The Orioles bolstered their rotation with an intradivision swap netting them right-hander Shane Baz from Tampa Bay, the teams announced Friday. In return, the Rays receive outfielder Slater de Brun, catcher Caden Bodine, right-hander Michael Forret, outfielder Austin Overn and a Competitive Balance Round A draft pick. Baltimore designated lefty Josh Walker for assignment to open a roster spot for Baz (more on that move here).
Baz, 26, will step right into Baltimore’s rotation. As is the case with the recently traded Grayson Rodriguez, Baz once ranked as one of the sport’s top pitching prospects. In fact, a look back at Baseball America’s top 100 prospects of the 2022 season shows Rodriguez at No. 6 and Baz right behind him at No. 8.
Baltimore, of course, traded Rodriguez and his remaining four years of club control to the Angels in exchange for the final year of club control over slugging corner outfielder Taylor Ward. Rodriguez hasn’t pitched in a big league game in nearly 18 months due to injuries. Baz has his own lengthy injury history but pitched a career-high 166 1/3 innings across 31 starts for Tampa Bay last season. The two are different pitchers with different skill sets and different levels of risk, and both are projects (to varying extents). But it’s nevertheless notable that the O’s shipped out one former top-10 pitching prospect and just weeks later effectively replaced him by acquiring another.
In 2025, Baz worked to a 4.87 earned run average but drew more favorable reviews from metrics like SIERA (3.95) and FIP (4.37). He fanned 24.8% of his opponents, issued walks at a 9% clip and kept the ball on the ground at a better-than-average 46.7% rate. Home runs were the biggest problem for Baz, who saw 15.6% of the fly-balls against him clear the outfield fence and allowed an overall average of 1.41 homers per nine innings pitched.
Specifically, Baz was homer-prone in right-on-right matchups. The Rays played last year’s “home” games at Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field (the Class-A affiliate for the Yankees) while Tropicana Field was undergoing repairs after significant damage at the hands of Hurricane Milton. Steinbrenner Field played as the second most homer-friendly venue in MLB for right-handed hitters, per Statcast’s Park Factors; Baltimore’s Camden Yards was still homer-friendly to righties, but not nearly to the same extent.
If Baz can rein in the home run woes and continue to stay healthy, he has the makings of a mid-rotation starter. Those aren’t trivial caveats, however — particularly the health one. Baz had arthroscopic elbow surgery prior to the 2022 season, returned to pitch 27 innings that summer, and then went back on the injured list due to an elbow sprain. He underwent Tommy John surgery that September and missed all of the 2023 season and the first half of the 2024 campaign.
Injury concerns notwithstanding, Baz sat 97 mph with his four-seamer this past season and got strong results on a new knuckle curveball that he hadn’t previously used in the majors. Opponents hit just .214 and slugged .321 against that newly implemented breaking pitch. Baz also works off a changeup and a cutter (getting better results with the former in 2025), rounding out a four-pitch arsenal.
The Orioles will control Baz for another three seasons. He’s a Super Two player who’s eligible for the second of his four arbitration raises this offseason. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected an eminently affordable $3.1MM salary for the right-hander. That bumps the Orioles’ projected payroll, per RosterResource, north of $140MM and gives them more than $178MM of luxury tax considerations. They’re still nearly $70MM from the first tax threshold.
Baltimore entered the offseason in clear need of rotation help. Baz adds a capable arm with some yet-untapped upside but isn’t the clear playoff-caliber starter Baltimore has sought (though he has the potential to become that). He joins Trevor Rogers, Kyle Bradish and Dean Kremer as rotation locks. Tyler Wells, Cade Povich, Brandon Young and Chayce McDermott are all candidates for the fifth spot who are already on the 40-man roster.
That’s solid depth, but the Orioles’ rotation still feels like it’s one veteran arm short. The team’s aggressive signing of Pete Alonso (plus acquisitions of Ward and Baz) are clear signals of a win-now mindset as they look to put an ugly 2025 season behind them. Adding a proven starter would go a long way toward realizing that goal. Baltimore has been linked to prominent free agents like Framber Valdez, Ranger Suarez and Tatsuya Imai — all of whom remain unsigned. Even after adding Alonso, Baz, Ward and free agent closer Ryan Helsley, their projected payroll is more than $20MM shy of last season’s Opening Day mark. There should be room to make another splash on the starting pitching front.
