Three Realistic MLB Trades That Could Shake Up the League

With the Hot Stove League heating up, you’re going to see a lot of proposed baseball trades between now and the New Year. And we’ll join in the fun shortly.

Right after we declare you will not see Tarik Skubal or Paul Skenes in any of the three trades we suggest.

Skubal, the Detroit Tigers ace who is the overwhelming favorite to win his second straight AL Cy Young Award next week, is going to be the most popular name on the trade market. He’s headed into the final year of his contract, is represented by Scott Boras and is reportedly far apart with the Tigers on extension talks.

But the Tigers have made the playoffs in each of the last two seasons and the lockout looms after next year. Why not hang on to Skubal, make one more run with him and then see if a salary cap makes it easier to keep Skubal when the lockout ends in 2028 (or 2029 or 2030 or…well, you get the idea)?

Skenes, the Pittsburgh Pirates wunderkind who has started the last two All-Star Games for the NL and is the favorite to win the Cy Young in the Senior Circuit, is under team control through the 2029 season, which should make him a prime candidate to build around in the post-lockout era.

Except the Pirates, the worst-run team in baseball over the past 30-plus years, are going to be just as bad then as they are now. So they should trade him. Right now. Before you finish reading this sentence. Go out and get one of the greatest hauls in history. But they won’t, because they are the Pirates. So they’ll get relative pennies on the dollar when they trade Skenes before or during the 2029 season.

Thus, we present to you three slightly less delicious — yet mutually beneficial — trades we’d like to see happen starting next week, when the GM meetings take place in Las Vegas.

1.) Miami Marlins trade RHP Sandy Alcantara to the Baltimore Orioles for C Adley Rutschman

The Marlins went 35-32 after the All-Star Break last season, the best mark of any non-playoff team in the NL, and should be looking to build a postseason run around Alcantara. The former Cy Young Award winner, who missed 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery, was 7-3 with a 3.33 ERA and averaged more than 6 1/3 innings over 13 second-half starts after going 4-9 with a 7.11 ERA in the first half.

Alas, these are the forever frugal Marlins and Alcantara is entering the final guaranteed year of his contract. But acquiring Rutschman, who is under team control through 2028, will at least make this less of a fire sale than most Marlins trades.

There’s some risk with Rutschman, who finished in the top 12 in the AL MVP balloting his last two years before recording an OPS of .696 the last two years. But his defense remains stellar — a key factor for the Marlins, whose top backstop, rookie Agustin Ramirez, is a DH in waiting — and he may just need a change of scenery, especially since Baltimore just signed rookie catcher Samuel Basallo to an eight-year extension.

2.) Milwaukee Brewers trade RHP Freddy Peralta to the Boston Red Sox for IF Marcelo Mayer

This trade would probably have to grow in order to become realistic. Even with Peralta heading for free agency after next year, it feels like the Brewers need to get more for their ace, who led the NL with 17 wins last year and has made at least 30 starts in each of the last three seasons. Mayer’s last two campaigns have been cut short by injury, yet Milwaukee asking the Red Sox for a pitcher as well — maybe Payton Tolle — feels a little too much to give up from Boston’s perspective.

Still, there’s no doubt Peralta and Mayer would provide an instant boost to their prospective new clubs. Peralta joining Garrett Crochet atop the rotation would give the Red Sox the best 1-2 punch in the AL. And Mayer, who is part of a glut of graduated prospects in Boston, could shift back to his natural shortstop and answer the Brewers’ lone big positional need. Joey Ortiz’s .593 OPS last season was the lowest amongst all qualifiers.

3.) Los Angeles Angels trade OF Taylor Ward to the Cleveland Guardians for LHP Joey Cantillo

The Guardians won the AL Central despite scoring just 643 runs, the second-fewest by a division champ over a full season in the wild card era. Ward, who is entering his walk year, set career-highs with 36 homers and 103 RBIs in 2025 and has hit at least 23 homers in three of the last four seasons. He would provide much-needed lineup depth and protection behind Jose Ramirez while not blocking the path of prospects C.J. Kayfus and Chase DeLauter.

The Angels need so much help everywhere, but especially in the rotation, where their starters behind Yusei Kikuchi and Jose Soriano posted a 4.91 ERA. Cantillo became the latest Guardians success story by recording a 3.21 ERA with 108 strikeouts over 95.1 innings as a swingman, but they’ve surely got another Cantillo cooking in the lab.