Today: The Orioles have announced the trade and activated Raquet. Brandon Young has been optioned to Triple-A. To make space for Raquet on their 40-man roster, Baltimore transferred Eflin to the 60-day IL. Elbow discomfort forced Eflin to make an early exit during his season debut on March 31, and he is going for a second opinion from Dr. Keith Meister later today. At the very least, he will now miss April and May.
April 6, 9:27 pm: Baltimore is sending minor league outfielder Brayden Smith to St. Louis in return, reports Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The lefty-hitting Smith was the O’s 13th-round pick last year after spending one season at Oklahoma State. He hit .200 with one home run while drawing 12 walks in 16 games at Low-A Delmarva to begin his pro career.
April 6, 9:08 pm: The Orioles are acquiring reliever Nick Raquet from the Cardinals, reports Ari Alexander of Boston 7 News. St. Louis designated the lefty for assignment yesterday. Baltimore will need to create a 40-man roster spot once the trade is final; Heston Kjerstad and Zach Eflin are potential 60-day injured list candidates.
Raquet debuted last September and tossed two scoreless appearances of one inning apiece. That’s the entirety of the 30-year-old lefty’s big league experience to date. Raquet held his spot on the 40-man roster over the offseason but was optioned early in Spring Training. He has worked three innings of one-run ball with a trio of strikeouts for Triple-A Memphis to begin the season.
It has been a long climb to the big leagues for Raquet. The 6’0″ hurler was a third-round pick by the Nationals out of William & Mary in 2017. He never made it beyond A-ball in the Washington system and was released in 2020. Raquet was out of baseball for a few seasons before turning independent and Dominican Winter League work into a new minor league opportunity with St. Louis in 2024.
Raquet spent most of last season in the upper levels of the minor leagues. He combined for a 2.24 ERA with a 28% strikeout rate over 52 1/3 frames, excelling in Double-A before struggling at the top minor league level. He’s a slider specialist whose breaking ball sits in the 82-84 mph range. Raquet’s fastball only lands around 90-91, but he has a full slate of minor league options and can head to Triple-A Norfolk.
Damn, I feel for Kjerstad. He keeps trying but his body keeps failing him. For a bit I thought a change of scenery would provide an opportunity he wouldn’t find with the O’s anymore but, he really just needs to get healthy if thats possible for him at this point.
O’s playing Raquet ball interesting
Last spot on the O’s 40 man getting passed around more than the GOAT Cash Considerations himself.
Id love to see Raquet throw to Rowdy Tellez. That would make for one hell of a bender!
Cardinals have a historically horrible bullpen in 2026 – should they be trading relievers at this time?
This is a real head scratcher. The only thing is a 30 year old AAA pitcher for a younger player. They do have Naughton at AAA he’s a Raquet clone.
Wildly irresponsible speculation here, but I wouldn’t be shocked if the mystery disorder for Kjerstaad was Lymes disease. Dude seems cursed at this point.
Somewhere he drank Joe-boo’s rum and it has never been undone.
The Orioles need a guy to stand in for Enns while he’s out.
This is a guy.
I wish the Orioles focused as much on quality starting pitching as they do on the 39th and 40th spots on the 40 man and the waiver wire.
even if Raquet is just bait for the Orioles’ injury curse, this is a good pick up.
Good depth piece which is nice to have. Also only gave up a left handed hitting infielder, which there are plenty to go around in the organization.