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Reds Rumors

Reds Designate Jake Fraley For Assignment

By Nick Deeds | August 17, 2025 at 10:16am CDT

The Reds announced this morning that they’ve designated outfielder Jake Fraley for assignment. Outfielder Will Benson was recalled to replace Fraley on the active roster. Right-hander Connor Phillips was also recalled to the MLB roster after the club optioned southpaw Joe La Sorsa to Triple-A last night.

Fraley, 30, began his career with the Mariners and was shipped to Cincinnati as part of the trade that sent Eugenio Suarez and Jesse Winker to Seattle. Since making his Reds debut in 2022, Fraley has been a roughly league average bat for the club. He’s hit .260/.336/.421 (105 wRC+) in 362 games for the club over the past four seasons and has never posted a wRC+ below 96 over a full season. He’s proven to be a solid baserunner as well, with 20-steal campaigns in both 2023 and ’24, though his defense has left him mostly limited to being a middling defender in the outfielder corners.

The biggest flaw in Fraley’s game is his massive platoon split, however. He’s virtually unplayable against lefties, with a .187/.263/.260 (44 wRC+) slash line against southpaws in 137 plate appearances during his time with the Reds. That’s offset by his solid .269/.346/.441 (113 wRC+) line against right-handed pitchers, of course, but Fraley is also in a 1-for-17 slump since the start of August and is hitting a lackluster .226/.305/.377 (83 wRC+) dating all the way back to June 20. That’s not substantially better than Benson, who sports an 80 wRC+ in 201 plate appearances this year. Perhaps the Reds are hoping that giving Benson opportunities down the stretch will get him into position to take over Fraley’s role as a left-handed platoon outfielder for 2026, when Fraley would’ve been due a raise on his $3.125MM salary for 2025 via arbitration and likely found himself non-tendered come November.

As for Phillips, the righty was once a consensus top-100 prospect but suffered a brutal season at Triple-A last year as he walked 15.3% of his opponents in 19 starts. He’s converted to relief this year and done better for himself with a 2.84 ERA in 38 innings, though his 14.6% walk rate remains elevated. He’s made just four appearances at the big league level this year but will now get an opportunity to try and harness his high-octane stuff as the Reds shuffle out La Sorsa, who surrendered a three-run homer to infielder Andruw Monasterio in the 11th inning of yesterday’s brutal 6-5 loss to Milwaukee.

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Cincinnati Reds Transactions Connor Phillips Jake Fraley Joe La Sorsa Will Benson

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Reds Place Chase Burns On Injured List Due To Flexor Strain

By Steve Adams | August 15, 2025 at 12:28pm CDT

The Reds announced Friday that they’ve placed right-hander Chase Burns on the 15-day injured list due to a Grade 1 flexor strain. Left-handed reliever Joe La Sorsa was recalled from Triple-A Louisville to take Burns’ spot on the big league roster. A Grade 1 strain is the lowest grade of severity, but it’s an ominous injury nonetheless. Any flexor or elbow injury is an unwelcome development for pitchers. The team has not yet provided an expected timeline for the young righty’s return.

Burns, 22, was the No. 2 overall selection in the 2024 amateur draft. He quickly rose through the majors after a standout career at Wake Forest, and while his 5.24 ERA through his first eight big league starts isn’t particularly appealing, it’s skewed by one nightmare outing wherein he was shredded for seven runs (five earned) in just one-third of an inning at Fenway Park. Over Burns’ past six starts, he’s turned in a 3.72 ERA and reached 10 strikeouts four times. Burns has struck out a whopping 37.7% of his opponents on the season, including an even gaudier 40.5% mark in his past six turns.

Unlike so many young flamethrowers with elite velocity and bat-missing ability, Burns hasn’t struggled with his command. He’s walked 8.6% of his opponents in the majors, right around average, and walked only 5.4% of his opponents in the minors this season. He’s averaged 98.4 mph on his four-seamer, primarily coupling it with a slider that sits 90.5 mph but also (very) occasionally mixing in a changeup that’s averaged 90.8 mph.

