chose to keep Bellinger, their left-handed slugger, for the final stretch and the Washington Nationals held firm with the 27-year-old Thomas in hopes of a big offer which never came. 

The New York Mets, thanks to trades of both Scherzer and Verlander, came out of the week as one of the biggest winners, as long as you don't ask Scherzer.

San Diego chose to push forward with a high payroll in a disappointing season. The Angels went all-in around Shohei Ohtani despite being outside looking in at the American League wild card standings. 

The Mets had a different plan. Instead of playing the odds, owner Steve Cohen and his league-leading $344-million payroll looked at the situation realistically. 

"When you look at the probability, what were we, 15 percent? And other teams were getting better, so you have to take the odds down from that," Cohen told media members after the deadline. "If you're gonna have a 12% chance of getting into the playoffs, those are pretty crummy odds... Hope's not a strategy."

The final line says the most. 

Hope is fun for fans. Logic must intervene to achieve sustained success. 

Cohen saw what lay ahead in the National League playoff race and bowed out before the final two months. For their troubles, the Mets acquired infielder Luisangel Acuña and outfielders Drew Gilbert and Ryan Clifford in exchange for their veteran aces. 

Acuńa is already the team's No. 2 prospect and both Gilbert (No. 4) and Clifford (No. 6) also joined the top 10. The two highest-ranked prospects were sent to Double-A-Binghamton and Clifford was assigned to High-A Brooklyn. Each could have a run of up to seven years with the Mets if they make the majors, which would last long after Verlander and Scherzer retire. 

Other teams hoped for the best and may be rewarded with a run like the Philadelphia Phillies had last year to the World Series. Or they could turn into the New York Yankees, a team without much hope in the present or future, despite a top-five payroll in the league. 

The Mets' Subway Series foe was as unsuccessful as their rivals were successful. 

Without Aaron Judge, the Yankees tumbled to a sub-.500 record and one of the league's worst-hitting lineups. Instead of selling off an expiring veteran like Harrison Bader, New York acquired a pair of middling relievers as their only moves of the deadline. Before the final hours, they were the only team that had yet to make a deal. 

The Yankees are multiple games out in the AL wild card race. Toronto and Houston, two of the teams currently ahead of the Yankees, made big moves to shore up weaknesses. New York effectively stood pat and relied on aging veterans to get hot in the final two months. 

The Athletic's Chris Kirschner summed it up best when he wrote, "More troubling for the Yankees this deadline, they appeared to have no direction. They didn’t get better for the future. They didn’t address any of their problems this season. They mostly stood pat, which was the worst course they could’ve taken. This was a failure by Brian Cashman and the front office."

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What I'm Hearing

—The deadline came and went without changing the prohibitive title favorite. 

Atlanta has been the best team this season and made marginal changes to the roster, adding Brad Hand and Pierce Johnson as their big moves. The Braves are the betting favorite for a second World Series in the last three years. 

Right behind the Braves are the Dodgers and Astros. A no-trade snafu cost the former a chance to greatly improve its rotation while the Astros brought back Verlander. In last year's title run, Houston was given two solid starts and two iffy chances from the veteran. 

A rematch of the 2021 World Series between the Braves and Astros is the favorite at sports books. Nothing at the deadline threw a curveball at the previous odds. 

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What I'm Seeing

—Mike Tauchman's time with the Colorado Rockies was short after they drafted him in the 10th round of the 2013 draft. 

He came up through the minors and played sparingly in two seasons with Colorado before being moved to New York for Yankees' reliever Phillip Diehl. Tauchman put together a .277 average across 87 games in 2019 but has not found consistent success in his six-year career. 

The Chicago Cubs don't care. Tauchman was tasked with centerfield duties in their 3-2 win July 28 and played the game's biggest role. 

With a runner on third and two outs, St. Louis outfielder Alec Burleson drove a high fastball to dead center. Tauchman leaped up at the wall and robbed the home run to clinch the Cubs' seventh-straight win.