Here are three things for MLBTR readers to keep an eye on today:
1. What’s next for the Orioles?
Last night’s surprising trade between the Orioles and Angels saw Baltimore bring Taylor Ward into the outfield mix, while Anaheim added a high upside arm to their rotation in Grayson Rodriguez. There’s little reason to wonder why the Angels swapped a rental bat for a roll of the dice on a young pitcher under long-term control who was once among the very best pitching prospects in baseball.
Baltimore’s motivations aren’t quite so easy to parse, given that the club’s outfield was already somewhat crowded with Ward now joining Tyler O’Neill, Colton Cowser, Dylan Beavers, Leody Taveras, Heston Kjerstad and prospect Enrique Bradfield. The trade helps balance out a lefty-heavy Orioles lineup, but Baltimore was already in clear need of additional rotation help. Might the addition of Ward signal that the O’s are prepared to use some of their existing outfield depth to help land a starter? Will they simply turn to the free agent market to fill out their starting staff?
2. Several players in DFA limbo ahead of non-tender deadline:
A large number of players were designated for assignment ahead of yesterday’s deadline to protect prospects from the Rule 5 draft. JJ Bleday, Christopher Morel, Jake Fraley, Tayler Saucedo, Jason Foley, and Ramon Urias stand out among the most notable names to end up in limbo after yesterday’s moves, and now those players figure to be available to any team interested in trading for them at a minimal price before their current teams likely non-tender them this coming Friday. Rangers outfielder Adolis Garcia and catcher Jonah Heim weren’t designated for assignment, but they’re being shopped ahead of Friday’s non-tender deadline. Will Texas line up on a deal for either of the two?
3. MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agent podcast:
A special episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast goes live today, as Darragh McDonald is joined by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams, and Anthony Franco for a two-hour conversation covering MLBTR’s list of the Top 50 MLB Free Agents for the 2025-26 offseason with predictions. Whether it’s a discussion of Kyle Tucker and MLBTR’s $400MM prediction for the offseason’s top free agent, or the unpredictability of Dylan Cease’s market coming off a relative down season, the podcast provides insight into the discussions that went into this year’s Top 50 list. The episode is already live on both Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and will be posted here on MLBTR later this morning!
Taylor Ward and Tyler O’Neill in the same lineup… oh joy.
Not to be a jerk, but we’d have to see about O’Neill even being in the lineup. The guy is very injury-prone…
Acoss – I STILL can’t believe the only multi-year free agent contract the Orioles have given out since Elias took over in 2018 is O’Neill’s.
So of all the dozens of free agents he passed on, he finally pointed to O’Neill and said “Now THAT is the first guy deserving of more than one year.”
Absolutely boggles the mind ….
You can say this in hindsight, but to be fair he was coming off of a solid platform year for Boston
It’s not a multi year contract, it’s for one year.
It’s just that that one year of playing time will be spread out over three years.
Jram – He had a .693 OPS vs RHP, had a 33.6K%, missed 49 games, and had a -4 OAA in the outfield.
There’s a reason why the Sox didn’t even offer him a QO despite the fact they needed a RH power bat.
saj – Good one, thank you!
There’s 4 outfielders playing in Boston right now that are pretty big reasons why O’Neill wasn’t a fit.
Balt – Roman was kept in the minors until June 9th, and they didn’t have a DH until Bregman signed so O’Neill could have continued to DH a lot.
Really I wouldn’t have minded keeping Tyler as a platoon player around $5M, but paying him to be a starting outfielder was a huge gamble which obviously backfired.
@Fever Pitch, thank you for “well ackshually”-ing me. I never said he was great or deserved a QO from Boston though
JRam – No worries, all good. So then we both agree Scott worked his magic again and got a team (O’s) to massively overpay a player.
I really would like to know what Elias was thinking, why he thought O’Neill would suddenly have a healthy and productive season.
Yes, I would agree that they overpaid
You’re not being a jerk. You actually brought up a really good point. Orioles have a log jam in their outfield, and Ward does seem like the better option, despite not hitting much more than home runs.
Kjerstad might not be playing baseball this year. Regardless the O’s are counting for nothing out of him. I wonder if Beavers is going to play more CF.
I’m curious what scouts even saw in Kjerstad. I guess maybe he had a good bat in College and the Minors, but Major League pitching is on another level and his defense is horrendously bad. He’s another AAAA player up there with Eloy Jimenez, Bryan De La Cruz, Kristian Campbell, Dylan Crews, Anthony Volpe, etc..
What they saw in Kjerstad? He was pretty good during his callup year and was hitting around .950 OPS when the Yankees decided to throw at his head.
Oops, my bad, they didn’t decide to throw at his head, it was an accident. Still it caused a series of concussion issues and basically looks like it has ended his career. But before that, he could hit.