For Reds fans, it’s easy to dream on a rotation fronted by power-armed righties Hunter Greene and Burns, with southpaws Andrew Abbott and Nick Lodolo standing as overqualified “third” and “fourth” starters. Nick Martinez and Zack Littell are free agents at season’s end, but right-hander Brady Singer is controllable via arbitration through 2026. A rotation of Greene, Burns, Abbott, Lodolo and Singer — if healthy — could be one of the very best in the sport. That doesn’t even include righty Rhett Lowder, the No. 7 overall pick from the 2023 draft who’s been out all season due to his own flexor strain as well as a subsequent oblique strain.

“If healthy” serves as a notable caveat with regard to the Reds’ rotation, however. Greene has been limited to just 65 2/3 innings this season thanks to a pair of groin strains — the second of which cost him more than two months. Abbott missed the final month of the 2024 season due to a shoulder strain and was out for three weeks early in the current season due to a separate shoulder strain. Lodolo’s 129 2/3 innings this year are already a career-high. He’s been on the major league injured list seven times since debuting in 2022, missing time for calf, groin, lower back and finger injuries. Lowder still isn’t on a rehab assignment and hasn’t pitched in a minor league game since May 22.

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Cincinnati Reds Chase Burns

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Twins Deadline Notes: Phillies, Duran, Jax, Paddack, Reds

By Mark Polishuk | August 11, 2025 at 8:37pm CDT

It wasn’t really a shock that the Twins became deadline sellers, as the club’s downturn in June and July pretty much closed the door on Minnesota’s chances of contending.  However, the sheer scope of the Twins’ selloff was eye-opening, as the club swung nine different trades within four days of the July 31 deadline and sent 11 different players to eight separate clubs.  Several behind-the-scenes details about the trades the Twins both did and didn’t make have filtered out since July 31, and Bobby Nightengale Jr. of the Minnesota Star Tribune adds a few more notes about the front office approached this pivotal four-day period.

Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax were both pursued by several teams, though “the Dodgers didn’t show much interest in” either reliever, Nightengale writes.  This runs somewhat contrary to a pre-deadline report that linked Los Angeles to the duo, though it could be that the Dodgers simply weren’t interested in paying what ended up being a high price tag for either pitcher.  Though the Dodgers were known to be considering pretty much every reliever on the market, the reigning World Series champs’ biggest bullpen splash ended up being another Twin in Brock Stewart.  Though Stewart is arbitration-eligible through 2027, his “trade value was more commensurate with a rental reliever because of his injury history,” according to Nightengale, which is why Minnesota obtained outfielder James Outman (something of a spare part in L.A.) rather than prospects.

The Twins wanted two top-100 prospects for Duran, an asking price commensurate with the closer’s quality and the fact that he is arb-controlled through 2027.  It was a big enough ask to dissuade the Mariners, who “were deep into talks with the Twins” and may have been the runners-up in the Duran talks.  The Phillies refused to give up Andrew Painter for Duran or anyone, and ended up landing Duran for catching prospect Eduardo Tait and young starter Mick Abel.

Technically, this trade package didn’t meet Minnesota’s ask, since Abel was no longer part of top-100 rankings heading into the 2025 season.  Still, Abel has been a regular on such rankings for the previous four years, was selected 15th overall by the Phils in the 2020 draft, and is a big league-ready starter after making his MLB debut this season.

Tait and Leo De Vries (acquired by the A’s from the Padres in the Mason Miller blockbuster) were the only consensus top-100 prospects who changed teams at this year’s deadline, speaking to the high value that clubs place on these top prospects.  Nightengale writes that Minnesota felt Tait “had the highest upside” of any of the players that the Mariners offered for Duran, and preferred Tait to another top Phillies prospect in shortstop Aidan Miller.  This would seem to imply that Philadelphia was also willing to include Miller as the top prospect in the package, which tracks with past reports indicating that Painter and perhaps Justin Crawford were the only real untouchables within the Phils’ minor league system.

Duran was dealt on July 30 and the Twins then swung another trade with the Phillies the next day, moving Harrison Bader for two lower-level prospects (outfielder Hendry Mendez and right-hander Geremy Villoria).  The Twins and Phillies had previously talked about combining Duran and Bader into a single deal, but Nightengale writes that Minnesota wanted to move Duran separately.

This left Bader as one of the seven trades Minnesota swung on the July 31 deadline day itself, including the deal that sent Jax to the Rays for Taj Bradley.  Since Jax is also arb-controlled through 2027, the Twins initially wanted a prospect package “similar to the one they received in the Duran deal.”  This could explain why “Jax’s market didn’t pick up until the last day,” Nightengale notes, and perhaps why teams like the Dodgers were balking.  Rather than getting a prospect back for Jax, the Twins instead got an experienced MLB starter who is controlled through 2029, and as the club is betting that Bradley has a higher ceiling of performance.

Minnesota’s trading flurry began when Chris Paddack and Randy Dobnak were sent to the Tigers on July 28 in exchange for catching prospect Enrique Jimenez.  Paddack was known to be receiving interest from the Rays and Yankees, and Nightengale adds that the Reds were another club at least exploring the right-hander’s market.  With Paddack off the board, Cincinnati pivoted to land another rental starter in Zack Littell as part of a three-team trade involving the Rays and Dodgers.

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Cincinnati Reds Minnesota Twins Notes Philadelphia Phillies Aidan Miller Brock Stewart Chris Paddack Eduardo Tait Griffin Jax Jhoan Duran Mick Abel

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Hunter Greene Slated To Return To Reds’ Rotation On Wednesday

By Mark Polishuk | August 10, 2025 at 4:59pm CDT

After over two months on the injured list, Hunter Greene’s return date to the Reds has now been set.  Manager Terry Francona told reporters (including the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Pat Brennan) that Greene is penciled in as the starter for Wednesday’s game against the Phillies.

Greene emerged as the Reds’ ace with an All-Star season in 2024, and he picked up where he left off by posting a 2.72 ERA, 30.8% strikeout rate, and 5.9% walk rate over his first 11 starts and 59 2/3 innings of the 2025 campaign.  A right groin strain sent Greene to the IL for a 15-day minimum stint in May and he returned in seemingly good form, but another right groin strain has kept the right-hander sidelined since his last start on June 3.

It seemed like Greene was nearing a return in early July before he experienced some more groin soreness, which set things back and delayed the start of his minor league rehab assignment until after the All-Star break.  Greene has pitched four times during his ramp-up work in the minors, and the third of his three Triple-A appearances came on Friday, when he threw 79 pitches over 5 1/3 innings with Triple-A Louisville.  Francona said that Greene is “probably not there yet” in terms of being able to toss 100 pitches in a game, but the fact that he maintained his velocity on Friday was the final sign the Reds needed to explore activating him from the IL.

Needless to say, getting Greene back in the rotation is a huge help for Cincinnati’s playoff hopes.  The Reds’ 14-8 win over the Pirates today moved the club 1.5 games back of the final NL wild card slot, which is held by a Mets team mired in a seven-game losing streak.  While New York’s collapse has opened the door for the Reds, Cincinnati has a tough week ahead, with upcoming series against two red-hot division winners in the Phillies and the Brewers.

Chase Burns had been scheduled to start on Wednesday, but Francona said the Reds have “a lot of things to work through” in determining how the rotation will be altered now that Greene is back.  Either Burns or Nick Martinez will be moved to bullpen duty, and both pitchers could ultimately end up as relievers once Nick Lodolo also returns from a blister problem that sent him to the 15-day IL last week.  This would give the Reds a projected rotation of Greene, Lodolo, Andrew Abbott, Brady Singer, and deadline pickup Zack Littell once everyone is healthy, and using the excess starting depth to bolster the pen is a nice luxury for the team.

