Top 10 Players Who Should’ve Been Moved at the Trade Deadline

While the trade deadline was very active overall, some of the best players who were rumored to be on the block were never moved.

2024 trade deadline sellers Toronto Blue Jays
DETROIT, MI - JULY 08: Bo Bichette #11 (L) and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. #27 of the Toronto Blue Jays look on in the rain during the game against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on July 8, 2023 in Detroit, Michigan. The Tigers defeated the Blue Jays 2-0. (Photo by Mark Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

What was a relatively pedestrian MLB trade deadline passed Tuesday evening, with Randy Arozarena to the Seattle Mariners, Carlos Estévez to the Philadelphia Phillies, Erick Fedde to the St. Louis Cardinals, Tanner Scott to the San Diego Padres and Jack Flaherty to the Los Angeles Dodgers among the biggest moves made.

Wisely, the Detroit Tigers elected to hold onto AL Cy Young front-runner Tarik Skubal, who can’t become a free agent until after the 2026 season and should be a building block for the organization.

However, there’s a slew of non-competitive teams that should have made even more trades. Here’s a look at the top 10 players who should’ve been traded before the deadline.

10. Taylor Ward: LF, Los Angeles Angels

The Angels seemingly got a nice return from the Phillies in the aforementioned Estévez trade, but holding onto Ward, 30, in a seller’s market shows a continued lack of commitment to fully embracing a necessary rebuild in Anaheim.

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Ward was a first-round pick by the Angels in 2015, but was something of a late-bloomer, breaking out in his age-28 campaign in 2022. Because of that, Ward can’t become a free agent until after the 2026 season. His controllability is the most valuable quality that Ward — who has 16 home runs and a .712 OPS — has. And the Angels chose not to capitalize on it.

The Halos don’t have a path to contending during Ward’s two remaining years of control, but they do still have an outfielder best suited to go to a situation where he plays primarily against lefties. That might help them to win 67 games instead of 66 this season.

9. Jameson Taillon: RHP, Chicago Cubs

Cody Bellinger has a complicated contract, and Justin Steele can’t become a free agent until after the 2027 season, so it’s understandable why certain key pieces on the Cubs weren’t moved by president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer.

But a year ago, Taillon’s four-year, $68 million deal looked like a disaster after he posted a 6.15 ERA across his first 15 starts as a Cub in 2023. To his credit, Taillon got back on track after the All-Star Break, with a 3.70 ERA over 82 2/3 innings pitched. That’s carried over to to 2024, where Taillon is 7-6 with a 3.35 ERA and 3.97 FIP over 104 2/3 innings pitched.

Naturally, there was some trade interest in Taillon. Granted, he’s pitching well for the Cubs right now. But in the not-so-distant-past, he’s shown you how far south things can go when he’s struggling. He’s also a pitcher with a relatively lengthy injury history, so it seems like if you had the chance to offload the two years and $36 million remaining on his deal after this year, it might have been wise to strike while the iron was hot.

8. Luis Rengifo: INF, Los Angeles Angels

Rengifo did go on the injured list with right wrist inflammation on July 5, but was activated on July 23. He’s in the midst of a career-year, as he’s hitting .302 with 24 stolen bases and a .769 OPS for the Angels.

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Factors that also made Rengifo an intriguing trade candidate: he has experience playing second base, shortstop and third base, and he can’t become a free agent until after the 2025 season.

For teams who had questions at multiple infield positions — such as the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers — Rengifo seemed like the perfect fit. But general manager Perry Minasian wasn’t able to reach a deal. And Rengifo’s value will likely only go down as he ticks closer to free agency.

7. Chris Bassitt: RHP, Toronto Blue Jays

Given the shockingly good return general manager Ross Atkins got from the Houston Astros for Yusei Kikuchi — a rental with a 4.75 ERA — it makes you wonder why the Blue Jays didn’t try to further exploit what was clearly a seller’s market.

Kevin Gausman has had a relatively disappointing season, so it makes some sense that the Blue Jays didn’t want to sell low on the two-time All-Star, who is under contract through the 2026 season.

But Bassitt has been a very steady starter for quite some time. Maybe the Astros were uniquely desperate in what they gave up for Kikuchi, but they probably would have given up even more for Bassitt, who is under contract through the 2025 season.

And at 35, there’s always risk of a pitcher getting hurt and/or falling off. Moving them for pieces while you can is typically a wise strategy when dealing with pitchers in their mid-30s.

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6. Kyle Finnegan: Closer, Washington Nationals

When you see the returns that Estévez and Scott went for, it makes it much more surprising that the Nationals elected to hold onto Finnegan.

Unlike those two, he isn’t a rental, as he has one year remaining of arbitration eligibility before becoming a free agent after 2025. The first-time All-Star leads the NL with 42 games finished, while recording 28 saves in 32 attempts and posting a 3.48 ERA. Perhaps Finnegan’s 4.75 expected ERA and 4.77 FIP scared some teams off, but he’s generally gotten really good results this year.

