7/16/26

We have once again made it to July and that means chaos in the world of Major League Baseball. With the Trade Deadline rapidly approaching, teams are surveying the landscape of the league to see whether they should trade pieces of their future to help now, or punt on the season and trade valuable current pieces to build a contender in the future.

2026 is extra intriguing because of the amount of average teams in both the American League and National League. 23 of the 30 teams are either in a playoff position as of the All-Star Break or withing five games of a playoff spot. With terrific runs by Wild Card teams in recent years like the Phillies, Diamondbacks, and Rangers, teams are more confident in their chances if they can just sneak into the playoffs. The new format has given underdogs quite the boost in success rate and morale. With the deadline on Monday, August 3rd at 3pm Pacific Time, those decisions must be made ASAP.

Like last year, we will update this post with every MLB-level trade. We will also include links to articles about those trades and will update this post continuously until after the deadline on August 4th. So make sure to bookmark this page and check back frequently.

July 15th

• Milwaukee Brewers acquire RHP Lance McCullers Jr. and LHP Colton Gordon, plus cash, from the Houston Astros in exchange for OF Jadyn Fielder

Lance McCullers Jr. is the big fish in this trade as the Astros cut ties with the injury plagued starter. He has made just 71 appearances since 2019 and 28 of those came in 2021. The veteran missed the entire 2023 and 2024 seasons and has made just eight starts this year with a right rotator cuff issue. He is ready to make his return and the Brewers are in need of pitching with Brandon Woodruff and Kyle Harrison on the IL and Jacob Misiorowski in his first full 162-game season. Colton Gordon is a typical Brewers guy that can start or come out of the bullpen and seems to be like a Quinn Priester or Chad Patrick that the Brewers can get the most out of. Son of Milwaukee legend Prince Fielder, Jadyn Fielder heads to Houston. Not quite the power hitter like his dad or grandfather, Cecil, were, Jadyn is very disciplined at the plate and has an OBP of .415 in Single-A this year. At just 21, Fielder won’t impact the Astros immediately but this trade was more about freeing up money for Houston.

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