2026 MLB Trade Deadline Buzz, Trades Tracker: Dodgers Acquire Reliever Seth Halvorsen

The 2026 MLB trade deadline is approaching, and there will be teams buying and selling – and plenty of rumors about both – before then.

Here you’ll find the latest rumors, news and trades from around the league.

July 20

Colorado Rockies general manager Josh Byrnes orchestrated a trade with his former team Monday, sending right-hander Seth Halvorsen to the Los Angeles Dodgers for two minor league players.

Halvorsen is eligible to come off the 15-day injured list after being placed on it earlier this month with inflammation in his right shoulder. He is 0-1 with a 4.74 ERA across 21 appearances this season.

As part of the deal, Colorado picked up right-handed pitcher Nick Frasso and outfielder Landyn Vidourek from the Dodgers.

Byrnes knows the Los Angeles farm system after spending more than a decade in the front office with the team. He left in December to join forces with Paul DePodesta, the Rockies’ president of baseball operations, in an effort to turn around a franchise that’s trying to break a string of three straight 100-loss seasons.

The 27-year-old Frasso was 1-0 with a 4.74 ERA with Triple-A Oklahoma City this season. He was picked up by the Dodgers as part of a deal with Toronto on Aug. 2, 2022. Frasso was ranked the 80th overall prospect in baseball before the 2024 season by MLB.com.

He will report to Triple-A Albuquerque. Vidourek, a third-round pick out of the University of Cincinnati in 2025, is hitting .176 with eight home runs and 28 RBIs in the minors this season.

He will report to Single-A Fresno. Colorado drafted Halvorsen in the seventh round out of Tennessee in 2023. The 26-year-old is 3-4 in 75 career games with the Rockies and has 13 saves. The Rockies entered the day 23 1/2 games behind Los Angeles in the NL West.

As the MLB Trade Deadline draws closer, the race to October is shifting from the field to the front office. The Atlanta Braves are among the teams expected to be active, with pitching reportedly high on their wish list.

Braves President of Baseball Operations Alex Anthopoulos has a busy few weeks ahead as Atlanta looks to hold onto first place in the NL East. He said during a recent appearance on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM that the team isn’t focused on just one need.

“We’re definitely not a complete team,” Anthopoulos said. “I think we’ve got the upside to be a complete team, but we can add rotation, bullpen, bats. As much as we all like to say ‘I need to get this’ or ‘I need to get that,’ … sometimes you just need to take what ends up being available to you.”

Several big names have surfaced on the trade market, including Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, Minnesota Twins right-hander Joe Ryan and New York Mets closer Devin Williams. It’s unclear how aggressive the Braves will be at the deadline, but Anthopoulos isn’t ruling anything out.

“It’s been pretty obvious that if there’s a playoff-caliber out there, we would jump at that,” said Anthopoulos. “But if there’s a reliever, we would jump at that. We see it all the time in the playoffs with all the off-days; not that many guys are going deep in terms of starts. Having a deep bullpen is pretty important.”

e.Anthopoulos appears ready for any outcome at the deadline. Whether the Braves make no moves or add a starter, reliever or bat, Atlanta has multiple paths to improve its roster.

“I just don’t think at the deadline we can say ‘We have to get this reliever’ or ‘We have to get this bat,” Anthopoulos concluded. “We [need] literally anything that will make the team better — and my thought right now is I just don’t know what’s going to materialize.”

The Mets are looking to sell nearly everyone on the roster, and the White Sox are looking to add to a team that’s competing for the AL Central crown. To that end, Chicago has sent special assistant Nick Hostelter to watch the rehab starts of New York starter Clay Holmes, as he is a potential candidate for a deadline deal, per USA Today.

Holmes has a $12 million player option for 2027, but will likely decline that should the rest of his 2026 go well, given he had a 2.39 ERA over nine starts prior to breaking his fibula on a comebacker in mid-May. Holmes, a two-time All-Star reliever who was converted from the bullpen to the rotation in 2025, produced a 3.53 ERA in 31 stats and 33 appearances last summer, and looked to be building on that success to begin 2026.

The White Sox have struggled to find a reliable fifth option in their rotation all season long, with just four pitchers reaching double-digits in starts to this point. Bringing in Holmes would go a long way towards shoring up the middle of the Chicago rotation, and without significantly impacting the budget or limiting the White Sox from addressing other needs.

The Athletics can hit, but have not been able to put together much pitching in the first two years of games played in hitter-friendly Sacramento. Rival teams are reportedly dangling pitching upgrades to the A’s, however, in exchange for their outfielders, per MLB Network.

