Major League Baseball's 2024 trade deadline was much more yawn-inducing than jaw-dropping, but there were at least a handful of swaps that felt quite large at the time.

How do those biggest deals look now, though, with just a couple of weeks remaining until the postseason field is set?

The St. Louis Cardinals and Seattle Mariners felt like two of the biggest winners of the deadline, but some lot of good it did for those teams, as they continue to hover around .500 with barely a postseason pulse at this point.

Since we're regrading the big trades, we kind of need an initial grade, right? Good thing our Zach Rymer was taking care of that during that late July madness. All references to original grades come from the grades he assigned the teams back then.

Trades are presented in ascending order of how big they felt at the deadline, as opposed to how big they look in retrospect.

10. Yusei Kikuchi to the Houston Astros

The Trade: Houston Astros acquire LHP Yusei Kikuchi from Toronto Blue Jays for RHP Jake Bloss, INF Will Wagner, OF Joey Loperfido

Original Grades: C for Houston, A for Toronto

Updated Grades: A for Houston, A+ for Toronto

From the moment this trade was announced, it felt like Houston gave up way too much for a two-month rental—particularly one who had been shelled for 16 earned runs in 14.1 IP over his final three appearances before the deadline.

At the time, Bloss was the big piece for Toronto. A third-round pick in last year's draft, he blazed through the minors this season, allowing just 12 earned runs across 66 innings pitched (1.64 ERA) and even making a few spots starts in the majors for Houston's frequently short-handed rotation. After the trade, he went 9.2 scoreless innings in his first three appearances with Triple-A Buffalo. He may well be part of Toronto's Opening Day mix next year.

Wagner has become the bigger deal, though. He was called up for his MLB debut on August 12 and delivered five multi-hit games before the end of the month, including a five-hit performance last Saturday against the Twins. Second base had been a revolving door for the Blue Jays since losing Marcus Semien to free agency after the 2021 campaign, but Wagner might be the guy for the foreseeable future.

Toronto made a combined total of eight trades in the week leading up to the deadline, but this is the one that makes it feel like maybe they were right to hang onto Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette and give it one more try with this nucleus in 2025.

At least Houston got what it paid for, though.

Toronto had gone 7-15 in Kikuchi's 22 starts, but Houston is 6-0 behind the southpaw who has gone at least 5.1 IP in each appearance and has yet to allow more than three runs in any of them. The competition has been relatively stiff, too, including a seven-inning, 12-strikeout gem last Saturday in a key game against the Kansas City Royals.

Maybe they would've won the AL West without him, but Kikuchi has been a big part of the Astros running away with yet another spot in the postseason.

9. Lucas Erceg to the Kansas City Royals

The Trade: Kansas City Royals acquire RHP Lucas Erceg from Oakland Athletics for RHP Mason Barnett, RHP Will Klein and OF Jared Dickey

Original Grades: A for Kansas City, D for Oakland

Updated Grades: A for Kansas City, D for Oakland

No change here, as it remains pretty clear that Kansas City got the better end of the deal.

What's still wild is that this is all the A's could get for a young, controllable reliever who was (and still is) having a great season.

Veteran relievers like A.J. Puk, Jason Adam, Carlos Estévez and Tanner Scott went for what felt like king's ransoms on short-term deals, but for five-plus years of team control on Erceg, Oakland settled for a light-hitting, high-A outfielder, a reliever with well-established walk issues and one starting pitcher who might amount to something.

On that latter front, at least Barnett has looked the part at Double-A Midland, tallying a 3.15 ERA and 11.3 K/9 across his first six starts on the A's farm. Given the state of Oakland's rotation, he just might be their ace in a year or two.

Nevertheless, Kansas City came out ahead, getting a much-needed bullpen arm who immediately became their go-to guy with either a hold or a save in each of his first 11 appearances, going 12.1 scoreless innings to keep the Royals is postseason position.

8. Carlos Estévez to the Philadelphia Phillies

The Trade: Philadelphia Phillies acquire RHP Carlos Estévez from Los Angeles Angels for LHP Samuel Aldegheri and RHP George Klassen

Original Grades: A for Los Angeles, B for Philadelphia

Updated Grades: B for Los Angeles, A- for Philadelphia

Further driving home the point about the lack of a haul Oakland got for Lucas Erceg, the Phillies gave up two legitimate, fast-rising, 22-year-old pitching prospects for two months of Carlos Estévez's services.

