Players returning from injury who could swing MLB's playoff races - ESPN

You can count on at least two things at Major League Baseball's trade deadline:

1. A flurry of deals in the final hours.

2. The key decision-maker for a team that did relatively little saying something like: Our big additions will be getting Player X and Player Y back from the injured list.

To fans disappointed that their teams didn't bring in major talent from the outside, it's often a maddening rationalization. But it's also a very real factor. And that might be even more the case in 2026, a year in which the standings are so muddled that 23 teams entered August within four games of a playoff spot.

This year's trade deadline brought its usual final burst, with 42 trades involving 118 players engineered on the final day. But don't dismiss those internal additions as an empty platitude. Some of them will wind up making a major difference.

Below, we identified some of the returning players with the most potential impact.

Expected return date: Nobody really knows. But at long last, there's progress. Anthony began a swing progression just before the end of July and is now hitting off a pitching machine. That might not sound like much, but up until recently, there had been little to no update since the second-year outfielder suffered a partially torn tendon in his right wrist on May 4. Now there's a path toward a rehab assignment. Crochet's progress had been even slower since landing on the IL with shoulder inflammation in late April. But he finally started throwing again last week, playing catch from about 60 feet out. The left-hander still has several steps to clear, but one can have reasonable hope he might be back this season in some capacity.

What they mean to the team: What's most impressive about Boston's dominant run