Happy Tuesday everyone, and happy MLB trade deadline day. It could be a wild one.
Let's get right to it.
Good morning to everyone but especially to...
THE NEW YORK YANKEES, THE HOUSTON ASTROS AND THE SAN DIEGO PADRES
The title contenders are making their moves as the trade deadline approaches.
Let's start in the Bronx: The Yankees made another much-needed move, acquiring starter Frankie Montas and reliever Lou Trivino from the Athletics for left-handed pitchers JP Sears and Ken Waldichuk, right-hander Luis Medina and second baseman Cooper Bowman.
Montas finished sixth in AL Cy Young voting last year and carries a 3.18 ERA this season, the second-best of his career. The Yankees have World Series aspirations, and Montas gives the rotation a much-needed boost. The Yankees earned an "A" grade from our MLB reporter R.J. Anderson.
Anderson: "The Yankees have thus far been able to avoid dealing away any of their top position player prospects. It's anyone's guess as to what the Yankees will do the rest of the deadline, if anything, but Cashman has to be pleased that he was able to add these three arms, plus Andrew Benintendi, without parting with Anthony Volpe, Oswald Peraza, or Everson Pereira in the process."The Yankees are .500 or better against every AL team they've faced this year except one: The Astros. And Houston isn't resting on those laurels, either, acquiring 1B/OF Trey Mancini from the Orioles as part of a three-team trade and later adding C Christian Vázquez from the Red Sox.
Mancini is slashing .268/.347/.404 with 10 home runs this season. He should see most of his time in the outfield given Michael Brantley's injury but could also play first with Yuli Gurriel struggling.Vázquez has a .282/.327/.432 slash line this season with eight home runs. He's very solid defensively, too.Over in the NL, the Padres got good news in three forms.
It's a huge move for San Diego, writes Anderson. Oh, and this trade doesn't take them out of the running for Juan Soto. More on that in a bit.
Honorable mentions
And not such a good morning for...
JAMES WASHINGTON AND THE DALLAS COWBOYS
It's been a relatively quiet offseason for the Dallas Cowboys, given their standards. The biggest stories have been who isn't suiting up for the team, especially at wide receiver: Amari Cooper went to Cleveland, Ced Wilson is in Miami, and Michael Gallup signed an extension with Dallas but is still recovering from a torn ACL.
The news for that group got worse at yesterday's practice as James Washington suffered a foot injury and was carted off. He's expected to miss six to 10 weeks.
Washington, a second-round pick in 2018, spent the first four seasons of his career with Pittsburgh before signing with Dallas this offseason.While he's never caught more than 44 passes in a season, Washington owns an impressive 14.3 yards per catch career mark.If you take away Gallup and Washington, only two current Cowboys wide receivers have caught an NFL pass: CeeDee Lamb and Noah Brown.
Not so honorable mention
Everything you need to know for the trade deadline, including the latest on Juan Soto ⚾
There's so much baseball news to get caught up on. Let's run through all the other significant trades we didn't mention above.
You can track all the major moves here.
Of course, there's one gigantic name we're anxiously awaiting: Juan Soto.
Be sure you know everything you need to -- and stay glued to our live coverage -- as today's 6 p.m. deadline ticks closer.
