One of the most exciting weeks for any professional sports season is the one before the league’s trade deadline. Coming at about halfway through a season, the trade deadline is a final date where teams can trade players and resources before the end of the season.
By that time, teams usually know their trajectory, and can make some roster moves at the deadline to adjust. This process usually comes in one of two ways, with teams classified as buyers or sellers.
Buyers are teams that think they can contend for a championship. Seeing this opportunity, they scoop up talent from other teams to help stack the talent they already have. An example of a team like this is the 2022 Los Angeles Rams in the NFL. The Rams organization saw a Super Bowl window open if they filled out their roster a bit more. They picked up wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and defensive end Von Miller to give some fresh players to each side of the ball.
Sellers often don’t believe they can contend in the second half of the season, heading towards the playoffs/championship. Seeing that they don’t have the chance to compete this season, they trade away stars to reap resources, building up their team for contention in a future season. The 2025 Baltimore Orioles in the MLB traded away four star players and many others for many future resources. In their case, letting go of Cedric Mullins, Ryan O’Hearn, Seranthony Dominguez and Charlie Morton netted them a lot of resources for the future, in hopes that they’ll be able to bounce back and contend in a season not too far away.
Here’s a look at three recent trade deadline deals, and how they affected the teams that participated for the season they made them, and moving forward.
Golden State Warriors trade for Jimmy Butler, NBA, 2025
The Warriors have competed for NBA Championships consistently since the mid-2010s. The team won four championships in eight years from 2015 to 2022. Instead of committing to a rebuild as their stars age, Golden State looked to retool its roster and get some fresh faces in the locker room to continue its winning ways.
Enter the Miami Heat’s Jimmy Butler. Butler was the face of the Heat for a long time, joining the team in the 2011 Draft. Butler dazzled over his time with the team, nearly single-handedly leading them to multiple deep playoff runs. He took the team all the way to the NBA Finals in 2023, where it fell to the Denver Nuggets in five games.
Miami has yet to return to that glory since, losing its first playoff series in the past two years. Butler voiced displeasure with the team in January 2025, saying that he didn’t find joy playing basketball in Miami anymore. Near the NBA’s trade deadline, the Warriors called, setting a five-team deal to send Butler to Golden State.
Butler performed well for the Warriors in the second half of the year. His talent combined with star Stephen Curry vaulted the Warriors into the playoffs, too. Golden State snuck past the Houston Rockets in seven games in the first round of the playoffs before falling to the Minnesota Timberwolves in five in the second round.
Questions remain on whether the Warriors trading for Butler was a good move, but it continues to grab headlines.
Christian McCaffrey goes to the San Francisco 49ers, 2022
Christian McCaffrey was and is one of the biggest names in the NFL. His time with the Carolina Panthers was legendary, having a season where he racked up 1,000 rushing yards and 1,000 receiving yards. However, the team was not built to contend for a division title, let alone a Super Bowl.
The San Francisco 49ers were three years removed from their last appearance in the Super Bowl. They wanted one more piece to add to a stacked offense to get them over the hump. They traded with the Panthers for McCaffrey, giving up multiple picks in the next year’s draft to get the running back on their team. After a loss to the Chiefs in McCaffrey’s first game with the team, the 49ers went undefeated until the playoffs.
In 11 games with San Francisco that season, McCaffrey rushed for 746 yards and six touchdowns. He netted another 464 yards and four touchdowns as a receiver. His performance saw the 49ers march to the NFC Championship game, where they met the Philadelphia Eagles and lost.
When healthy, McCaffrey has been a focal point of the 49ers’ offense ever since. Injuries limited McCaffrey in the 2024 season, but his 2023 season saw his offensive prowess take the 49ers back to the Super Bowl. They also lost that game, but it was a tightly contested game where McCaffrey led the team in both rushing and receiving.
This deal set San Francisco up for the future of their team, while netting a fantastic player in the process.
Aroldis Chapman traded to the Chicago Cubs, 2016
The Chicago Cubs found themselves inches away from contending for a World Series. It would be the first for the team in over a century. They needed one more piece to help seal the deal. A point of proof to themselves, their fans, and the league that they could make some serious noise in the playoffs. So, they made a move to do it right before the trade deadline.
At the time, Aroldis Chapman was the New York Yankees’ closing pitcher, posting a 2.01 ERA and 3-0 record to accompany it. He was pitching lights out for the Yankees. The Cubs were looking for a closing pitcher, someone to help them win when it mattered most. Seeing Chapman’s performance, they made a deal with New York, sending a player and three prospects to the Yankees.
Chapman played in 28 games for the Cubs through the rest of the season, lowering his ERA to 1.01, posting a 1-1 record. His performance as the closer in multiple Cubs’ World Series games proves something in particular: Chapman was a necessary piece to help the Cubs win the MLB’s championship in 2016. Without knowledge of a rock-solid closing pitcher, the Cubs might have faltered elsewhere and not even reached the World Series. But with the acquisition of Chapman, they did, bringing Chicago its baseball championship in 108 years.
Verdict
These are three examples of trades that were at least neutral, if not beneficial, for the teams that made them. Not every trade that happens at a deadline is worth it, but the formula is always the same. A team sees an opportunity and tries to grasp it, spending resources to reach for a championship with the assistance of that one final piece.
But if a trade deadline deal doesn’t win a team a championship, is it worth it in the end? That is a harder decision to make, and one that takes a lot more analysis to dig into.
To answer the original question: yes, a trade deadline deal does matter. When the player compliments the team’s style and needs, it often adds multiple wins to the projected total. These three players impacted on their team, and many others in the future will as well.
