It wasn’t even a deadline trade. It was a trade made 12 days after the deadline. But it was nevertheless a trade made late in the season, around the July 31 deadline (this year Aug. 1), and it qualifies as possibly the most celebrated deadline deal of all time.

On Aug. 12, 1987, the Detroit Tigers acquired a 36-year-old pitcher, Doyle Alexander, who they hoped would help get them to the post-season. On the day the Tigers made the trade, they had a 64-46 record and were a game and a half behind Toronto in the American League East. Post-trade, the Tigers won 34 of 52 games and finished two games ahead of the Blue Jays.

Alexander, the new guy in the rotation, started 11games, won 9 and lost none. The Tigers also won both games in which he did not get a decision, including one a week before the end of the season in which he pitched 10 2/3 innings and allowed two runs, one earned.

That trade, more than any other at this time of year, stands out because of the players who were involved and what they went on to do.

The Tigers got what they wanted, a pitcher who helped them win a division title. The Atlanta Braves, who sent Alexander to Detroit, got what they wanted, too, though they didn’t know at the time what they got.

As often happens in these deadline or shortly after trades, the Braves got a minor leaguer, a Class AA pitcher, whose future was unknown and unpredictable. Fourteen consecutive Braves division championships and 28 years later John Smoltz was in the Hall of Fame.

Minor leaguers acquired in deadline deals seldom see their way to the major leagues, let alone the Hall of Fame. When a team is trading an established major leaguer, it wants to get back the best prospects it can, but the team receiving the established player usually isn’t compelled to go too deeply into its reservoir of prospects.

There is the occasional exception. Last week the Chicago Cubs acquired Aroldis Chapman, the flame-throwing ace closer, from the New York Yankees and were not alone in their desire to add him to their bullpen. The Yankees, who had Chapman on their active roster for only 77 days, could afford to trade a relief pitcher who throws a baseball at 105 miles an hour because Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances also reside in their bullpen. But they weren’t going to give Chapman away for nothing.

Faced with competition from several other teams and seeing Chapman as the clinching punch on their ticket to the World Series, the Cubs gave the Yankees a four-player package: Adam Warren, major league pitcher, whom the Yankees traded to the Cubs last December for second baseman Starlin Castro, and three minor leaguers, including a 19-year-old shortstop Gleyber Torres, whom they had tried to sign in Venezuela in 2013.

The Yankees have used Warren right away, as a reliever, though they can also use him as a starter, not a common situation in these trades. They’ll have to wait for the others, and they may never see outfielders Billy McKinney and Rashad Crawford, even though McKinney was a first-round selection by Oakland in the 2013 draft. Both McKinney and Crawford were hitting in the .250s in the minors this season, McKinney in Class AA, Crawford in A.

Torres is the one to watch. See where he is in two or three years. This year, at the time of the trade, he was in Class A and hitting .275.

Another minor leaguer to watch, not because he is a prized prospect but to see if he attains major league status, is Hansel Rodriguez, a 19-year-old pitcher from the Dominican Republic, who was the lone player San Diego received from Toronto for outfielder Melvin Upton Jr. In three years he has not risen above rookie leagues. The player price for Upton was low because the Blue Jays are paying the Padres a significant portion of Upton’s salary.

Three days later the frenetically busy Padres continued their quest for prospects in a seven-player trade with the Miami Marlins, who sought an established starting pitcher. They got him in Andrew Cashner, and the Padres got their minor league prospects, first baseman Josh Naylor and starting pitcher Luis Castillo. No guarantee comes with the pair.

Neither one has advanced beyond Class A, meaning the Padres have to hope the players are as good as the scouting reports. Naylor is 19, Castillo 23.

Guarantees? Going back many years, I recall the Yankees’ view of a young shortstop, Rex Hudler, their No. 1 pick in the 1978 draft. Hudler struggled to get beyond Class A, spending his first four seasons at that level and beginning a fifth before starting to move up slowly. Hudler wound up playing for six major league teams over 13 seasons. A personable and witty announcer, he is better known for his broadcasting than his playing.

