Backseat Driver — Baseball Bench Coach

My younger grandson likes to give me driving instructions from his car seat in the back. I sometimes embarrassingly hear, “Keep both hands on the wheel.” More often, he is on top of the traffic lights situation, “Red means stop, and green means go.” As fans, we have been backseat drivers for the last month as the August 1st Trade Deadline approached. If our team looked to be contending, we wanted our general manager to be a buyer and go for a trade to put our team into the playoffs this season (and dare we say, win the World Series!). Here are the top buyers over the past week:

Texas Rangers. General Manager Chris Young saw his surprising Rangers surge to the AL West lead in the first half of the season. Before this season his big signings were hitters – Corey Seager and Marcus Semien. Now it was time to shore up the mound in a big way, landing Mets’ ace Max Scherzer, as well as Cardinals’ starter Jordan Montgomery and right-handed reliever Chris Stratton. While Scherzer, a 3-time Cy Young winner, has struggled a bit this season by his standards, he gives his new team an ace with plenty of playoff experience. Montgomery was one of the best pitchers on the market, sporting a 3.09 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 21 starts. The price for Scherzer was a steep one, prized prospect Luisangel Acuna, Ronald’s brother. Now it’s time for the best manager in baseball, Bruce Bochy, to put the magic together on the field.

Los Angeles Angels. The Angels’ best move of the Trading Deadline was a non-move, their decision to take Shohei Ohtani off the market and make a playoff run. Ohtani is a free agent at the end of the season and perhaps would have landed the biggest prospect haul in Trade Deadline history for LA. Once that decision was made, it was time to be buyers! The first deal landed pitching ace Lucas Giolito from the White Sox. Giolito has a 3.79 ERA this season, pitching in 121 innings and striking out 131. He fits in nicely as the #2 starter behind Ohtani. LA then looked to the Rockies for some hitting help, landing first baseman C.J. Cron, an All-Star last season, and outfielder Randal Grichuk. The lineup will be packed with talent once Mike Trout returns. The Angels and Ohtani are on the move for a 2023 playoff run.

Houston Astros. The 2022 World Champions couldn’t resist taking a another shot at the title, and made the biggest move on the day of the Trade Deadline. Houston acquired the other Mets’ ace, Justin Verlander, for a return engagement. Verlander threw his third career no-hitter and won two World titles in his prior stint with the Astros, 2017-2022. The Astros also added another former pitcher, Kendall Graveman, from the White Sox to bolster its bullpen. While the Astros are certainly in line to make a deep playoff push, the Mets may have been the big winners in the Verlander trade in acquiring Houston’s #1 prospect, outfielder Drew Gilbert, as well as #4, Ryan Clifford.

Los Angeles Dodgers. If you are like me, you’ve been watching the 2023 Dodgers pitching with some joy, a team ERA of 4.47, 21st in the MLB, not the Dodgers we are accustomed to seeing. Of course they were the first NL team at the Trade Deadline to improve their mound performance, adding Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly of the White Sox. Lynn’s 2023 ERA is a disappointing 6.47 but he has dominated on the mound with strikeouts – 10.8 Ks/9 innings ratio. Kelly’s engagement in LA is a return one. The Dodgers also took a flyer on the Guardians’ Amed Rosario, who brings great versatility to the Dodgers in the field and at the dish. Can this LA team make another run?

Chicago Cubs. If you would have asked a Cubbies’ backseat driver two weeks ago whether they would be sellers, it would have been a resounding YES, especially since 2023 free agents Cody Bellinger and Marcus Stroman might land some top prospects in trades. GM Jed Hoyer then witnessed his team rack up a season long 8 straight wins, and decided to buy instead. Hoyer may have landed the best hitter on the market, former Cub Jeimer Candelario, from the Nationals. Candelario comes to the club with a .342 on-base percentage and much power in 96 games, mostly at third base. While Jeimer is expected to play a little third and DH as a Cub, he is mostly on board to play first. This past week in his first game back with the team, he had four hits and manned first base, albeit with catcher Miguel Amaya’s first baseman mitt.

Baltimore Orioles. Tampa Bay came marching out of the 2023 gates with an amazing start, but the upstart Orioles have taken the lead in the tough AL East during the last couple weeks. To help its playoff push, Baltimore traded for the Cardinals’ quality starter, Jack Flaherty. Flaherty, just 27, was once the #2 prospect in all of baseball and placed fourth in the NL Cy Young race just four years ago. He was clearly a bright spot on the St. Louis starting staff during this difficult season, as the Cards went 13-7 when he pitched and 34-53 when he didn’t. The Orioles were able to get Flaherty without yielding any of their top 15 prospects. Watch out for Baltimore in October!

Toronto Blue Jays. Another Cardinal flew away to an AL East contender, as the Blue Jays obtained St. Louis shortstop Paul DeJong on Trade Deadline Day. Not in my wildest imagination would I have thought before the season that the Cardinals would be such a frequent seller at the Deadline. DeJong, just 29, was an All-Star in 2019 when he hit a career best 30 HRs. He plays a steady shortstop defensively, so much so that Toronto can breathe a big sigh of relief as Bo Bichette recovers from knee soreness.

Tampa Bay Rays. Another AL East contender not named the Red Sox or the Yankees gets the final slot for the top buyers in 2023. The Rays starting staff has been devastated with injuries over much of the last 40 games. In a quiet, yet strong move, Tampa obtained Cleveland starter Aaron Civale. Civale is 28 and has allowed two or fewer runs in 10 of his last starts. In addition, Civale will remain under team control through 2025. It’s a huge plus for Tampa, but a big “what’s going on?” for Cleveland. At the time of the trade, the Guardians were just one game out of the AL Central lead. Anything can happen once you get into the playoffs. The backseat Cleveland drivers need to remind their GM of that.

For the above teams, you will know in the next few months as October playoff baseball approaches if they were wise buyers at the Trade Deadline. For those backseat drivers of the non-contending teams who were sellers at the Trade Deadline, patience is the word. You probably won’t know if your sales paid dividends for a few years. Sometimes it is better in my grandson’s words to approach a yellow light and “just go slow”.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach