The young outfielder and infielder seems to be the odd men out, so we cooked up four trades to improve the Orioles and give them the playing time they deserve.
After last season’s trade deadline, I presented Birdland with a list of four prospects that seemed destined to be future trade chips. These were players who just didn’t have a path to regular playing time on a team pushing for AL East titles and postseason success.
The Orioles already cashed in on one of those prospects—sending Joey Ortiz (along with DL Hall) to the Brewers to land ace Corbin Burnes. Another of those prospects, Terrin Vavra, has fallen off the Orioles’ radar after a season lost to injury in 2023. The O’s removed Vavra from the 40-man roster in November.
For the other two trade chips, outfielder Kyle Stowers and infielder Connor Norby, there are still believers in their potential and their path still blocked. Stowers was as hot as any minor leaguer during Spring Training, leading all Orioles with seven HRs and 14 RBIs while slashing .256/.267/.744. After a disappointing 2023, he showed he can hold his own against major league pitching.
Norby had a more limited run with the major league team this Spring, going 8-29 while slashing .276/.344/.483 with one home run. That small sample size lines up with what we saw from Norby last season at Norfolk, when the former second-round draft pick slashed .290/.359/.483 while hitting 21 HRs and collecting 92 RBIs. In most organizations, Norby would be a premier infield prospect. With the Orioles, Norby remains blocked by the young trio of Henderson, Westburg and Holliday.
Stowers and Norby are already guaranteed to begin another season at Norfolk, so I came up with four trades that could give them a new start in a less loaded organizations. These trades also address some of the biggest holes in this Orioles’ roster and add talent that makes a difference in 2024 while also fitting in with the timeline of Baltimore’s young core.
Scenario 1: The O’s flip Stowers for help in the bullpen
Trade 1- The Orioles send OF Kyle Stowers, RHP Dillon Tate and OF Hudson Haskin to the Pittsburgh Pirates for RHP David Bednar.
Trade 2- The Orioles send OF Kyle Stowers, RHP Michael Baumann, RHP Justin Armbruester and OF John Rhodes to the Cleveland Guardians for RHP Emmanuel Clase
Even if we knew we were getting All-Star level performance from Craig Kimbrel and Yennier Cano in 2024, having a surplus of elite bullpen arms is the ultimate insurance policy come October. At this point, it’s not a certainty what you’ll get from Cano in 2024 and safeguarding against the potential volatility of Kimbrel is worth exploring. Adding high-level depth to the back of the bullpen remains a need for this Orioles team.
Enter Bednar and/or Clase. Both the Pirates and Guardians are fairly well stacked in the infield with established stars and high-upside young players. However, the cupboards are pretty bare for both teams when it comes to their outfields. Stowers would immediately inject some much-needed power into the outfield in either Pittsburgh or Cleveland.
Both of these trades are modeled off of the deal that saw Josh Hader go from Milwaukee to San Diego two seasons ago. In that deal, the Padres parted with one of their top 10 prospects, a couple of Major League relievers and a lower level prospect. Although Stowers has already graduated from the prospect ranks, his profile of a major-league ready bat that still has untapped potential fits the “top 10 prospect” mold.
While the Pirates are certainly improving, they still figure to be a year or two away from contention in the NL Central. That means Bednar should be more available and perhaps would require less of a prospect investment from the Orioles in a potential trade.
Meanwhile, the Guardians find themselves in somewhat of a limbo—not bad enough to be written off as a contender in the AL Central, not good enough to rule out trading away some of their established stars. A year ago, this return for Clase would’ve seemed laughable as he was easily a top 5 reliever in all of baseball. However, the 26-year-old is coming off a season where his strikeout rate and overall effectiveness took a significant dip. As the younger pitcher, he’d undoubtedly still be more expensive than Bednar, but Orioles still could swing a deal centered around Stowers.
Scenario 2: The O’s package Stowers and Norby to make an upgrade in the rotation and bullpen
The Trade: The Orioles send OF Kyle Stowers, IF Connor Norby, IF Max Wagner, RHP Tyler Wells and LHP Cionel Pérez to the Miami Marlins for LHP Jesús Luzardo and LHP Tanner Scott.
If the Orioles want to make another Burnes-sized splash in the waters of the trade market, the Marlins have two players that could fill needs in the starting rotation and bullpen. In 2023, Luzardo emerged from a pack of immensely talented Marlins starters to establish himself as the de facto ace of The Fish’s rotation. That’s not an easy feat when you’re sharing a pitch staff with former Cy Young winner Sandy Alcántara and former top prospects Edward Cabrera and Eury Perez. Luzardo’s success came thanks to one of the best four-seam fastballs in the big leagues, which he combined with his slider and change-up to rack up 208 Ks in 178.2 innings.
Pairing the hard-throwing lefty starter with an even harder throwing lefty out of the pen would be the perfect one-two combo to upgrade this pitching staff. Scott is a former top prospect with the Orioles who blossomed last year as the Marlins set up man. Scott’s 33.9% K rate last season rivaled the likes of Hader, Kimbrel and Devin Williams to put him just below Félix Bautista at the tippy top of Elite Reliever Mountain. He’d give the Orioles a more consistent, higher upside version of Pérez while also allowing them to play matchups better late in games.
Stowers and Norby would most likely walk into Miami and start right away on a Marlins team that‘s sorely lacking offensively. Outside of back-to-back batting champion Luis Arráez and the since-departed Jorge Soler, no Marlins starter had an OPS above .800 last year. Stowers and Norby are both power-first bats that could inject some much needed pop into the Miami lineup. The inclusion of Wells and Pérez would give the Marlins established major leaguers to replace the outgoing stars, while Wagner profiles as someone who could develop into an above-average offensive infielder down the line.
Scenario 3: The O’s swing for the fences to acquire an All-Star OF
The trade: The Orioles send OF Kyle Stowers, IF Connor Norby, OF Austin Hays and RHP Carter Baumler to the Chicago White Sox for OF Luis Robert Jr.
There’s not really anything the Orioles need to add offensively, but if we’re going to dream big, a prominent right-handed slugger like Robert could take this lineup over the top. As I detailed previously, this group of position players is very lefty-heavy. They’ll become even more imbalanced when prospects Jackson Holliday, Colton Cowser and Heston Kjerstad assume bigger roles at the major-league level. Swapping out Hays with fellow All-Star Robert would give the Orioles two players (along with Ryan Mountcastle) who absolutely wear out left-handed pitching. Robert’s plus defense would also translate seamlessly to the cavernous left field at Camden Yards.
The rebuilding White Sox would not only get a former All-Star in Hays back, but two players in Stowers and Norby that could help them start to rebuild a largely barren lineup. Moving on from Hays would certainly be painful for all of Birdland. However, the Orioles have reached a point in their development that sending out established starters and fan favorites is the only way to make meaningful upgrades to this team.
The trade of Dylan Cease to the Padres is a clear indication that the White Sox are open for business as they embrace the kind of rebuild the Orioles started 5+ years ago. Robert is now the biggest prize on their roster, and at 26 with three more years of team control after 2024, he seamlessly fits the Orioles timeline and team makeup. This would be the kind of move we haven’t seen the Orioles make since trading for Frank Robinson in the 60’s and Reggie Jackson in the 70’s. Adding a player like Robert could be the move that propels this team to a pennant.