The good news for the Phillies is that the impending free agent has delivered thus far to the tune of a 1.72 ERA. If nothing else, he has been huge against Atlanta, with one win and two saves during a two-week stretch that just about put the NL East race on ice.

Dating back to Memorial Day, Estévez has allowed just three earned runs in 33.2 innings pitched. Between him, Jeff Hoffman, Orion Kerkering and Matt Strahm, they should be able to protect any lead that comes their way in the postseason.

Meanwhile, did the Phillies sell those prospects at just the right time?

Klassen has a 7.71 ERA in five starts at Double-A Rocket City, and Aldegheri had a 5.19 ERA in his four starts at Double-A before allowing seven runs (two earned) in a spot start for the Halos last Friday.

By no means are we throwing in the towel on either from a long-term perspective, but those meteoric rises sure did taper off in a hurry just as soon as this trade went down.

7. Zach Eflin to the Baltimore Orioles

The Trade: Baltimore Orioles acquire RHP Zach Eflin and cash considerations from Tampa Bay Rays for INF/OF Mac Horvath, RHP Jackson Baumeister and OF Matthew Etzel

Original Grades: A for Baltimore, B for Tampa Bay

Updated Grades: A for Baltimore, A for Tampa Bay

For the Rays, this was a proactive salary dump. Not only was Eflin owed nearly $4M more for the rest of this season, but the move keeps Tampa Bay from needing to worry about his $18M salary in 2025—when they might have an excess of starting pitching options anyway, with Shane McClanahan back to headline a rotation featuring some combination of Jeffrey Springs, Drew Rasmussen, Ryan Pepiot, Taj Bradley, Shane Baz and Zack Littell.

In the process of saving money, though, they may have also found themselves a gem in Baumeister.

He's only pitching at high-A Bowling Green, but he has a 1.13 ERA with 35 strikeouts against four walks in his first 24 innings pitched. The second-round pick in last year's draft wasn't regarded as one of Baltimore's top-tier prospects, but keep an eye out for that name in the next few years.

Eflin has been clutch for the O's, though.

Baltimore's already injury-depleted rotation got quite the scare when Eflin landed on the IL in mid-August with shoulder inflammation, but he returned as good as new on Sept. 1 for his fifth consecutive quality start since landing in Baltimore.

If he continues to pitch every fifth game for the O's, Eflin is lined up to start Game 2 of what should be a ginormous three-game series in The Bronx over the final week of the regular season. And if he ends up being the difference in that race for the AL East and a possible No. 1 seed, he will have already been worth that upcoming $18M.

6. Isaac Paredes to the Chicago Cubs

The Trade: Chicago Cubs acquire 3B/1B Isaac Paredes from Tampa Bay Rays for 3B/DH Christopher Morel, RHP Ty Johnson and RHP Hunter Bigge

Original Grades: A for Tampa Bay, B for Chicago

Updated Grades: A+ for Tampa Bay, F for Chicago

All four players in this trade are under team control through at least 2027, so this wasn't your typical "contender sends prospect(s) to basement dweller for impending free agent(s)" type of deadline deal.

Rather, it was Chicago trying to capitalize on Tampa Bay's rebuilding frame of mind by getting what it hoped would be a long-term solution at what has been a problematic spot at third base for half a decade at this point.

Unfortunately for the Cubs, nothing has changed yet.

Paredes had a .797 OPS in his three seasons with the Rays, but he's sitting at .579 a little over a month into the Chicago portion of his career.

He at least has a considerably better glove at the hot corner than Christopher Morel or Patrick Wisdom ever supplied Chicago. (Though, Paredes did have a three-error disaster in Wednesday's no-hitter against Pittsburgh). Paredes also strikes out drastically less often than either of those sluggers. But they gave up Morel and two legitimate pitching prospects for what has thus far been less offense than they were getting out of Morel.

Granted, Morel has been just as unproductive with the Rays, giving them a .568 OPS while playing just about every day. But it's the pitchers who have turned this into a slam dunk in Tampa Bay's favor.

Johnson has allowed just two runs in 23 IP at high-A Bowling Green, racking up 39 strikeouts against four walks. And Bigge has given the Rays 7.1 scoreless innings of work at the MLB level, this after striking out 16 of the 29 batters he faced during his brief stay at Triple-A Durham.

