Who Built the Best Super-Bullpen at the Trade Deadline?

Closers were flying every which way at the 2025 MLB trade deadline. When all was said and done, a number of the best relievers in baseball had switched teams. That included five of the top 10 relievers in saves over the past three years (2023-25) and five of the top 15 in FanGraphs WAR.

Below is a rundown of all the most notable relievers who joined contenders by the end of July, sorted by team in alphabetical order.

Notable Reliever Pickups: American League

Notable Reliever Pickups: National League

Arguably, the biggest trade of the deadline was the Padres’ deal for Mason Miller. A.J. Preller added one of the most dominant relievers in the game to what was already the league’s best relief corps, forming what can only be described as a super-bullpen.

Meanwhile, the Yankees and Mets each made three significant additions in an effort to craft super-bullpens of their own. Did either of them do enough to boost their arm barn above San Diego’s in the super-bullpen power rankings? (A term we definitely didn’t just make up.) Let’s take a look.

Stats updated prior to games on August 5.

Honorable Mention: Houston Astros

Major Addition(s): None

Did the Astros build a super bullpen at the trade deadline? No. If anything, they made their bullpen slightly worse by shipping off swingman Ryan Gusto in the Jesús Sánchez trade. So, they don’t really belong in this conversation, hence the “honorable mention” tag.

On the other hand, how could I leave them out when their bullpen leads the majors in strikeout rate, whiff rate, strikeout-to-walk ratio, batting average against, xwOBA, xFIP, and SIERA?

Josh Hader and Bryan Abreu are as scary of a one-two punch as you’ll find anywhere in the league, while breakout arms Steven Okert, Bennett Sousa, and Bryan King have been remarkably effective.

The Yankees’ bullpen has bigger names and perhaps a higher ceiling, but as “super” as their bullpen might be, I’m not yet convinced it’s any better than the unit the Astros already had in place before the trade deadline.

San Diego Padres

Major Addition(s): Mason Miller

The Case for the Padres: They added the hardest-throwing pitcher in baseball to what was already the league’s top bullpen.

The Padres only made one big addition to their bullpen at the deadline. But the reason they’re included in this discussion – and the reason teams like the Phillies and Rays aren’t – is because of how dangerous their arm barn was before they brought in Mason Miller.

Entering play on July 31, Padres relievers had an MLB-leading 2.97 ERA, well ahead of the Giants in second place (3.22 ERA). They also led the majors in FIP, Win Probability Added (WPA), and fWAR.

Robert Suarez led the league in saves. Adrian Morejon led all relievers in fWAR. Jeremiah Estrada and Jason Adam, dominant back-end arms in their own right, were somehow only the third and fourth best relievers on their own team.

And then the Padres traded for Mason Miller. Entering play on Tuesday, those five arms have combined for a 2.58 ERA and 6.7 fWAR in 233.2 innings. That’s like having Justin Verlander in his 2019 Cy Young Award-winning season (2.58 ERA, 6.4 fWAR) making up five-eighths of their bullpen.

If the Padres can hold on to their postseason spot, they just might be unstoppable in October, when Miller, Suarez, Morejon, Estrada, and Adam can pitch in almost every game.

New York Yankees

Major Addition(s): David Bednar, Camilo Doval, Jake Bird

The Case for the Yankees: Can you imagine if a team had all three of David Bednar, Camilo Doval, and Devin Williams in 2023? Well, they’re still a pretty damn good trio two years later.

From 2021-23, David Bednar pitched 179.2 innings with 61 saves and a 2.25 ERA. Camilo Doval threw 162.1 with 69 saves and a 2.77 ERA. Devin Williams was the best of them all, pitching to a 1.97 ERA and 54 saves in 173.1 frames.

I’ve already compared the Padres’ super-bullpen to a Cy Young winner, so it’s only fair I do the same for the Yankees. The following table shows stats from the 2023 season. The first row is Bednar, Doval, and Williams combined. The next two rows are the NL and AL Cy Young winners, Blake Snell and Gerrit Cole:

Anyway, that’s a lot of talk about the past, so let’s get to the present.

Bednar and Doval each had an uncharacteristic down year in 2024. Meanwhile, Williams lost most of the season to injury.

Bednar has bounced all the way back in 2025 and looks as dominant as ever. Doval has been much more consistent than he was in 2024, even though he hasn’t been as overpowering as he was in the first three years of his career. As for Williams, it’s been his turn to have an inconsistent down year, although his underlying numbers are much more impressive than his ERA.

