Team Rescue: Let’s Fix Your Teams at the Trade Deadline

It’s trade deadline week.

With the expanded wild card platform now allowing for more teams in the playoffs, there’s constant debate about who is going to buy and who is going to sell, and the markets have become increasingly dry because of one thing: fear.

There’s fear that you could go sell off pieces and punt for next year when you still are conceivably not entirely out of it. The Tigers SOLD last year with a 1% chance and ended up having their turnaround afterwards!

There’s also fear that what if you go in and it’s not enough? Prospects in the minor leagues and young talent have never been more major league-ready from an early age, so why would you want to destroy the future if you have the next James Wood, Jacob Wilson, or Paul Skenes on the way up?

It’s time to officially plant the flag with the deadline on the horizon- there are teams in the middle that have to make a decision that may be afraid, and are in need of a fix for the long-term and the immediate future.

Sometimes it takes someone like John Taffer from reality TV to come in and yell at you and tell you what you’re doing wrong and how to fix it in order to make a decision, so that’s what we’ll do with a select group of teams that are going to be facing some similar issues by this deadline.

This is Team Rescue, where we fix some teams ahead of the trade deadline.

Atlanta Braves and Baltimore Orioles

Atlanta and Baltimore. You used to be known as two of the gold standards for team-building. After the 2021 World Series, the Braves went the route of locking up the entire core with extensions- Austin Riley, Ronald Acuna, Ozzie Albies, Michael Harris II, Matt Olson, and Spencer Strider have all been locked up. Atlanta fans in the battery have jerseys they can buy for a decade with full faith in their roster. Baltimore went through season after season of misery and turmoil to get draft picks, and the golden age of the young core arrived to make the postseason with more young talent than they knew what to do with for the next decade.

Yet you’ve been over 10 games below .500 for nearly all season. There’s so much talent here on paper, but you have to face the writing on the wall, make some small pivots in the movable pieces to build for the long term, and get over the ego of the talent on paper! You’re not as good as you say you are when the Marlins are ahead of you in the standings, and 7 other teams are ahead of you in the standings, Atlanta! The youth of Gunnar, Adley, and Jackson Holliday doesn’t matter if you’ve allowed the 4th-most earned runs, Baltimore!

There’s still a core that can be kept intact, but there’s talent that can be moved. Atlanta can hold out hope for a full season of Ronald, Strider, and Sale, and potentially try to move Sean Murphy as a valuable offensive catcher and invest in the bullpen, youth, and the development of Drake Baldwin, and get younger. The Orioles can sell their impending free agents to make some cap space to invest in contracts of guys that will need to be paid in Adley, Gunnar, and Jackson, and look at the pitching market.

You’re overworked bartenders. Get a good night’s sleep in 2025 and come back better than ever.

St. Louis Cardinals and Minnesota Twins

It’s time to get an identity, St. Louis and Minnesota. There are a lot of pieces that are exciting to watch on these squads individually- Nolan Arenado is a no-doubt Hall of Famer who rejected a trade to stay in St. Louis. Masyn Winn is one of the most underrated young shortstops. Brendan Donovan has arguably been the best second baseman in the NL. Joe Ryan has an immaculate fastball in Minny. Byron Buxton is one of the most dynamic athletes in the game and is having a career year.

Yet you know what you still are? Boring. St. Louis and Minnesota have been hovering within the .500 mark nearly all year, the Cardinals miles behind Chicago and Milwaukee in the division, and Minnesota eons away from Detroit, and the time has come to pick a lane.

St. Louis is young enough where it feels like it can come together, and a soft sell while keeping Nolan as the veteran to get younger all-around would make them exciting in the long-run; Winn, Herrera, and Victor Scott II are all under 25, so selling as much pitching as possible that clearly isn’t working, would set up a new GM next year to build a roster he likes for the long-term.

The Twins have continued to lose games that they should win and have lost 11 of 14 away from Target Field, and you have to ask yourself: are you good enough to win with Byron Buxton, Royce Lewis, and Carlos Correa in the long term, with their injury history, with this roster? On paper, they were favored to win the division this year because of how seemingly everyone in the lineup could put up good at-bats, and it’s just not happening enough. If it’s not enough, it’s time to move expiring deals from an area of strength, the bullpen, and plan to be the exciting team that you could be next year.

Stop telling everyone the team is gourmet when it has to be reheated in the microwave.

Miami Marlins and Los Angeles Angels

Miami and Anaheim. You two have been “butt of joke” teams consistently over the past few years- Anaheim for failing to win with Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, and employing Anthony Rendon and Miami for making the postseason every now and then before selling off the entirety of the roster; there’s been a habit of waiting for the wheels to fall off before and endless cycle of regrouping.

PHOTO: Sam Navarro/Imagn Images

You know what you have this time? Something to build around. You have top-shelf ingredients of teams that can be cornerstones and need someone to have the courage to cook with them this time! For once, don’t sell, Miami. For once, make calculated moves, Anaheim!

Miami has been rumored to trade ace Sandy Alcantara since the beginning of the season; struggling this year at 4-9 has tanked his value a bit, but is it such a bad thing to hold on to him and see if he’s more consistent next year and pair him with Eury Perez? Now you have Alcantara, Meyer, and Perez as a rotation to build around. When All-Star Kyle Stowers is clutch with three walk-off hits and 5 multi-homer games, it shouldn’t be a headline as to whether or not he’s being traded- it should be “The Marlins have their guy.” Buying for the future, for once, and believing in the team is what this team needs. Another big veteran bat for us to believe in their offense would completely change the perspective of them as just a frisky team that’s third in the NL East and has something to build upon.

The same can be said for the Angels, who finally have some talent budding around Mike Trout that isn’t named Shohei. Zach Neto has been superb defensively and at the plate at shortstop, Jo Adell is coming up with clutch homers and finally looking like what we thought he could be, and Jose Soriano has been a reliable young starter that’s now gone over 7 innings 7 times. There was a desperation to win with Mike Trout as early as possible. It showed with irresponsible moves, never forget the ALL PITCHER draft in which they selected all pitchers that didn’t pan out in order to fulfill the pitching need.

Still, now with Trout as the grizzled vet with budding talent around, the Angels can move expiring contracts and buy at the deadline to go out and try and make something of the last AL Wild Card spot potentially. Go out and buy a pitcher to fix the unreliable rotation!

Make us believe!

PHOTO: Sam Navarro/Imagn Images