The Rays are getting some bullpen help, acquiring right-handed reliever Bryan Baker from the Orioles in exchange for a 2025 Competitive Balance (Round A) draft selection, No. 37 overall. Both teams have announced the swap.
Baker adds a power arm with potent bat-missing ability to the Rays’ bullpen. The 30-year-old righty has pitched 38 1/3 innings for the Orioles this season and turned in a 3.52 ERA with an even more encouraging 32.5% strikeout rate and 6% walk rate. Baker sits 96.7 mph with his four-seamer, per Statcast, and he’s sporting a strong 13.1% swinging-strike rate on the season thanks in no small part to a changeup that’s graded out brilliantly thus far. Opponents are hitting just .154 and slugging a putrid .205 against Baker’s changeup.
This year’s numbers are skewed a bit by Baker’s outing just two days ago, when the Mets jumped him for four runs. He didn’t record an out and was tagged for a pair of home runs. Baker’s ERA ballooned from 2.58 all the way to its current 3.52 mark.
Baker has had some home run troubles (1.88 HR/9), but he’s also seen a fluky 20% of the fly-balls he’s allowed turn into home runs — well north of the 11.4% league average and nearly triple his career mark entering the season. Metrics like xFIP (2.78) and SIERA (2.37) — which normalize HR/FB to account for potential small-sample spikes like this — feel Baker has been vastly better than his earned run average would indicate. The Rays, presumably, are confident that the home run troubles will prove anomalous while Baker maintains his ability to miss bats and limit free passes.
In parts of four seasons with the O’s, Baker has a 3.73 ERA over the course of 176 1/3 innings. He currently boasts career-best marks in strikeout rate, walk rate, fastball velocity, swinging-strike rate and opponents’ chase rate. On top of that, he’s not yet into his arbitration years, having only amassed two-plus years of service time prior to 2025. He’ll cross the three-year mark this season and be eligible for arbitration for the first time this offseason. Tampa Bay can control him through the 2028 campaign.
Adding another reliever is typically a goal for all contending clubs, but it’s quite prudent for a Rays club that currently has Manuel Rodriguez (2.08 ERA in 30 1/3 innings) and Hunter Bigge (2.51 ERA dating back to last summer’s MLB debut) on the injured list at present. As noted just yesterday in our Trade Deadline Outlook on the Rays, Tampa Bay tends to prioritize under-the-radar pickups of just this sort of controllable reliever, as opposed to making plays for more obvious trade candidates with dwindling club control.
Baker has regularly worked in high-leverage spots for Baltimore this season. He’s tallied a pair of saves and 10 holds on the year already. He’ll now join a late-inning mix for the Rays, pairing with Garrett Cleavinger, Edwin Uceta and (once healthy) Rodriguez as a setup option for excellent closer Pete Fairbanks.
For the Orioles, they’ll add more firepower to what’s already a large draft pool. Draft picks awarded in Major League Baseball’s Competitive Balance lottery are the only picks eligible to be traded and may only be traded one time, so Baltimore will hang onto this pick and carry it into Sunday’s draft.
The Orioles, who gained compensatory picks at the end of the first round when Corbin Burnes and Anthony Santander signed elsewhere after declining qualifying offers, now have four of the first 37 selections in this year’s draft. In addition to that pair of comp picks, Baltimore also has a pick in Competitive Balance Round B (between the second and third rounds of the draft). That gives them a staggering seven picks in the first 93 selections of this year’s draft and a massive bonus pool worth more than $19MM — the largest of any team in MLB.
The O’s are selling Baker at close to peak value, but they won’t get any short-term help that could impact the team this year or next. Baltimore is 10 games under .500 and seven back of a Wild Card spot in the American League, so it’s not necessarily a shock to see them begin to sell off some big league pieces for future value. The question is whether this will end up as a one-off for now, with the O’s staying the course until closer to the deadline in hopes of a late surge back into the Wild Card chase, or whether this is the beginning of a larger sale.
Presumably, if the O’s ultimately end up trading off a larger slate of veteran players, they’ll begin to prioritize young talent that’s closer to MLB readiness. The O’s have rental players like Cedric Mullins, Ryan O’Hearn, Seranthony Dominguez, Tomoyuki Sugano, Gregory Soto, Charlie Morton and Zach Eflin, plus older veterans with reasonably priced 2026 club options like Andrew Kittredge and Ramon Laureano. General manager Mike Elias could field offers on that group while still keeping the core of Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Colton Cowser, Adley Rutschman, Jackson Holliday and Grayson Rodriguez together in hopes of retooling for another run at contention in 2026. In that scenario, adding some young big leaguers or on-the-cusp prospects in Triple-A would be a sensible goal.
Robert Murray of FanSided first reported that Baker was being traded to the Rays. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported the return.
lol wtf O’s
? their season is cooked. The success they have at drafting makes 7 picks in the first 93 a fantastic chance of restocking their farm.
@sean-11
The Orioles are getting the #37 overall pick in the draft for a relief pitcher with slightly above average results. (Albeit I think he’s better than the results.) I’m not even an Orioles fan, but you make this trade 10 out 10 times!
From bbref draft search for 37th pick
60 matching player(s). 27 played in the majors (45%). Total of 210.4 WAR, or 7.8 per major leaguer
45% was much higher than I expected
That’s very interesting. Baker has been worth 1.7 career WAR thus far. Hard to think he’s a lock to make it to 7.8, so if the Os draft a player that makes it to the bigs, odds are they win this deal long term.
Not a good interpretation of the data. The median of the major leaguers is 1.2 war. Only 11 surpassed 1.7 war, 2 of which were not signed that year (redrafted). Half of the career war total was 40-55 years ago (ol Frank Viola in there). 2007 was Travis D’arnaud at 8.8, so far the last 37th overall pick to be better than Baker assuming Baker passes Conor Gillaspie at 2.2. Recency bias is probably justified somewhat due to modern analytics but you’d have to spread out from just the 37th pick to get a more scientific prediction.
Future is now they need to keep him to help them get back into it. You tank for five years in hope of having a window of one year that makes no sense. You keep all your good players then go out and trade your surplus to start filling your holes . IThey could easily trade for atleast 3 competent starters. Gradually they start getting back into this.
@Skin – it isn’t just the 37th pick. This adds more money to their pool and gives them flexibility. They can go under slot early to then grab guys that dropped due to sign ability issues.
and for the Os draft since they are no longer picking early, it is all about picking often. They have a ton of picks in this draft and as a result have a huge draft pool. That pick is not just 37 overall, but a big bump in their bonus pool. There could be a guy that falls due to the amount they are demanding (ala Kumar Rocker draft a few years ago) that the Os are now in a great position to figure out.
this is a lost year for the Os. They still have a few more years of Gunnar/Adley. The guys leaving this year should have replacements coming soon (like Bradfield in CF to plug in for Mullins) or they will need to solve in FA- like their whole rotation but they should have Bradish and GRayson next year as a starting point to build around.
They are not fire sale sellers this year, Baker is the sort of guy they move to restock to make the window wider when you have a chance to extend your window. the pick is about what you do when the current crop reaches free agency. smart teams in small markets have a cycle they work towards. The current crop has 2 more years to make a run (while you still have gunnar, westburg, adley), and as they leave you have the next generation in Mayo and Basallo, now they are making moves for the generation after that (or if they go college heavy in this draft, to have the depth around Basallo). Every everyday type player they find in the draft is 5-15 million per year they do not need to spend on a FA. The yankees can sign their way out of bad drafts (or just trading all their prospects away), but the Os (and any other small market team) does not have that option.
The Yankees have 5 homegrown starters plus Rice among their 13 position players plus injured SP Schmidt and RP Loaisiga. Then there’s guys mostly grown in the NY system like SP Gil, RP Beeter, just debuted and TBD Schlittler, bounce around C Escarra, etc.
Yes they do trade prospects to fill needs of a contender (for Stanton, Chisholm, Belli, Grisham, etc) and sign FAs as needed (Cole, Rodon, Fried, Goldy). But their approach is situational, not simply as you describe.
And there was a time not too long ago when the O’s were spenders too. And they did spend significantly more this year. It just didn’t work out so well as yet. They should have extended some of those current core pieces earlier but may have missed that window.
Why do fans not understand the baseball draft? The pick is valuable because of the money it gives you in the draft. It’s lets you become flexible in the draft. If you’ve got more to spend then teams who pick above you most likely the better players will drop to you. Rarely do the best players go in order for mlb draft. MLB draft is much different than the other drafts fans are familiar with. It’s not like nfl where teams draft for needs and the slot you get drafted determines how much you make.
Funny, just a few hours ago I wrote maybe the Rays will try to win this year before new ownership takes over.
Wow. Nostraobvious
I got the fever too.
Align – Who doesn’t love Pringles? Stacked chips, greatest invention ever!
Boston has put together a nice run before the All-Star break, seems Breslow has escaped his demise. Good for him and good for the Red Sox.
It’s a precarious spot for them as buyers in this market, selling was so much easier but now you’d be wankers if you didnt go for it.
That puts you in the market for starting pitching.
Crochet
Bello
Giolito
—
Buehler
Fitts
Harrison
Have to be after a front of the rotation starter. Seth Lugo, Zac Gallen, would the Twins move Joe Ryan?
Rafaella has been real good for the Saux. You still have quality depth in the OF and around the infield with Cambpell and Mayer as depth behind Story and Romy. Have a good bench.
Probably could use a first baseman. Do you make a move for O’Hearn or do you have Refsnyder dig up his 1B glove and roll with a Toro / Refsnyder platoon? Refsnyder hasnt logged a single game at first this season but he can play first base.
Does bringing O’Hearn in alienate Abraham Toro and Rob Refsynder? Is it worth the risk. Team is clicking some over the past month.
The Orioles aren’t trading O’Hearn to the Red Sox. It’s not the same as them trading Baker to the Rays.
Im not from the east coast. Question is still the same, whether it’s O’Hearn or Nathaniel Lowe or any other 1B. Nats might dislike the Red Sox more than the Orioles and they play in different leagues.
As a White Sox fan the only benefit of ever trading with the Cubs is the opportunity to fleece them, you never root for the win win. It’s funny in a way.
i think it is. Ohearn is a rental at this point. So if the Sox keep him, they are paying full freight to have him past this season. If the Sox want to offer something worth about a #37 overall pick, i am sure he would be shipped out tomorrow (a #37 pick would likely be a top 15 Org prospect since not many teams have a pick they are allowed to trade)
Everything has a price. If Boston offers the most, you take it. Period. Doing otherwise is stupid.
this is a very Rays move. Trade for Baker now, and get the rest of this year out of him, and maybe next season, and then offer him up in trade before he hits FA to recover some of the assets lost. He just needs to keep up where he is for them to flip the last year of control of him for a prospect worth only marginally less than they just traded away (i would expect the #37 pick to be a top 200 prospect maybe top 150)
Rays don’t actually draft exceptionally well either. They’re constantly dealing for and swapping prospects from other teams after their pro debuts.
Mets made baker cook up a 4 run storm in his diapeys and gets immediately shipped off a day later.
Controllable through 2028 plus his arm strength should get a modest return. Let’s see what Elias actually got.
Rays got a power bullpen arm by flipping the draft pick we got for Jeffery Springs 😂. 4D Chess
They got the No. 42 pick for Springs. Competitive Balance picks can only be traded once. But same round, and having that Springs pick presumably made them more willing to part with their actual Comp Balance pick.
Stop sounding so reasonable and smart. There’s no place for that in a comments section. 😏
Thanks for your work, Steve.
Ah. I mixed up the comp picks. Thank you for the correction.
I still love this move for the Rays. Assuming we optimize Baker, we will be able to flip him for a lot more than the value of that pick in a few years + we reinforce our bullpen for this year––which isn’t as good as stats say.
I still look for us to trade Littel for a handsome package (hopefully an OF/2B that can play now) and bump Joe Boyle or Sugar Shane into the Rotation / piggyback with Rass.
Orioles, after reading the comments, are stacked for this years draft and this move is solid for them too. I love it when teams are actively self-aware and don’t try to force moves.
Solid win-win trade for both teams.
A homer prone pitcher sent to a club playing in a minor league park. This should be interesting.
Right? B/c the Rays never fix what other orgs can’t seem to with pitchers? For them to give up a pick in the 30’s means they think they can turn him into a very dominant RP for many years.
