Now that the Aug. 1 non-waiver trade deadline has passed, which teams came out on top and which did the least to improve?
WINNERS
1. They made chicken salad out of a market that was imperfectly suited for what they needed. In a typical trade market, Texas would've had an array of relatively high-quality starting pitchers from which to choose. But the starting pitching available this summer was historically awful, in the eyes of a lot of executives, leaving the Rangers a choice: overpay for pitchers better suited for the back end of their rotation, or find other avenues to improve.
So in the end, Texas added two All-Star hitters, Jonathan Lucroy and Carlos Beltran, to what was already a very good lineup, as well as reliever Jeremy Jeffress. And by waiting until the last hours before the deadline, Rangers GM Jon Daniels didn't have to pay sticker price.
The cost for the Rangers was high, writes Keith Law, but worth it.