Here’s to the teams that made a push, going for it at the July 30 trade deadline despite playoff odds that suggested their chances were slim. Most of them are being rewarded for their efforts, while certain teams that took a more conservative course have regressed.
It doesn’t always turn out this way. It might not even turn out this way in the end, for only three weeks have passed since the deadline and six remain in the regular season. But Major League Baseball is best when teams choose to compete in the present rather than focus on the future. Believe it or not, clubs can pursue both objectives without acting irrationally.
Some of the buyers will fail to reach the postseason and wonder if they viewed their clubs too optimistically. Some of the prospects who were traded will come back to haunt the clubs that moved them. Fine, it happens. The game is unpredictable and forever humbling. But the goal, always, should be to win.
A number of borderline contenders energized their clubhouses with their acquisitions, even though they faced playoff odds of less than 50 percent at the time they made their big moves, according to FanGraphs (the website generates the odds from the current standings, the remaining schedule and the team’s projected performance, simulating the remaining season 10,000 times.)
Some clubs that failed to sufficiently address their needs sought to do bigger things, and their subsequent drops in the standings were due solely to their misses.
The Padres tried for Max Scherzer and