In less than three weeks, Major League Baseball will hit the 2025 trade deadline. Front offices in both leagues are gearing up to fill the holes in their teams’ rosters and farm systems. Will your team be a buyer or a seller this season? Here is a preview of what will go down before the July 31 deadline in the NL West.
Going into this season, the Diamondbacks boasted a rotation of Corbin Burnes, Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Brandon Pfaadt. With that rotation and Arizona’s plentiful offense, the team was expected to be competing for the NL West title. Instead, the team sits five games out of a wild-card spot at 46-48. Burnes, closer Justin Martinez, and three other Diamondbacks pitchers are out for the year after having Tommy John surgery. Arizona has 11 pitchers in all who are injured right now. It doesn’t help that Gallen, Rodriguez, and Pfaadt (all currently healthy) have ERAs over 5.00.
The pitching staff’s woes have wasted another excellent year from the offense. Now, the Diamondbacks are forced to decide whether to sell at the deadline or stand pat and hope for better next year. Eugenio Suárez (29 homers, 75 RBI), along with Gallen and Kelly, will all be free agents at season’s end. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. can opt out of his deal, too. That leaves the team with a lot of questions and a lot of phone calls before July 31. Expect Arizona to deal at least one, if not more, of those players before the deadline. Everyone expects Suárez to be the first one out the door, with the New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners, Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, and Milwaukee Brewers all interested.
The good news for Colorado is that catcher Hunter Goodman is a breakout star, and outfielders Jordan Beck and Mickey Moniak have both looked good this season. The bad news is that not much else has gone right for the Rockies this season. Kris Bryant and Ezequiel Tovar have barely played due to injuries. The starting pitchers have a combined 10 wins in 94 games, and the pitching staff as a whole is dead last in ERA with an astoundingly bad 5.66. They are on pace to beat the Chicago White Sox’s mark for the worst record in MLB history since the league went to a 162-game season.
This team needs a ton of pitching, as well as a second baseman. Assuming that they don’t want to give up any of their young talent, Colorado’s best trade chip is veteran third baseman Ryan McMahon. Despite him having a down year, McMahon still has 20-home run power and plays excellent defense. The Rockies may well be willing to part with veteran starting pitchers Germán Márquez and Kyle Freeland, if they can get some young pitching prospects in return. This team will be bad for several years to come.
No matter how much the Dodgers spend, the one thing that they have not been able to buy is health. They currently have 11 pitchers injured, as well as their starting and backup third basemen. Shohei Ohtani just started pitching again, but he is still only going an inning or two. Despite Los Angeles’s embarrassment of riches in the starting pitcher department, the team may need to trade for another one to get them through until the likes of Blake Snell, Tony Gonsolin, and Roki Sasaki can get healthy. They have enough positional prospects that they could probably get their hands on someone like the Kansas City Royals’ Seth Lugo or the Miami Marlins’ Sandy Alcántara if they chose to.
On offense, the team is still thriving, despite the losses at third. The Dodgers could use one more left-handed bat, though, given Michael Conforto’s recent struggles. Los Angeles would like to pry switch-hitter Bryan Reynolds away from the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, he has a no-trade clause, and reportedly, the Dodgers are on his block list. That move would also up the payroll again, so they may have to look at cheaper options if they are also going to pursue a front-line starter.
Much like the Dodgers, San Diego’s main weakness has been injuries to their starting rotation. Joe Musgrove will miss the entire season after Tommy John surgery, and Michael King will be out until mid-August with a pinched thoracic nerve in his shoulder. Yu Darvish just made his first start of the season after being sidelined with elbow inflammation. Look for the Padres to target a starter at the deadline to get the team through until King returns.
On the offensive side, San Diego needs to find a bat to fill their designated hitter spot. The team has gotten almost nothing from the position all year. Someone like Marcell Ozuna of the Atlanta Braves would be a good fit. His power and on-base percentage would be a big addition to the Padres’ lineup. Also, Ozuna’s expiring contract would mean that the team would not have to make a long-term commitment. At 51-43, San Diego is just a half-game out of the final wild-card spot and only 4.5 games behind L.A. in the NL West.
The Giants just made their big trade, bringing Rafael Devers over from the Red Sox, but don’t think that they are done. New President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey looks to be all-in on this season. After the trade of Jordan Hicks and Kyle Harrison in the Devers deal, and the decline of Hayden Birdsong, San Francisco could go after a fifth starter. However, the team’s main focus is anticipated to be on the offensive side. Patrick Bailey is a fantastic defender, but the team has the worst OPS in the league from the catcher position. Catchers that can hit are hard to come by, but the Giants would do well to at least try.
San Francisco has not gotten much power out of their outfield beyond Heliot Ramos. The team could use someone to replace or at least platoon with right fielder Mike Yastrzemski. He is hitting just .147 versus lefties, with just one of his eight home runs coming against southpaws. There is talk that the Texas Rangers’ Adolis Garcia and the Los Angeles Angels’ Taylor Ward could be available if those teams slide farther out of the wild card race. Either of those two would be a huge upgrade in right, even with Garcia’s struggles this season.
The Giants, Padres, and Dodgers all have the talent to make a run to the World Series if they can stay healthy. The Dodgers have the inside track, but a big move by either of the other two could drastically change the landscape in the NL West. I would like to see San Francisco land Garcia or Ward. The addition of either of those two would make that Giants lineup truly formidable.
The Diamondbacks are quite a conundrum. They have an excellent offense and what should have been an exceptional rotation. However, they could potentially lose Suárez, Kelly, Gallen, and Gurriel Jr. after the season. Suárez and Kelly have put up excellent numbers, but they seem to be the ones to trade. Kelly is 36 and Suárez is 33. If Arizona gets a good return for those two and re-signs Gallen and Gurriel Jr., they should still be playoff contenders next season. It just seems crazy to trade the two players who were putting up better numbers just because they are older.
The Rockies are beyond saving at this point. They can’t pitch at Coors Field, and they aren’t hitting well enough to win anywhere. The team no longer has the sluggers thrive even in Denver. Kris Bryant has been a complete bust, and they are stuck with him through 2028. He hasn’t played over 100 games since 2021, and he hasn’t hit since 2022. His $182 million contract is an albatross pulling the team down. It has been a sad decline to watch for a once-great player. Colorado has to hope they hit it big on some draft picks, because it is nearly impossible to get stars to sign to play in the mountains of Denver.
For more of Stadium Rant’s 2025 MLB trade deadline coverage, click here.
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