In exchange for the final three years of control over Baz, Tampa Bay is getting several of the Orioles’ top-30 prospects and a well-placed pick in the 2026 draft. Baseball America recently re-ranked the top-10 prospects in Baltimore’s system, placing Forret eighth among the bunch and calling him a potential No. 3 or 4 starter. The 21-year-old righty has strong command and a deep repertoire of six pitches, highlighted by a pair of above-average to plus breaking balls (curveball, sweeper). He split the 2025 season between High-A and Double-A, logging a combined 74 innings with a pristine 1.58 ERA, a huge 32.3% strikeout rate and a tidy 7.4% walk rate.
Forret is the only of the four prospects ranked inside BA’s top 10, though both de Brun and Bodine were top-10 names in the system on MLB.com’s midseason re-ranking of the bunch. The 18-year-old de Brun, in particular, is a big addition. He was selected with the No. 37 overall draft pick — coincidentally enough, a Competitive Balance Round A selection — just this past summer. De Brun didn’t play professionally following that lofty selection. He’ll head to the low minors in Tampa Bay’s system and make his professional debut there in 2026.
Baseball America called de Brun the top high school outfielder in last year’s draft class, lauding his plus-plus speed, above-average hit tool, strong throwing arm and good instincts in center field. He’s listed at just 5’9″ and has below-average power. He’ll be a yearslong development project, but if all goes well, the end result could be a table-setting center fielder with plus base-stealing ability and plus defense.
Bodine, 22, was selected seven picks ahead of de Brun in last summer’s draft. The former Coastal Carolina University standout got his feet wet with 11 games for the Orioles’ Class-A affiliate following the draft and hit well in that small sample. He’s a 5’10”, 200-pound, switch-hitting catcher who draws praise for a plus hit tool and good defensive skills. Like de Brun, he has below-average power. And, as one might expect for a catcher, his speed gets below-average ratings as well. Bodine hit .337/.440/.528 with nearly twice as many walks as strikeouts during his three NCAA seasons and began his pro career with a 14-for-43 showing (13 singles, one double), five walks and eight strikeouts in 49 A-ball appearances.
As with both Bodine and de Brun, Overn is another recent, lofty draft pick for the Orioles. Selected out of USC with the No. 97 pick in 2024, he’s a blistering runner with good defensive skills but fringe power and strikeout concerns. Overn hit .249/.355/.399 between Baltimore’s Class-A and Double-A affiliates in 2025, connecting on 13 homers, 13 doubles and four triples. He also went 64-for-72 in stolen base attempts over just 114 minor league games. MLB.com ranked him 30th in Baltimore’s system following this year’s trade deadline, tabbing him as a potential fourth outfielder or, in a best-case scenario, a speed- and defense-oriented regular. He’ll likely need to improve his hit tool and/or add some more power to get to that ceiling.
The Rays also add a notable draft pick. Baltimore won the fifth pick in Competitive Balance Round A during this month’s lottery. The exact draft order isn’t set yet — draft compensation surrounding free agents who rejected qualifying offers could still impact it — but in 2025 that was the No. 37 overall selection. Coincidentally, that’s the very pick that the Rays traded to the O’s in exchange for reliever Bryan Baker. Baltimore used that pick to select de Brun. It now trades de Brun back to Tampa Bay alongside what could very well end up being the No. 37 pick in the subsequent season’s draft. Last year’s No. 37 pick had a $2.63MM slot value, though de Brun signed for an over-slot $4MM. The Rays are likely adding around $2.7MM in pool space to next year’s draft budget with the acquisition of this pick.
Subtracting Baz depletes a Rays rotation that already looked like it might be one arm short. At the moment, Tampa Bay’s rotation figures to include Drew Rasmussen, Ryan Pepiot, Shane McClanahan and Steven Matz. Joe Boyle, Joe Rock, Ian Seymour and top prospect Brody Hopkins are among the internal candidates to step into the five spot. The first three are already on the 40-man roster.
However, the Rays will also surely have McClanahan on an innings limit after he missed the past two full seasons due to UCL and nerve surgeries. They’ll need to add some more innings to this group one way or another. By shipping out Baz and second baseman Brandon Lowe in separate trades this morning, the Rays trimmed more than $14MM off their projected payroll for the upcoming season. Per RosterResource, they now sit at about $78MM. That’s right in line with last year’s Opening Day mark.
Coming off a season in which they missed the playoffs and played their home games in a minor league park, the Rays may not be anxious to add a starter making $10MM+ per year. But Tampa Bay ran an Opening Day payroll of $98MM as recently as 2024 and is now under new ownership. It stands to reason that there could be some room to add a modestly priced starter in free agency. Alternatively, the trades of Baz and Lowe have only revitalized a perennially solid Tampa Bay farm system. The Rays could turn to the trade market to bring in some more help in the weeks ahead.
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal first reported that the Orioles were nearing a deal to acquire Baz. ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the agreement and the Rays’ return.