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Cincinnati Reds Hunter Greene

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MLBTR Podcast: Sifting Through The Trade Deadline Deals

By Darragh McDonald | August 6, 2025 at 11:56pm CDT

The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams and Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to go over the various deadline dealings, including…

  • The Padres acquiring Mason Miller, JP Sears, Ryan O’Hearn, Ramón Laureano, Nestor Cortes, Freddy Fermin and Will Wagner, while not trading Dylan Cease nor Robert Suarez (1:20)
  • The Athletics sending out Miller and Sears, getting a pile of prospects, headlined by Leo De Vries (25:20)
  • The Twins trading a bunch of rentals but also Jhoan Durán, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland and Carlos Correa (31:50)
  • The Astros taking on Correa despite previously trying to avoid the competitive balance tax (50:05)
  • The Phillies’ deadline (58:25)
  • The Mariners acquiring Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suárez from the Diamondbacks (1:00:40)
  • The Diamondbacks trading Merrill Kelly but not Zac Gallen (1:07:45)
  • The Rangers’ deadline (1:16:00)
  • The Mets acquiring various relievers, including Tyler Rogers from the Giants (1:19:05)
  • The Yankees acquiring Camilo Doval, David Bednar and Jake Bird (1:25:45)
  • The Pirates holding several trade candidates but they did trade Ke’Bryan Hayes to the Reds (1:35:15)
  • The Blue Jays acquiring Shane Bieber and Varland (1:43:40)
  • The Red Sox acquiring Dustin May from the Dodgers (1:54:20)
  • The underwhelming deadlines of the Cubs and Tigers (1:59:40)

Check out our past episodes!

  • Megapod Trade Deadline Preview – listen here
  • David Robertson, Trade Chips For The O’s and A’s, And What The Rangers Could Do – listen here
  • Rays’ Ownership, The Phillies Target Bullpen Help, And Bubble Teams – listen here

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Chadd Cady, Imagn Images

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Arizona Diamondbacks Boston Red Sox Chicago Cubs Cincinnati Reds Detroit Tigers Houston Astros Los Angeles Dodgers MLB Trade Rumors Podcast Minnesota Twins New York Mets New York Yankees Oakland Athletics Philadelphia Phillies Pittsburgh Pirates San Diego Padres San Francisco Giants Seattle Mariners Texas Rangers Toronto Blue Jays Camilo Doval Carlos Correa David Bednar Dustin May Eugenio Suarez Griffin Jax Jake Bird Jhoan Duran Ke'Bryan Hayes Leodalis De Vries Louie Varland Mason Miller Merrill Kelly Shane Bieber Tyler Rogers Zac Gallen

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Reds, Charlie Barnes Agree To Minor League Deal

By Anthony Franco | August 5, 2025 at 11:20pm CDT

The Reds are in agreement with left-hander Charlie Barnes on a minor league contract, reports Jon Morosi of MLB Network. Barnes has spent the past few seasons with the Lotte Giants in Korea. He was released in May after suffering a shoulder injury that came with a two-month recovery timetable (link via Jee-ho Yoo of Yonhap News).

Barnes has a bit of big league experience. He made nine appearances with the Twins in 2021, allowing a 5.92 ERA across 38 innings. Minnesota waived him at the end of that season, and Barnes embarked on his new career path in Korea. He spent parts of four seasons with Lotte. The Clemson product was effective for the first three years, surpassing 150 innings with an ERA of 3.62 or better in each.

The 29-year-old had a tougher go this season. Opponents tagged Barnes for 5.32 earned runs per nine across eight starts before Lotte shut him down with the injury. He will presumably report to Triple-A Louisville to serve as rotation or long relief depth and try to earn a late-season look with the big league club.

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Cincinnati Reds Transactions Charlie Barnes

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Reds Place Nick Lodolo On Injured List With Blister

By Anthony Franco | August 5, 2025 at 6:39pm CDT

The Reds placed starter Nick Lodolo on the 15-day injured list with a blister on his left index finger. Reliever Yosver Zulueta is up from Triple-A Louisville to fill the active roster spot.

Lodolo left last night’s start at Wrigley Field in the second inning. He has dealt with blister issues in the past, including one on his index finger that cost him a couple weeks last season. Manager Terry Francona indicated the history played a role in the team’s decision to put him on the shelf (ESPN link). There’s no indication he’ll be out beyond the minimum stint.

