Rangers, Dodgers headline Deadline winners

The buildup to the non-waiver Trade Deadline was dramatic, and the flurry of action on Monday afternoon was a fitting finish to a crazy few weeks of transactions. Here are some takeaways from the wheeling and dealing:

1. The Rangers had an amazing Deadline day In the end, Rangers president of baseball operations Jon Daniels finally found a trade that convinced him to trade some of his top prospects — in this case, athletic outfielder Lewis Brinson and right-hander Luis Ortiz, their No. 2 and 3 prospects, respectively. In return, Texas got an All-Star catcher in Jonathan Lucroy and a hard-throwing reliever in Jeremy Jeffress. Along with the trade for Carlos Beltran, the Rangers strengthened themselves as much as they could have hoped.

As much as Daniels wanted a top-of-the-rotation starting pitcher, he couldn’t bring himself to mortgage the future for one. Besides, the Rangers lead the American League West by six games and could still open a postseason series with Cole Hamels and Yu Darvish pitching Games 1 and 2. Who has a better front two than that?

Besides, the Rangers have weathered injuries and a hellacious 7-17 slump to remain solidly atop the division. Daniels has built a great organization from top to bottom, with Texas likely headed to the postseason for the fifth time in seven years. Part of his genius is not losing sight of the big picture. Daniels was interested in both Chris Archer and Chris Sale, but only to a point.

2. Dodgers now favorites to win the National League West They’ve had an amazing season, having survived injury after injury to the pitching staff to remain competitive. Just when president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman was full go to pursue an outfielder, he watched Clayton Kershaw leave the rotation with a back injury.

Suddenly, Friedman had other priorities, and on Monday, he filled both of them by getting outfielder Josh Reddick and left-hander Rich Hill from the …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com