The dust is just now beginning to settle. Late Saturday night, the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers got together for one of the biggest and most stunning trades in sports history: Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis. There were other players and draft picks involved, but it’ll be the Doncic/A.D. trade forever and ever. Two of the sport’s best traded for one another.
Baseball superstars get traded all the time (Mookie Betts, Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, etc.), though we can usually see those trades coming down the pike because a team is rebuilding, the player is coming up on free agency, whatever. Very rarely do we get an out-of-nowhere blockbuster like Luka for A.D. The last surprise blockbuster was what? Shelby Miller for Dansby Swanson?
With that in mind, let’s rank the five MLB stars we would be most surprised to see get traded. It’s a hard list to put together because I think you can squint your eyes and see, say, Ronald Acuña Jr. getting traded, or Tarik Skubal. I’m not saying it will happen, or that it would be a good idea to trade them. Just that you can kinda sorta see how it would come together.
Anyway, here are the five baseball superstars who would most shock us to see get traded.
The Yankees couldn’t possibly trade their captain, could they? Not only is Judge their best player and captain, he’s the best hitter in the world right now, and the Yankees don’t trade guys like that. Judge is not Derek Jeter level untouchable, but he’s pretty darn close. He is way too important to the Yankees on the field and also at the box office. The man sells tickets and shirseys and commercial time on the YES Network. To put it another way, Judge is the Yankees’ meal ticket.
I know he had a “down” year in 2024 — a down year in which he put up a 116 OPS+ and 4.3 WAR — but Julio is one of the game’s top all-around talents, and he’s signed affordably long-term. Also, he has a charming and magnetic personality. He is everything you want in a franchise player. Great player, great personality, represents the organization well. I just can’t see how the Mariners would say yes to any trade package that sends Julio the other way. He is their building block. The player they hope will take them to the first World Series in franchise history. (And, you know, help them win it.)
You know, I almost didn’t list Skenes here. Squint your eyes enough and I could see how the Pirates trade him. Just not now. There is no chance they trade him now. Any trade would have to wait a few years, like Pittsburgh’s Gerrit Cole and Andrew McCutchen trades. Skenes took the sport by storm last year, going from No. 1 overall pick in 2023 to starting the All-Star Game in 2024, and winning Rookie of the Year and finishing third in the Cy Young voting. Even with Skenes, Pirates fans are not happy with the team right now. They want to see greater investment in the roster and better players brought in. Trade Skenes and forget it, there would be riots. Or perhaps indifference, which, in a way, is a lot worse.
There is no such thing as a perfect player, though Witt comes awfully close. Elite hitter, elite power, elite defense, elite speed, you name it and Witt does it exceptionally well. He’s also signed to a more than reasonable long-term contract. When you pick high in the draft, like the Royals did when they used the No. 2 selection on Witt in 2019, this is the kind of player you hope to land. A super-duper-star who you are eager to plaster on every billboard and poster. There is no way you could get Kansas City to say yes to a Witt trade. I don’t think they would trade him for anyone, including …
Ohtani’s value to the Dodgers is such that, even if he never pitched again and his bat slipped to league average, he would still be more than worth his contract. He is the game’s most famous and most popular player. One who is revered on two continents and brings in tens of millions in sponsorships each year. The inroads Ohtani is helping the Dodgers make in Japan can’t be quantified. We’re talking generational influence. I like to think that no trade would surprise me, everyone is available for the right price (right?), but there’s no way Ohtani goes anywhere. The Dodgers would move back to Brooklyn before trading Ohtani.
Other untouchables: Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez, Astros; Jackson Chourio, Brewers; Elly De La Cruz, Reds; Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman, Orioles; José Ramírez, Guardians; Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres
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