The O’s pulled off an unexpected flurry of trades yesterday, but how much did they really improve the team?
Good morning, Camden Chatters.
One thing you definitely cannot accuse Mike Elias of is being inactive at the trade deadline.
Woo boy. The Orioles pulled off a chaotic flurry of trades yesterday, most of them within the last half hour before the 6 pm deadline, that have re-shaped a large chunk of the Birds’ roster for the stretch run. In all, the O’s made an eye-popping five swaps yesterday with five different teams, in addition to the two previous trades they made late last week.
Mark Brown has a breakdown of all of yesterday’s swaps, from acquiring Trevor Rogers early in the afternoon to the frenetic trading spree that came down at the wire. (It wasn’t just the Orioles, either. Since July 25, there were nearly 60 deals around the majors in what was one of the most high-octane trade deadlines in recent history.)
All in all, if you include last week’s Orioles trades, a whopping 19 players have either joined or left the O’s organization at the deadline.
Acquisitions: Zach Eflin, Seranthony Domínguez, Cristian Pache, Trevor Rogers, Eloy Jiménez, Austin Slater, Livan Soto, Gregory Soto, Patrick Reilly
Departures: Austin Hays, Connor Norby, Kyle Stowers, Matthew Etzel, Jackson Baumeister, Mac Horvath, Seth Johnson, Moises Chace, Trey McGough, Billy Cook
Yowza. I hoped the O’s would be active on the trade front, but I didn’t quite expect this. And I’m still trying to wrap my head around how all these pieces will fit together.
Several of the new Orioles would be great acquisitions — if this were the year 2021. But it’s been a few years since guys like Rogers, Jiménez, and Gregory Soto had particularly strong seasons. The O’s are taking on some reclamation projects here, hoping they can help at least a few of these players can tap into their past success.
Personally, when I wanted the Orioles to be active at the deadline, reclamation projects aren’t exactly what I was hoping for. The 2024 O’s are in first place and in good position to make the postseason, but had a few obvious holes. I’m not sure how well all these trades filled them. Neither Eflin nor Rogers are top-line starting pitchers who you’d feel totally comfortable putting in a playoff rotation. Jiménez hasn’t hit well this year and is such a bad defender that he should never put a glove on. Pache is a great speed and defense guy but a zero with the bat. Soto and Dominguez have quality stuff out of the bullpen but sometimes don’t know where the ball is going.
Instead of making trades to propel themselves forward, it feels like the O’s basically went sideways, reshuffling the fringes of the roster. Maybe that will help a bit, but it doesn’t exactly vault them into World Series contender status. The types of pitchers who could have made the biggest difference — Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet, Blake Snell — didn’t end up getting traded at all.
Still, the front office’s restraint is understandable. The asking prices for some of the big-name trade pieces were insane — just look at what the Padres gave up for Tanner Scott, for instance — and Elias was never realistically going to trade his top prospects, most notably Jackson Holliday, Samuel Basallo, and Coby Mayo. The most prominent players he dealt, Norby and Stowers, are talented but were caught in a roster logjam and didn’t fit into the team’s plans moving forward. Elias was careful not to mortgage the Orioles’ future, and several of the players he acquired have additional years of team control.
Did the Orioles get worse by making all these deals? I don’t think so. But did they get better? I’m not so sure about that, either. It’ll be fascinating to see how this all plays out.
Links
Jon Meoli: The Orioles’ floor-raising trades and the reality-check they provide – The Baltimore Banner
Meoli is more optimistic than I am about the usefulness of the new acquisitions and the Orioles’ ability to coach them up. I certainly hope he’s right.
Did The Orioles Overpay For Trevor Rogers? It’s Not That Simple – Baseball America
J.J. Cooper writes that getting a useful back-end starter for a couple of years is worth the cost of giving up two youngsters who weren’t getting playing time with the Orioles. I certainly hope he’s right, too.
Some O’s clubhouse reactions to the Rogers addition and impending deadline – Steve Melewski
The Orioles players seem remarkably good at staying cool and composed even as their friends are getting traded away. I suppose they’re accustomed to the business side of it all.
Sic Transit Eloy Jiménez | FanGraphs Baseball
Michael Baumann (not that one) previews what the Orioles are getting in Eloy: a diminishing, injury-prone hitter who can’t play defense. Not ideal. But I think the fact that the new O’s ownership is willing to take on another team’s salary dump is actually kind of encouraging.
MLB trade deadline takeaways 2024: Ranking the winners, losers and snoozers – The Athletic
For what it’s worth, The Athletic’s Andy McCullough rated the Orioles as one of the winners of the trade deadline. I’ll say it one more time: I certainly hope he’s right.
Orioles designate Cole Irvin for assignment – The Baltimore Sun
The influx of new players will cost some Orioles their roster spots, and Cole Irvin is the first to go. He started off this season so promising and it all went south in a hurry. Best of luck to Cole, who seems like a great human being.
Holliday rejoining Orioles in Baltimore – School of Roch
Perhaps the biggest news of the day didn’t involve a trade. Jackson Holliday is coming back to the Orioles, y’all! The #1 prospect in baseball has the potential to be a lineup changer if he shows improvement from his ill-fated first stint.
Burnes and bats shine as Orioles score dominant 6-2 win over the Blue Jays – Camden Chat
Oh by the way, the Orioles also played a baseball game last night and won easily. Check out John Beers’s recap for all the details.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You share your birthday with former O’s catcher Mike Figga (54), left-hander Earl Stephenson (77), and the late lefty Rip Coleman (b. 1931, d. 2004) and outfielder Joe Durham (b. 1931, d. 2016). Also born on this day was former Orioles manager Billy Hitchcock (b. 1916, d. 2006).
Until recently, July 31 has customarily been the MLB trade deadline, so there’s been plenty of Orioles activity on this day in history. Among the deadline-day swaps the O’s have made over the years:
The O’s acquired veteran starter Juan Guzmán from the Blue Jays on this day in 1998 and traded him away exactly one year later, netting a package from the Reds that included future Orioles closer B.J. Ryan.
In 2000, the Orioles finished off their fire sale by dealing veteran first baseman Will Clark to the Cardinals, where he batted a scalding hot .345/.426/.655 in 51 games and then promptly retired. They also infamously traded B.J. Surhoff to the Braves, prompting the popular Oriole to break down in tears at his press conference. The Birds’ trade return — a 36-year-old outfielder, a catching prospect who couldn’t hit, and a damaged-goods righty who pitched only one game for the Orioles — was a disastrous one.
In 2013, they acquired veteran righty Bud Norris for a package of minor leaguers that included Maryland-born lefty Josh Hader, who went on to become (and still is) one of baseball’s most dominant closers.
In 2014, they dealt pitching prospect Eduardo Rodríguez to the Red Sox for relief ace Andrew Miller. The dominant Miller was everything the Orioles hoped he would be for the division-winning Birds, but they probably could’ve used Rodríguez — who has since made 196 major league starts — over the next few years.
And in 2018, the O’s made the final deals of that year’s selloff, sending pitchers Kevin Gausman and Darren O’Day to the Braves and second baseman Jonathan Schoop to the Brewers. The Birds didn’t receive much of value in either of those deals, though they did get a decent season and a half out of Jonathan Villar (acquired in the Schoop trade) and still have Zimmermann (from the Gausman trade) in the organization, where he’s spent all year at Triple-A Norfolk.