Ongoing Attempts, August 1, 2024: The no-names who might become big names

If there was a theme to this week's Major League Baseball Trade Deadline, it was action. The addition of the third wild card in each league seems to have had the intended effect of keeping more teams in the race, or at least more teams fancying themselves as contenders. On top of that, there were obvious buyers and obvious sellers. Put it all together, and there were a whole lot of trades.

The Dodgers and Yankees went for it, fully in the style of evil empires. The Orioles and Phillies, both in first place, agreed to multiple trades. The Rays were wheeling and dealing and making everyone second guess themselves. The Marlins cleaned house less than one year after reaching the playoffs. The Pirates even pulled off a couple trades.

I'm not in the business of designating winners and losers in the immediate aftermath of the deadline. But I do know one thing: with all of the pitchers on the move, especially the relievers, there will be players who are mostly unknown today who will play key roles down the stretch and in the playoffs. While this deadline might have lacked for big name players on the move, it didn't lack for good players changing teams.

Relief pitchers on the move in the time of bullpens

In terms of attention grabbing deals, none looms larger than the Yankees adding Jazz Chisholm, Jr. He's fun. He's flashy. He was on the cover of a video game. If there was anything close to a household name on the move, it was him. And he made his presence felt right away.

Other than Jazz, there wasn't a lot of star power on the move at the 2024 trade deadline. But that doesn't mean there was a lack of impactful moves.

Think ahead to the 2024 playoffs. Let's call it the divisional round, and let's say it's the Phillies and an unnamed opponent. It's the eighth inning of a typical game in this era: a little offense, a lot of strikeouts, and a lot of different pitchers. Jeff Hoffman, once a failed pitching prospect, wraps up two crucial innings of relief work before handing things off to the closer Philly acquired at the trade deadline: Carlos Estévez.

Those two pitchers might be among the five most important players in determining that game's outcome. Neither of them will likely be in the top 10 or even the top 15 most famous or well known players in the game.

Estévez is just one example of many possible impact pitchers who just changed teams, even if many of the trades blur together as relievers moved in exchange for mid- and low-level prospects. It’s more likely that one of those bullpen pitchers will hold the ball in the biggest moments of the playoffs than one of the starters or position players involved in deadline deals.

That’s the nature of baseball in 2024. So, while there was a general shrug at the many trades this week as moves on the margins, some of those pitchers you don’t know today might be familiar by the time we’re watching baseball this October.

Quote of the Week

I would like you to join me in trying to make sense of this doozy from Colorado Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt:

This was in response to questions about why the Rockies, an obvious seller, didn’t do more at such an active Trade Deadline. Is he defending the lack of moves? Maybe. It’s a go-to move for this front office to cite the things that people don’t see to make them seem like an actual functioning franchise.

But then there’s the second part. What do we have to see to believe? I’m guessing he means actual results on the field, making this quote slightly less confusing. Or does he mean people need to see the activity that doesn’t lead to trades? Like we need to see him taking phone calls and sending text messages to believe him?

The Rockies are so weird, their GM can’t even give a generic quote after the trade deadline that makes sense.

Cheering for the best teams in 2024

Here’s a fun exercise: if you had to choose your World Series today, what would it be? Not your prediction. Which two teams would you like to watch?

My answer is the Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

I think a lot of people would hop on board with the Orioles. They’re one of the best teams in baseball, but they still feel like something of an underdog as they do battle with the New York Yankees in the AL East. It’s a lot of young, fun players. I would love to see Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson in the World Series.

The Dodgers are a tougher sell. After all, this is coming from an avid Colorado Rockies fan. I’ll keep my sales pitch simple: I want to watch Shohei Ohtani in the World Series. Who’s going to argue with that?

The underdog journeys of teams like the 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks have been a lot of fun. But I think I’ll be cheering for more chalk in the postseason this year.

• Speaking of those New York Yankees, it’s been the best case scenario for them with the Juan Soto and Aaron Judge combination in the lineup. Michael Baumann wrote about their historic production at FanGraphs.

• Anthony Dabbundo wrote about the winners and losers of the Trade Deadline over at the Ringer. I enjoyed his different spin on the post-deadline winners and losers column.

• All of the moving parts and all of the many teams in the mix muted what might have been a noisy couple weeks surrounding the New York Mets. Because here’s your reminder that they are half a game out of the final wild card spot in the National League.

• I just finished Shrinking. It’s a baseball show.

• Mike Trout is out for the season. We are fully in the “what if” space when discussing his career. We’ll expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised if he can have another sustained run. It’s all such a bummer.

• To end on a happier note, here’s Jackson Holliday hitting a grand slam for his first career home run.

Come on, tell me you don’t want to watch that team in the World Series this year.