Tyler Soderstrom, Henry Bolte and Lawrence Butler have been the three primary outfielders for the A’s this year, while Denzel Clarke has missed most of the season recovering from a bone bruise in his foot. Clarke is a defensive specialist, Soderstrom is the most established and productive hitter, Butler is having a down season but has been good to great in the recent past, while Bolte is a rookie who has acquitted himself well to this point. 

The presence of so many options means that the A’s could deal from depth, and the fact that Soderstrom is locked up through at least 2030 with options through 2033 means he could bring in a serious return. Whether the A’s are going to attempt to address their pitching needs through other means so as not to lose this depth, though – depth that is being tested in the present – is the question.

July 19

The Reds are 16.5 back in the NL Central and seven behind the last wild-card spot in the National League, but aren’t ready to fully go all-in on selling this trade deadline. Instead, Cincinnati will look to trade players set to be free agents after 2026, while leaving open room to add to the roster, per the Athletic.

The plan is to start building toward a more successful 2027 team, as this season has been disappointing for a club that earned a postseason berth a year ago. To do so, moving players like starting pitcher Brady Singer, third baseman Eugenio Suárez, first baseman Nathaniel Lowe and catcher Tyler Stephenson would help – all four are free agents after this summer.

Singer has been on a roll of late after a tough start to the season; he has allowed five homers in his last 45 ⅔ innings after a disastrous and uncharacteristic 16 long balls in his first 51, which spiked his ERA over the first two months to 6.18. Suárez is well off the pace of last season’s 49-homer outburst, but has had recent enough success – and on a market notable for its lack of power bats – to draw someone’s attention as a change of scenery candidate. Stephenson isn’t hitting much in 2026, but he is a catcher who has hit, which is a rarity in today’s game, and has a reputation as a positive contributor defensively. Lowe is very productive against right-handed pitchers, against which he’s batting .269/.357/.505, but is unable to do much of anything against lefties, limiting him to a platoon role.

The Nationals have been in conversation with other clubs about trading first baseman Luis García Jr., per the Athletic. García, 26, is in the midst of a breakout season that has helped the Nationals get within three games of an NL wild-card spot.

García’s best season at the plate before 2026 came in ’24, when he hit .282/.318/.444 with 18 home runs in 140 games. He has already matched his wins above replacement from 2024, however, by hitting .280/.313/.547 with a career-high 20 homers in just 91 games.

He has experience not just at first base, but in the outfield and at second base, as well, and he is appealing to other clubs given the relative lack of power bats available on the market this deadline. However, he is also under team control for 2027 in his final year of arbitration eligibility, so there are reasons for both the Nats to want to hang on to their first baseman, or charge a premium price for a deal.

While the Nationals limit García against lefties, the bulk of opposing pitchers are right-handed, and a team with an option to face lefties will have little trouble fitting his bat into the lineup. Whether Washington decides to deal him – or keep the longest-tenured player on the roster around for the wild-card race – is the more significant question holding up any potential trade.

The Chicago Cubs acquired right-hander Aaron Civale and cash considerations from the Athletics for minor league righty Aiden Moffett following their 6-2 win over Minnesota on Saturday.

This will be the 31-year-old Civale’s second tour with pitching-depleted Chicago after splitting the 2025 season between the Brewers, White Sox and Cubs. He’s 5-7 with a 5.42 ERA in 16 games (15 starts) this season with the Athletics, who designated him for assignment Wednesday.

Civale signed a one-year contract with the Athletics in February. He had been claimed off waivers by the Cubs on Aug. 31, 2025.

The righty was 1-0 with one save and a 2.08 ERA in five relief appearances over 13 innings with the Cubs during the remainder of the 2025 regular season. He tossed 4 1/3 scoreless innings in one relief outing in the postseason, against Milwaukee.

Civale is 48-51 with a 4.26 ERA over eight major league seasons with six teams.

The Cubs pitching staff, especially their rotation, has been raked by injuries. Cade Horton is out for the season (Tommy John surgery), and Jameson Taillon (hamstring), Edward Cabrera (hamstring/abductor) Ben Brown (neck) and Justin Steele (elbow) remain sidelined.

Moffett, 22, is 1-2 with a 9.67 ERA and one save in 17 games in relief for the Arizona Complex League Cubs and Single-A Myrtle Beach this season.

July 18

The Red Sox have surged in the standings of late, winning 11 games in a row to move to .500 and third place in the AL East. Boston is now in possession of a wild-card spot, with a +39 run differential that suggests that, even with the injuries the team has suffered, it has also had some bad luck on the field to this point. It’s for these reasons that the Red Sox are keeping the idea of buying at the trade deadline on the table, per ESPN.

