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Mariners Rumors

Mariners Designate Dylan Moore For Assignment

By Nick Deeds | August 23, 2025 at 3:26pm CDT

The Mariners announced this afternoon that they’ve designated utility man Dylan Moore for assignment. Moore’s spot on both the 40-man and active roster will go to outfielder Victor Robles, who was activated from the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move. Robles was recently dealt a ten-game suspension for an incident where he threw his bat towards the pitcher’s mound during a minor league rehab game. Robles will need to serve that suspension in the majors, but Daniel Kramer of MLB.com writes that Robles is expected to be in tonight’s lineup while he appeals the suspension.

Moore, 33, was the longest-tenured player on the Mariners roster prior to his DFA. The utility man debuted with the club back in 2019 and appeared in 113 games before breaking out in a big way during the shortened 2020 season. Moore appeared in 38 games for Seattle that year, and slashed an excellent .255/.358/.496 (140 wRC+) with eight homers and 12 steals in 159 trips to the plate. That was enough to make him the second best hitter on the roster, behind only catcher Austin Nola.

He dropped back below average in 2021, but starting in 2022 enjoyed a three-year stretch of above-average offense (113 wRC+) that also saw him swipe 60 bases and win a Gold Glove award.  Even in his leaner offensive seasons of 2019 and ’21, Moore’s impressive versatility was enough to make him a valuable piece of the Mariners roster. He’s appeared at every position on the diamond except for catcher throughout his time in the majors, included a one-inning cameo on the mound during his rookie season.

That versatility combines with his speed (116 steals in 156 career attempts) to make Moore a valuable role player every season. Another notable trait of Moore’s that has made him valuable to the Mariners over the years is his knack for hitting well against southpaws. While he’s a career 92 wRC+ hitter against right-handed pitching, that jumps up to 110 when looking at his work in 675 plate appearances against lefties. His work against opposite-handed pitching has been even more impressive in recent years, as he slashed .233/.356/.425 (129 wRC+) against lefties during his peak seasons from 2022 to ’24.

All of that came apart in 2025, unfortunately. This year has been the worst of Moore’s career by a wide margin. He’s hit just .193/.263/.359 (78 wRC+) in 88 games while striking out at a career-high 35.7% clip. His typically strong defense all over the diamond hasn’t rated well by the metrics this year. Most concerning is his vanishing production against left-handed pitching; while his 91 wRC+ against righties this year is right in line with his career norms, Moore has hit just .149/.257/.309 (66 wRC+) with a 40.4% strikeout rate in 109 plate appearances against lefties this year.

That production simply wasn’t tenable for even a bench role, and now the Mariners have opted to part ways with the veteran just a few months before he otherwise would have reached free agency. Seattle will have one week to attempt to pass Moore through waivers, where he can be claimed by any MLB club willing to give him a spot on their roster and pay the remainder of his 2025 salary. Should he clear waivers unclaimed, the club could try to outright him to the minor leagues but he has more than enough service time to reject that outright assignment in favor of free agency.

Replacing on Moore on the roster is Robles, who suffered a dislocated shoulder back in April and has been on the injured list ever since. A former top prospect who spent parts of eight seasons with the Nationals, Robles broke out with the Mariners at the age of 27 last year as he slashed .328/.393/.467 with 30 steals in just 77 games. That elite production was enough to earn Robles a two-year extension with the club, but year one of that deal hasn’t gone especially well between his lengthy stay on the IL and the aforementioned suspension he incurred during his rehab assignment. With Randy Arozarena and Julio Rodriguez entrenched in left and center field respectively, Robles figures to share time with Dominic Canzone and Luke Raley in left going forward.

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Seattle Mariners Transactions Dylan Moore Victor Robles

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Mariners Sign Luke Jackson To Minors Contract

By Mark Polishuk | August 23, 2025 at 8:29am CDT

The Mariners signed Luke Jackson to a minor league deal on Thursday, as per the right-hander’s MLB.com profile page.  Jackson (who turns 34 tomorrow) made his debut with Triple-A Tacoma last night, allowing two runs in an inning of relief work.

The Rangers signed Jackson to a one-year, $1.5MM free agent deal back in February, plus he added another $450K to his salary by reaching innings-based incentives thresholds.  Jackson was designated for assignment and then released in late July, then quickly joined the Tigers on another guaranteed deal.  This tenure in Motown lasted just three appearances and 4 1/3 innings before Jackson was DFA’ed again, and he elected to become a free agent rather than accept an outright assignment to the Tigers’ Triple-A affiliate.

Should the Mariners call Jackson up to the active roster, Seattle will owe him just a prorated minimum salary, which will be subtracted from what remains of his original salary.  With Texas still responsible for the bulk of Jackson’s owed money, there’s no risk for the M’s in adding a veteran depth arm to the ranks.

As one might expect from the three-team tour, it hasn’t been a terribly productive year for Jackson on the mound.  Jackson has a 4.54 ERA over 39 2/3 combined innings with Texas and Detroit, with almost as many walks (24) as strikeouts (28).  The lack of results have come despite Jackson’s usual success at keeping the ball on the ground, as he has a 52.5% grounder rate and a favorable .267 BABIP.

It has now been more two years since Jackson’ last productive MLB season, as he also had a 5.09 ERA across 53 innings with the Giants and Braves in 2024.  While walks have always been an issue for Jackson, he posted very strong numbers in both the 2021 and 2023 seasons, with the 2022 campaign a writeoff due to a Tommy John surgery.  If he can recapture any of his old form, Jackson could bring some postseason experience to a Mariners team that has hopes of making some noise in October.

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Seattle Mariners Transactions Luke Jackson

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Mariners Sign Michael Fulmer To Minor League Deal

By Darragh McDonald | August 20, 2025 at 5:12pm CDT

The Mariners have signed right-hander Michael Fulmer to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had been with the Royals on a minor league deal but the log indicates he was released from that pact a few days ago.

Fulmer, 32, is having a nomadic year. He signed a two-year minor league deal with the Red Sox ahead of the 2024 season. He had undergone UCL surgery and was going to miss that entire campaign. He came into 2025 with a chance to earn a job on Boston’s roster. He didn’t break camp with the club but was called up by mid-April. He was designated for assignment a few days later, clearing waivers and electing free agency.

From there, he landed a minor league deal with the Cubs. He was selected to the big league roster in June but was again cut a few days later. He cleared waivers and elected free agency again, which led him to the Royals.

Around those transactions, he has thrown 5 2/3 big league innings, allowing three earned runs on six hits and two walks with three strikeouts. He has also thrown 54 1/3 Triple-A innings with a 3.98 earned run average, 29.8% strikeout rate and 10.5% walk rate.

Fulmer also has past success on his track record. He initially broke in as a starter with the Tigers and won American League Rookie of the Year in 2016. His results tailed off from there and he wound up in the bullpen, which led to some more good results. He tossed 190 1/3 innings from 2021 to 2023 with a 3.55 ERA, 24.6% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate.

As mentioned, Fulmer missed the 2024 season while recovering from surgery. This year, he’s mostly been stuck in the minors but is still getting strikeouts. The M’s recently lost Trent Thornton to an Achilles tear, subtracting a bit of bullpen depth. Fulmer fills in some of that depth without taking up a roster spot.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

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Kansas City Royals Seattle Mariners Transactions Michael Fulmer

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Víctor Robles Given 10-Game Suspension For Bat-Throwing Incident

By Darragh McDonald | August 19, 2025 at 3:55pm CDT

Major league baseball announced that Mariners outfielder Víctor Robles has received a 10-game suspension and an undisclosed fine from the league. The suspension will begin as soon as Robles is reinstated from the injured list, though Robles has filed an appeal and the suspension is being held in abeyance until the appeals process is complete. Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times reported these details prior to the official announcement. Divish notes that the M’s would have to play a man short during the suspension.

Robles has been on the injured list for most of the year. Back in early April, he made a sensational catch in San Francisco but crashed into the sideline netting and dislocated his left shoulder, causing a small fracture in the humeral head of said shoulder.

A week ago, he was finally able to begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Tacoma. During that week, he was hit by pitches multiple times, as shown in this video breakdown from Jomboy Media. Though he was hit five times, only three of them were technically counted as hit-by-pitches, with the other two counting as swings. Regardless, the final incident saw Robles hit by Joey Estes of the Las Vegas Aviators. Of the five times Robles was hit, three of them were out of the hand of Estes, though the final two were counted as swinging strikes.

Regardless of how it was scored, Robles was clearly upset and threw his bat towards the pitcher’s mound. It doesn’t appear as though it hit Estes or anyone else, but major league baseball is understandably taking a firm stance against a player using his bat in this dangerous manner and sending Robles a message.

