Despite swinging a deal for San Diego right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne last week, it sounds as if the Baltimore Orioles still may be on the lookout for rotation help. Ken Rosenthal reported it shortly after the deal was consummated and it has been echoed all the way down to the point where it feels like we can confidently deduce that Despaigne will compete for a job, but won’t necessarily be handed one.
And while there’s still potential for the O’s to jump in on free agent right-hander Yovani Gallardo, it seems less likely by the day that the team wants to jump at his asking price in addition to the fact that he’d cost the team their No. 14 overall selection in the upcoming draft — one that is expected to be a rather solid one.
So that does leave the trade market, which probably offers more upside when considering cost to acquire players, and what the Orioles have to offer. According to Dan Szymborski of ESPN in a recent episode of the Midwest Swing podcast, that isn’t terribly much if they don’t want to trade from their big league reserves. According to FanGraphs at the end of last season, the Orioles had the No. 28 farm system of 30 (No. 23 for hitters/30 for pitchers), which makes a trade for a high-end arm a tough sell.
But who could the team reasonably target? Let’s look at some names:
LHP Tommy Milone – Minnesota Twins
Pros: Cheap salary wise and to acquire, roughly league average arm, would give O’s a left-handed option to balance out rotation.
Cons: Low ceiling, perhaps too flyball heavy to succeed at OPACY, though that tendency was less evident in 2015, no guarantee to outperform whomever he replaces.
Rotation Slot Filled: No. 4
Guess at Trade Cost: Lottery ticket or a semi-interesting bullpen arm.
Chances: Like any trade this doesn’t seem too likely, but there’s room for some mutual interest. Moving Milone would get Trevor May or Jose Berrios in the Twins’ Opening Day rotation, and a bullpen arm would help a Minnesota team that could use another one. How’s this for a stab in the dark: Brad Brach for Milone. Who says no?
RHP Andrew Cashner – San Diego Padres
Pros: High-end stuff, has potential to mix strikeouts with grounders, control has been better in recent years.
Cons: Fragile reputation, likely to be costly despite results not matching peripherals, only a one-year bandaid even if a deal is struck as he’s an impending free agent.
Rotation Slot Filled: No. 2
Guess at Trade Cost: Chances are the Padres, if ever asked, probably desired Dylan Bundy and then some. Or maybe Hunter Harvey. It’d be easy to see why that didn’t happen. It feels like if this deal was meant to happen, it already would have, no?
Chances: Very, very low. Ostensibly, if the O’s were already dealing with the Padres when the Despaigne deal was completed, they knew the price for Cashner and were unwilling or unable to meet it.
(Discuss this on the BSL boards here!)
RHP Drew Hutchison – Toronto Blue Jays
Pros: Strikeouts…lots of them, still under team control through 2019 season, strong chance he has untapped potential, will spend almost entire season at 25 years old.
Cons: Got smoked last year (5.57 ERA, .825 OPS), probably less available than he’d seem given state of Blue Jays rotation, hasn’t been great in spite of strikeouts, likely acquisition cost due to age and being inside of the same division.
Rotation Slot Filled: No. 3-4
Guess at Trade Cost: A deal would make sense here if Hutchison were older. At just 25, the Blue Jays will want a considerable amount, plus more to deal him inside the division. Not likely.
Chances: If the Jays hand Jesse Chavez a rotation spot, they’ll still want to keep Hutchison around for insurance most likely.
RHP Julio Teheran – Atlanta Braves
Pros: For as much big league experience as he has (633.1 IP) he’s still impossibly young (just turned 25), under team control through 2020 on a very team-friendly contract, has flashed definite ace potential in the past.
Cons: Cost, recent track record isn’t as good as the amount he’ll cost in a trade, and quite frankly just might not be available for a Braves team that probably doesn’t want too long of a rebuild.
Rotation Slot Filled: No. 1
Guess at Trade Cost: The only way the Orioles are enticing the Braves is with Bundy-plus or a deal around Harvey. With Max Fried in tow, it’s not terribly likely the Braves want more risky young arms, however.
Chances: Low, but this would be their best chance to make a huge statement. Then again, if that deal means moving Kevin Gausman.. would the O’s consider that? Should they? That doesn’t seem at all likely, though Gausman (273.1 big league IP) is three weeks older than Teheran, somehow.
LHP Jorge De La Rosa – Colorado Rockies
Pros: Makes some sense as a one-year bandaid, not likely to cost too much to pry away from Rockies, has some solid strikeout tendencies.
Cons: Hasn’t posted a sub-4.00 FIP since 2013, Rockies still in denial about team direction, De La Rosa and Rockies seem to prefer one another for some weird reason.
Rotation Slot Filled: No. 3
Guess at Trade Cost: It honestly is probably more than it should be. De La Rosa is a nice pitcher, but the Rockies seem to have a weird affinity for him. They’d obviously let him go for Harvey-Bundy-Gausman, but that’s just preposterous. A more sensible deal might be if the Rockies can find a groundballer in the O’s system they like and build from there.
Chances: Like most trades proposed here, not bloody likely.
So obviously trying to take a stab at trades can be a futile exercise, but which of these names do you prefer the Orioles go for, if any?
Orioles Analyst
Warne is a Minnesota Twins beat reporter for 105 The Ticket’s Cold Omaha website as well as a sportswriter for Sportradar U.S. in downtown Minneapolis. He also contributes to FanGraphs / RotoGraphs.