The situation is described as “fluid,” with the Red Sox keeping their options open – should they falter over the next couple of weeks, there is always room to deal players like closer Aroldis Chapman, starter Sonny Gray or even attempt to bring in a haul by moving slugging first baseman Willson Contreras, who remains under team control through 2028 thanks to a deal signed with the Cardinals – Contreras is batting .285/.378/.547 with 21 homers.

Should Boston continue to succeed, however, then the team could instead add to that core rather than break it up, in addition to waiting for key injured pieces like last year’s AL Cy Young runner-up, Garrett Crochet, or outfielder Roman Anthony, to come back for the stretch run.

July 17

The Mets were debating whether to sell or buy as they waited for players to get healthy, but now New York has decided it’s time to sell off a significant number of pieces. Per SNY and the New York Post, the Mets have switched into sell mode, and are making the majority of their roster available.

SNY reported that everyone on the roster besides star outfielder Juan Soto, rookies Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing and right-handed starters Christian Scott and Nolan McLean are available for the right offer. Notably, that list does not include shortstop Francisco Lindor, nor free agent acquisition Bo Bichette.

Lindor, 32, has been a star for New York since he was traded by the Guardians before the 2021 season, but has struggled in 2026, hitting just .210/.291/.363 and missing two months with a calf strain. He is signed through 2031, and is owed $170.5 million after 2026. As SNY notes, he is not being actively shopped, but he was not included on the list of players who are untouchable, either – New York signed him to a “win-now” extension, and the Mets have not successfully done that during his peak years.

As for Bichette, the third baseman and shortstop signed a three-year, $126 million deal as a free agent this offseason, and he has hit a disappointing .253/.297/.372 in his first season outside of Toronto. The two-time All-Star with the Blue Jays received MVP votes in 2025 despite a late-season injury, but has not been able to put together sustained success with New York.

Pending free agents like starting pitcher Freddy Peralta could be appealing at the deadline, especially as he was signed to just an $8 million team option for 2026. Reliever Luke Weaver has been excellent, but if the Mets are shifting gears, he’s the kind of player who gets dealt at the deadline to a contender willing to pay to upgrade its bullpen now.

July 16

The Athletics have gone from contenders fighting for the AL West title or at least a wild-card spot to 41-55, in just a matter of weeks. With the trade deadline approaching, general manager David Forst told MLB.com that his team needs to “start playing better baseball in a hurry.”

Forst stated that, “Unfortunately, it’s colored a lot by the way we played the past three weeks. Much of the first half, we did a nice job. We were in first and hung with the Mariners and Rangers until June, and I thought we had better baseball ahead of us.”

Presumably, if the Athletics do not turn things around, the team that is already eight games out of first and 6.5 back for a wild-card, even in an American League where being under .500 isn’t the end of postseason hope, will look to sell. The A’s roster is young enough with enough talent to attempt to load up for 2027, but the issue is also that they have little to sell, with pending free agents like utility man Jeff McNeil (.226/.290/.302 in 85 games) and Jeffrey Springs (6.08 ERA in 19 starts) part of the reason the A’s are struggling to begin with.

July 15

Could the team with the best bullpen ERA in the American League trade for the National League leader in saves?

The New York Yankees “love the idea” of acquiring San Diego Padres star closer Mason Miller, according to the New York Post. Miller, who’s under team control through 2029, was a 2026 All-Star, the reliever’s second such honor in what’s just the right-hander’s fourth season at the big-league level.

Across 39 ⅔ innings this season, Miller sports a 0.91 ERA, an 0.78 WHIP, has totaled 72 strikeouts, 2.2 wins above replacement and a 458 ERA+; he’s 25 for 25 in save situations. He would join a Yankees’ bullpen that’s second in MLB as a whole in ERA (3.10), tied for second in WHIP (1.19) and is fourth in opponent batting average (.225).

Miller was acquired by the Padres from the Athletics at the 2025 MLB trade deadline. The Yankees have possession of the No. 1 AL wild-card seed (54-42), while the Padres are three-and-a-half-games out of the third NL wild-card seed (48-48).

The Astros are finalizing a trade to send Lance McCullers Jr. to the Brewers, per MLB. McCullers has a no-trade clause in his current contract, but waived it to make the move from Houston to Milwaukee. Left-handed pitcher Colton Gordon is the reported return, per the New York Post.

The move is a shift for McCullers in terms of potential, as the Astros are in fourth place in the AL West, three back of the division-leading Rangers and 1.5 back of a wild-card spot thanks to a tough start to the year for Houston, while the Brewers are second in the majors in wins with 59, five games ahead of the second-place Cubs. Both teams are in contention, but the Brewers have already thrived, while Houston has been outscored by 47 runs on the season despite its proximity to a postseason appearance.