What am I trying to say? If you only look at their 2025 numbers, they’re three really good relievers. But if you consider their track records, they have the ceilings to be an unstoppable three-headed monster.

What’s more, I haven’t even touched on Luke Weaver, who has a 2.91 ERA in 126.2 innings over the past two years. He struggled in July, but his 2.88 xERA this season suggests he’s been better than ever.

Fernando Cruz, currently on the IL with an oblique strain, will be another high-leverage option when he returns. The righty has a 41.2% strikeout rate in 33 innings this year.

What we’ve seen from all these arms in 2025 isn’t quite as impressive as what the Padres (or the Astros) have seen from their best bullpen pieces. Yet, when it comes to evaluating relievers, larger samples are our friends.

Here’s how the Yankees’ top five relievers (Bednar, Williams, Doval, Weaver, and Cruz) stack up to the Astros’ top five (Hader, Abreu, Okert, Sousa, and King) and the Padres’ top five (Miller, Suarez, Morejon, Estrada, and Adam) over the past five seasons:

Finally, I should briefly touch on Jake Bird. The Yankees’ tertiary bullpen addition doesn’t really factor into the super-bullpen conversation. Indeed, he’s already been optioned to Triple-A.

Still, he’s a good pickup for depth (he’s thrown 232.1 innings over the past four seasons) with the upside to be something much more special. After striking out 19.3% of batters over his first three seasons, he’s lifted his strikeout rate to 26.6% in 2025.

Moreover, all of the pitch models at FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus suggest his stuff has taken a big step forward this year, even if it doesn’t yet show in his results. Bird is a name to watch for sure, but he’ll have to work his way back to the majors before he can work his way up the Yankees’ bullpen depth chart.

New York Mets

Major Addition(s): Ryan Helsley, Tyler Rogers, Gregory Soto

The Case for the Mets: Edwin Díaz is back – and he’s brought friends.

Edwin Díaz was on top of the world in 2022, racking up 31 saves with a 1.31 ERA, a 50.2% strikeout rate, and 3.0 fWAR. Somehow, the Mets’ bullpen only ranked 10th in MLB in ERA and 11th in fWAR and WPA that season.

After losing the 2023 campaign to injury and taking 2024 to get back on his feet, Díaz is back to being one of the very best relievers in Major League Baseball. He’s “only” struck out 37.9% of his opponents, but his groundball rate is a career-best 52.3%. No qualified NL reliever has a lower ERA.

Yet, similar to before, the Mets rank 11th in bullpen ERA. They’re sixth in fWAR but 11th in WPA.

That might be about to change.

David Stearns brought in three quality reinforcements to join Díaz and setup man Reed Garrett.

Ryan Helsley was last year’s NL Reliever of the Year. He hasn’t been quite as sharp in 2025, but just take a minute to think about how good Helsley must be to have a 2.84 ERA in a down year. From 2022-24, he was arguably the best reliever in the Senior Circuit, with a 1.83 ERA, 82 saves, and 5.8 fWAR.

The submarining Tyler Rogers has been nothing but effective since his first full season in 2021, even if it seems like he often flies (or should I say swims) under the radar. From 2021-25, he has a 2.73 ERA in an MLB-leading 353 innings of relief. His 1.73 ERA this season ranks fourth in the National League.

Gregory Soto isn’t as exciting an addition as Helsley or Rogers, and I wouldn’t say he’s meaningfully better than José Buttó, whom the Mets parted with at the deadline as part of the package for Rogers.

However, Soto is left-handed, and the Mets have sorely needed a reliable southpaw reliever ever since they lost A.J. Minter at the end of April. That’s really what this pickup was all about.

With a top five of Díaz, Helsley, Rogers, Garrett, and Soto, I’d argue the Mets’ super-bullpen has the best traits of both the Padres’ and Yankees’ units. Those five have been excellent this season, with a combined 2.38 ERA, 2.81 FIP, and 4.6 fWAR in 219 innings pitched.

Aside from Garrett, we’re also talking about a group of guys with extensive big league track records. They have pitched a total of 1,237 innings (1,238 games) with 288 saves and 23.0 fWAR over the past five seasons – all very similar numbers to those of the Yankees’ top five.

So, to come back to the question that inspired all this in the first place: Who built the best super bullpen at the deadline? There’s no easy answer. It comes down to how much you trust the less proven pitchers in San Diego compared to the more seasoned arms in the Bronx and Queens.

Personally, I think the Mets have put together the bullpen with the best combination of floor and ceiling, of stuff and stability, and of track record and recent success. But it’s close enough that you could just as easily make a case for the Padres or Yankees instead.