President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto spoke to members of the media, including Adam Jude of the Seattle Times, noting that the club tentatively planned to reinstate Robles from the IL next week but those plans may change with the suspension. Divish suggests that perhaps the best plan is to reinstate Robles on September 1st, so that the M’s can at least play with a 27-man roster, though that would push his reinstatement into the middle of September. Reinstating him earlier would mean playing with a 25-man roster for a while, though that would also mean Robles would be able to be reinstated for more games.

It’s also unclear how long the appeals process will take. Sometimes, players appealing a suspension will hang in limbo until their team goes to New York, where the MLB head offices are located. The M’s don’t play in New York again this year, so it’s not clear when the appeal would be scheduled for. Robles being in the minors could also complicate factors. The M’s would surely love for the appeal to drag out into the winter and for Robles to serve his suspension next year, since they are currently in a playoff race, though MLB presumably wouldn’t let it play out like that.

Photo courtesy of Stephen Brashear, Imagn Images

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Seattle Mariners Victor Robles

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Mariners Select Sauryn Lao

By Darragh McDonald | August 19, 2025 at 3:10pm CDT

The Mariners announced a series of roster moves today, including the previously-reported reinstatement of Bryce Miller from the 15-day injured list. They also selected the contract of fellow righty Sauryn Lao. To open active roster spots for those two, righties Jackson Kowar and Casey Legumina were both optioned to Triple-A Tacoma. To open a 40-man spot for Lao, righty Trent Thornton has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Last night, Seattle starter Logan Gilbert had a surprisingly rough start. He lasted only two innings against the Phillies but not before allowing six runs. To get through the rest of the game, the M’s got three innings from Carlos Vargas, two from Legumina and one from Kowar. Legumina tossed 38 pitches and Kowar 30.

Miller is starting tonight and it’s unclear how much length he can give. He has been on the IL for over two months due to elbow inflammation. He got to 5 2/3 innings and 76 pitches in his most recent rehab start. It’s possible he could give the M’s something like that tonight but there’s also some natural uncertainty. To freshen up the bullpen behind Miller, the M’s have sent out Kowar and Legumina to bring in Lao.

Lao was selected to the roster in April. He got to make his major league debut on April 22nd, tossing one and two thirds scoreless innings. He was optioned to the minors the next day and designated for assignment a week later. He cleared outright waivers, allowing the Mariners to bring him back in a non-roster capacity.

Interestingly, the M’s have been stretching him out in Triple-A, even though he’s primarily been a reliever throughout his career. He has thrown 66 innings over 21 appearances this year with a flat earned run average of 3.00. He has struck out 26.3% of batters faced while limiting walks to a 6.7% clip. That should allow him to provide the M’s with multiple innings of relief, if needed.

As for Thornton, it was reported a couple of weeks ago that he is done for the season due to a torn left Achilles tendon. He will be spending the rest of the year on the IL. He is making $2MM in 2025 and could be retained for 2026 via arbitration. However, given his health uncertainty, it’s entirely possible the Mariners decide to non-tender him.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

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Seattle Mariners Transactions Bryce Miller Casey Legumina Jackson Kowar Sauryn Lao Trent Thornton

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Vesting Options Update: Giolito, Polanco, Strahm

By Anthony Franco | August 18, 2025 at 9:40pm CDT

The upcoming free agent class doesn’t feature a ton of players whose contracts contain vesting options. Marcus Stroman’s deal with the Yankees would’ve contained an $18MM player option had he reached 140 innings, but an early-season knee injury made that impossible. The Yanks released him earlier this month anyhow.

While Stroman’s option was a non-factor, a trio of players are closing in on their own vesting provisions.

  • Lucas Giolito, Red Sox RHP ($14MM club option converts to $19MM mutual option at 140 innings; $1.5MM buyout in either case)

Giolito is up to 106 2/3 innings across 19 starts. He needs another 33 1/3 frames to convert next season’s $14MM team option into a $19MM mutual provision. That’d allow him to decline his end and retest free agency as he heads into his age-31 campaign. He’d very likely do so and could command a three-plus year contract.

The righty’s season numbers aren’t exceptional. Giolito carries a 3.63 earned run average with a 19.6% strikeout percentage that is his lowest since his terrible 2018 campaign. He had a trio of blowups in his first seven appearances after missing all of last season to an internal brace surgery. He has been locked in over the past two-plus months. In his last 12 starts, Giolito carries a 2.34 ERA while averaging over six innings per appearance. His 20.4% strikeout rate still isn’t great, and he has benefitted from a .229 opponents average on balls in play, but he at least looks the part of a durable mid-rotation arm again.

