Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. If you’d like to submit a question, send it to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com. Questions may be edited for clarity, length and style.
Question: Why would the O’s trade with the Phillies for Cristian Pache, allow him one at-bat, and then DFA him? Did the Phillies force the Orioles to take Pache in order to get Seranthony Dominguez? If so, why didn’t the Phillies just DFA him themselves? This has got to be some sort of contract shenanigans but can you sort it out? From: Michael Scott
Answer: Mike, I don’t know all the thinking that went into the trade, but if the Phillies were going to acquire Austin Hays, they had to remove an outfielder from the roster. Pache was only making $700,500, but was out of options. Had the Phillies designated hm for assignment, they probably would have lost him on waivers to Miami, which ended up happening.
He was sent to the Orioles, who had they not acquired Eloy Jiménez and Austin Slater, could have used him as a backup outfielder.
While the Orioles may have been targeting Jiménez and Slater, the trade deadline was still four days away when the Hays trade was made, and teams can’t predict what might happen. The Orioles designated Pache for assignment, hoping that they could send him to Triple-A Norfolk and serve as outfield insurance down there. That didn’t happen.
Question: Did the Orioles give too much in trading for pitching? The Phillies got Seth Johnson and the Marlins trade felt less strategic and more quantity. From: Thomas Dolina
Answer: Thomas, the Orioles traded Seth Johnson and another minor league pitcher, Moisés Chace, to the Phillies to get reliever Gregory Soto, and sent Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers to Miami for left-handed starter Trevor Rogers.
Johnson, who had Tommy John surgery two years ago, was pitching limited innings for Double-A Bowie and was being brought along slowly. He was averaging fewer than four innings per start with the Baysox and in his first start for Reading, Philadelphia’s Double-A team, he worked 3 2/3 innings.
He wasn’t counted upon as a major league starter candidate for at least another year, and the cost for late-inning relievers was very high at the deadline. Chace was at High-A Aberdeen, so he was at least two years away from the majors.
The cost for starting pitching was steep. Miami was able to get two potential position player regulars in Norby and Stowers for a No. 5 starter. The market was telling the Marlins and Orioles that the cost for a No. 5 starter was high.
Fortunately, the Orioles were able to acquire Zach Eflin from Tampa Bay, who’s slotting as their No. 3 starter for three prospects — outfielder Matthew Etzel, pitcher Jackson Baumeister and infielder Mac Horvath — who were all highly regarded but most likely not close to being major league ready. I think that was a good deal, and we’ll have plenty of time to judge the others.