It’s a good sign if you pick up a rando reliever you never heard of in a holds league and then he gets traded to the Rays a week later, right?
that is a crowded bullpen, the holds may be harder to come by. Honestly maybe not, the Os have a lot of solid bullpen arms- Bautista is the closer, but Baker, Soto Cano and Dominguez were all seeing plenty of time as primary set up guys. 5 guys you can trust at the end of your pen is a lot. I doubt we see bautista or Cano go anywhere- but Soto and Dominguez are likely on the move for less than this return (less team control, i think they are rentals at best). If you want to speculate on guys getting holds with the Os- Kittleridge is not as likely to move due to the club option and being hurt all year, and likely steps into the 7th inning role in front of Cano and Bautista when the dust settles. They also have a rookie manager who is likely to want more clear roles vs. mix and matching too much once the bullpen is less loaded.
The metrics show he’s more unlucky than homer prone. And its the Rays. Safe bet is this guy closes a playoff game this season.
He would still be 3rd or 4th in the Rays bullpen pecking order. Fairbanks is #1 and not likely to be unseated (i think it is more likely they trade fairbanks than trade for a clear cut closer). I do not know their pen well enough, but i am sure they have a few other high leverage guys already. Baker was the 3-5 option out of the Os pen (behind Bautista, Cano, and on par with Soto and Dominguez)
It was more of a joke then being serious. But while we’re on it, it’s not unlike the Rays to turn one teams 5th reliever into their closer. See ; Fairbanks himself, Jason Adam was a no body until TBR, Emilio Pagan, throwback to Brad Boxberger, Brooks Raley was nothing before TB, etc.
that is fair- they are really good at fixing players.
Home Run Baker for the 21st century.
Excellent deal for the Orioles.
Well done, Mike!
Mid-season divisional trades aren’t common but they’re always interesting
We actually trade with the Rays pretty often (for division rivals).
The Rays trade more than Wall Street
It’s more common than you think. Last season leading up to the deadline saw 6 divisional trades. 4 in 2023. And 5 in 2022.
37th pick in the draft for a guy I honestly thought would be DFA’d this offseason. Not too bad.
Exactly.
The pick may amount to nothing in the end, but we got Gunnar and Westburg at around the same point in the draft, so maybe it amounts to something. Time will tell, but it was a great trade for a team in the Orioles’ position.
Bonus $ at least. We need to take a crack at some pitching. We have a ton of picks in the top 40 now.
Relievers are so volatile too. Look at Cano and Perez. At one point we might’ve gotten a deal like this for one of them. I think this is a great deal even if Baker tears it up in TB.
Elias does not draft pitching. It is all SS, C and CF. He loves up the middle talent so they have the ability to move off of their position as they develop (Kjerstad being the rare exception in the first round for them)- Cowser (can play CF, but really moved to corner OF), Gunnar, Adley, Bradfield… This is what the Os do.
I think what we see is a lot of trades for meh SP prospects (like McDermott and Povich) with what the Os have to offer at the deadline- since he seems to like that sort of AA quasi reclaimation SP over needing raw pitching and developing (grayson, gausman and sedlock, ect i think were pre elias draftees)
The number of the pick is only relevant depending on what’s actual done with the pick. The Os have been much better with bats than arms in the draft.
Hard to judge how they are with the arms in the draft when Elias almost never drafts any arms.
Yeah. Only two picks in the first 3 rounds have ever been used on a pitcher. Baumeister was traded for Eflin.
Can’t really say what Elias can do with drafting pitchers because he simply hasn’t.
That’s why the O’s are in last place.
Need to back up truck and trade for pitching.
Absolutely they could fix 3 spots with one trade. Quintana, Myers, Haase for Mayo. That would be a 2 and 3 starting pitchers with a decent catcher to team with Adley. Guarantee that would gradually help them back into wild card by end of year . Then by the trade deadline they could probably find 2 more starters that could be good with their offense.
O’s aren’t interested in any rentals with a 1% chance of making the postseason. That deal does nothing for them.
a team 10 games under 500 only does something like this if they win out their games pre ASG and need to change course. This is the indication they are selling.
Those guys are also signed to near market. Mayo could still demand a controllable SP for years. Honestly i thought Keller plus for Mayo would be a workable trade- maybe add guys like Solemeto to make it work.