Aside from a three-day stay on the paternity list, this is Lodolo’s first absence of the season. The 27-year-old southpaw has a 3.05 ERA across 23 starts. He has recorded a solid 23.6% strikeout rate against a tidy 4.6% walk percentage while logging a career-high 129 2/3 innings. This has easily been the best season for the former seventh overall pick. Lodolo has pitched at a top-of-the-rotation level of late, turning in a sub-2.00 ERA while striking out 27% of opponents over his past nine starts.

Cincinnati will need to skip at least two of Lodolo’s turns through the rotation. They’re not going to replace his recent production but are well equipped to withstand a brief absence. The Zack Littell trade was going to push Nick Martinez to the bullpen. The veteran swingman can stick in the rotation for another turn. Hunter Greene could be back after that, but he’ll need at least one more rehab start with Louisville this week. Greene has been out since the beginning of June with a groin strain.

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Cincinnati Reds Nick Lodolo

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Poll: Who Had The Best Deadline In The NL Central?

By Nick Deeds | August 5, 2025 at 1:04pm 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. Yesterday, the Phillies came out on top in the NL East with about half the vote. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the NL Central. A look at each of the five clubs, listed from best to worst record in 2025:

Milwaukee Brewers

The Brewers have the best record in baseball but had a fairly quiet deadline. Perhaps their most impactful move of the summer came last month, when they traded away Aaron Civale to land former top prospect Andrew Vaughn from the White Sox. Vaughn had struggled in Chicago for years but has caught fire with the Brewers and has proven to be an anchor for a lineup that’s without Rhys Hoskins and Jackson Chourio. Looking at deals made closer to the deadline, Milwaukee swapped out another big league starter to add a hitter when they shipped Nestor Cortes to the Padres alongside infield prospect Jorge Quintana and cash in order to bring in outfielder Brandon Lockridge.

Another unusual trade for Milwaukee was acquiring injured closer Shelby Miller and injured lefty Jordan Montgomery in exchange for a player to be named later or cash. Montgomery won’t pitch this year, so the deal essentially saw the Brewers buy Miller off of the Diamondbacks in exchange for eating some of Montgomery’s salary. Perhaps the only typical buy-side addition was catcher Danny Jansen, who they acquired from the Rays to back up William Contreras. Dealing away Cortes and Civale hasn’t seemed to hurt the team much, but their additions are fairly modest on paper.

Chicago Cubs

The Cubs have fallen behind the Brewers after posting a somewhat pedestrian 29-25 record since the start of June, and entered trade season in clear need of upgrades. Perhaps their most impactful addition was utility man Willi Castro, a switch-hitter who can help take pressure off of rookie Matt Shaw at third base while upgrading the bench to make giving regulars like Dansby Swanson and Ian Happ days off more feasible. Deals with the Orioles and Pirates to acquire veteran setup man Andrew Kittredge and southpaw Taylor Rogers should help bolster a bullpen that had been relying on reclamation projects like Brad Keller and Drew Pomeranz to this point, as well.

Despite those generally solid additions, the Cubs did not substantially address their biggest need this summer: starting pitching. It was no secret that adding rotation help was a top priority for Chicago with Justin Steele done for the year, Jameson Taillon and Javier Assad both on the injured list, and both Cade Horton and Matthew Boyd in uncharted territory in terms of innings. Unfortunately for the Cubs, they were unable to find much help in that regard on the market. Michael Soroka was added in a trade with the Nationals in order to pitch in, but his velocity was down in his last few outings with the Nats and now he’s headed for the injured list with shoulder discomfort. While the club’s bench and bullpen additions were solid, it’s unclear if that will be enough to outweigh the lack of impactful rotation help down the stretch.

Cincinnati Reds

The 59-54 Reds currently sit just three games out of a Wild Card spot in the NL, and that was enough to convince them to go for it this summer. They made three trades to round out their roster. They picked up right-hander Zack Littell from the Rays in a three-team deal that sent righty Brian Van Belle to Tampa and lefty Adam Serwinowski to the Dodgers. They added Miguel Andujar to their bench in a deal with the A’s and, most interestingly, they picked up third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes from the Pirates in exchange for Rogers (who was later traded to the Cubs) and shortstop prospect Sammy Stafura.

