After the trade deadline, these 9 young players appear primed for bigger roles

Every year, the focus at the trade deadline is on the veterans moving teams and improving the contenders. That’s fair. Tarik Skubal is a big piece who deserves our attention.

But for most trades that are made involving a veteran, some regular playing time frees up for another player to seize on the selling team. Non-contending teams are incentivized to play younger players often and figure out if they’ll be part of their organizations’ futures. What position can they handle? Do they have the pitch mix to start? Can they be a late-inning option? Now that the dust has settled from all of the moves, we’ll see some young players step up and get an opportunity to establish their value as major-league regulars.

Below are nine young players who stand to benefit the most from the trade deadline activity.

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Moisés Ballesteros, C/DH, Los Angeles Angels

Ballesteros hasn’t caught a lot for the Cubs, and the defensive numbers haven’t been great when he has been behind the plate, either. Chicago’s usage of him at the designated hitter spot also suggests the Cubs thought, at the very least, that his bat was ahead of his glove. Sending him, along with pitching prospect Mason McGwire, to the Los Angeles Angels for reliever Ryan Zeferjahn counts as further evidence that the Cubs don’t think Ballesteros is a catcher going forward.

The Angels might want to make that decision for themselves. By advanced metrics, outgoing catcher Logan O’Hoppe was the worst defensive catcher in the big leagues, so maybe the bar is lower in Anaheim than elsewhere. At the very least, two months of Ballesteros catching will provide the coaching staff and the front office with the looks and some of the statistics they’ll need to decide his future at the position. Incumbent Angels catcher Travis d’Arnaud, an impending free agent, is 37 and not part of their future.

Ballesteros’ toolkit is there to be a good major-league hitter. He’s shown above-average bat speed along with an above-average strikeout rate, which is a good building block. Taking those two stats alone as a filter and looking among qualified hitters this year, some of his comps include Andy Pages, Wilyer Abreu and Sal Stewart. He should get regular at-bats with the Angels, either as a DH or a catcher. Get the bat, hope he finds a position — that’s the plan in Anaheim.

Yovanny Cruz, RHP, Washington Nationals

Yovanny Cruz, one of the pitchers the Yankees sent to the Nationals in the Luis García Jr. trade, has top-line stuff with a triple-digit fastball and a low-90s slider. In fact, he rates in the top 10 in Stuff+ among relievers under 27 with at least five innings pitched so far this year.

Washington is last in reliever Stuff+ this year and has cycled through a variety of uninspiring closers, so there’s a chance Cruz steps right into the biggest role in the bullpen. He does have that sort of ability and the Nationals could want to see if he can handle the stress all that leverage will provide.

On the other hand, according to FanGraphs, there have been 2,749 rookie reliever seasons since 2000, and of those, only 13 pitchers had more than 10 saves in their debut in the big leagues. That list of debut closers is fun, and includes Huston Street, Edwin Díaz and Andrew Bailey. But it’s also a short list that provides a new entry, on average, every other year. Maybe the situation is ripe for Cruz, or maybe he’s really the Nationals closer next year.

Christian Moore, UT, Los Angeles Angels

Christian Moore should be up with the Angels at some point. He’s been 34 percent better than league average with the stick in Triple A. Even though there were some reports that he didn’t take well to his demotion, his play in the minors has to be a positive reflection on his rededication to the craft.

The two questions Moore needs to answer when it comes to his future role with the Angels have to do with his position and his strikeout rate. He’s lowered his strikeout rate at Triple A this year, mostly by tightening up his swing decisions by improving his rates of chasing at pitches outside the zone and swinging at pitches inside the zone. Moore’s better plate discipline might be as important as anything since the departure of Jo Adell, who was traded to the Cleveland Guardians, means there’s some opportunity in the Angels’ outfield, and second base is still virtually open: Vaughn Grissom hasn’t rated as a positive with the glove at the position and Oswald Peraza rates as a utility player with the bat.

Moore is a former first-round pick with 206 major-league plate appearances on a team looking to the future. He has to get a shot.

Abimelec Ortiz, 1B, Washington Nationals

In his first two games in the big leagues, Abimelec Ortiz has hit for extra bases. He demonstrated excellent raw power in Triple A this year, with a maximum exit velocity that would count among the top 10 of qualified hitters in the big leagues this year. He also had decent strikeout rates. While his component plate discipline stats have been around league average, his walk rates have been strong. There’s a ton to like here as a hitter, and he’s got some runway.

What’s there not to like? It’s just a crowd right now in Washington. When it comes to the hot corners, there are plenty of candidates for playing time. Brady House, Andrés Chaparro, Jorbit Vivas, José Tena and Ortiz will all be competing to be the next full-time starters at those positions. If you put their ages and the stats that are most meaningful in small samples together, you see that they each have their own strengths and weaknesses.

Vivas has the best plate discipline and contact rates. Chaparro might have the best bat speed but at 27, is also the oldest. House has decent bat speed and is a former first-round pick. Vivas and Tena are left-handed. But Ortiz is also left-handed, and is among the best in the group in bat speed as well as contact rates. The 24-year-old might have the most upside of the group. Maybe he gets the biggest run at the plate (between first and DH perhaps), while the rest of the group dukes it out for third base with more intermittent playing time.

