Baltimore Orioles GM Mike Elias awoke from his slumber on Friday and finally pulled the trigger on a pitching upgrade, acquiring reliever Scott Blewett from the Atlanta Braves in exchange for cash considerations. This is an unequivocal win for the O's.
Perhaps the best barometer for the merits of a trade is how the opposing fanbase reacts, and well... Braves fans ain't thrilled with this one.
Blewett coughed up five runs in 1.1 innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks just yesterday, so this trade feels reactive to a single bad performance. Atlanta happened to call up Craig Kimbrel earlier today, so somebody had to go. Why it was Blewett of all people is a bit of a mystery.
This feels like a classic example of Atlanta prioritizing their bigger investments, such as struggling righty Rafael Montero, over the actual top performers. Blewett was a cheap add for the Braves earlier this season after he was DFA'd by (checks notes) the Orioles. His ERA sits at 3.91 with 13 strikeouts in 16.1 innings, with five of his 21 runs allowed coming in an isolated ninth-inning stinker that saw Atlanta blow a six-run lead in the span of two outs.
Baltimore picked up Blewett earlier this season after he was let go by the Minnesota Twins. He allowed one run and put up six strikeouts in 4.1 innings with the O's, but was swiftly DFA'd to make room for Brandon Young.
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Orioles right past wrong, trade for Braves' Scott Blewett in overdue bullpen upgrade
Blewett figures to factor immediately into a struggling Orioles bullpen. Baltimore has quietly strung together six straight wins, sweeping the Chicago White Sox and, more impressively, the Seattle Mariners. This is a talented roster on paper, one that has vastly underperformed expectations all season. Elias is smart to capitalize on this momentum, as the O's cannot really afford to bottom out and spend a year out of contention with so many key players coming up on contract deadlines.
As for the Braves, this is — again — a head-scratcher. Blewett was going to be DFA'd before the trade manifested, but why he was the casualty of Kimbrel's call-up defies logic. It is, frankly, because he was the cheapest and easiest reliever to part ways with, and because he was front and center for Thursday's collapse. That made it easy to scapegoat him, rather than dealing with serial underperformers elsewhere on the roster.
This can't be the last move for either team. Kimbrel almost certainly won't save the Braves' bullpen, which has been in the dumps all season. For all the sentimental value he packs, the results have been quite poor over the last few years. Shoehorning Kimbrel into a high-leverage role will assuredly backfire, so he needs to be a (very small) piece of the puzzle, not the entire solution.
On Baltimore's side, Blewett is a solid long-relief option, but he won't change things dramatically enough for a team so deprived of dependable pitching. The starting rotation has improved slightly since Zach Eflin's return, but this is an O's team that has struggled to gain leads, much less preserve them. Another more seismic trade (or several) are needed. Righting this wrong and bringing Blewett back into the mix is at least a step in the right direction, though.