Littell should provide some depth for an already-strong rotation that has a history of struggling to stay healthy (as was reinforced by Nick Lodolo’s departure from yesterday’s game after just 1 2/3 innings of work). Andujar provides a lefty-mashing bench bat to a club that has struggled badly against southpaws this year, but Hayes is the most interesting addition of the bunch. A former top prospect and Gold Glove award winner at third base, Hayes is one of the most talented defenders in the sport but hit just .236/.279/.290 (57 wRC+) in 100 games with the Pirates this year and has a career wRC+ of just 84. His relatively pricey contract makes bringing him in a gamble, but if he can float a slash line even close to league average, he should be a 3-win player when healthy.

St. Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals sold at the deadline for the second time in three years, but in doing so they only traded veterans on expiring contracts. Right-hander Erick Fedde was the first domino to fall, as the veteran starter was shipped to the Braves for a player to be named later or cash amid a disappointing season that saw him designated for assignment just before the deal. Veteran setup man Phil Maton netted a pair of prospects from the Rangers, one of whom is now St. Louis’s #26 ranked prospect at MLB Pipeline, and swingman Steven Matz was shipped to the Red Sox in a deal that brought back power-hitting first baseman Blaze Jordan (#18 in the Cardinals’ system, per Pipeline).

The team’s biggest deal this summer, however, was shipping out closer Ryan Helsley to the Mets. Even in the midst of a down season by his standards, Helsley brought back a trio of talented players: infield prospect Jesus Baez (#6 in the Cardinals’ system, per Pipeline), righty pitching prospect Nate Dohm (#15), and right-handed prospect Frank Elissalt (unranked). It’s a solid group of talent to bring in for a handful of rentals on expiring deals and the moves should help set incoming president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom up for success as John Mozeliak departs the club at the end of the season.

Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates also sold off pieces this summer, although their deadline was quiet for a club that entered July with Paul Skenes and Andrew McCutchen as their only two untouchable players. Not only did widely-speculated trade candidate Mitch Keller stay put despite a market starved for controllable rotation talent, but a number of rental players for whom the Pirates have little use did not end up getting cashed in for prospects and/or salary relief. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Tommy Pham, Andrew Heaney, and Tim Mayza all remain in town. And some deals they did make, such as the David Bednar swap with the Yankees, produced underwhelming returns.

That’s not to say everything about the club’s deadline was disappointing, however. The Pirates did manage to get out from under the Hayes contract, and then flipped Rogers to get an additional prospect from the Cubs. Lefty Caleb Ferguson and infielder Adam Frazier both were successfully cashed in for prospect talent and the Bucs received a return led by intriguing MLB-ready reliever Evan Sisk when they looked to sell on back-end starter Bailey Falter. Some of those young players acquired should help the Pirates going forward, and getting Hayes off the books should make adding offense easier for 2026 and beyond. Even so, it’s fair to wonder if this deadline represents a missed opportunity in Pittsburgh.

The NL Central was one of the quieter divisions in baseball this deadline, with only a handful of non-rental players changing hands and no blockbusters. With that being said, three teams did make an effort to get better for 2025, while the Cardinals and Pirates picked up a number of pieces for their futures. Which club did the best of this quintet? Have your say in the poll below:

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Chicago Cubs Cincinnati Reds MLBTR Originals MLBTR Polls Milwaukee Brewers Pittsburgh Pirates St. Louis Cardinals

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White Sox Won’t Be Trading Luis Robert Jr.

By Steve Adams | July 31, 2025 at 4:58pm CDT

4:58PM: The Sox will indeed be keeping Robert beyond the deadline, Feinsand writes.

2:08PM: The White Sox haven’t found an offer to their liking for center fielder Luis Robert Jr. and are increasingly likely to hold onto the outfielder rather than move him before this afternoon’s deadline, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez hears similarly.

