Orioles will have to be willing to get creative with their trades
The Baltimore Orioles have a ton of trades to make but will have to get creative to maximize their returns.
The sky is blue, the grass is green, and the Baltimore Orioles utterly botched their one real shot at a rebuild that could have netted them multiple top-100 prospects ready to lead them into the future. Instead of waving the white flag last year and trading Manny Machado, Zach Britton and other players heading into free agency after the 2018 season, the Orioles chose to push all their chips to the middle of the table and go for it one last time.
How’s that working out?
Well…the Orioles are heading towards a 100-loss (120??) season and could challenge every single franchise record for futility. The Ubaldo Jimenez contract looks like a steal with Alex Cobb off to a 2-9 start with a 7.14 ERA, while Chris Davis is taking an indefinite trip to the bench while hitting .150/.227/.227 with 86 strikeouts in 207 at-bats. It is the third year of his seven-year contract.
Plain and simple, the 20-51 Orioles are an utter disaster — putting up worse numbers than teams that entered the year with no intention of trying to win. Attendance is way down, but worse, fans have little hope that a disorganized front office, where no one knows who is in charge and the owner refuses to stay out of the way, can get anything right at the trade deadline.
In no particular order, the Orioles must find a way to trade Machado, Britton, All-Star reliever Brad Brach and All-Star center fielder Adam Jones. Really, no one, not even Dylan Bundy, should be off limits when it comes to trade discussions.
Because the Orioles refused to come to grips last year when they entered the All-Star break 42-46, they will not have the opportunity to build for a quick turnaround like the Chicago White Sox, who pulled the plug at the right time. Nope, the Orioles are looking at a long and painful rebuild that could take at least five years.
Having one of the best years of his career, Machado could still fetch at least one marquee prospect, but forget about bringing back a leaguewide top-ten prospect like the New York Yankees got in Gleyber Torres when they gave up Aroldis Chapman (just look at the underwhelming return the Kansas City Royals, who need to nail their rebuild just as badly as the Orioles, got for All-Star closer Kelvin Herrera). No one is desperate enough, regardless of how good Machado is. What’s more, many of the best contenders are already set at shortstop, or at least do not have a pressing need. The Los Angeles Dodgers make sense with Corey Seager out, but Andrew Friedman is not one to overreact and make a blockbuster trade.
It is going to take a level of creativity for the Orioles to maximize their return. Luckily, closer Britton is back from his Achilles injury and has looked good so far. Packaging him with Machado makes sense. Every contender can stomach giving up elite prospects for a true superstar in Machado and a closer, who when healthy, is virtually impossible to homer off of. If Baltimore has to eat a large portion of their salaries to get a deal moving, so be it. This is not the time for Peter Angelos to get cold feet or quibble over money. The Orioles have already blown it (on a myriad of fronts) and getting this trade deadline wrong has the potential to set the franchise back over a decade.
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Creativity isn’t necessarily the first word most would use to describe a team run by an 88-year-old who makes everything difficult. In spite of Angelos, the Orioles have found a way to win almost every year since 2012, but that run is obviously over. They did it without international amateurs, with a starting rotation full of retreads and a lineup that relied too heavily on the longball. During their stay at the top of the AL East, the Orioles always found a unique way to work around the fringes of their roster.
Now, they’ll have to take the same approach with their rebuilding efforts.