Every year on July 31, the MLB trade deadline takes place. At each deadline, there are players that everyone expects to be traded but there are also players that are traded and no one expected them to be. This year, there were players traded that surprised many people. With the deadline now past, I will try and make some sense as to why some trades were done.

Chris Archer traded to Pirates

Chris Archer was a wanted man by many teams for years and the Pirates were the lucky ones that got him. Archer was speculated as to be a player that would see a move for the past few years, but no one knew whether the Rays would actually move him.

Archer was a player that the Rays built around when they were a really bad team. They could have continued to build around him as he is under contract until 2021. The Rays would have hoped that they could field a competitive team by then. However, now they decided to trade him to improve their team for the future.

The Rays acquired former top prospects Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow, Tribune Review noted. Meadows made his major league debut this year and in 49 games, has put up a slash line of .292/.327/.468 with 45 hits. Meadows joins a Rays outfield that just acquired Tommy Pham earlier in the day as well as defensive stud and two-time Gold Glove winner Kevin Kiermaier. Along with Meadows and Glasnow, the Pirates will receive a player to be named later.

Meanwhile, the Pirates improve their rotation a lot with the addition of Archer, Minor League Ball reported. Archer will be the ace of the Pirates which comes months after they traded their homegrown ace, Gerrit Cole, to the Astros. At the beginning of the season, the Pirates were expected to be sellers at the deadline with them being in a tough division.

It was expected they would trade away Cole and franchise icon Andrew McCutchen but, a recent 11 game win streak and the fact that they're only three-and-a-half games back of a wild-card spot, made the front office buy instead of add. The Pirates also added Keone Kela to their bullpen to help them make a playoff push.

Roberto Osuna traded to Astros

Yahoo Sports reported that Osuna was signed as a 16-year-old out of Mexico by the Jays back in 2011 and has been with the Blue Jays organization ever since. Yesterday they traded him to the Astros. Osuna made his MLB debut in 2015 and made a name for himself as one of the best closers in the game. On April 10, Osuna became the fastest closer to reach 100 career saves. Almost a month later, Osuna found himself in handcuffs as he was arrested for assault. His arrest got him a 75 game suspension. Due to his arrest, the Jays made the decision that if they were to not trade him, he would not pitch in the big leagues again for the Blue Jays, according to Jon Morosi of mlb.com.

Therefore, they decided to trade him which gives Osuna a fresh start to pitch in the big leagues. The trade brought mixed emotions from around the league with lots of Jays fans showing displeasure with the front office as people thought he deserved a second chance.

In return, the Jays received Ken Giles, David Paulino and Hector Perez. Giles is an inconsistent pitcher. When he's good, he's a fantastic pitcher as he has a fastball that can reach 100 MPH. But when he's bad, he's awful. Giles was pitching in AAA as he was struggling with the Astros and he swore at manager A.J. Hinch after he was pulled from a game which led to his demotion. Jays' manager John Gibbons said that Giles will be the Jays' closer.

David Paulino is a welcome addition as he is a former top prospect and holds lots of promise, but his career has been derailed by injuries and suspensions. Paulino had Tommy John surgery before and was suspended for 80 games last season for his use of PED. Paulino has only appeared in nine games at the major league level but in the minors, Paulino has a 2.62 ERA with 265 strikeouts over 180 hits with an opponent average of .208. Perez was the Astros tenth best prospect and struck out 359 batters compared to 217 hits given up. This makes him a fantastic opponent with an average of .198 across four seasons in the minors.

Kevin Gausman and Darren O'Day traded to Braves

The Orioles are currently 32-74 which makes them obvious sellers.

Machado was the first one out when he was traded to the Dodgers just after the all-star game. Then came others like Britton and Brach. The catch is, all the players that the Orioles traded will be free agents at the end of the season. Close to the end of the deadline, the Orioles agreed to trade Gausman and O'Day to the Braves for four prospects and money.

