Three Questions After The Trade Deadline

When Tuesday’s trade deadline ended, the Baltimore Orioles had two new additions: Jack Flaherty from the St. Louis Cardinals and Shintaro Fujinami (obviously acquired several weeks earlier) from the Oakland A’s.

While the moves certainly addressed team weaknesses, it’s also fair to say to the team didn’t quite take any big swings like the Houston Astros reuniting with Justin Verlander or the Texas Rangers bringing in Max Scherzer.  

Here’s three big questions worth asking about the deadline and the team moving forward after the dust has settled for Baltimore’s first time buying at the deadline under Mike Elias.  

What was going on with Eduardo Rodriguez? 

Perhaps the most noteworthy move of this year’s deadline was a trade that didn’t happen.  

The Detroit Tigers agreed to send Eduardo Rodriguez to Los Angeles Dodgers, but there was just one major problem: the Dodgers were on Rodriguez’s no-trade list. The deal fell through and the Tigers weren’t able to find a deal elsewhere, leaving them unable to move their biggest trade chip. 

If the Dodgers had the best offer, then it’s worth wondering if the Orioles had the second-best offer.  

I haven’t seen any reporting indicating who else was close to getting Rodriguez besides the Dodgers, but it feels like we can assume the Orioles would’ve been interested. However, it’s also possible that Detroit was so focused on completing a deal with the Dodgers that other suitors for Rodriguez were not being taken seriously, leading to Detroit’s failure to move him.  

Either way, Rodriguez staying in Detroit could be a missed opportunity for the Orioles. While Jack Flaherty made a strong first impression on Thursday against the Toronto Blue Jays, he’s still been a weaker pitcher than Rodriguez in numerous categories. 

Flaherty certainly could see his numbers continue to improve in Baltimore, but an improved Flaherty could still end up being a worse pitcher across the final two months than Rodriguez.  

Maybe the Orioles just narrowly missed on Rodriguez or perhaps the Tigers front office was only seriously entertaining a trade with the Dodgers. Either way, it’s a pretty frustrating outcome for Baltimore. 

What happens to the bullpen from here? 

As it stands, the Orioles bullpen post-deadline has one dominant closer and a whole bunch of question marks behind him.  

The main reason for bullpen concerns is currently Yennier Cano. After a dominant first two months, Cano has unsurprisingly began to regress in just about every category.  

Cano’s 1.54 WHIP since June ranks 106th out of 119 relievers with at least 20 innings in that span. His ERA is more manageable and ranks 55th but either way, we’re now looking at a pretty reasonable sample of Cano struggling to limit baserunners. 

Meanwhile, Danny Coulombe is coming off a July that saw his worst monthly split for ERA (4.82) and K/9 (8.7). 
Cano and Coulombe are hardly bad relievers, but there’s certainly been more encouraging months for a pair of high-leverage relievers. 

As for the bullpen’s lone deadline addition, Fujinami looks promising but needs to work on rebounding if he allows the first batter to reach. 

On Wednesday in Toronto, Fujinami allowed a walk to his first batter and it only got worse from there after he hit the next two batters. A similarly shaky outing occurred against the Tampa Bay Rays two weeks ago when he walked the first two batters before throwing a wild pitch to his third batter.  

Fujinami did put together three consecutive strong outings against the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees with seven strikeouts and no earned runs across 4.2 innings, but those feel less impressive if they continue to be paired with rough outings that quickly spiral out of hand. 

The Orioles not landing someone like Paul Sewald or David Robertson means the bullpen reinforcements beyond Fujinami will need to be internal.  

Tyler Wells will seemingly return to the major league roster in the bullpen and it looks like we’re trending towards year two of trying DL Hall as a reliever in the majors. Meanwhile, Mychal Givens should be back soon, but it’s hard to imagine how much he’ll move the needle. John Means is also a major wild card in this and if the plan is to put him back into the rotation once he’s healthy, then perhaps Dean Kremer will also be a reliever to end the year. 

Plenty of relievers were available for prices the Orioles could afford, but they opted to stick with Fujinami and internal options. Close games in the regular season and the playoffs will go a long way towards determining if that was a good plan.     

When are the other blocked infield prospects getting moved? 

During the offseason, the Orioles looked at their surplus of infield prospects and used some of it to trade for major league pitching by sending Darell Hernaiz to the Oakland A’s for Cole Irvin. That same thought process emerged again in the Flaherty deal, sending Cesar Prieto to St. Louis.  

It seemed incredibly unlikely Hernaiz or Prieto would ever find meaningful playing time as Orioles, making both of these deals safe ways to buy in a trade. 

Of course, the interesting aspect of this thought process is the Orioles still have two more infield prospects better than Hernaiz and Prieto without a realistic path to playing time: Connor Norby and Joey Ortiz. 

If the infield for 2024 and beyond is Gunnar Henderson at third, Jackson Holliday at the short and Jordan Westburg at second, then it’s hard to imagine meaningful roles for Norby and Ortiz in the majors. Perhaps one of them could be a utility infielder, but that job can just as easily be handled by Ramon Urias. It’s just hard to imagine where either of them fit as things stand, which means that trading them would continue to follow the thought process used when moving Hernaiz and Prieto. 

The fact that Norby and Ortiz are top-100 prospects, unlike Hernaiz and Prieto, also means they should have greater value in future trades. As such, moving them together or in separate deals would likely net a better return than renting Flaherty or getting multiple years of Irvin.  

Perhaps this duo gets moved in the offseason or maybe it’ll be during next year’s deadline but either way, the front office’s willingness to trade from its infield surplus should be extended to Ortiz and Norby at some point in the next 12 months.