Batting Around: Which contender needed to make more moves at trade deadline to help playoff run?

Throughout the season the CBS Sports MLB experts will bring you a weekly Batting Around roundtable breaking down pretty much anything. The latest news, a historical question, thoughts about the future of baseball, all sorts of stuff. Last week we predicted the biggest name traded at the deadline. This week we’ll cover the deadline fallout.

Which contender needed to do more at the deadline?

R.J. Anderson: I’ll take the coward’s way out and say the Twins. They made one addition, obtaining reliever Trevor Richards from the Blue Jays. I’m certain that the front office’s hands were tied by budgetary restraints, but it’s a tough development for a team that had to watch some of its top competition — the Guardians and Royals among them — make several additions apiece. I thought the Twins had the best roster in the division back in the spring. We’ll see if they have the time and the means to validate that read, but it looks like it’s going to be an uphill battle without any reinforcements en route. 

Dayn Perry: I have to say the Orioles. I suppose I liked the Zach Eflin deal well enough, but I thought the trade for Trevor Rogers was a wild overpay on their part. Why not add another needle-mover to that Norby-Stowers package and make a real play for Garrett Crochet and pay the money that’s clearly there to extend him? Or focus on what Jack Flaherty seems to be now instead of what he was last year and bring him back? Or perhaps really load up the trade package and see if the Tigers will at least have a serious conversation about Tarik Skubal? Rogers just feels like a half-measure for a team that needs real impact in the rotation behind Corbin Burnes. 

Matt Snyder: Yeah, I’d like to copy and paste Dayn’s answer. 

There are two reasons to build up a monster farm system and you need to execute both fronts in order to build the strongest team possible. The first reason is to develop your own prospects and watch them thrive at the big-league level. The Orioles have seen this come to fruition. The other part of this is to use excess prospects as currency in trades for established big-league talent. Elias has so much position-playing prospect depth that he could have bowled teams over to get more impact starting pitching at the big-league level and instead a top prospect in Norby was used as part of a package for Rogers? The Eflin deal was good. After that, Elias needed another move like the Burnes trade and for whatever reason, it didn’t happen. 

Mike Axisa: The Twins were my No. 1 pick and the Orioles were my No. 2 pick. For the sake of variety, I’ll say the Rangers, who woke up on deadline day only 3 1/2 games back in a not great division. Andrew Chafin and Carson Kelly are nice players, but Texas needed another bat (especially with Evan Carter likely done for the season), and they didn’t get it. They have some good starting pitchers nearing a return from injury (Tyler Mahle, most imminently) but the offense could really use some help. I would’ve liked to have seen the defending World Series champs be a little more active than they were.