Frankly, I didn’t expect Orioles executive VP/general manager Mike Elias to take an axe to his team’s roster going into Wednesday’s trade deadline. I thought a scalpel would be enough.
I didn’t expect him to punt reliever Andrew Kittredge to the Cubs, but I guess he proved with Seranthony Domínguez on Tuesday that he didn’t mind handing over a premier reliever to a team that would pitch the guy against the O’s later that same day. Now they’ll almost certainly see another on the mound at Wrigley Field this weekend.
Was also a bit surprised to see Ramón Urías offloaded, since he is still under reserve for another year and he might be the perfect utilityman – a Gold Glove-caliber infielder with some pop at the plate who can play three positions and seemed perfectly content with a part-time role backing up the team’s young studs.
The deals that sent Cedric Mullins to the Mets, Charlie Morton to the Tigers and a trade involving Ryan O’Hearn were very much expected, but including Ramón Laureano in the package that took O’Hearn to the San Diego Padres is another head scratcher for those of us who thought this was going to be all about offloading expiring contracts.
Laureano was signed last January for $4 million and the Orioles held an option on him for next season at $6.5 million. That’s absolute chump change for a good defensive corner outfielder who started the season as a part-time player and hit his way into the middle of the lineup. He’s been one of the Orioles’ most productive hitters and sizzled at the plate during the club’s offensive explosion the week leading up to Thursday’s trade deadline.
Though the flurry of activity still constitutes only a partial roster teardown that was billed as an early step toward putting the team in a position to contend next season, the dismantling of the leverage end of the bullpen and the infusion of a huge number of very young prospects certainly makes this look like more of a long-term play.
There would have been an even bigger haul had starting pitcher Zach Eflin not come up sore again at just the wrong moment and was placed on the injured list.
Of course, only Elias is in a position to see the bigger picture at this moment. He has the next two months to get a long look at some of the young relievers who are here to fill the huge void in a bullpen that also is without injured closer Félix Bautista.
The Orioles obviously still have the strong nucleus of young major league position stars and the outlook for the starting rotation has improved significantly since Trevor Rogers re-emerged as a quality starter and rookie Brandon Young started showing signs of being a legit rotation piece going forward. If all continues to go well for rehabbing pitchers Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells, the club has a chance to go into next season with a very good young rotation.
Elias is a confident guy, and he probably thinks he’ll have no trouble addressing the depth of the big league roster with more wily picks like the one that brought Laureano here for a song. He’ll likely also have some money to spend in the free-agent market come winter.
He might even have a chance to lure back O’Hearn and Mullins after they get their chance to go to the postseason for the third year in a row, but that rarely happens once the free-agent bidding starts.
For the moment, however, it looks like he’s in player development heaven, a place where he has thrived throughout his career.