A little more possible foreshadowing of Silent J being packaged with some other assets for someone. Let’s just hope that as another Oriole prospect dream dies, it might be replaced by something we can be excited about.
O’s making room for Ranger Suarez?
They already had room. Now they have even more, but less payroll to fill it with.
I have no clue what their plans are for the core. It seems like Henderson is the only solid prospect who made it to the Big League Level. Mountcastle is falling off, Rutschman hasn’t been good in over a year and a half, Cowser forgot how to hit, Kjerstad plays worse defense than Adam Dunn, Mayo hasn’t developed yet, the list goes on.
At least they let Santander walk before the year he had and traded Mullins for some magic beans before he fell off of the cliff that was the 2025 Mets season.
Westburg is handling the big leagues pretty well.
And Stowers is a budding star. Oh, wait…
there’s something to Baltimore hoarding SPs like LA did a couple years back so they have a million spares when an arm or two expectedly goes “boing”.
let’s see the checkbooks and then signing ALL the SPs. maybe some deferred money reindeer games too. East Coast Dodgers? lol
Ward is going to replace the Laureano/OHearn combination they traded away. ONeill probably needs to DH at this point assuming hes actually healthy. Ward fits with their team fine its just shocking they gave up Rodriguez to get him.
I think Grayson has too much upside and too many years of control for one year of Ward. As of right now, I think the Angels won this trade.
The deal only makes sense if this occurred:
* Minasian “okay please let me review the medicals for GRod”.
* Elias “Nope”.
* Minasian “fine I will make the deal”.
The Orioles can’t be giving up 4 years of a healthy Grayson for a year of a somewhat net positive contractual control of Ward.
That sounds about right lol
I guess we’ll know if this pans out if Grayson continues to have injuries next year.
It might be more shocking that the Angels traded Ward straight up for a guy who hasn’t thrown a pitch since August of 2024
Rodriguez missed the year. But he has 4 years left of control. Ward is gonna make over 10 million in arbitration then be a free agent. How much surplus value does he have? Its not a lot.
Most of us thought that would be Beavers
Some of these guys that are being shopped around are probably non-tender candidates. Adolis Garcia and Jonah Heim come to mind, there are a few others.
A lot of things happened yesterday. Several DFA’d, several added, I feel like this year has a lot of Rule 5 draft guys or is it because last year had to less.
Does MLBTR have more articles on trade deadline day or Rule V deadline day?
I think it depends on how much news there is.
Did they not post the Free Agent Contest Leaderboard yet, or am I just not seeing it? I want to see how bad I’m doing. LOL
I want to check too! I know I got at least two correct lol
Acoss – I think I got just one, from the list of guys who accepted a QO.
Fever,
I bet it was Gleyber lol
Acoss – Yes!! Did you cheat off my sheet? If so you couldn’t have picked a worse one to cheat off of ;O)
Lol I definitely took a peak, this year’s contest was harder than usual!
Acoss – Agreed! I mean seriously, have you ever even heard of Cody Ponce? I certainly didn’t.
Fever, dude I felt so dumb when I saw his name! I was like, I follow this sport religiously, who the eff is Cody Ponce?! lol
Acoss – Exactly! And it seems like the Japanese players just kinda snuck up there, I don’t recall there being too much discussion about them during the season.
If Rodriguez’s medicals were clean, teams would be tripping over themselves to beat a Taylor Ward offer to acquire 4 years of a 26 yo with that kind of upside.
I still think that the O’s are bananas for making that trade. Grayson is too much to give up for a year of an OF you don’t even need and isn’t super hot to begin with.
Anyhoo, I missed that JJ Bleday was DFA’d, I like that player and think whoever gets him will benefit long term with a little work.
Why speculate on a trade whose value 100% hangs on the medical scans?
Because Grayson can fully recover from a lat/teres strain and a relatively minor elbow debridement surgery with the Angels having the luxury of taking their time with him. In a vacuum, it doesn’t appear to be a good trade.
I’d bet the medicals aren’t good and/or GRod was not open to being a reliever. We’ll know more soon. I don’t think this deals happens if the O’s liked what they saw medically.
Yeah, he CAN. But will he?
If the docs say he has a 5% chance of effective recovery, it’s a good trade. But if they say it’s 50%, it’s a bad overpay.
We will never know. If he becomes effective, we won’t know and if he flops we won’t know. Why speculate?
Wondering of the Orioles are factoring in the next CBA if they believe it is likely to suppress the number of years of team control .
Count me as one who likes this trade for the Orioles. They had no player hit more than 17 home runs in 2025. Ward immediately solves that problem and can bat cleanup or fifth for them. However, giving up so much for a one-year commitment implies that they need to bring in other players for this year as well.
JJ Bleday to the angels