The Trade Deadline's Biggest Returns All Ran Through Double-A

The Dodgers landed Tarik Skubal from Detroit, and the headline return was Zyhir Hope, our Issue 8 Rising Star, who left Double-A Tulsa at .293/.369/.899 with 23 homers, 87 RBI, and 18 steals in 94 games. We flagged him as the Dodgers' most movable outfield prospect back in Issue 10. Days later he was Detroit's No. 2 prospect, assigned to Double-A Erie.

The Blue Jays recived José Soriano from the Angels and gave up three players to do so. Arjun Nimmala, our Issue 2 and Issue 10 pick, is hitting .266 with an .832 OPS on the season and .298/.377/.489 since returning from a hamstring strain, three homers in his last seven games; he is now Anaheim's No. 2 prospect at Double-A Rocket City. Eddie Micheletti Jr. went with him, .333/.429/.667 in his first four Double-A games. So did right-hander Angel Rivero, a teenage arm already up to 95 mph in the lower minors.

Baltimore's return for catcher Adley Rutschman was even bigger. Anthony Eyanson, our Issue 9 Call-Up Watch pick, headlines it: a 1.29 ERA, 71 strikeouts in 55.2 innings, a career-high 10 strikeouts on August 1. He is now the Orioles' No. 1 prospect, not Boston's No. 2 anymore, and that call for Worcester before the end of the season is dead. Kyson Witherspoon and Enddy Azocar came over in the same deal, ranked sixth and seventh in Baltimore's system respectively.

The Mets return was smaller in headcount but not in name. The Mets sent Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor to the Cubs for Jefferson Rojas. He is hitting .270/.339/.461 with 15 homers and 17 steals at Double-A Knoxville, the Cubs' No. 1 prospect.

The Angels made a third Double-A trade of their own, sending outfielder Jo Adell to the Guardians for catcher Jacob Cozart, 23: .239 with 10 home runs and 44 RBI at Akron, a 55 grade behind the plate and 8 of 15 basestealers caught in his roughest stretch. Rocket City now has three new faces from three separate trades in one clubhouse.

The White Sox sent catcher Boston Smith, .306/.479/.667 in 22 games at Birmingham, to Seattle for Luis Castillo, along with Seranthony Domínguez and Nolan Jones. The Rays gave up three of their own for Freddy Peralta: Émilien Pitre (.323/.451/.492, 155 wRC+ in 37 games), Gary Gill Hill, and Aidan Smith, all headed to the Mets.

Brock Moore left Double-A Arkansas for the Orioles in the Taylor Ward trade, a 1.46 ERA and 26 strikeouts against 2 walks in 12.1 innings. Brayden Taylor, FanGraphs' 75th overall prospect at .329/.415/.605 with 14 homers at Double-A Montgomery, went from the Rays to the Marlins along with Jacob Kisting and Adrian Santana.

Milwaukee lost Blake Burke's own Biloxi teammate in the deal for Dustin May and JoJo Romero. Josiah Ragsdale, .324/.451/.591 with 17 homers and a 46-game on-base streak, heads to St. Louis along with outfielder Alexander Frias.

The Yankees sent Jack Cebert and Ben Grable to Washington as part of the four-arm package for Luis García Jr. Cleveland's return for Foster Griffin ran through Josh Hartle, our Issue 9 Worth Watching, along with Nick Mitchell and Kendeglys Virguez, all now National.

Daniel Eagen and Sandro Santana, both Double-A Amarillo arms, went from Arizona to St. Louis for Lars Nootbaar. Joe Glassey swapped for outfielder Christian Franklin in a straight reliever-for-outfielder deal with the Nationals. Jacob Kmatz left Double-A Montgomery for the Dodgers as the second piece for catcher Hunter Feduccia. Miguel Mendez, a triple-digit arm at Double-A San Antonio, headlined the Giants' return for Robbie Ray.

Nearly thirty Double-A players, one 48-hour window. Four of them, Hope, Nimmala, Eyanson, and Rojas, were already sitting in this newsletter's archive before it happened. That is not luck. That is where the return comes from when a team wants a real player back.

The Rising Star

Marek Houston, SS, Wichita Wind Surge (Double-A, Twins)

Marek Houston does not hit for power. Three home runs all season is not a typo. What he does is get on base and keep getting on base: a 25-game on-base streak and a 12-game hitting streak carried into August, a .320/.400/.461 line that turns into .333/.404/.556 once the calendar flips. His game-tying home run in the ninth against Midland set up a walk-off win two batters later, the rare power moment inside a season built on contact and plate discipline. The Twins took him 16th overall out of Wake Forest last year, and the profile matches the pedigree so far: a shortstop who controls the strike zone at 22 in his first extended look at Double-A. The power will come or it will not. The on-base skill already looks finished.

