Outside the Confines: A wild trade deadline

I’m going to say that as bad as yesterday was, today is going to be just as bad or worse.

Of course I would go on a short vacation and all heck breaks loose.

• There’s no way I can list every deal made over the past couple of days in one of the wildest trade deadlines in memory. . .and it’s not over yet! But MLB.com has a running list of all the deals if you’ve lost track.
• David Schoenfield has a look at what we could be in for today after a wild day yesterday. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• The absolute biggest deal hasn’t been made official yet, but it’s been agreed to. The Nationals sent pitcher Max Scherzer and shortstop Trea Turner to the Dodgers for four minor league prospects.
• Zach Kram looks at the Dodgers/Nats deal and says “Blockbuster” doesn’t begin to describe it. The Scherzer/Turner deal is the “Netflix” of trades.
• Ben Clemens analyzes the deal and what the Dodgers are getting. He thinks the deal makes perfect sense from Los Angeles’ point of view, no matter how much they gave up.
• Keith Law likes the deal for the Dodgers and while he likes the players the Nationals got back, he doesn’t think Washington got enough for Scherzer and Turner. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Bradford Doolittle evaluates the deal and gives the Dodgers an “A+” and the Nats a “B+.” (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• You may have heard of one deal in which the Yankees got a left-handed slugger. If it makes you feel better, Keith Law thinks the Cubs got the better end of the deal. (The Athletic sub. req.) But the Yankees got another left-handed slugger when they picked up third baseman Joey Gallo from the Rangers. Dan Szymborski evaluates what the Yankees are getting in Gallo.
• Bradford Doolittle gives the Yankees a “B” and the Rangers a “B-” on the Gallo trade. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Mike Petriello explains how Gallo strengths play in Yankee Stadium.
• Michael Baumann writes that the deals for Gallo and Anthony Rizzo and thinks that the two players give the Yankees the boost they needed to be a threat both to make and win in the playoffs.
• Bob Nightengale notes that with Gallo and Rizzo, the Bronx Bombers are back. He does add that they still need more pitching, but the offense is back at least.
• Another player you may have heard of is on the move. The Nationals dealt Kyle Schwarber to the Red Sox.
• The Athletics got outfielder Starling Marte from the Marlins for pitcher Jesus Luzardo. Jay Jaffe examines the pros and cons for each team in this deal.
• Jake Mailhot examines the deal that sent Diamondbacks infielder Eduardo Escobar to the Brewers.
• Jayson Stark looks at what goes through the mind of a general manager whose team is on the fringes of contention. (The Athletic sub. req.) Do you buy or sell?
• Sara Sanchez writes that some NL teams can improve at the trade deadline by just getting these players healthy.
• Matt Monagan looks at some deals that happened right at the buzzer over the past dozen years.
• OK, now some non-trade news. There was a report this week that said the Mets are having an issue signing their first-round draft pick, Kumar Rocker. R.J. Anderson notes that the Mets really goofed up their draft by not picking a backup choice for Rocker in the later rounds.
• Guardians manager Terry Francona has taken a leave of absence until the end of the year for health reasons.
• Tom Verducci looks at Red Sox manager Alex Cora and how he’s handling the “second chance” he’s getting after being suspended for a year in the Astros sign-stealing scandal.
• Mariners pitcher Héctor Santiago has been suspended 80 games after testing positive for a PED. Santiago will not appeal, saying he took the medication with a prescription from a doctor last year when he was out of baseball.
• Ashley MacLennan is amazed that the Tigers might actually be good right now.
• Noah Frank looks at the death of Minor League Baseball this year. And by that he means the end of the leagues and the organization that was separate from MLB that served the needs of minor league teams first and not the needs of major league teams first. There are some positive changes, but there’s a lot of less positive ones combined with lots of confusion. As an example of how out-of-touch MLB is with the needs of minor league affiliates, they originally banned any non-team personnel on the fields for 90 minutes after every game —meaning no “kids run the bases” promotions and no fireworks for many teams. They only relented after angry pushback.
• Neil Paine inducts Hideo Nomo into the “Hall of Pretty Damn Good Players.” Not only was Nomo a pretty good player, he was also the trailblazer for every Japanese player who followed him to MLB.
• And finally, Russell A. Carleton was a Cleveland baseball fan from early in his childhood. He looks at the history of the old name and says that without question that it was never intended to “honor” anyone or any group. He also says that he’s glad that his childhood baseball memories will now be watched over by a new set of Guardians.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. We just need to get through today without losing our damn minds, Cubs fans. And then, we can wait until next year. We know how to do that.

Everyone stay sane.