If the Sox hold onto Robert, they’d likely be doing so with an eye toward picking up his $20MM club option for the 2026 season. It’s a risky gamble, given Robert’s lengthy injury history and the lack of production he showed throughout the entire 2024 season and the first two-plus months of the 2025 campaign.

Robert has performed considerably better of late, slashing .278/.361/.472 (130 wRC+) over his past 123 plate appearances dating back to early June. The ChiSox sat him for three straight days in early June as part of an effort to get Robert refocused on his mechanics, and whether due to that brief reset or pure happenstance, he indeed looks much like the peak version of himself.

It’s still a small sample of plate appearances, however, and Robert has frequently missed time due to injury in the past. There’s been interest in the talented 27-year-old, but not to the point where teams have been willing to offer up the sort of prospect(s) the Sox deem sufficient. A healthy two-month finish to the season for Robert could both boost his trade value in a more meaningful way and make that $20MM club option (a net $18MM decision, considering the $2MM buyout) look more palatable.

At the same time, the White Sox run the risk of encountering a scenario where Robert again falls to an injury or sees his recent production at the plate erode. Under either circumstance, exercising that $20MM option wouldn’t be all that enticing. Chicago’s payroll is quite clean, however, and even if his option were declined Robert would surely receive a big league contract as a rebound candidate. The Sox, it seems, are willing to run the risk of overpaying for his 2026 season by several million dollars in hopes that he can boost his value down the stretch or in the early portion of the 2026 campaign.

The Phillies, one of the teams that had been pursuing Robert, acquired Harrison Bader from the Twins earlier today. Other clubs that have been tied to Robert include the Padres, Reds and Mets. SNY’s Andy Martino reported recently, however, that talks with the Mets had stalled as of late last night.

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Reds Acquire Miguel Andujar

By Mark Polishuk and Leo Morgenstern | July 31, 2025 at 4:49pm CDT

The Reds have acquired utility player Miguel Andujar from the Athletics in exchange for right-handed pitching prospect Kenya Huggins, according to Ari Alexander of KPRC2.  Andujar is a free agent after the season, and was seen as a very likely candidate to be moved by the rebuilding A’s.

After a runner-up finish in AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2018 and then a few uninspiring years with the Yankees, Andujar has rebuilt his value as a regular contributor since leaving New York.  He has hit .285/.320/.412 over 640 plate appearances with the Pirates and Athletics since Opening Day 2023, good for a 105 wRC+.

As per the norm for a right-handed batter, Andujar has performed far better against left-handed pitching than he has against righties.  Cincinnati will probably deploy Andujar as a platoon bat with lefty-swingers Gavin Lux or Jake Fraley in the corner outfield slots, and Andujar will likely get some time at third base as a better-hitting alternative to Ke’Bryan Hayes.  Another of the Reds’ deadline pickups, Hayes is an elite defender who struggles mightily at the plate, so Andujar figures to get some late-game pinch-hitting opportunities as well.

Andujar is earning $3MM in his final year of arbitration eligibility, so the Reds will only owe him a little under $1MM for the remainder of the 2025 campaign.  That’s a bargain price for an above-average bat who has upside as a lefty-masher, and it’s a particularly smooth fit since the Reds are working within a limited budget.

Cincinnati emerges from deadline day with an estimated payroll of just under $119.9MM (hat tip to RosterResource).  This stands as the Reds’ highest payroll since the 2021 season, and the acquisitions of Hayes, Andujar, and Zack Littell indicate that the team is making a strong push towards its first postseason appearance since 2020.  The Reds are 57-52 entering tonight’s action, and sit three games behind the Padres for the final NL wild card spot.

Huggins was a fourth-round pick for Cincinnati in the 2022 draft, and a Tommy John surgery shelved him for big chunks of the 2023-24 seasons.  As a result, Huggins has only 107 pro innings to his name, with 63 1/3 of those frames coming this year with A-level Daytona.  Huggins has a 3.69 ERA in his return to action this year, looking pretty sharp even with a diminished strikeout rate that could be a by-product of his long layoff.  MLB Pipeline slots Huggins in as the 27th-best prospect in the Athletics’ farm system, noting that he has exhibited better command post-surgery.

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