The O’s are in last place because they have had more players on the IL(24) than any team in baseball. At one point that included six starting pitchers.
Well the Brewers were in that exact same situation . They had Civale, Myers, Cortes, Quintana, Woodruff, Ashby, and Hall all on at once and look where they are at .
Competitive balance draft pick….smh. Elias has only proven that he can accumulate draft picks. Then they underperform, not because of the player, but because of how the FO manages them.. Seems like the O’s under Elias (and maybe now Rubenstein, based off his comments yesterday) will only add cost-friendly talent through the draft, keep the fanbase excited, but never try to win it all. Any long-term extension done lately? Nope.
We traded a 30 year old waiver claim reliever for a quasi-first round pick in a deep draft in a non-competitive season.
I’m not really sure how you can be upset by this.
Not upset by this one trade; on its own, it makes sense. Drafting young talent is a great start. But that’s all Elias knows how to do.
Tough crowd. Elias had built a team that’s won 83, 101, and 91 games over the last 3 years. This year is a flop and they need to figure out how to win a game in the postseason. But the one trick pony that Elias has been has yielded pretty good results so far.
Gunnar et al have done well in the bigs. There are no extensions since they all have several years of control left. Not every young player wants to be locked into 10 years 100m the day they are called up- that is why you get 3 at rookie and 3 in arb.
And i am not convinced this is going to be a terrible year. I think they miss the playoffs due to the terrible start, but i could still see them being in the 80-85 win range with a weak shot at a wildcard- so not a terrible season.
What led to the terrible season in question has sort of been resolved. Morton has been very good recently (he was terrible) BRadish is going to be making rehad starts soon, Grayson should not be too far behind. So the SP just took a month or two into the season to finally deliver- but they have started to.
And no options left. He was a DFA candidate
That’s very important. The no options status.
This is a great get this early before TD for a reliever not dominating.
Praise the Lord, no more “home run ” Baker!🤣
He’s gonna be good. Great movement on the changeup. Always liked the fire he pitches with
Still a possibility that this is the first step leading towards a Fairbanks trade, since he’s about to price himself out of TB…
I could see that. He’s always only one outing away from his next injury.
Win win for both teams. TB gets a decent reliever adding depth to their bullpen and the Os get another draft pick which is Elias’ specialty. Now sell the rest of em off, Mike!
The Rays needed a power arm leading up to Fairbanks. Right now with a couple out, they’re being smacked around with finesse guys. Montgomery is a power arm with no control.
Baker outside of this seasons sample also has no control. His stuff plays but when he can’t land a fastball his changeup isn’t as effective despite the 17mph gap in between. In 22 he was nails, 23 he got rocked and that playoff game vs Texas lived with him all of last season. It’s amazing he wasn’t DFA’d last season at any point. Kudos to the O’s for staying the course and ironing him out as he has special stuff but hasn’t been consistent with it. A high draft pick is about as good as you can do for someone like this.
Rays seemed to have slightly overpaid but they need pen arms ASAP and the pen market will be hot this year so it’s good to at least get one extra arm before the big teams really start getting involved. If not for the bullpen the Rays would have likely won 8/10 of their last games but instead lost as much. And pen arm is a good trade for them. They need even more so I expect them to make a few more deals.
It sets the market for bullpen arms, Baker probably is in the top five to ten RHRP on the market and he brought back a first round pick.
The Rays bullpen had looked like a weakness in June, its a good trade for both teams but I think the Rays made out on this one with Baker having three years of team control. He is due a nice raise in ARB1 but he is a 6’6 righty, sitting 97 with gaudy K/BB ratios. He got nailed by the Mets, by Nimmo, Lindor, Soto and Alonso, a tough spot, a bad game, but otherwise he has pitched real well this season. It’s a nice addition to a Rays bullpen that needed an arm or two.
His biggest weakness seems to be giving up homeruns, which is what the Rays BP is dealing with now. The biggest difference is the walk rates. A solo homer is better than a free walk or two followed by a homer (which has been the issue with the pen). It’s true the years of control do make it very intriguing. Hopefully he can continue to put up solid numbers. I just hope the Rays continue to be aggressive and don’t make this their big deal.
