Will the Baltimore Orioles be the key team at the July 31st trade deadline?
By now everyone has heard the Manny Machado talk, but he’s not the only Orioles player a contender might be looking for at the trade deadline. Of course the main reason everyone thinks the Orioles will trade Machado is because he’s a free agent at the end of the season and they don’t see him resigning with Baltimore. Now Machado isn’t the only Baltimore player that is in the final year of their contract with the team and it’s possible that besides Machado we could see three other Orioles get moved if the team decides to clean house and rebuild.
Adam Jones is in the final year of his contract with the Orioles and while he’s not quite the same player he was a few years ago he could definitely help a contender. Jones will turn 33 this season, but he’s putting up solid numbers. He’s hitting .289 with 10 home runs and 31 RBI’s. Don’t forget that Jones is also a top defender and has won four Gold Gloves in his career. Jones will make a total of $17,333,333 million dollars this season; so it may not take a top prospect to land him depending on how much of his remaining salary a team would be willing to pick up.
With starting pitchers not working deep into games anymore just about every team in baseball needs bullpen help and the Orioles can supply that.
Even though he was hurt coming into this season there was still quite a bit of talk about Baltimore trading Zach Britton. He made his season debut on June 12th and has appeared in seven games this season. In six of those seven games Britton didn’t give up a run. He did struggle in an outing against the Atlanta Braves where he was charged with four runs in just 1/3rd of an inning. Britton will make $12 million dollars this season and is just 30 years old. As Britton rounds back into that closer form he could be a big add for a contender at the back end of their bullpen.
While the Orioles are working Britton back into the closing role Brad Brach has been the guy holding the job down. Brach has saved 10 of the 12 save chances he’s had this season, but has also been a quality set up guy. Brach has pitched in 32 games and has an ERA of 3.86. Brach could be a steal since he’s only going to make $5,165,000 million dollars this season; so it’s an easy salary for a team to take on while adding a good bullpen piece. Brach is 32 years old and has always been a high use bullpen; so a contender could get a lot of work out of a reliable set up guy like Brach.
Those are the four Orioles in the final years of their contracts that I think will draw a lot of interest on or around the July 31st trade deadline, but there are some other Orioles that could get dealt if teams where willing to meet Baltimore’s asking price.
Jonathan Schoop has one more year of arbitration before becoming a free agent in 2020. Could e draw some interests as the trade deadline nears. Schoop has battled some injuries this season and is off to a slow start hitting just .202, but he is coming off of a 2017 season where he posted career highs in home runs with 32 and RBI’s with 105. If a team believes that Schoop is more the 2017 player than the guy who’s had some issues this year there’s a chance that he could be an upgrade at 2nd base for a contender.
If there’s a contender out there looking to add some power to their line up maybe they’ll take a look at Mark Trumbo. Trumbo is signed through 2019; he’s making $12.5 million dollars this season and his salary goes up to $13.5 million next season. Those aren’t astronomical salary numbers in today’s game. Trumbo missed some time with an injury, but is hitting .268 with 8 home runs. While Trumbo’s best fit might be as a Designated Hitter he can play the corner outfield spots and even some 1st base. Trumbo hit a career high 47 home runs in 2016 and has only hit less than 22 home runs once in his career and that was in 2014 when he played in just 88 games.
Do you see the Orioles cleaning house and rebuilding? It’s not really something they’ve done before, but it seems to be the way baseball is going. The Orioles aren’t known for trading their top player either as their owner Peter Angelos has always been against it. Is this the year that General Manager Dan Duquette can convince Angelos to possibly move a player or two and see if they can get younger in return. With the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees looking like they’re set to contend for the next couple of seasons is this the right time for the Orioles to tear things down and see if they can get themselves back into contention in the AL East a few years down the road.
It was starting to look like Josh Donaldson was getting close to returning to the Toronto Blue Jays, but now it appears as though he won’t be returning until the second half of this season.
While fielding ground balls in Florida as part of his rehab program Donaldson had an issue with the calf that has kept him out since May 28th. An MRI was performed and it showed that Donaldson has a acute strain of that calf muscle. Toronto has shut Donaldson down and he’ll be reevaluated in three weeks.
Donaldson is in the final year of his contract that’s paying him $23 million dollars this season. Donaldson has been limited to 36 games an is hitting .234 with 5 home runs.
Before the injury there was some talk that the Blue Jays would entertain trade offers for Donaldson as their top prospect Vlad Guerrero Jr. is a 3rd baseman, but with the injury set back Toronto won’t have much time to showcase Donaldson as a trade piece. Of course the Blue Jays try to get Donaldson through waivers after the July 31st deadline, but will have to wait and see what the Blue Jays want to do with him once he returns from injury.
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