Deadline deals: Hits and misses so far

— -- Baseball's 2015 non-waiver trade deadline was among the most eventful and chaotic in memory. The 30 major league teams combined to make a whopping 43 trades in June and July, and 15 deals went down in the 16 hours leading up to the final buzzer at 4 p.m. ET on July 31.

The flurry of activity made for some frenzied speculation and Twitter madness at the time. So how have things worked out, with the benefit of a little hindsight?

A variety of factors go into assessing trade deadline winners and losers six weeks later. A new acquisition might perform well on a team that flopped -- or vice versa. And since these trades usually include minor league talent, it can take several years to sort out which prospects click and which ones fall by the wayside.

But that's the fun part, right? Here are our rankings for 12 midseason contenders and their trade activity on a 1-to-5 baseball scale, with one ball qualifying as a miss and five balls elevating the trade's architect to executive of the year status.

Note to Orioles and Cubs fans: The Gerardo Parra, Dan Haren and Tommy Hunter deals didn't quite make the cut, so feel free to grade those on your own at home.

1. The Mets acquire left fielder Yoenis Cespedes from the Tigers for minor league pitchers Michael Fulmer and Luis Cessa

The initial take

The Mets did some tinkering around the edges by acquiring Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe from Atlanta and adding Tyler Clippard to the bullpen before the deadline. Amid a sense of panic and hand-wringing in New York, they pulled the plug on a trade for Milwaukee's Carlos Gomez because of concerns about his hip, and general manager Sandy Alderson implemented Plan B and snagged Cespedes from the Tigers.

The view six weeks later

It's ludicrous to suggest that Cespedes should win the National League MVP award based on six weeks. But he's turning in the most dominant performance by a trade deadline offensive acquisition since Manny Ramirez hit .396 with 17 homers and a 1.232 OPS in 53 games with the 2008 Los Angeles Dodgers, and it became fashionable to refer to the left-field stands at Dodger Stadium as "Mannywood.''

Since Aug.1, Cespedes leads the NL with a .676 slugging percentage, 17 home runs and 42 RBIs. As the Elias Sports Bureau notes, Cespedes and Hank Sauer of the 1949 Cubs are the only players to change teams midseason and record at least 15 homers and 40 RBIs within their first 40 games with their new club.

Curtis Granderson, David Wright, Daniel Murphy and others have contributed to the Mets' 30-12 record since the trade deadline, but everyone in New York's lineup feeds off Cespedes.

"He's fearless,'' said a scout, "and maybe it's helped him that this league doesn't know him and he's getting a lot of fastballs that he probably wouldn't get in the American League. He's taken advantage of that. Anything they throw up there, he's going to square up.''