Interesting. Guy is actually pretty decent. Surprised the Rays snagged him from the O’s. 2.37 SIERA, 32.5% K-rate and 6% BB-rate.
Yes. Good get by the Rays. Can you believe that some Baltimore fans think he is DFA material? Ludicrous!
@stymeedone
O’s fans aren’t the highest IQ fans in the sport.
Old York — Intimately acquainted with whole fan bases are you?
@O’sSayCanYouSee
Probably.
If you did follow the O’s you would’ve known it was about this past offseason where there wasn’t a spot for Baker in the pen until Kittredge got hurt. Baker was being scouted by other clubs in spring training because he was likely the odd man out and hasn’t had stellar results in prior seasons.
@Jbigz12
He’s had stellar results so far this year.
Thank you captain hindsight!
I never disputed that point.
@Jbigz12
What a terrible trade and proves my point above…
Terrible trade for either club is a massive stretch and certainly not something you can call today but I believe you know that.
Relief pitching is volatile. What we do with the Draft pick and bonus pool space is TBD.
Very typical of mid to late inning relievers. They rarely have quality years consistently. The Rays do have a knack for elevating a one year guy, he gets over paid in FA, and cannot continue the success.
@Jbigz12
Yeah… good luck with that.
Old York is a well below replacement level commenter, go easy on him.
Might have to DFA him
Change of scenery guy, for sure.
He was stellar Tuesday against the Mets! Listen to what Elias said today. The team has had a coupe of losses in the last two weeks that have swayed him towards selling. Tuesday was Exhibit 2!
No one was saying that he’s a current DFA candidate, but he’s out of options and has stunk for long stretches in the recent past, and he didn’t have a firm grip on a roster spot this past offseason. It would not have been shocking at all if he had been DFA’d prior to opening day, but our ridiculous slew of injuries cleared a path for him.
If the pen would’ve been healthy at the start of the year he easily could’ve been the odd man out. It was down to him versus Cionel Perez before Kittredge got hurt. I believe Cionel would’ve gotten the spot.
Numbers don’t tell the whole story on this guy. See the 23 playoffs vs Texas. Hasn’t been the same since until he had zero expectations of him going into this season. Tuesday explains a lot on this guys mental as well. The O’s needed that game to continue the long shot momentum they had at making a run and he gets no outs and gives up 4. Yes, a great top 4 but that’s what the Rays are getting and they plan to make this a playoff weapon?? They’ll be at home with Baltimore quickly if that’s the case.
Baltimore will be the most interesting team in the draft with all those picks.
Nice move on both sides.
Probably going to select all OF’s and forget about pitching per usual.
2000-2015, the 37 pick has been worth about 34 war for the period of team control, just over 2 per year. With 30s-40s picks, O’s have two whiffs and Gunnar, Westburg, Norby, now .900 ops at AAA Beavers. Even skipping GH, that’s 4-5x the average payoff? Clearly Os were the ones calling to make this offer.
Also bear in mind re: the 3.4 years of above avg reliever. Never TJ and no more options, so w RP volatility, more likely to project for 2 yrs than 3.4.
Contenders have to overpay for help now.
Good move for my Orioles. Let’s hope they decide to spread out this plethora of drack picks between hitters and pitchers. This is not a deal to help in the next few years but hopefully will keep a pipeline of talent coming their way. Now, it’s time to ship out some of the expiring contracts.
This is a win for Baltimore. Baker was on the cusp of losing roster spot for at least the past 18 months and then they find a way to get a comp pick level for this guy. Almost feels like a robbery at this point. Curious if this will set the stage for larger sell off or if the rays were shopping value and low salary relievers.
Either way, unless the O’s sweep this doubleheader today and then take 2 or sweep the marlins this weekend they’re cooked. Time is running out.
The Red Sox and Toronto are surging. The Orioles are done. Stick a fork in them.
Given that he has the 3 years of control and is at present doing very well, seems the Rays made out well indeed. The Orioles might have blinked first since the draft is Sunday.
Elias said as much on MASN. Something along the lines of the move was made sooner than he’s comfortable with, but the draft is when it is, and he felt he needed to take the value while it was there.
Peter Bendix punching air right now
Baker was fringe to make the Orioles roster coming into the season and has done well despite the reputation for giving up HR. Other than the HR some of his other #’s have been pretty good.
