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The Cardinals are trying to build long-term organization depth. Lame duck president of baseball operations John Mozeliak traded relievers Ryan Helsley, Steven Matz and Phil Maton for four pitching prospects and two right-hand hitting infield prospects.

The Padres, meanwhile, remain in “win now� mode. Their ultra-aggressive baseball czar A.J. Preller made five trades involving 22 players.

He added rotation depth with starters JP Sears and Nestor Cortes. He added hard-throwing A’s closer Mason Miller to an already formidable bullpen. To beef up the bottom third of his batting order, he added Ryan O’Hearn, Freddy Fermin and Ramon Laureano.

“One through nine -- and even the guys on the bench -- it’s a tough lineup to get through,” Padres infielder Jake Cronenworth told .

Preller spent a dozen prospects to make these trades, including highly-ranked Leo De Vries. He also held on to pitcher Dylan Cease, a looming free agent who stuck around as a Padres own-rental.

“I really just want to contribute,� Cease said after earning Sunday’s victory over the Cardinals. “We have a great team. We feel good about ourselves. I want to be a part of it.�

With Michael King working his way back from a shoulder injury, starting pitcher Randy Vasquez returned to Triple-A and fell into a depth role. He did a solid job as a fill-in, posting a 3.93 ERA in 22 starts.

The Padres now have pitching stacked on top of pitching. Meanwhile the depleted Cardinals are stretched extremely thin for the rest of this lost season while hoping nobody else gets hurt.

Former Cardinals manager Mike Shildt, whom Mozeliak fired without cause in the STL, will guide the ever-ambitious Padres into high-stakes games down the stretch. Meanwhile the Cardinals will play out the string while Mozeliak's tenure ends with legacy-tarnishing failure.   

Baseball America gave the Padres the following shoutout:

Go for it. Every year, if possible. Every person employed on the baseball side of the equation for a team even remotely in contention should be full speed toward doing whatever they can to put rings on everybody’s fingers. Remember the Rangers of two years ago winning the World Series after sneaking into the playoffs by the hairs of their chinny chin chin?

If that means trading Leo De Vries, then it means trading Leo De Vries. Might you miss him one day? Sure. But if the moves you make get you to the promised land, it won’t matter. 

In the year they met in the World Series, the Cubs dealt Gleyber Torres and Cleveland dealt Clint Frazier and Justys Sheffield to a Yankees club that was in rare sell mode. Torres is in the midst of an excellent career, while Frazier and Sheffield enjoyed modest, inconsistent big league time. 

The Cubs won the World Series, snapping what had become a 108-year drought. Cleveland came up short of its first title since 1954, but an American League pennant is nothing to sneeze at, either. 

Including De Vries, San Diego traded 12 prospects this deadline. Might some of them go on to have long big league careers? Absolutely. If the Padres make a deep run in October and raise a trophy, it will all be worth it.

Here is what folks have been writing about Our National Pastime:

Bob Nightengale, USA Today: “It was ugly. Outrageous. Unfathomable. Disgraceful. It was perhaps the most stunning and quickest fire sale in baseball history. The Minnesota Twins, that lovable little team in the upper Midwest that once won two World Series titles in four years, with St. Paul producing four Hall of Fame ballplayers from the same neighborhood who played for the Twins, ripped out the heart of the franchise in less than 24 hours. They traded 10 active major-league players from their team, including 11 players off their 40-man roster, and saved $26 million in one fell swoop. They traded away All-Stars. They traded away a World Series champion. They traded away their team captain. They traded away their popular homegrown dude. They traded away their soul. The fire sale was so hideous that a local bar in Mankato offered free drinks for anybody wearing Twins attire.�

Chad Jennings, The Athletic: “The stars of the 2025 trade deadline were the relief pitchers. The entire trade market was cold and uneventful until Wednesday night, when the Twins traded Durán and set the whole thing in motion. The Phillies gave up two high-end prospects in the Durán deal. The Mets traded three prospects for two months of Ryan Helsley. The Yankees convinced the Pirates to move David Bednar, then made another trade for Giants closer Camilo Doval. The Tigers got Kyle Finnegan. And, in the real stunner, the Padres gave up Leo De Vries — one of the most highly touted prospects in the sport — for Athletics flamethrower Mason Miller. Both (Griffin) Jax and Doval were traded in the deadline’s final minutes. The Mets added three relievers. So did the Yankees (and two of them were closers). Even the Angels got a couple of bullpen arms, and there were more — Pete Fairbanks, Carlos Estévez, Reid Detmers, Dennis Santana — left on the table.�

Ben Clemens, FanGraphs: “This trend is nothing new — teams just don’t pay up for three months of a hitter anymore — but it was still fairly surprising. If you told me what Mason Miller, Tyler Rogers, and Merrill Kelly netted for their old clubs, just to pick some pitchers from across the spectrum of roles and team control, I would have said this was a seller’s market. Then I would have massively overestimated what Arizona received for its two bats, Suárez in particular. Getting a good hitter for multiple seasons? Teams love it. Look at the contracts they hand out, the extensions they offer, the trades they’re willing to make. But when you’re making additions with only the upcoming postseason in mind, arms matter way more than bats. That’s just how October baseball works now. As a result, it’s also how late July works.�

Mike Axisa, : “Once again, the Angels were one of the most confounding teams at the deadline. They brought in veteran relievers Andrew Chafin and Luis García from the Nationals on Wednesday in a move that did not cost them much. A relatively low-stakes move that did not cost much. The Angels also picked up all-glove/no-bat infielder Oswald Peraza in a minor trade with the Yankees. And that's it. The Angels are fading out of the postseason race and neither bought nor sold meaningfully. Their rentals (Tyler Anderson, Kenley Jansen, Luis Rengifo, etc.) remain even though the Halos are a long shot to play October baseball. I'm not quite sure what the plan is in Anaheim. Is there a plan? It's hard to see one.”

MEGAPHONE

“We're much better than the last two years. We're healthier. We’ve got a complete team. Guys are playing with an edge now. You can tell. Like I said, this place is fun again.�

Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora, on his team hanging in the playoff race.