Five biggest losers from the 2025 MLB trade deadline

The 2025 Major League Baseball trade deadline was 6 p.m. ET on Thursday. Some teams managed to get better in either a short-term or long-term outlook. Other teams did not. 

We've already gone over the five biggest winners, which featured some surprising teams. Here we are focusing on the five teams that were the biggest losers.

Minnesota Twins

The good news for Twins fans is the team did not trade outfielder Byron Buxton or starting pitcher Joe Ryan.

The bad news for Twins fans is the team traded pretty much everybody else.

The worst news is the Twins have pretty much sabotaged any goodwill the team had built up in recent years, including their 2023 trip to the American League Division Series. 

Since then the Twins collapsed late last season, did very little in the offseason and then completely gutted the roster over the past two weeks, including a straight salary-dump trade of Carlos Correa to the Houston Astros, his former team. 

This is going to be a long, slow climb back to the top. 

Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates had a chance to have a potentially impactful trade deadline with some intriguing trade chips in what had become a seller's market.

They ended up trading closer David Bednar, third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes, starting pitcher Bailey Falter and relief pitcher Caleb Ferguson. 

They held on to pending free agents Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Tommy Pham and Andrew Heaney.

What's so baffling about the trades they did make is that they gave up useful, productive players with years of team control still remaining, did not get a single highly-ranked prospect back in return and kept the players that are going to leave for nothing. 

The only winner here is owner Bob Nutting's bank account for all of the money he saved in the future by dumping Hayes' contract and potential arbitration years from Bednar and Falter. 

Chicago Cubs

After paying a steep price to get outfielder Kyle Tucker in the offseason everybody in Chicago knew the clock was ticking on the Cubs to build a winner around him. He is a free agent after this season and seems determined to hit the open market for the highest bidder. 

Even though the Cubs have emerged as a contender, it was pretty clear as the season has gone on that they needed at least one more starting pitcher. They did not get one, and instead only added a utility infielder (Willi Castro) and reliever Taylor Rogers. 

While so many teams around them in the NL managed to get better, it's an underwhelming deadline performance for a team that should be going all in. 

Atlanta Braves

It's not that the Braves did anything poor at the trade deadline that makes them losers.

It's that they didn't do ... anything. 

At least not anything that they needed to do. None of their pending free agents were moved, no significant changes were made to a team going nowhere this season and the only move they did make was a marginal trade involving Rafael Montero. 

That is extremely underwhelming. 

Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox were rumored to be in the market for a significant starting pitcher, including Minnesota's Joe Ryan. They did not make that sort of splash move, and instead added Steven Matz and Dustin May. 

For a team trying to hang in the American League playoff race, that is not really exciting. 

They also paid a steep price to get May, giving up one of the top prospects — outfielder James Tibbs III — they acquired in the Rafael Devers trade to the San Francisco Giants.