MLB trade deadline: Reviewing the impact of 2021 deadline trades
By Bill Felber
A swap of good players
It’s rare that established major leaguers get traded for one another in a deadline swap between a contender and a non-contender. But that’s what happened when the A’s obtained Starling Marte from Miami in exchange for pitcher Jesus Luzardo.
The A’s at that moment were a serious postseason contender, standing 13 games above .500 and three games ahead of Seattle in the race for the final Wild Card spot.
They saw Marte as a critical offensive asset. They were partly right: Marte batted .316 for Oakland after July 30 with an .824 OPS.
But even with Marte, the A’s played sub-.500 ball down the stretch and were passed for that final Wild Card spot by the Yankees.
The loss of Luzardo was probably not much of a contributor to that collapse. Only 2-4 with a 6.87 ERA in a half-dozen starts for the A’s, he got a full chance with the Marlins and did pretty much the same thing: 4-5 with a 6.44 ERA in a dozen starts.
He was 2-3 with a 4.03 ERA in six starts for the Marlins in 2022 before being sidelined by a forearm strain. He’s now on a rehab assignment, potentially returning to the big league roster at any time.
Verdict: Marte was unable to carry the Athletics into the postseason, and since he left for free agency in November that was the extent of his contribution in Oakland. Whether Luzardo ever emerges as a significant cost for the Marte flirtation remains an open question.