Giolito has a good shot to reach 140 innings. He’d need to average a little under six innings per start over his next six appearances. If he stays healthy, he should take the ball at least seven times — which would give him leeway in case he has one bad outing in which he’s knocked out after two or three frames. Even a minimal injured list stint would take it off the table, though.

Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said over the weekend that the Sox had no intention of changing Giolito’s workload to keep him from vesting the option. No front office executive would publicly admit otherwise, of course, but there’s no reason to doubt Breslow in this case. The Red Sox are trying to secure a postseason berth. Even if they were out of contention, limiting a player’s workload so they could exercise an option to keep that player at a below-market rate wouldn’t make for an especially good relationship. If he gets to free agency, Giolito could take aim at something like the three-year deals secured by Luis Severino ($67MM with an opt-out after the second season) and Sean Manaea ($75MM with deferrals).

  • Jorge Polanco, Mariners DH/2B ($8MM mutual option converts to $6MM player option at 450 plate appearances, escalates to $8MM player option at 550 plate appearances; $750K buyout in either case)*

Polanco re-signed with Seattle last offseason on a somewhat complicated deal that reflected his health uncertainty coming off left knee surgery. The deal contains an $8MM mutual option which would vest into a $6MM player provision if Polanco reaches 450 plate appearances. Polanco has taken 395 trips to the dish. He’s 55 plate appearances from reaching the vesting mark, and he’d escalate the player option price back to $8MM if he tallies another 155 trips before season’s end.

Initially, the Mariners looked to have struck gold with that surprise re-signing. Polanco blasted nine home runs while hitting .384 through the end of April. Even with knee and side discomfort limiting him to early-season DH work, he looked rejuvenated. Polanco’s production completely tanked over the next two months, however. He had a huge July but is back to a .213/.275/.298 showing in 14 games this month.

Polanco has hit .209/.283/.344 across 315 plate appearances since the beginning of May. His season batting line (.245/.310/.439) is still above-average, but there have been significant peaks and valleys. Cole Young has taken over at second base. While Eugenio Suárez’s impending free agency leaves an opening at third base, Polanco hasn’t shown he’s healthy enough to play there regularly. There’s a good chance the Mariners would buy out their end of the option if it remains a mutual provision. Polanco only needs to start another 13 or 14 games to give himself more security.

That shouldn’t be a problem with 36 games remaining on the schedule. The M’s have sat him in each of their past two games against left-handed opponents, but he continues to play regularly versus righties. He’s highly unlikely to get all the way to 550 PA’s to push the player option to $8MM, but he should easily unlock the $6MM player option that’ll give him the unilateral decision whether to return to free agency.

* The vesting provision also requires that Polanco hasn’t suffered a lower body injury that’d prevent him from being ready for Opening Day 2026.

  • Matt Strahm, Phillies LHP ($5.5MM team option becomes guaranteed at $7.5MM at 60 innings)*

Strahm’s extension with the Phillies contained a $4.5MM club option for the 2026 season. The southpaw has already pushed that to $5.5MM and will escalate it to $6.5MM when he records two more outs. He’s 10 2/3 innings away from hitting the 60-inning threshold, at which point the price jumps to $7.5MM and becomes guaranteed.

In his case, it’s probably immaterial. Even if Strahm suffers a minor injury that keeps him from getting to 60 frames, the Phillies would probably exercise the option. Strahm is having another impressive season, working to a 3.10 ERA with six saves and 14 holds. His velocity has dropped a tick and he has lost a few points on his strikeout rate, but he has still punched out an above-average 27.7% of opponents. Strahm is one of Rob Thomson’s more trusted setup arms.

* The vesting provision also requires that Strahm pass a postseason physical.

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Boston Red Sox MLBTR Originals Philadelphia Phillies Seattle Mariners Jorge Polanco Lucas Giolito Matt Strahm

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Mariners To Activate Bryce Miller On Tuesday

By Anthony Franco | August 18, 2025 at 8:40pm CDT

The Mariners are activating starter Bryce Miller from the injured list tomorrow, manager Dan Wilson tells reporters (including MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer). He’ll go opposite NL Cy Young candidate Cristopher Sánchez in the second game of their series against the Phillies. While Miller has been out for over two months, Seattle never transferred him to the 60-day injured list. They’ll therefore only need to make an active roster transaction tomorrow.

Miller will take an MLB mound for the first time since June 6. He has been sidelined since then by elbow inflammation. The righty received a platelet-rich plasma injection and was able to rehab without anything more invasive. He has made a trio of rehab starts with Triple-A Tacoma this month. Miller got up to 5 2/3 innings and 76 pitches in his most recent appearance last Wednesday. He allowed a pair of runs on two hits and a walk while recording four strikeouts.

Perhaps more importantly, Miller’s velocity has looked sharp on the rehab assignment. He’s averaging 96.4 MPH on his fastball, more than two ticks higher than his early-season MLB work. Miller struggled over his first couple months, allowing 5.73 earned runs per nine while averaging fewer than five innings per start. His 18.1% strikeout rate was down more than six percentage points compared to last season. Miller was one of the better pitchers in MLB a year ago, taking the ball 31 times and working to a 2.94 ERA across 180 1/3 frames.

Miller will try to recapture last year’s form as the M’s battle the Astros for the AL West crown. Seattle is a game and a half back while holding a 3.5 game cushion on the Guardians in the Wild Card picture. They’ve dropped five of their past six but have been aided by Houston losing four of their last six games. Miller will step into the rotation in place of rookie righty Logan Evans, who went on the IL with his own elbow issue last week.

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Seattle Mariners Bryce Miller

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Mariners Claim Domingo González

By Darragh McDonald | August 12, 2025 at 1:35pm CDT

The Mariners announced that they have claimed right-hander Domingo González off waivers from the Braves and assigned him to Triple-A Tacoma. Atlanta designated him for earlier this week when they claimed righty Connor Seabold. Seattle’s 40-man roster had a vacancy but is now full.

González, 25, has no major league experience yet. Originally an international signing of the Pirates, Atlanta nabbed him in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 draft. A couple of years later, after the 2024 campaign, Atlanta added him to their 40-man roster to prevent him from reaching minor league free agency.

He had done some starting while in the Pirates’ system but has been almost exclusively a reliever since joining the Braves. His only two starts since switching organizations were two-inning stints as an opener. Over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, he logged 106 1/3 innings with a 3.55 earned run average. His 11.9% walk rate was a bit on the high side but he struck out 34.3% of opponents.

Given that performance, it’s understandable that Atlanta didn’t want him to get away and gave him a roster spot. But his results have backed up a bit this year. He has thrown 42 Triple-A innings with a 4.29 ERA, 21.4% strikeout rate and 11.5% walk rate. Those numbers seemingly prevented him from getting a big league call-up and also nudged him off the 40-man and onto the waiver wire.

For the Mariners, they had a free roster spot and have used it to scoop up González. Since he is in his first of three option years, the M’s could potentially be patient in trying to get him back on track. He has no major league service time yet, so he’ll be cheaply controllable for years to come if he can develop into a serviceable big league arm, though he’ll first have to show enough promise to hang onto a roster spot.

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images

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Atlanta Braves Seattle Mariners Transactions Domingo Gonzalez

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Poll: Who Had The Best Deadline In The AL West?

By Nick Deeds | August 7, 2025 at 4:10pm 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. So far, the Phillies, Reds, and Padres have each come out on top in their respective divisions. Today, we’ll be moving on to the American League with the AL West. A look at each of the five clubs, listed from best to worst record in 2025:

Houston Astros

The Astros made one of the most shocking moves of the deadline when they brought Carlos Correa home in a trade with the Twins. Adding Correa back to the mix creates something of a positional logjam on the infield for the club in the long-term, but with third baseman Isaac Paredes unlikely to return this season due to a severe hamstring injury, Correa shores up the infield in a big way and cost the club virtually nothing other than money. Two more players were acquired to help round out the club’s position player mix: infielder Ramon Urias and outfielder Jesus Sanchez.

All three are controlled beyond the 2025 season, and while Sanchez cost the Astros rookie right-hander Ryan Gusto, no upper-level prospects changed hands in the club’s trio of deals. That ability to add long-term talent without surrendering the best prospects in the system was impressive, though the roughly $70MM they’ll be paying Correa over the life of his contract is a significant outlay and they failed to add the starting pitcher they were hoping could fill out the middle of the rotation behind Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown.

Seattle Mariners

The Mariners’ moves at the deadline were arguably even splashier than those in Houston. While the club acquired three rental players without any team control beyond the current campaign, it’s hard to argue against the fact that they’ve significantly upped their chances of winning both the AL West and even the World Series this year. Adding Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor to the infield corners in separate deals with the Diamondbacks represents a sizable upgrade over Luke Raley and Ben Williamson.

Meanwhile, the return (Tyler Locklear and a quartet of pitching prospects outside of Top 100 consideration) was lighter than what was required to bring in high-end controllable talents at this deadline. The Caleb Ferguson trade with the Pirates follows a similar path. The swap gives a club in need of left-handed help in the bullpen a steady, capable setup man who throws from the left side and can partner with Gabe Speier. That deal cost only Class-A pitching prospect Jeter Martinez, who has a 6.18 ERA in 16 starts this year. The Mariners opted to maximize short-term impact while doing so on a budget, and if they can overtake Houston in the West down the stretch, it would be hard to argue with them as the winners of the deadline.

Texas Rangers

With one-and-a-half games currently sitting between the Rangers and a postseason berth, it’s understandable that they acted quite aggressively this trade season. The focus of their haul was a trio of veterans: starter Merrill Kelly, setup lefty Danny Coulombe, and relief arm Phil Maton. Kelly stands out as arguably the best starting pitcher traded this summer, and the high cost (by the standards of a rental player) reflects that. The Rangers had to surrender their #5, #9, and #13 prospects according to MLB.com to get the deal done. Coulombe and Maton weren’t quite that expensive, but cost Texas a trio of prospects led by southpaw Garrett Horn, who was recently added to the club’s top 30 prospects list over at Baseball America at #25.

Shelling out significant prospect talent in order to make a serious run at a Wild Card berth is understandable, but what’s worth noting is that the Rangers also blew past the luxury tax in order to make those additions. Texas had worked meticulously throughout the season in order to stay below the first threshold and reset their penalties, but all of that work has now been thrown out in an effort to maximize their odds at making the postseason in 2025. The potential impact is clearly significant, but was that worth it for a team not even in playoff position on deadline day?

Los Angeles Angels

The Angels had a quiet deadline that was somewhat incongruent with their status as fringe (at best) contenders. The Halos are currently six games out of an AL Wild Card spot with a middling 55-60 record, but that didn’t stop them from doing some light buying this summer. Adding former top prospect Oswald Peraza in a minor swap with the Yankees made some sense, given the club’s long-term needs on the infield, Peraza’s many years of remaining team control and a low cost of acquisition.

Acquiring a pair of rental veterans for their bullpen in the form of Andrew Chafin and Luis Garcia was a bit more questionable, but the cost do so was low. Former 13th-round pick Sam Brown and 26-year-old lefty Jake Eder (whom the Angels had picked up off waivers earlier in the year) went back to the Nats in that swap.

The Angels didn’t really damage the farm, but they missed an opportunity to listen on players like Yoan Moncada, Taylor Ward, Luis Rengifo, and maybe even Reid Detmers. Selling even some short-term pieces could have helped restock a farm system that’s been viewed as below-average for quite some time. The urge to push in during a rare, mostly-healthy season for Mike Trout is an understandable one, but it’s hard to say with confidence that doing so was the right move.

The Athletics

Unlike the rest of the division, the Athletics were sellers this summer. They made just two trades. Shipping Miguel Andujar to the Reds wasn’t a major move but netted a 2022 fourth-rounder (right-hander Kenya Huggins) who now sits 25th among their prospects at MLB.com.

The vast majority of their deadline focused on the single biggest blockbuster that happened this July: the deal that sent closer Mason Miller and lefty starter JP Sears to the Padres. Acquiring a consensus top-five prospect in the sport by bringing in Leo De Vries is arguably enough to win the deadline by itself, but he was also joined by well-regarded prospects Braden Nett and Henry Baez, Double-A starters who could be part of the rotation mix in West Sacramento sometime next year.

Rounding out the package is rookie reliever Eduarniel Nunez, who struggled in his first appearances with the A’s but could bolster their bullpen in the future. It was a very strong return, with De Vries in particular standing out as the sort of elite prospect that almost never gets dealt at all, much less in a deadline trade for a reliever. On the other hand, giving up Miller with four-plus years of team control remaining (not to mention the possibility he could be converted into a rotation role in the future to further raise his value) could make this deal a tough pill to swallow, particularly if the 18-year-old De Vries does not blossom into an All-Star caliber player.

A number of different approaches characterized this deadline for the AL West. The Rangers and Mariners were very aggressive on bringing in short-term additions, while the Astros focused on bringing in controllable talent, the A’s brought in a haul for the future and the Angels largely stood pat. Who had the best deadline of that quintet? Have your say in the poll below:

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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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