McCullers has made eight starts in 2026, posting a 6.86 ERA over 39 ⅓ innings. While he has missed bats, whiffing just under 10 batters per nine, his control has suffered and he has been prone to the long ball the past two years, following two seasons away from the game recovering from multiple elbow and forearm strains, as well as a pair or surgeries. This season, McCullers has deal with shoulder inflammation that has had him on the IL since May 16.

The Brewers are taking a shot on getting McCullers back in the form that made him a valuable member of the Astros’ pitching staff before the injuries, when he had the lowest home run and hit rates in the AL and signed a five-year, $85 million extension with Houston. McCullers is in the final year of that deal, which pays him a total of $17.7 million this season.

Padres’ general manager A.J. Preller doesn’t have a trade deadline strategy quite yet, per MLB, as everything depends on the team’s performance before the deadline. Will the Padres be buyers or sellers is a question that will be answered by San Diego’s post-break success, or lack thereof, and that’s according to Preller himself.

“We’re going to go into the process open-minded to see what’s there and see what can help our club,” Preller told MLB. “We’re going to go in open-minded about whether it’s acquiring players or looking at it if we have to go another direction. All those things are on the table.”

San Diego’s offense has only recently started to perform as it was expected to, with slow starts by third baseman Manny Machado and outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. finally being overcome, but the team is 48-48 at the All-Star break, 12.5 back in the NL West. However, the Padres are just 3.5 back of a wild-card spot, and have underperformed to get there, which makes sticking with this team and even adding to it tantalizing prospects over the next few weeks.

Closer Mason Miller, who represents both sides of this particular coin, was asked during his media availability at the All-Star Game of the possibility of being traded, again, at the deadline, per The San Diego Union-Tribune. While it’s unclear if the Padres would entertain dealing the closer they spent so much to acquire last summer from the Athletics, that Miller is both as productive as he is and remains under team control – he’s in the first year of arbitration and won’t be a free agent until 2030 at the earliest – are both reasons to keep him and restock the farm system with him.

July 14

Willson Contreras isn’t leaving …

The Boston Red Sox first baseman revealed that he informed the front office he won’t waive his no-trade clause, per WEEI. Contreras, who’s in his first season with the Red Sox, has a club option for the 2028 MLB season as part of his five-year, $87.5 million contract and has a no-trade clause in the deal.

Through 88 games this season, the 34-year-old Contreras has totaled 20 home runs, 61 RBIs, 3.5 wins above replacement and a career-high 159 OPS+, while boasting a .285/.379/.542 slash line. Contreras, who reached the second round of the 2026 Home Run Derby, is an All-Star for the fourth time in his 11-year career.

While Boston is 46-48, it has won nine consecutive games and 14 of its last 16, putting it just a half-game out of the third American League wild-card seed.

The Rays are looking for a serious deadline upgrade to bolster their chances in the AL East. According to multiple reports, Tampa Bay is targeting Tigers’ ace and two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal.

USA Today reports that the Rays “plan to be aggressive buyers at the deadline,” with Skubal the primary target. While Skubal missed time already this season recovering from surgery to remove loose bodies in his elbow, he has made six starts with a 3.62 ERA and a 44/5 strikeout-to-walk ratio since his return.

Skubal is a free agent after season’s end, and has the remainder of a record $32 million arbitration salary to be paid over the last two-plus months of the 2026 campaign.

Part of the Rays’ aggressive plan at the deadline includes Diamondbacks’ second baseman Ketel Marte. Like with Skubal, though, the willingness to part with a star player depends on whether his current team is still in the race: the Tigers are 3.5 back of an AL wild-card spot, the D-backs 2.5 back, through July 13.

Marte has an additional complication, in that he’s under contract through 2030, with an $11.5 million player option for 2031.

There are “multiple teams” interested in acquiring Spencer Steer from the Reds, per USA Today. Steer, who plays first base, third base and the outfield, is 28 years old and batting .247/.328/.421 this season.

Steer isn’t a free agent until 2029, so he’s not a rental, but instead is arbitration-eligible – his 2026 salary is $4 million. While not an impact bat, Steer has been around the league average offensively most seasons of his career and has been highly effective against lefties (.269/.356/.478) in his career.

The Reds are in last place in the NL Central, 15.5 games behind the Brewers, and also eight back of a wild-card spot: just three other teams are further from the postseason at the All-Star break, and the next-closest to Cincinnati, the Nationals, is four games ahead in the wild-card standings.