The Guardians handled the MLB trade deadline by dealing Steven Kwan and Paul Sewald and standing pat otherwise, certainly sending a (perhaps unintentional?) message to the team that the decision-makers think they can still make a run at a third wildcard spot.
The return for Shane Bieber was 6'4 LHP Khal Stephen who just made it to Double-A but is generally considered to be a Top 100 prospect. Matt Seese has more info here, and I am pretty excited about him. TJ Nestico had some great info about him (Nestico
is a Blue Jays fan pitching analyst):
I really don’t like this move. I understand the Jays are desperate for SP, but Stephen is a clear top 100 prospect for me and has the pitchability to be a mid-rotation starter rather soon. He ranked 26th in my Top 50 pitching prospects update in June (and will be higher soon)
— Thomas Nestico (@TJStats) July 31, 2025
Stephen currently has a mild instance of shoulder impingement and one would assume the Guardians were not making that deal if they weren't confident about his health. This is a far superior prospect to Jacob Bresnahan whom the Guardians traded for Alex Cobb (no insult to Bresnahan) last year.
There were many, many trades yesterday so here is a rundown of them all from Yahoo Sports. Most notably, the Twins tore their roster down to the studs and the Dodgers didn't do much (perhaps giving us the reason that Kwan didn't move - the Dodgers probably were the only ones with the ammunition to pull off the deal).
The Guardians will play the Twins tonight. You can get an instant react podcast about the Guardians trade deadline from TJ Zuppe and Zack Meisel here.
Don't miss the latest episode of Around the Corner from Matt Schlichting and Brian Hemminger. Make sure you know the Guardians prospects who will be responsible for helping save this season and next.
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