Why Orioles won the trade deadline and should be World Series favorites, per John Smoltz

The deadline came and went, and most of the difference-making names being discussed ended up staying put. That's the case with Tarik Skubal in Detroit, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette in Toronto, Mason Miller and Brent Rooker in Oakland and Luis Robert Jr. and Garrett Crochet in Chicago. That last name was especially interesting.

In addition to the number of innings he has thrown, it's possible that Crochet's reported desire to get an extension before he pitched for another team in October could have made clubs a bit more hesitant to trade for the White Sox standout.

In our weekly conversation with MLB on FOX analyst John Smoltz, the Hall of Fame pitcher shared his thoughts on Crochet's request, his trade winners and whether the action at the deadline changed his viewpoint on baseball's top contenders.

Kavner: Who were your biggest winners and losers from the deadline among the contenders?

Smoltz: There were a lot of good moves. I was really surprised by the activity around the league. Like you said, maybe not some of the biggest ones, but I'll tell you what Baltimore did a bang-up job. They address just about every need they could. That's got to be an encouraging sign for their fan base to improve their bullpen like they did, to pick up another start, to pick up another slugger, I just think Baltimore won, in my opinion, they won the quantity of trades to really help out. A big splash is going to be the New York Yankees and Jazz Chisholm, and the fact that he's done what he's done is already incredible. Jazz is an electrifying player. 

The Dodgers, of course, went ahead and made a bunch of moves, and not because they can, but because they needed to, so it's going to be very interesting to see how that shifts the