5. Tanner Scott and Bryan Hoeing to the San Diego Padres

The Trade: San Diego Padres acquire LHP Tanner Scott and RHP Bryan Hoeing from Miami Marlins for RHP Adam Mazur, LHP Robby Snelling, UTIL Graham Pauley and IF Jay Beshears

Original Grades: A for Miami, D for San Diego

Updated Grades: A- for Miami, A for San Diego

San Diego had already traded away three prospects to get right-handed reliever Jason Adam from the Tampa Bay Rays, so it was a little shocking that they parted with another four prospects to bring in two more bullpen arms—considering they already had a solid trio of relievers in Robert Suarez, Adrián Morejón and Yuki Matsui.

It sure has worked out for them, though.

Heading into deadline day, the Padres were basically in a four-way tie with Arizona, Atlanta and New York in the battle for the three wild card spots, but they have since pulled well ahead of both NL East teams and look to be quite comfortably in the playoff picture.

That's not entirely because of the bullpen, of course, but the relievers have been huge. San Diego's bullpen has gone 13-3 dating back to July 30 with 12 holds and 11 saves. In particular, Adam, Scott and Hoeing have allowed a combined total of seven earned runs in 48 IP (1.31 ERA).

As far as Miami's return is concerned, neither position player is hitting well, but at least the pitchers have improved.

Snelling had a sensational first season in the minors in 2023, but he was getting rocked at Double-A San Antonio. He's faring much better thus far in Pensacola. Similar story with Mazur, who allowed nearly 11 H/9 in 13 starts between Triple-A and the majors for San Diego this season before slashing that rate to 7.6 in his first five starts in Jacksonville. Either one could feature prominently in next year's rotation.

It'll be a few years before we really know who won this deal, but both sides have to be feeling good about it so far.

4. Jack Flaherty to the Los Angeles Dodgers

The Trade: Los Angeles Dodgers acquire RHP Jack Flaherty from Detroit Tigers for C/1B Thayron Liranzo and SS Trey Sweeney

Original Grades: A for Los Angeles, A for Detroit

Updated Grades: A for Los Angeles, A for Detroit

Maybe now that they're sort of in the wild-card mix after a recent stretch of 15 wins in 20 games, the Tigers wish they still had Flaherty in their rotation.

At the time, though, it made perfect sense for them to be sellers. They entered the deadline at 52-56, 6.5 games back in the wild-card picture, and in possession of a bunch of impending free agents that they could try to turn into prospects.

Foremost among them was Flaherty, who had a 2.95 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and 11.2 K/9 through 18 starts. In fact, he was arguably the best two-month rental on this year's trade block, and it's little surprise they were able to get a borderline top-100 prospect (Liranzo) and a former first-round pick (Sweeney) for him.

That pair of prospects hit the ground running, too.

Sweeney spent a whole two weeks at Triple-A Toledo, where he posted a 1.114 OPS before getting called up. He hasn't hit anywhere near that well since getting to Detroit, but he might be a regular in that lineup for years to come. And after putting up a modest .700 OPS in 74 games at High-A while in the Dodgers farm system, Liranzo was at 1.011 through 23 games at West Michigan.

Meanwhile, Flaherty has been solid for the Dodgers, going 4-1 with a 3.18 ERA in his first six starts. Granted, the Dodgers scored at least eight runs in each of his four wins and might have been fine with just about anyone on the mound for those games. But he was a big acquisition for a team that has pushed comfortably back ahead in the race for the NL West crown.

Separately, can we give the Yankees an F here? They backed out of a preliminary trade agreement to acquire Flaherty after getting a look at his medical records. And without Flaherty at their disposal, they've had to deploy rookie Will Warren for five spot starts since the trade deadline. In those appearances, Warren has an 0-3 record and a 9.55 ERA for a team desperately trying to win the only division race that looks like it's going to come down to the wire.

3. Jazz Chisholm Jr. to the New York Yankees

The Trade: New York Yankees acquire OF Jazz Chisholm Jr. from Miami Marlins for C Agustín Ramírez, INF Jared Serna and INF Abrahan Ramirez

Original Grades: B for New York, C for Miami

Updated Grades: A+ for New York, D for Miami

Though he did miss eight games with an elbow sprain, Chisholm has been exactly what the doctor ordered for this Yankees offense, batting .333 with nine home runs and 11 stolen bases in his first 26 games played.

Aside from Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, Giancarlo Stanton (seven home runs) was the only other Yankee with at least half as many dingers as Chisholm during that stretch, while Volpe (eight stolen bases) was the only other Yankee to swipe multiple bags.

Granted, the third base portion of this experiment has been...not great. Chisholm committed six errors in 49 chances in his first 18 games at the hot corner.

