The MLB trade deadline is among the highlights in the baseball calendar. The days leading up to it are filled with rumours and hot stove vapours that prove intoxicating to many fans.

This year’s trade deadline was Aug. 2 and, as expected, the expanded playoff format led to increased action by a flurry of contending teams. It’s tough to evaluate the corresponding moves in the moment, though. In many cases, an acquired player’s true impact isn’t felt for several months.

With the two League Championship Series underway, we figured now would be a good time to take a glance at the rear-view mirror and reconsider the approach of each of the four remaining MLB clubs to see how their work has panned out.

MLB

Yankees' Aaron Boone blames Houston's open roof for denying Aaron Judge HR

 

San Diego Padres

Players acquired:
Juan Soto – OF
Josh Bell – 1B 
Josh Hader – RP 
Brandon Drury – UTIL 
Cam Gallagher – C 
Jay Groome – RP 

Any conversation about the 2022 trade deadline must begin with the Padres and their prospect-slinging GM A.J. Preller. If he had landed only Juan Soto, this deadline haul would already have been labelled a grand success. The outfielder is a generational talent and arguably the most valuable baseball player to have ever been traded.

Yet, Preller went several steps further. Never mind that his club trailed the Dodgers by 11.5 games on Aug. 2. The GM approached the deadline with a focus on acquiring elite players who could transform his club on the fly. 

Hader is among the very best relievers in baseball, while Bell and Drury significantly deepened the lineup. The hope following the deadline deals was that San Diego’s revamped offence would become a Voltron-type beast, led by Soto, Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. The latter was working his way back from a broken wrist that had kept him out for all of 2022 and, just as he was about to return, MLB announced it had suspended Tatis Jr. 80 games for testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. 

That tore a hole in Preller’s plans. Soto and Hader struggled down the stretch and the Padres as a whole didn’t take off in the way that many hoped. However, in October, the Padres disposed of the 101-win Mets in the wild-card series and then bested the 111-win Dodgers in the division series. Soto is the focal point of the lineup and has had some key hits during the post-season, as expected. Meanwhile, Hader has been masterful, allowing just one hit and striking out 10 across 5.1 post-season innings.