Baseball

Done Deals
Not all the hyped trades got made, but the Rangers and the Yankees found help in furious action before the deadline

What made this year's midsummer trade session unique was that it came close to living up to its hype. By the time the nonwaiver trade deadline passed on Monday, big names had changed uniforms ( Bobby Abreu, Greg Maddux), there had been a surprise or two (less than 12 hours after offering Carlos Lee a $48 million contract extension, Milwaukee shipped him to Texas), and frantic negotiations had barely beaten the buzzer (10 deals involving 31 players were struck in the final 16 hours).

The best and worst moves of the week:

AL Contenders Muscle Up

In Lee, the Rangers acquired the kind of impact hitter that the AL West--rival Angels needed to take control of the wide-open division. (At week's end only 3 1/2 games separated the front-running A's from the last-place Mariners.) A 30-year-old leftfielder who becomes a free agent after the season, Lee is a significant addition (.294, 28 home runs, 82 RBIs) to a Texas lineup that ranked seventh in the AL in runs and was desperate for righthanded pop. Though Lee is potentially a two-month rental, the sweetener in the deal for the Rangers was prospect Nelson Cruz, a 26-year-old rightfielder who has power and speed (.302 average, .528 slugging, 20 homers, 17 stolen bases at Triple A Nashville). What's more, Texas gave up little to get Lee and Cruz: an average rightfielder ( Kevin Mench), a .241-career-hitting centerfielder ( Laynce Nix) and a failed closer (righthander Francisco Cordero).

"Not only does Cruz have a much bigger upside," says an NL scout, "but he also could be better than Mench right now. I bet he makes a difference for them this year." After Lee had turned down their contract offer, the Brewers felt compelled to unload him, but the Rangers wouldn't do the deal unless Cruz was included.

The Yankees were another club happy to oblige a team looking to dump players, getting rightfielder Abreu and righthander Cory Lidle from the Phillies. Though headed for a career-low 12 homers, Abreu, 32, was on pace for 142 walks and 101 RBIs and had the fifth highest OBP (.427) in the majors. He's also an upgrade for the injury-plagued New York outfield, which had an ineffective Aaron Guiel-Bernie Williams platoon in right. Likewise, Lidle (8-7, 4.74 ERA) is an improvement at the fifth starter's spot, where the Yankees had gotten only three quality starts this season; Lidle had 13 in 21 starts with the Phils. New York gave up Triple A lefthander Matt Smith, Class A shortstop C.J. Henry (a first-round pick in the 2005 draft) and two Rookie League prospects. "This was a salary dump by Philadelphia, but it's still pretty amazing that [the Yankees] did all this without giving away any of their top prospects," says a National League executive. "This deal should punch their ticket to another postseason."

NL Dreaming Teams

At week's end the Braves were 48-56 and 6 1/2 games behind in the NL wild-card race, yet general manager John Schuerholz was making moves as if his team were a World Series contender. Desperate to prop up his woeful bullpen, Schuerholz made a costly trade in dealing talented infielder Wilson Betemit to the Dodgers for eminently hittable reliever Danys Baez and 23-year-old third baseman Willy Aybar. Betemit, 26, is a switch-hitter who feasts on righthanders and is versatile in the field. (He can play second, third or short.) Schuerholz overpaid to get Baez (.283 batting average against), a potential free agent this fall who isn't likely to pitch more than 30 innings in an Atlanta uniform. As for the 23-year-old Aybar, he has struggled at the plate (.250 average) and in the field (five errors in 29 games) in his rookie season. "Betemit is the superior player, now and in the future," says an NL scout.

Getting Betemit provided L.A. with long-term security at third base, but at the same time the club sacrificed the future in a bid to vault from last in the NL West to the playoffs this season. The Dodgers (50-55, five games back in the division and five behind in the wild-card race) gave up Gold Glove infielder Cesar Izturis, 26, and Triple A shortstop Joel Guzman, 21, who was rated L.A.'s top minor league power hitter by Baseball America, in separate deals for a pair of probable free agents: 40-year-old Maddux (9-11, 4.69 with the Cubs) and 30-year-old shortstop Julio Lugo (.308 with the Devil Rays), respectively.