Hard to care too much about fielding percentage when he has an OPS north of 1.000, though.

On the Marlins side of things, it now feels even more clear they didn't get enough in return for two-plus years of a former All-Star who isn't even making $3M this season.

Jared Serna has hit well (.845 OPS) at Double-A Pensacola, and Agustín Ramírez hasn't been too shabby (.777 OPS) at Triple-A Jacksonville. (Abrahan Ramirez has yet to play for the Marlins and was only at rookie ball in his third season with the Yankees.)

No one in the bunch is a top-100 prospect, though, which should have been the bare minimum for them to part with Chisholm.

In Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers, Miami got substantially more from Baltimore for two-plus years of Trevor Rogers, who hasn't been worth anywhere near as much as Chisholm over the past three seasons.

2. Randy Arozarena to the Seattle Mariners

The Trade: Seattle Mariners acquire OF Randy Arozarena from Tampa Bay Rays for RHP Brody Hopkins, OF Aidan Smith and player to be named later

Original Grades: A for Seattle, C for Tampa Bay

Updated Grades: A- for Tampa Bay, D+ for Seattle

Initially, this move looked awesome for the Mariners. In his first two-plus weeks with his new club, Arozarena hit .306 with a .921 OPS as the Mariners went from one game back of Houston in the AL West to a tie for the division lead.

After four months in which eight different players made at least one start in left field for Seattle, it felt like Arozarena just might be the catalyst that finally got this offense going on its journey to the playoffs.

But then the wheels fell off, both for the Mariners and their left fielder.

During a 10-day stretch in which the M's went from tied for first to five games back, the only game they didn't lose was the only one in which Arozarena didn't play. Over the course of eight consecutive losses in which he did play, Arozarena went 2-for-27 with 13 strikeouts and nary an RBI.

He did temporarily snap out of his funk for two home runs and five total hits in a three-game series against his former team. Even with that included, though, Arozarena entered Wednesday's game against Oakland batting .174 dating back to August 13, with just one RBI and four runs scored outside of those games against the Rays.

Meanwhile, Aidan Smith is batting .310 with 13 stolen bases at Single-A Charleston, Brody Hopkins has made a couple of solid starts at High-A Bowling Green and Tampa Bay doesn't have to pay what might be around $30M for Arozarena's final two years of arbitration eligibility.

The Rays maybe could have gotten more for what was arguably the face of their franchise, but they may have won this trade by a landslide.

1. That Three Team Swap

The Trade: Los Angeles Dodgers receive UTIL Tommy Edman, RHP Michael Kopech and RHP Oliver Gonzalez; St. Louis Cardinals receive RHP Erick Fedde and OF Tommy Pham; Chicago White Sox receive IF Miguel Vargas, IF Jeral Perez and IF Alexander Albertus

Original Grades: A for St. Louis, B for Los Angeles, D for Chicago

Updated Grades: A for Los Angeles, D for St. Louis, F for Chicago

Let's start at the bottom of the barrel with the team that acquired three light-hitting infielders for some unknown reason.

Albertus (19) was already out for the year with a broken tibia when the White Sox acquired him. Perez (also 19) has one home run and no stolen bases in 27 games at Single-A Kannapolis. Neither teenager ranks top-10 in Chicago's farm, per MLB.com. And Vargas (24) is hitting .122 while starting most games at third base for a disaster of a team that reasonably could lose every game left on its schedule.

As bad as this trade looked for the White Sox as it was happening, it's even worse now. They gave up three MLB players—two of whom were under team control for next season, as well—for three players who aren't expected to be a key part of their future.

At the time of the trade, St. Louis looked like the big winner. The Cardinals were just two games back in the wild card race, and still reasonably within shouting distance in the NL Central. However, Fedde has gone 1-4, struggling to the tune of a 4.64 ERA and 5.06 FIP, and Pham was batting .206 through 23 games played when they released him to save a few bucks. They're now pretty much eliminated from playoff contention.

But the Dodgers crushed it here.

Edman isn't hitting well yet, but his SS/CF flexibility has been a nice plus for the Dodgers. Kopech has been incredible in the bullpen with three wins, three saves and six holds to go along with his 0.59 ERA.

And did the Dodgers end up with the best prospect in this trade? Gonzalez is only 17 and is merely pitching in the Dominican Summer League, but we should set some sort of reminder for seven years from now to see if he's worth more than the combined value of the three players Los Angeles gave up.