Not everyone, however, can be a broadcaster, even in this age when all broadcasters seem to be former players. There just aren’t enough so players rise and fall on their playing ability. More players than not never make it out of the minors, and they are among those who are traded in July or August for a major player who can be a free agent at the end of the season or has a contract that his team no longer wants to pay.

Mark Melancon, who has been a terrific closer for Pittsburgh, can be a free agent at the end of the season, and the Pirates didn’t want to give him the multi-year contract that would have been necessary to keep him so they traded him Saturday to Washington for a pair of young left-handed relief pitchers.

Felipe Rivero has pitched for the Nationals the last two seasons and is an established major leaguer. But Taylor Hearn has not pitched in the majors. The question is will he?

I took an informal survey of deadline trades made in the last half dozen years to see how many minor leaguers have played their way to the majors. Here is some of what I found:

On deadline day in 2010, Texas acquired second baseman Cristian Guzman from Washington for two players. Pitcher Ryan Tatusko has never pitched in the majors, but Tanner Roark has pitched for the Nationals for four seasons and has compiled a 36-24 career record with a 3.08 earned run average. This season he has a 10-6 record with a 2.96 e.r.a.

Three weeks earlier the Rangers obtained pitchers Cliff Lee and Mark Lowe from the Seattle Mariners, who gave Texas four players.

Justin Smoak was a major league rookie when the trade was made and today is Toronto’s first baseman, Josh Lueke pitched for two teams in parts of four major league seasons, pitcher Blake Beavan became a career minor leaguer and second baseman Matt Lawson didn’t reach the majors either.

On the same day San Diego acquired Miguel Tejada from Baltimore for pitcher Wynn Pelzer and Los Angeles obtained Scott Podsednik from Kansas City for catcher Lucas May and pitcher Elisaul Pimentel. Pelzer, May and Pimentel never played in the majors.

In the next two days, the last two days of the non-waiver trading period, Detroit acquired pitchers Doug Fister and David Pauley from Seattle for outfielder Casper Wells, infielder Francisco Martinez and pitcher Charlie Furbush, and Atlanta obtained outfielder Michael Bourn from Houston for outfielder Jordan Schafer and pitchers Juan Abreu, Paul Clemens and Brett Oberholtzer.

From the Fister deal, Wells and Martinez have not played in the majors. Furbush has pitched for Seattle since the trade but has been plagued by a shoulder ailment this season.

From the Bourn transaction, Schafer played in the outfield for Atlanta, Minnesota and Houston but is being converted into a pitcher. Abreu pitched in seven games for Houston in 2011, facing 34 batters and emerging with a 6.75 e.r.a. Clemens has pitched the past four seasons for Houston, Miami and San Diego. Oberholtzer has pitched, not well, for the Astros and Phillies.

There has been another side to the deadline deals. Here are some examples of players who have emerged as bona fide major leaguers:

• Shortstop Elvis Andrus and pitchers Neftali Feliz and Matt Harrison were all in the 2007 trade that sent Mark Teixeira from the Rangers to the Braves.
• Catcher Drew Butera was in the 2007 trade that sent Luis Castillo from the Twins to the Mets.
• Outfielder David Murphy was in the 2007 trade that sent Eric Gagne from the Rangers to the Red Sox.
• Infielder/outfielder Matt LaPorta was in the 2008 trade that sent CC Sabathia from the Indians to the Brewers.
• Third baseman Josh Donaldson was in the 2008 trade that sent Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin from the Athletics to the Cubs.
• Catcher Carlos Santana was in the 2008 trade that sent Casey Blake from the Indians to the Dodgers.
• Pitcher Carlos Carrasco was in the 2009 trade that sent Cliff Lee from the Indians to the Phillies.
• Infielder Josh Harrison was in the 2009 trade that sent John Grabow and Tom Gorzelanny from the Pirates to the Cubs.
• Pitcher Patrick Corbin was in the 2010 trade that sent Dan Haren from the Diamondbacks to the Angels.
• Shortstop Jonathan Villar was in the 2010 trade that sent Roy Oswalt from the Astros to the Phillies.
• Pitcher Corey Kluber was in the 2010 three-team trade involving Ryan Ludwick and Jake Westbrook.
• Pitcher Zack Wheeler was in the 2011 trade that sent Carlos Beltran from the Mets to the Giants.
• Pitcher Jarred Cosart was in the 2011 trade that sent Hunter Pence from the Astros to the Phillies.
• Pitcher Kyle Hendricks was in the 2012 trade that sent Ryan Dempster from the Cubs to the Rangers.
• Catcher Tommy Joseph was in the 2012 trade that sent Hunter Pence from the Phillies to the Giants.
• Pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez was in the 2014 trade that sent Andrew Miller from the Red Sox to the Orioles.
• Shortstop Addison Russell was in the 2014 trade that sent Jason Hammel and Jeff Samardzija from the Cubs to the Athletics.
• Pitcher Michael Fulmer was in the 2015 trade that sent Yoenis Cespedes from the Tigers to the Mets.
• Pitcher Jerad Eickhoff was in the 2015 trade that sent Cole Hamels from the Phillies to the Rangers.
• Outfielder Adam Duvall was in the 2015 trade that sent Mike Leake from the Reds to the Giants.

For 40 years or so I have heard doomsayers proclaiming that the end of baseball was near. In 1975, for example, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn warned that the advent of free agency would destroy baseball as we know it. Bowie, wherever you are, know that the game has flourished since you uttered that warning, exceeding $9 billion in revenue.

Since Kuhn, others have predicated doom and gloom for one reason or another. The most recent reason offered is the games are too long and fans will no longer tolerate the time it takes to play nine innings.

Commissioner Rob Manfred and his chief baseball officer, Joe Torre, have heard these complaints and seek to do something about them.

Torre recently issued an edict to managers advising them they are not to argue balls and strikes with umpires. I don’t know if concerns about pace of game motivated his memorandum, which was uncovered by Bernie Wilson of The Associated Press, but it was followed shortly after by bizarre ideas from Manfred about his thinking on pace of game, including limiting the number of relief pitchers a team could use in an inning or a game.

No one has asked my opinion, but I think Major League Baseball has done enough the past year or two to change the game, and I think it’s time these guys locked themselves in their offices, unplugged their televisions and took long naps at their desks. They have done enough damage to the game.

They are purifying the game, making it squeaky clean, turning it into a vanilla version of the game we knew.

Players who learned how to slide when they were growing up now are told how they have to slide into second base and home plate. If they do it wrong, they’ll be called out.

Managers no longer have reason to argue close calls on the bases because they can challenge them and have them reviewed and decided on Ninth Avenue in Manhattan. That’s right. Games can be decided not on the field in the parks where they are played but hundreds and thousands of miles away in a television studio.

Now they are further stripping the game of color by telling managers they can’t argue balls and strikes. What would Billy Martin, Earl Weaver and Lou Piniella have done?

“The fans liked seeing us argue,” Piniella said on the telephone Friday. “They enjoyed it. This takes away from the fans.”

Torre, who is in the Hall of Fame as a manager, told managers, general managers and assistant general managers that arguing balls and strikes is “highly inappropriate conduct,” “is detrimental to the game and must stop immediately.”

Under baseball’s review system, umpires’ pitch calls are not reviewable, which is understandable because if they could be challenged, games would extend beyond players’ bedtimes.

In his memo Torre said managers were increasingly violating Replay Regulations by relying on technology that clubs use to monitor umpires’ on-field rulings in case they want to challenge them.

The regulations stipulate that “on-field personnel in the dugout may not discuss any issue with individuals in their video review room using the dugout phone other than whether to challenge a play subject to video replay review.”

Although Torre recognizes that ball-and-strike disputes are natural, he said “the prevalence of manager ejections simply cannot continue. This conduct not only delays the game, but it also has the propensity to undermine the integrity of the umpires on the field.”

I’m obviously missing something here. Torre says by disputing umpires’ pitch calls, managers delay games and undermine umpires’ integrity. Let’s relate. How do those issues differ from what happens now?

Reviews of challenged calls take time, an average –that’s average – of one minute 41 seconds this year through Wednesday, according to Major League Baseball, 1:51 last season. Call those interruptions minor, but delay is delay.

Arguments undermine umpires’ integrity? What to make of 654 overturned calls last season and 435 so far this year? That’s 49 percent in each case, meaning umpires get it wrong once in every two challenged calls. What does that say about umpires’ integrity? I’m not suggesting that a wrong call puts an umpire’s integrity in question, but over the years I’ve seen plenty of arguments over ball/strike calls, and I’ve never wondered about an umpire’s integrity. Maybe his eyesight sometimes but not his integrity.

“Most of the time when I argued with umpires it was to protect my players, to keep them in the game,” said Piniella, who was as fiery as any manager in arguing with umpires. “I respect umpires. They do a good job. But like players and managers they make mistakes sometimes.”

Referring to Torre’s many years of managing, Piniella remarked, “I’m sure Joe Torre argued with an umpire or two.”

As for Torre’s order to managers not to argue balls and strikes, Piniella said, “I wish they had that when I was managing. I would’ve saved a lot of money.”

As a manager, Piniella would not have cared for an idea Manfred offered some support for recently. The commissioner was on ESPN’s “Mike & Mike” show responding to listeners’ suggestions for improving time or pace of game. One suggestion would limit the number of relief pitchers a team could use in an inning or a game. Manfred said:

“I am actually in favor of something like that. We’ve spent a ton of time on this issue in the last few months.

“You know the problem with relief pitchers is that they’re so good. I’ve got nothing against relief pitchers, but they do two things to the game: The pitching changes themselves slow the game down, and our relief pitchers have become so dominant at the back end that they actually rob action out of the end of the game, the last few innings of the game. So relief pitchers is a topic that is under active consideration. We’re talking about that a lot internally.”

There’s no question relievers have become a bigger part of the game. Teams have increased the number of relievers they have in their bullpens, and they bring in relievers earlier than they used to and change them more frequently than before. Managers match up pitchers with hitters more than they used to. The proliferation of statistics has led to that development.

But the game has always evolved. Four-man starting rotations became five-man rotations. Pitchers who pitched 300 innings in a season have disappeared. Two-hundred-inning pitchers aren’t so plentiful.

Starters used to pitch complete games or get close to them. Now they often don’t make it through six innings. The fewer innings starters pitch the more innings relievers are needed. If Manfred wants to eliminate relievers, he better be prepared for the flood of protests he will get about the threat of arm ailments. Tommy John surgery might become Rob Manfred surgery.

It’s one thing for a commissioner to be linking the outcome of the All-Star Game to home field advantage in the World Series; it’s another to be setting up managers’ pitching plans for 162 games.

MLB is obsessed with the length and pace of games. Officials say it is really the pace they care about, but they always cite the average length when they discuss the issue. The only time I cared about how long a game was when I covered the Yankees and wanted the game to end so I could get home for dinner. When I was younger and watching games from the bleachers at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, they could have gone on forever and I would have been ecstatic.

But if Manfred and other officials think games need to be shortened, I can offer some suggestions – at no charge.

Manfred apparently rejects some of the obvious ideas: three balls instead of four for a walk, two strikes instead of three for a strikeout. But what about a two-strike foul counting as a third strike or a pair of two-strike fouls counting as a third strike?

Two outs in an inning instead of three? Or if that change would be too radical, what about a compromise – two outs every other inning or manager’s choice of which inning his team gets or gives two outs with four innings required with two outs?

OK, some more serious ideas:

Move the relievers’ warmup area adjacent to the dugouts so relievers don’t have to run in from the outfield bullpens.

Eliminate relievers’ warmup tosses when they enter the game; they have already warmed up in the bullpen.

Cut manager’s mound visit to one an inning. Limit catcher’s mound visits to one. If the catcher visits the mound, the manager can’t go to the mound that inning.

Have managers make pitching changes by signaling from the dugout, eliminating the chit-chat when managers go to the mound.

Reduce the number of between-innings warmup pitches, allowing even fewer if opponents went down 1-2-3 in the previous inning.

If Manfred genuinely wants to shave a few minutes from time of games, he can shed the replay reviews and let the umpires do their job.

Instead of giving World Series home field advantage to the winner of the All-Star Game, give it to the league that plays the fastest games.

Offer bonuses to the players whose teams play the fastest.

Reduce between-innings time by selling split-screen commercial time at lower rates than full screen costs.

There has been talk of eliminating four pitches for an intentional walks, just signaling the batter to go to first base. But critics have said a pitcher could throw a pitch away and say he should have to throw four balls.

But what about eliminating the home run trot? Nothing would be affected by eliminating the trot, except perhaps the batter’s ego.

As for reducing or eliminating catchers’ visits to the mound, they’re often there just to stall for a reliever to get ready. As Bob Gibson once said to a young Tim McCarver when he dared to come to the mound, “Get back where you belong. The only thing you know about pitching is you can’t hit it.”

STEROIDS HALL OF FAMER IS BACK

Not surprisingly, a Mike Piazza fanatic criticized me for asking Piazza about his suspected use of steroids in a conference call 10 days before his induction into the Hall of Fame. Using the subject line “The Ravings of a bitter self-indulgent blogger,” the reader wrote:

“I hope that you got the attention you crave, your blip in trending on twitter. There is no such thing as bad publicity, right. You are entitled to your opinion but before you accuse someone, how about employing some journalistic integrity and base it on some real evidence not just conjecture. Stick to the facts.”

As all Piazza fans have done, this writer ridiculed my mention of Piazza’s back acne, a telltale sign of steroids use. What he and other critics have ignored and never explained is the fact that Piazza’s back acne disappeared at exactly the same time when baseball began testing for steroids.

The writer whose e-mail I have quoted said he doesn’t plan to read this column again, but maybe he’ll see this e-mail from a reporter who covered Piazza:

“Your line of questioning with Piazza was spot on. These guys are too interested in kissing his ass and being his friend than they are doing their jobs. I was there. I saw the backne and after he tore his groin muscle in SF (a classic steroid injury) he was noticeably thinner/smaller. And you didn’t even mention the moody bullshit. Good job by you and screw all those people who simply want to ask fluff and celebrate.”

Other writers who covered Piazza have told me there was never any question about Piazza’s steroids use. They just never confronted him about it. Maybe, in the view of the first writer, they were practicing journalistic integrity.

Terry Ryan is as decent as any man I have ever encountered in baseball and more decent than most. It is impossible to forget his selfless act in 2001 when, as captain of the Minnesota Twins ship, he remained on the deck of their sinking ship when he had a chance to abandon the ship and go elsewhere while his shipmates drowned.

Now the Twins, struggling with the American League’s worst record, have shoved Ryan overboard and are looking for a new captain, or general manager. While I regret Ryan’s departure, I welcome it as an opportunity for Commissioner Rob Manfred to get it right.

Manfred will not be hiring Ryan’s replacement, but he can exercise his influence. It’s called the bully pulpit. I know Manfred knows how to use it because he did it last year with the Milwaukee Brewers. They were seeking a general manager, and, in the word of a baseball official, Manfred pushed them to hire David Stearns, the Houston Astros assistant general manager, who had worked for him in the labor department of the commissioner’s office.

