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SAN DIEGO-To the surprise of many, Wednesday’s 4 p.m. Major League Baseball trade deadline passed without the Orioles making any deals.
Players such as reliever Mychal Givens and infielder Jonathan Villar could have been complementary pieces to contenders, but the deadline passed without any movement.
There had been speculation that there might be interest in the Orioles’ best player, Trey Mancini, but he’s staying put, too. The same for infielders Hanser Alberto and Renato Nunez and starting pitcher Dylan Bundy.
The Orioles dealt their most marketable player, right-handed starter Andrew Cashner, to the Boston Red Sox on July 13, which essentially kicked off the trading season.
In previous years, teams could make trades after July 31, but players had to pass through waivers first. The deadline for those trades was August 31, but that’s been eliminated.
Once November comes, the Orioles can consider other deals. Minor league deals and waiver pickups can continue, so it’s likely that the Orioles aren’t through making additions and alterations to their roster.
Changes will have to be made for Thursday’s home game against the Toronto Blue Jays. The Orioles went with 14 pitchers for Tuesday’s game in San Diego after outfielder Dwight Smith Jr. was placed on the 10-day injured list with a strained left calf muscle.
Pitcher Chandler Shepherd, who was in San Diego as a possible substitution for another pitcher, was added to the active roster for the game, but wasn’t used. He was optioned to Norfolk after the trading deadline.
Infielder Jose Rondon, who was acquired on waivers from the Chicago White Sox, is supposed to be in Baltimore on Thursday. He could replace Shepherd on the roster, or the Orioles could try to designate him for assignment and send him to Triple-A Norfolk since he’s out of options.
If the Orioles want to add an outfielder to replace Smith, they can summon DJ Stewart, another left-handed hitter, from Triple-A Norfolk.
The Orioles have already used 50 players this season, six short of last year’s club record of 56.
NOTE: In a minor league deal, the Orioles traded right-handed pitcher Dan Straily to the Philadelphia Phillies for cash considerations. Straily was 2-4 with a 9.82 ERA in 14 games with the Orioles and had been outrighted to Triple-A Norfolk, where he was 4-0 with a 2.38 ERA in six starts. He’ll report to the Phillies’ Triple-A club in Lehigh Valley.
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I’d expect Rondon gets designated and Villar is non tendered this offseason. Nothing was ever going to come back for him anyway. We’ll hold Givens and hope he rebounds. No need to give him away.
Agree, honestly glad we kept Mancini...go O’s...
Agreed.
I think they designate Peterson for assignment. He is more likely to clear waivers and go back to Norfolk. Rondón is younger and has shown some power in his career although hasn’t hit for a high average. Agree with you on Villar , figured they would give him away, even pay much of his salary like did with Cashner. They held on to all their arbitration eligible players for next year so maybe this means they are not going in full salary dump mode. Maybe the Angelos brothers let Elias spend some money to jump start the rebuild
I was thinking Rondon gets DFA’d because Peterson is at least OF capable. He also has options. I don’t see a fit for Rondon with Villar, Alberto, and Martin all on the roster. We’re actually thin in the OF department on the ML team right now. Peterson can be shuttled at will.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?overall_pick=2&draft_type=junreg&query_type=overall_pick&from_type_jc=0&from_type_hs=0&from_type_4y=0&from_type_unk=0
Toggle back and forth between #1 and the other picks if you’re ever interested. I didn’t give it any more than a look so I’m not sure of the results.
Peterson is out of options also.
He’s on a minor league deAl.
He was on a minor league deal. Once he got promoted he is on the 40 and the 25 man roster. Options were used on him in 2014, 16-17
I didn’t realize Straily was having some success at Norfolk. Rich, any idea why they wouldn’t give him another shot in Baltimore to see if he could help out (yes I realize how terrible he was earlier in the season)?
Oriole Park is a terrible park for fly ball pitchers, which is what he is. Harbor Park, where the Tides are, is a great pitcher’s park.
That..... was disappointing. Maybe some moves in the offseason or next year.
Says a lot about the talent we have at the major league level. Pretty amazing to have such a bad record AND have no one to send away in a fire sale.
Glad Elias didn’t just give guys away though. We are too thin at middle infield to just toss Villar aside - errors and bonehead baserunning notwithstanding.
And I agree with everyone above - Givens would have been a “sell low” deal. I’d rather have him around to help patch together whatever wins we can salvage until his value goes back up. He should be able to land us a half decent prospect sometime in the next 12 months.
With Givens, just close your eyes when he comes in... Just saying...
I read in one of Joe Trezza's columns, Trumbo is the only player in the Orioles organization not under control until at least next year. If so, unless you're totally blown away by an offer, it makes perfect sense to wait until the Winter to make major moves. Rich is correct, that means plenty more time to evaluate talent the next couple of months. It should be interesting.
Lose baby lose, still want that number one pick! Os are actually playing pretty well but still need a bunch more prospects to make the jump back up again. Hoping Elias will make some deals come winter. Jury is out still..
The first pick is just a number, not a guarantee of anything. To me, the Orioles would be more interesting if they won 65 games and picked fourth or fifth than winning 50 just to pick first. You'd still be (supposedly) getting a top notch player, though you have to be good at scouting no matter where you pick.
I would be very surprised if they picked lower than second, Borg.
It would be interesting to see a comparison of cumulative career WAR for the first 5 spots in the draft historically. I suspect there wouldn’t be a drastic divergence.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?overall_pick=2&draft_type=junreg&query_type=overall_pick&from_type_jc=0&from_type_hs=0&from_type_4y=0&from_type_unk=0
Toggle back and forth between #1 and the other picks if you’re ever interested. I didn’t give it any more than a look so I’m not sure of the results. Some years there’s no consensus top prospect also so i’d Imagine it’s not really something that’s going to be ridiculous. Obviously when there’s a prospect like Bryce Harper in the draft that’s going to make a big difference.
I would like to see that as well. Though I'm not certain about your "divergence" conclusion.
Hopefully we get someone better than Harper, the media hyped him up, he believed all the hype, ONE great season (NL MVP), still hanging on to that, not an all star, even after his ridiculous contract, Nats lose him & & get better, typical arrogant today athlete...go O’s...