What is possible is that general manager Mike Rizzo believes his team is exiting their rebuild and will be able to contend next year with Finnegan as their closer.

5. Blake Snell: LHP, San Francisco Giants

How desperate are contending teams for starting pitching? So much so that the San Diego Padres and New York Yankees — one Snell’s last employer and the other a team that seemed only mildly interested in him last offseason — were rumored to have checked in on him.

Other teams that checked in on Snell, according to Jon Heyman of The New York Post, were the Cubs and Baltimore Orioles. Snell has two Cy Youngs on his resume, but has had fairly drastic variances in his performance during his career. This year is the best example, as he finished with an 0.75 ERA over four starts in July, after posting a 9.51 ERA across his first six starts in San Francisco.

There are two possibilities from here that should leave the Giants concerned: A) Snell turns back into a pumpkin and they are left to pay him $38.5 million for his second season in San Francisco or B) he pitches so well in the second half that he opts out and returns to free agency in the winter.

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It’s fair to wonder whether president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi will still be around to see either play out.

4. Luis Robert Jr.: CF, Chicago White Sox

Robert’s injury history — which included missing nearly two months with a right hip flexor strain — probably turned some teams off. However, that injury history isn’t going anywhere, as Robert is in danger of falling short of playing 100 games in a season yet again.

Perhaps he’ll have a monster second half, but the most likely outcome is that in the winter, Robert will still been seen in a pretty similar light as a trade candidate — an All-Star level talent with serious durability concerns.

The only difference then is he’ll only have one year remaining on his current contract, before any acquiring team has to decide on his $20 million club option for 2026. (If that option is picked up, Robert also has a $20 million club option for 2027. Both options comes with $2 million buyouts if declined.)

By keeping Robert, general manager Chris Gets and the White Sox are stuck in a holding pattern. And when you have a run differential of -229, being static isn’t a solution, particularly when it’s perceived that you didn’t do well in the Erick Fedde/Tommy Pham/Michael Kopech deal.

3. Bo Bichette: SS, Toronto Blue Jays

Bichette is currently on the 10-day injured list with a right calf strain, but that’s not the type of thing that would prevent a trade from occurring.

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But general manager Ross Atkins says that the Blue Jays didn’t get close to making a deal involving Bichette or Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (more on him in a minute).

“Not close,” Atkins said. “Was never our intention to try to trade either one of them, and they are absolutely a part of things moving forward.”

Bichette, though, seemed less sure of whether his future is North of the Border when asked by Hazel Mae in late June if he would be surprised by a trade.

“No. Not surprised at all,” Bichette said.

Bichette’s father, Dante, played for five different teams over a 14-year MLB career, so his son is certainly aware of the business aspect of the sport. Still, that doesn’t sound like someone who is hell-bent on spending his entire career with the Blue Jays.

And if things don’t seem to be trending towards Bichette being with the Blue Jays beyond 2025, wouldn’t the smartest thing to do be to move the 26-year-old for the maximum return?

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2. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: 1B, Toronto Blue Jays

As with Bichette, if there’s not a path to a long-term deal between the Blue Jays and Guerrero, it’s unclear why you wouldn’t want to maximize his trade return. Guerrero can become a free agent after the 2025 season, and based on how the Blue Jays have played this season, it’s hard to think they’ll be able to compete for a World Series in his contract year.

Guerrero hit .269 with an .804 OPS between 2022 and 2023. This season, he’s hitting .311 with a .906 OPS. Guerrero also has 21 home runs in 108 games this season, as opposed to 26 home runs in 156 games a year ago. It just feels like this was the time to get the most for him, and it doesn’t seem that moving the 25-year-old was a serious consideration for the Blue Jays.

If Toronto ultimately signs Guerrero to an extension, then that’s a different story. But if they wind up trading him at a later date or letting him walk in free agency, we’ll look back to this point and wonder why they waited to get the most they could in return for Guerrero.

1. Garrett Crochet: LHP, Chicago White Sox

Crochet seemed certain to be moved before a July 25 report from Jon Heyman of The New York Post indicated that the Tommy John surgery veteran wanted to have a normal workload as a starter for the remainder of the season and would only pitch in the postseason with an extension, and in the rotation.

Getz admitted he was “surprised” by Crochet’s camp leaking that info, because it was the first they learned of that stance. Surely, that complicated his trade candidacy.

Still, it’s not as though Crochet’s camp put that info out on July 29. There was time to have some initial shock at the report and regroup. Trading Crochet wouldn’t have been easy, but on a market desperate for impact pitching, there still should have been a path to doing it.

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If it was necessary to grant a negotiation window between Crochet and the acquiring team, so be it. When you’re 57 games below .500, getting things right like this is imperative.

It may very well be that Crochet is dealt in the winter. But he’ll be part of two pennant runs, as opposed to three had he been traded this summer. And without putting the jinx on the 25-year-old lefty, he has to remain healthy for the rest of the season for this to become a discussion at the Winter Meetings again.