This won’t go down as the worst baseball trade deadline — that would be 2005 — nor, clearly, the best. It just might be remembered, however, as the most surprising.
And when you surprise people, for better or worse, you produce unexpected ripple effects.
Those effects began rippling the minute the deadline struck last Wednesday, and some will flow at least through the offseason — and quite likely longer than that.
So let’s discuss how some of those unanticipated actions or inactions will impact this and future seasons: