Major League Baseball’s trade deadline passed last week, bringing with it a flurry of late activity. While most of the focus was on the headliners — the Mason Millers and Eugenio Suárezes — this happened to be a great deadline for those hoping that better days are just around the bend. Indeed, an impressive number of players were moved who are in the midst of down seasons.
Take new Boston Red Sox right-hander Dustin May, acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for outfielder prospect James Tibbs III. Although he’s already set a new career high in innings (104), he departed the Dodgers having compiled an 84 ERA+ across those frames.
The Red Sox are no doubt hoping they can get better quality of work from May down the stretch, perhaps by tinkering with his pitch mix so that he’s using his sinker less often against lefties. (To date, they’ve tagged that particular pitch to the tune of a .284/.372/.691 slash line.)
May isn’t the only player who finds himself looking to make the most of a clean slate with a new team. Here are four other change-of-scenery players hoping to end the season strong.
Bradley isn’t far removed from being considered a potential mid-rotation starter. Yet the Tampa Bay Rays were willing to part with him in exchange for a few seasons of a reliever (albeit a good one) after a disappointing beginning to his career that saw him amass an 87 ERA+ in 354 frames. Both his strikeout and in-zone contact rates have veered in the wrong direction this season, which is concerning given that his ability to miss bats was one of his standout skills.
Whenever a pitcher changes teams these days, the natural question is how the new club can tinker with their pitch mix to right the ship. This year, Bradley put more of his weight on his fastball than he had in his previous big-league stays — that despite possessing three other pitches that are average or better, according to some of the pitch-grade models out there. The Twins will have to help him figure out the right combination. They may also have to help him rediscover the sink on his splitter, since he’s lost more than three inches from it on a year-to-year basis.
The concepts of over- and underrated have nearly lost all meaning, but I think it would be fair to categorize Soroka as an underappreciated addition to the Cubs rotation. If he had the innings to qualify, his 18.4% strikeout-minus-walk rate would rank 21st in all the majors. The reason he’s overlooked? An unsightly 4.87 ERA that would represent the highest among anyone with that good of a strikeout-minus-walk rate. (Only one other, Dylan Cease, has an ERA above 4.40.)
There’s one obvious reason to expect Soroka to deflate his ERA the rest of the way: the team around him. Whereas the Washington Nationals have one of the worst team-level defenses in the majors, the Cubs have one of the best. On paper, anyway, this seems like an instance where the pitcher will take a step forward without needing to change much of anything about himself.
The other incoming player from the Mason Miller trade, Sears had to be relieved to get out of West Sacramento — or, specifically, Sutter Health Park. You won’t find many worse pairings of pitcher and ballpark, as evidenced by the fact he surrendered 14 long balls in 47 ⅔ frames at home. That prorates to a seemingly impossible rate of 2.6 home runs for every nine innings pitched.
Sears ought to take an immediate liking to PETCO Park, allowing him to return to his typical league-average ways. (He entered this year with a career 92 ERA+ in his first 81 big-league appearances.) If the Padres do ask Sears to experiment, it wouldn’t surprise me if it entails throwing his sweeper more often. In addition to being his best bat- and barrel-missing weapon, he’s recorded a higher in-zone percentage with it than with even his fastball.
Hayes is a tremendous defender whose offensive output has fallen by the wayside since a league-average showing in 2023, when he launched 15 of his 40 career big-league home runs. He’s shown a penchant for posting above-average exit velocities and in-zone contact rates, but his 61 OPS+ since the start of last season would make Pedro Feliz wince. You can understand why the Pittsburgh Pirates were willing to bail on paying him the $36 million he’s owed through 2029.
Part of the problem is that Hayes almost never pulls the ball in the air and thus is failing to maximize his best quality of contact. For context: he has a .163 ISO this season on his batted balls with a 95 mph or higher exit velocity. The league-average mark is .453. Hayes is clearly leaving some slugging on the table, even if it only comes in the form of doubles. The Pirates couldn’t seem to help him correct that flaw; now it’s up to the Reds to get the job done.
Mind you, Hayes doesn’t need to transform into a big eater to provide tons of value. His past shows that he’s a capable three-plus-win contributor when he’s not sporting arguably the worst batting line among qualified big-league regulars.
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