Elias has stacked up some draft picks and has been good at turning draft picks into good prospects and/or choosing the right top prospects, so Elias the scout has done well with position players (given that he hasn’t really drafted many pitchers).
What Elias has not been good at is being a GM, and maximizing the “Orioles of today” each year. The shine has even worn off obtaining Eflin, which was looked at as his best trade 11 months ago. His best move as GM remains getting one year of Burnes in 2024 and that is more than negated by a bunch of bad to comical moves and inaction. It is now possible Rogers is slowly starting to redeem Elias on that one but there’s a long way to go.
I think Eflin was pitching through an injury for awhile. He was tossing 4 ERA ball before those last 3 outings. Horvath is nothing and Etzel might be a utility player one day. Baumeister hasn’t looked very good this year.
I’d do that deal over 100/100 times. Eflin was huge for us last year and threw a gem in the postseason.
Eflin’s stretch run after the trade was a complete outlier from his career body of work and I think too many fans took it as expectations for what he’d do moving forward (even then I was pointing out his FIP). I thought he’d be a 2/3 type pitcher, ERA in the high 3’s to around 4, say his 2019-2023 averages. I’d be really happy with that. Just saying it doesn’t look quite as good as it did.
O’Neill, Morton, Sanchez, Gibson? Bad moves. Rogers doesn’t look quite as bad as it did 2 months ago but it has a way to go before it makes up for what Stowers and even Norby are producing. Sugano doesn’t look as good as he did 2, 2.5 months ago when I must have said “I want to see how he holds up over the summer” about 20 times.
The moves he didn’t do? Fried and Luzardo were there to be had.
Have to move on from Mullins and Mountcastle, I dont see the rush in trading O’Hearn other than they cant afford all the extensions that are on the horizon and they like Rutschmann but he loses a lot of his value when you move him off C. A Rutschmann trade is interesting and probably returns an MLB ready SP plus. Rutschmann has two years of team control at something like 8 to 10M per.
O’Hearn is having a career year, his age 32 season, he’ll be 33. A nice lefty bat in the lineup but Rob Refsnyder is a better hitter than O’Hearn and he is on the bench most days in Boston.
Lot’s of negative comments towards O’s fans. There’s no question that Baker has been far better this season than ever before. The addition of the change up helped. That said, his track record is that he walks a ton of hitters. Hitters will figure out they can lay off the change up.
Most O’s fans haven’t forgotten his Game 2 performance vs. the Rangers in the 2023 ALDS. Walked the bases loaded after recording one out. That was followed by a grand slam off Jacob Webb! It was a game they could have easily won! .
He should’ve never been on that roster and certainly not pitching in that slot. He was pitching in Norfolk the month prior. I was not sad when I thought he was getting DFA’d this offseason.
He’s been goodthis year but I’m certainly pleased w/ the deal today.
Totally agree, he should have never been on the playoff roster.
Good riddance. I never liked or trusted him.
Solid deal for both. Bakers good present form but horrible past certainly worth a top 40 pick for the Orioles, and if this year holds form a good deal for the Rays as well.
The Rays still have 5 of the first 86 picks; if Baker pitches to this year’s stats the rest of the way and helps them make a run, that 6th draft pick will not be missed.
It was a win win for both clubs
MLB ought to change the rules so that there are no restrictions on trading draft picks….They seem to want to be like the other sports in so many ways (some of them rather dubious), so why not in this way, one that makes sense?
Alan53 — The reason is non-capped league. If LAD/NYY keep going to the playoffs and winning WS (and getting the Last pick) they could then trade for the top picks easier/aggressively while smaller market/budget teams would be incentiveized to trade top picks.
Trading picks was seen to play into large market teams advantage. (This was before the slotting system, and that does change that dynamic a bit…at the expense of players).
From what I’ve understood over the years is all. Too balance economic advantage.
The slot value of the 37th pick is over $2.6 million. The Orioles bonus pool is now $19.1 million, the largest of any team from it’s start in 2012! Elias will use this to sign a player, or two, who most teams expected to be headed to college in the fall!
I hope they allow all draft picks to be traded at next bargaining agreement. It would add to more trading from small market teams. Smart move in part of Baltimore
Rodriguez isn’t gonna pitch again