Has Manfred ever pushed a team to hire a black or a Latino general manager? Not that I know of, but if he has, the person has not been hired or identified. Only one minority general manager – Al Avila of Detroit – has gained his job in Manfred’s 18 months as commissioner.

Dave Stewart (Arizona) is Major League Baseball’s lone black general manager. Michael Hill, who is black, is Miami’s president of baseball operations, having preceded Manfred in that position by 16 months.

Allow me to take this opportunity to introduce Manfred to De Jon Watson. If Watson’s name is familiar, it is most likely that you have seen it here. Watson is senior vice president of baseball operations for the Diamondbacks. For the past year or so I have touted him as a general manager-in-waiting, the most capable baseball executive who is not a general manager, black, white or Latino.

Unfortunately, teams in search of a general manager are blind or dumb or racist. Yes, sadly, I can’t dismiss the possibility that some owners won’t hire a candidate who is black. They’ll sign players who are black and can hit or pitch but not a manager or general manager.

It is up to Manfred to cleanse owners of this mentality. If he is unable to perform that form of lobotomy, let him institute a new rule to replace the so-called Selig Rule, which requires teams hiring personnel for decision-making positions to interview minorities. But only one minority.

Teams have skirted that requirement in various ways, and Manfred and his predecessor, Bud Selig, have allowed them to get away with it. Imagine that, Selig letting clubs ignore the Selig Rule. Manfred could correct the problem. Instead of stipulating that teams have to interview one minority, tell them they have to interview as many minorities as white guys. That change might not insure the appointment of a minority, but teams would become more aware of potential minority candidates.

Whatever the excuses or the reasons, it’s time that minorities are considered equally with their white colleagues. The Twins, always an honorable organization, could take the bold step of interviewing Watson. They can find out for themselves what others know.

When Tony La Russa, the Diamondbacks’ chief baseball officer, hired Watson in 2014, he was so impressed with him he wanted to call other clubs looking for a general manager and tell them how impressive Watson was. But La Russa realized that step would be inappropriate and was happy to keep the former outfielder/first baseman.

Frank Marcos, the former director of the Major League Scouting Bureau, is another Watson booster. Marcos incidentally had an excellent record in diversity hiring when he worked in Major League Baseball.

Referring to Jim Pohlad, the Twins’ chief executive officer and part owner, Marcos told me in an e-mail,

“De Jon Watson deserves every opportunity to prove to Mr. Pohlad that he is a capable and deserving candidate because of his credentials – not because of the color of his skin. If De Jon doesn’t get the backing of MLB’s new ‘pipeline’ program, then I’d be concerned about his legitimate chances.”

Manfred created the pipeline program supposedly to give minorities a greater chance of moving into front-office positions. However, at the rate clubs hire minorities, the pipeline will be so clogged no one will emerge from it.

I don’t know if Watson qualifies for Manfred’s pipeline. I don’t know if Manfred knows Watson or knows about him. I would ask the commissioner what he thinks or knows about Watson, but he stopped talking to me when I started criticizing him for his treatment of minorities.

Last year Watson made it clear to me that he didn’t want to be considered a minority candidate. He feels he is capable of being a general manager and wants to be hired on that basis, not because he is black. But if he can’t even get an interview as a minority candidate, how does he expect to be considered?

It’s a sad state of affairs, an unfair state of affairs. In addition, time is running out on Watson. He is 50 years old, and the hiring trend has turned to younger candidates, those in their 30s, those who have college degrees in academic areas that are related to analytics.

I would hate to think that a baseball man as capable and as qualified as Watson would be passed over because of his race or his age. If he’s honest about his interest in minority hiring, Manfred should feel the same way. To paraphrase the Golden Rule, Manfred should do unto Watson as he did unto Stearns.