It’s at least a fascinating group to watch, as the Nationals seem to be building quickly, just got a major infusion of pitching talent and may want to push the rebuild to get to their contention window ahead of their original schedule.

George Klassen, RHP, Los Angeles Angels

The prospect reports, the walk rates, the advanced numbers all agree that George Klassen doesn’t have good command. Stuff, maybe. He sits in the high 90s and has a couple of hard breaking balls that have pleased the models in the minor leagues. His changeup could be average. There’s a starter’s package in here.

But the command, it’s not good. It wasn’t good in his MLB debut, and it hasn’t been good this year in the minors. He has a double-digit walk rate down there, and his advanced command metrics don’t rate him as even close to average on any pitch, save his hard slider. His locations, mapped here by Baseball Savant, are more abstract art than anything representing the accuracy of a realist painter.

That’s the piece of hope, though. He’s throwing his slider more than ever in the minors this year, and it could function as his fastball, as a pitch that gets him ahead in the count and allows him to throw his other pitches for swinging strikes. It’s a sliver of hope for a pitcher with grades this poor on his command, but it’s everything for now. If he can’t figure this part out soon, he may end up in the bullpen.

John Rave, OF, Kansas City Royals

John Rave, who was recalled from Triple-A Omaha last week, might be 28 years old, but that’s not too old to join the party in Kansas City. He’s done some bat speed training and now pairs well above-average raw power with good swing decisions and around average contact. The projections don’t agree but this sort of skill set should produce an above-average hitter. Since 2020, the Royals have had two outfielders put up an above-average slash line in more than 400 plate appearances, so they have a need at any outfield spot that Rave can fill.

Can he be a center fielder? The prospect grades, usage and age don’t necessarily suggest it, but that’s where the best opening is, considering that Kyle Isbel hasn’t approached league average with the stick in any of his chances at the spot. Maybe it makes sense, in a lost season, to put Rave out there in center and see if he can hack it. And see if the added bat speed has changed his trajectory as a player.

Blade Tidwell, RHP, San Francisco Giants

Overall, Blake Tidwell has shown good stuff and iffy command in the past, and that puts him in an interesting bucket with two spots open in the Giants’ rotation after Tyler Mahle’s trade and Trevor McDonald’s injury. But if you look at his splits, and how his pitches model against lefties and righties, the problem is a little more nuanced than that simple observation. Here are Tidwell’s minor-league model numbers by Stuff+, which looks at the physical characteristics of a pitch, Location+, which looks at locations, and Pitching+, which combines the two.

Don’t worry too much about the exact values in each box. Instead, check the color coding. Green means good, and Tidwell has a lot of stuff and decent command against same-handed hitters. But the story is different against opposite-handed hitters. There, he has pitches that either have a little bit of stuff or he can command, and no pitches that feature both stuff and command.

The good news for Tidwell is that he seems like a natural fit for the rotation for the rest of the year as the Giants ascertain if these trends hold in the big leagues.

Keaton Winn, RHP, San Francisco Giants

The Giants cleaned house at the back of their bullpen, trading both Caleb Kilian and Erik Miller in separate deals. That leaves a vacuum that someone has to fill, though it may be a short-term option. Randy Rodriguez is still out after undergoing Tommy John surgery last year. Should he return in 2027 without complications and the Giants don’t invest in the bullpen in the offseason, he would probably be the closer next year.

But in the short-term, the team will have to sort through some options. Dylan Smith and Keaton Winn are the primary options, and Smith has the advantage when it comes to Stuff+ and recent velocity, as well as strikeout rate. So why did I pick Winn? He might be the superior option if he returns to his days of 96+ mph velocity. He’d been down with an injury, so the radar gun will tell us if he solved that situation or is still nursing something.

Past research has shown that new closers have superior velocity and strikeout rate than their competitors, but unfortunately those metrics are in flux for Smith and Winn. Pick your fighter!

Josh Smith, UT, Toronto Blue Jays

What’s the plan in center field next year for the Blue Jays without Daulton Varsho, who Toronto just traded to the Astros? Will they pick up a relatively cheap ($8 million/$1.75 million buy-out) team option for Myles Straw? And even if they do that, will they start Straw there? Nathan Lukes is already in his 30s and doesn’t seem like a starter with the glove at that position. Josh Smith has played in the outfield, but hasn’t rated well with the glove really anywhere so center field doesn’t seem like an option for him. Sean Keys seems like a first baseman defensively. Maybe they’ll get Varsho back in free agency? Or go after Luis Robert Jr.? There isn’t a natural prospect fit right away, so the answer isn’t necessarily clear.

All that may be a mystery for the future, but worth speculating about because the Jays’ biggest opening post-deadline is in center field. If the answer is that Lukes starts against righties in center and Straw plays mostly against lefties, that could leave left field open for Smith against righties. And if that happens, Smith could ride his above-average plate discipline and contact to around a league-average line, with a little speed and not much power.

It’s not the biggest dream in the world, but it’s a real one. And if the Blue Jays think they can figure out left field with Smith as part of the solution, it might open up money for them next year to help solve some other problems. That’s enough of a reason to give him regular playing time even if Keys is potentially a better hitter and has more ceiling.