Under the Radar

Caden Hunter, LHP, Chesapeake Baysox (Double-A, Orioles)

Caden Hunter made his Double-A debut on July 29 and pitched like he had been there all year: seven scoreless innings, one hit, two walks, ten strikeouts. Baltimore's sixth-round pick last year has a 1.32 ERA across three levels this season, 112 strikeouts in 75 innings, and a 2.66 FIP that ranks second in all the minors. He opened the year overpowering Single-A Delmarva, a 1.17 ERA with 40 strikeouts in 23 innings, then did the same at High-A Frederick, a 1.60 ERA over ten appearances with five scoreless outings. Baltimore's No. 11 prospect is not a name most outlets are tracking yet. The strikeout-to-walk numbers say that will not last long. One start into Double-A, the level has not slowed him down at all.

Worth Watching

Cam Caminiti, LHP, Columbus Clingstones (Double-A, Braves)

Cam Caminiti struck out 14 in six and two-thirds innings in his final High-A start, a career high that got him bumped to Double-A Columbus days later. Atlanta's No. 1 prospect and MLB Pipeline's No. 41 overall has a 3.89 ERA and 93 strikeouts in 83.1 innings this season, a number that undersells how much better he has gotten as the year has gone on. He posted a 5.63 ERA in April and a 4.64 ERA in May. Since June 11 he has a 2.36 ERA with 49 strikeouts in 38 innings, and July alone was a 2.14 ERA over four starts. The Braves' 24th overall pick last year already got a look at the Futures Game, a perfect inning against the best hitting prospects in the sport. Double-A just got a lot more talented in one lineup.

Blake Burke, 1B | Biloxi Shuckers to Nashville Sounds

Blake Burke has 29 home runs, a Southern League record for Biloxi, and a .960 OPS that ranks second in the league. The power is not a question anymore. Whether he can play a passable enough first base and stay athletic enough to matter as more than a bat is the one still open.

His scouting profile has not changed much since the Brewers took him 34th overall in 2024: 70-grade raw power, a max exit velocity of 117 mph, and grades of 40 hit, 30 run, 45 field, 40 arm everywhere else. That is a well below-average runner with fringe defense at the position with the lowest bar to clear. Burke is not going to steal bases or save runs. He is going to hit the ball as hard as almost anyone in the system, and right now that is more than enough.

The Brewers already floated a midseason Nashville promotion if the production held. It has not just held. It broke a franchise record. Nashville's Triple-A first base picture is not settled behind him, and a 22-year-old with a genuine 70 power grade does not usually sit in Double-A once the sample gets this large. Brewers' No. 9 prospect, a supplemental first-rounder out of Tennessee's 2024 national championship team, is doing exactly what that bat was drafted to do.

Nashville before the end of August looks right, and if the power keeps compounding the way July did, it might not take that long.

The Ones Who Didn't Move

Issue 10 flagged five Double-A players as trade candidates blocked by their own team's depth. The deadline passed Monday at 6 p.m. ET. Four of them are still with the organizations that drafted or signed them. The fifth, Jefferson Rojas, did get moved, sent from the Cubs to the Mets for Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor after one insider had called him untouchable days earlier. That is how fast a price can change.

Andrew Fischer, tied for second in all of MiLB with 30 home runs, stayed in Milwaukee's system despite the same third base logjam that made him a trade candidate in the first place. Felnin Celesten is still blocked by Colt Emerson in Seattle. Bryan Rincon is still Philadelphia's top trade chip that never got traded, an .857 OPS with no landing spot. Ben Hess is still in Somerset behind a Yankees pitching pipeline with more arms than roster spots.

Getting called a trade candidate and staying put is not nothing. It usually means the price was too high, not that the interest was fake.

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Photo Sources (In order of appearance): https://www.milb.com/fort-wayne/news/dodgers-zyhir-hope-hits-470-foot-homer-in-arizona-fall-league, https://x.com/MLBPipeline/status/2084272738558988666, https://x.com/MLBPipeline/status/2064171556058665257, https://jacqueslanciault.com/2026/07/31/ligues-mineures-emilien-pitre-se-rend-quatre-fois-sur-les-buts/, https://www.instagram.com/p/DYs-zGXl6a4/, https://www.twinkietown.com/minnesota-twins-prospects/55775/marek-houston-is-breaking-out-how-high-can-he-go, https://www.mlb.com/player/caden-hunter-827267, https://www.instagram.com/p/DbeyHoljZJ6/