Gausman is under contract until 2020 and O'Day isn't a free agent until after next season but they decided to move both of them today. This is a smart move as the Orioles have zero chance of contending with the Yankees and Red Sox. Instead of holding onto Gausman and build around him, they decided to trade him to add to their future. One thing they could have done was to hold onto O'Day who is out for the year and hope to trade him at next year's deadline.

O'Day has a career ERA of 2.56 with 572 strikeouts while only giving up 419 hits which comes with a good opponent average of .208. In his 11 year career, O'Day has never given up more than 10 home runs in one season.

The Braves weren't expected to contend just yet but here they are, sitting second in the NL East and only half a game back of the division lead as well as half a game back of a wild-card spot. The Braves have an underrated lineup that features lots of hitters that can hit. Going into the deadline, their rotation remained average and their bullpen could have used some help too. Despite their average rotation, the rotation ranked third in earned run average among national league teams.

However, they relied on Anibal Sanchez having a comeback season. Their fifth starter is a young player that can't be trusted yet. Rotation has also seen injuries to Foltynewicz and Soroka. O'Day won't be pitching for the Braves this year due to a hamstring injury that will sideline him for the season but he will be a contributor to the Braves' bullpen next season and they are expected to be contenders again.

Tommy Pham traded to Rays

ESPN reported the trade came as one of the most shocking, surprising and unexpected trades of recent memory. This trade basically came out of nowhere. There were no rumors on the Cardinals shopping Pham and no one expected that Pham would be traded. One of the reasons why the Cardinals traded Pham was because of a crowded outfield situation in St.Louis.

The Cardinals currently have Fowler and Ozuna as well as O'Neill and Bader who are up and coming in the Cardinals system. They also have Randy Arozarena who is their seventh best prospect who could be a decent outfielder at the highest level. They also have Justin Williams and Conner Capel who are outfielders and are considered top 30 prospects in the Cardinals minor league system that have a chance to contribute at the big league level.

Another possible reason for this move is to have a clear path for playing time for Dexter Fowler. Despite his struggles by batting below the Mendoza line, the Cardinals gave him $82.5 million in 2016. The Cardinals don't want to be paying Fowler that much money and have him sit on the bench majority of the time, even though he is struggling to produce.

Meanwhile, the Rays get Pham who is under contract until the 2021 season. Despite they're an average team right now, and the fact that they traded away their ace Chris Archer, the Rays hope to field a competitive team soon. Pham had a breakout season last year but hasn't been able to replicate that success this season. He slashed .306/.411/.520 last season which is a significant difference from this seasons' slash line of .246/.331/.399 over 98 games. Pham joins an outfield that consists of defensive wizard Kevin Kiermaier and newly acquired Austin Meadows who they got as part of the return for Archer.

Brad Hand and Adam Cimber traded to Indians

This one didn't take place today and the trade happened on July 19 with the intention of improving the Indians big league club and the Padres farm system.

On January 14, the Padres signed Hand to a three-year extension which came off his first season as an all-star. The Padres aren't a great team right now but they are expected to be a strong team in a few years as they have the best minor league system in all of baseball. This includes a league-leading eight prospects on the top 100 prospects list on mlbpipeline.com.

Instead of holding onto Hand and have him be an integral piece of the future, they decided to trade him and Adam Cimber, who is under contract for another five seasons, to the Indians for top prospect Francisco Mejia who will be a big contributor for the Padres. He is expected to be one of the top catchers in the big leagues once he gains experience at the highest level.

The Indians made a tough decision by trading away their top prospect for an elite reliever and another relief pitcher that was added to the worst bullpen in the league before the trade. With bullpens playing a huge role in playoff games in recent years, it was a must for the Indians to upgrade their bullpen. The trade gives the Indians a nice back-end of the bullpen with Miller, Hand and Allen and Cimber. They will be used in different situations. The acquisition of Hand gives the Indians their closer for the next two seasons at a cheap price which means that the Indians won't bring back Allen when he becomes a free agent at the end of the season.
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