With the Aug. 3 trade deadline closing in fast, the rumor mill is spinning at full speed, and Friday brought another round of movement and speculation across the league. The Mets have already started the sell-off, the Dodgers are weighing their pitching options, the Cardinals may be setting up a rotation change, and the Red Sox are back shopping for infield help.
The first actual move came out of Queens, where the Mets sent veteran lefty reliever A.J. Minter to the Twins for a pair of prospects.
Minnesota gets a bullpen arm who has been excellent in 2026 and should help a relief corps trying to push back toward the playoffs for the first time since 2023. New York, meanwhile, added infield prospects Bruin Agbayani and Billy Amick.
Agbayani is 19 and was a sixth-round pick in 2025, while Amick, 23, was a second-rounder and has hit 23 home runs in 86 Double-A games this season.
And that may only be the beginning for the Mets. For a last-place club, the expectation is that David Stearns will keep dealing before Monday’s deadline.
Two rotation pieces who look especially likely to move are Freddy Peralta and Clay Holmes. Peralta is a pending free agent who has had a rough season, though his recent track record still carries real weight.
Holmes is nearing a return from a fractured fibula and has been effective since moving from the bullpen to the rotation before last season. He also has a player option for 2027 that he appears unlikely to use.
Other relievers who could be next out of Queens include Luke Weaver, Brooks Raley, and Huascar Brazoban.
Holmes may not be staying on the market for long. ESPN reports that the Dodgers have interest in the 33-year-old right-hander.
Los Angeles still has its eyes on Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, the back-to-back AL Cy Young winner, but if Detroit keeps him or the asking price gets too steep, Holmes could become the fallback. That makes sense given the Dodgers’ current situation: their rotation is banged up, and they are almost certain to add a starter by Monday.
Skubal remains the bigger prize, though, and there’s more than one reason Los Angeles is pursuing him. Beyond the obvious appeal of landing the top available deadline arm and plugging a major hole, the Dodgers also like the idea of keeping him away from other National League contenders. According to the New York Post, the Brewers, Braves, and Phillies all have varying levels of interest in the left-hander, so a Dodgers deal would block one of their rivals from getting him.
Another pitcher drawing attention is Giants ace Logan Webb. USA Today reports that the Astros have asked about him, but San Francisco continues to say he is not available.
That could be a negotiating stance meant to raise the price, or it could reflect Buster Posey’s reluctance to make the kind of move that would signal a major rebuild. Either way, Webb’s appeal is obvious.
The 29-year-old right-hander is a three-time All-Star and has finished in the top six of the NL Cy Young voting three times. His season hasn’t been his strongest, but the resume still makes him one of the more attractive names in the pitching market.
In St. Louis, a roster move may be pointing toward a trade of its own.
The Cardinals are set to promote left-hander Quinn Mathews to start Saturday against the Blue Jays. The 25-year-old Stanford product has been pitching well lately, helped by better control, and he’s not far removed from a 2024 minor league season in which he struck out more than 200 batters across four levels.
His arrival will require a 40-man roster move, and the timing suggests Dustin May could be on the way out. If May is dealt before Mathews debuts, the rookie could step right into his spot on both the 40-man and active rosters, as well as in the rotation.
May’s surface numbers aren’t eye-popping, but the underlying indicators are strong enough to keep him in demand. He has stayed healthy, his velocity has bounced back, and his contract includes a mutual option for 2027. Like most mutual options, that one probably won’t matter much in the end.
Boston, finally, is back in the infield market. The Red Sox had seemed to patch one of their problems when they traded with the Nationals for Curtis Mead, but that plan took a hit almost immediately when Mead suffered a wrist fracture in his first game with the club.
His absence is expected to be long, which sends Boston back into the hunt for help before the deadline. According to The Athletic, possible targets include the Marlins’ Otto Lopez and Xavier Edwards, the Angels’ Zach Neto, and the Tigers’ Gleyber Torres.
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Andrew Friedman has already noted that deadline business can come together in ways nobody sees coming, and this would qualify as one of the more surprising possibilities on the board. Any pursuit of Neto still feels uncertain, but the mere fact that the Dodgers are being linked to a rivals young shortstop adds another layer to what could become a very active market for one of the most sought-after players available. [Read more 🡒]
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Dodgers Deadline Buzz Puts One Beloved Piece Of This Run At Risk
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Teoscar Hernndez sits at the center of that tension because he has become one of the more recognizable and well-liked players in this run, even as his contract and the organizations depth make him a logical name to surface in deadline chatter. Nothing official has materialized, but the idea alone is enough to underline the stakes for a team that expects to play deep into October and has to decide whether preserving playoff momentum matters more than the kind of asset management that can shape the next few seasons. [Read more 🡒]