MLB trade deadline 2025: What to make of Padres, Twins, more - ESPN

After a wild final day, the 2025 MLB trade deadline is in the books.

The San Diego Padres and Houston Astros made surprising moves that rocked the deadline. The Seattle Mariners went big in their quest for the first World Series trip in franchise history. And the Minnesota Twins, well, left us scrambling to see who is still left on their roster.

Which clubs made the right calls? What should we believe (or not believe) about the rest of the baseball season? Now that the dust has settled from the 2025 trade deadline, we asked our ESPN MLB experts to debate what's real — and what's not — moving forward.

Bradford Doolittle: Not real. There is no team to beat in the American League. The Royals, Rangers and even the Rays — and that's just the R's — can all win that league. That's not because they're all sleeping giants. There's just not much separation in that circuit.

I actually don't believe the Astros are any better, and I already thought they were hanging on to their usual front-runner status with their proverbial fingernails. I like what the Mariners did, and that lineup is a lot more dangerous with Arizona's former heart of the order. And I love Matt Brash, just to throw out some random hyperbole. I could slot the Mariners into the top spot from here, but I still don't see any real separation.

David Schoenfield: Not real. I still think you can take the top six or seven teams in the AL and rank them in any order and not have much of an argument.

Yes, the Astros added offense in Carlos Correa and Jesus Sanchez, but Correa isn't close to the player he was at his peak, and the Astros didn't address their rotation. The Mariners certainly improved with Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor, but their rotation hasn't been nearly as