Well I came into the trade deadline not expecting to make a deal. With Marco Luciano out for the year I had been shopping for a 3B but as I had mentioned in a previous post the ones who would be upgrades are either untouchable or have big contracts extending beyond this year. Freili Encarnacion has actually been coming on late and it's not like Luciano was hitting the cover off the ball. Still, thanks to OOTP's new trade deadline day feature I received many offers and got caught up in things, making three deals in all.
The first was an attempt to upgrade the backup catcher spot. The waiver claim of Cal Raleigh a couple of months back did not turn out to be upgrade I had hoped as the Big Dumper hit 123/191/153 in 73 at-bats and is only a 45 defenders. Hence the deal for Langeliers whom the Phillies made available. He's a better defender (55) and although he wasn't hitting much better than Raleigh he has a little more power. And mainly I was just sick of Raleigh.
Speaking of backup catchers there was a fair amount of interest in Drew Romo, a 75-rated defender at the position but who has an even worse bat than Raleigh (and it was only good for 0.2 WAR at Durham). Chicago offered me this deal with Romo and someone else whom I forget but didn't want to give up, and when I took him out they still wanted the deal with just Romo. So we get a bullpen upgrade by bringing back Doval, he of the 75 stuff and 80 movement (and 45 control), whom we acquired at the deadline last year from Colorado. He signed a one-year deal with the Cubs who fell out of it. And they also threw in Mendez, who is a half-decent prospect and could play in the bigs as a 4th OF right now (the third guy Ochoa isn't really any kind of prospect).
The only problem with acquiring Doval is that there wasn't a natural opening on the staff for him to fill. The pen has pitched really well and everyone on the staff except Luis German and John Swanda is out of options and those two weren't being demoted. So we swung this deal to make room for Doval:
Yes we made a deal with our most unlikely trade partners, the team we're tied with atop the AL East - and may have helped them. Of course we already traded them Christopher Gau earlier this year when we also needed to make room so why not do it again? Beeter had been OK for us but was clearly the last man on the staff, relegated to long relief/mop-up work. He still has his 70/45/45 stuff so obviously he can help the Jays and the only reason we did this (aside from making room for Doval) is that they offered us a top 100 (#79) prospect in Castillo. He was Toronto's first-round pick in 2026 (18th overall) and is rated 50 current/65 potential contact, 75/75 gap and 55/60 power. He hit over .300 with moderate power at each MiLB stop and held his own coming off the bench in Toronto in 60 AB. Castillo will go to Durham for now as we have 1B and DH covered but should definitely figure into next year's plans.
So in terms of the current roster, Doval is in for Beeter and Langeliers for Raleigh (who cleared waivers and went to Durham).