The Orioles are taking another look at a bat with real pop and plenty of swing-and-miss.
Baltimore announced that it has acquired outfielder Rece Hinds from the Marlins for cash considerations. The move leaves the club’s 40-man roster at 39 players.
For Hinds, it’s the second time he’s changed teams this season. Cincinnati dealt him to Miami in late May after designating him for assignment, and his stay with the Marlins barely got off the ground. He appeared in just one game, went 0-for-2 with a strikeout, and kept alive his 50% strikeout rate in the majors this year.
That strikeout issue has followed the 25-year-old throughout his big-league time. Hinds has flashed serious power, but it has come with a strikeout rate that’s hard to live with, sitting at 42.1% across parts of three seasons in the majors. At Triple-A this year, he has punched out 27.6% of the time in 57 games, a better number even if it came against minor league pitching.
Hinds first made noise in 2024, when he erupted in his initial run with the Reds. In his first six games, he went 11-for-22 with five homers and 11 RBI. After that, the production dried up, and he ended up playing just 15 games last season.
Cincinnati still gave him a long spring look this year. Hinds played in 21 spring games and delivered a familiar kind of line: 10 extra-base hits, including five home runs, along with a 30.2% strikeout rate.
Now Baltimore gets another mid-20s outfielder to evaluate over the final two months of the season. The Orioles also added Christian Franklin in a trade with the Nationals, and they have room for more outfield at-bats after sending Taylor Ward to Seattle. It wouldn’t take much for Hinds to push past Leody Taveras in right field or Tyler O’Neill at DH, and he could work his way onto the MLB roster before the season winds down.
Baltimore has already gotten a boost from another former Reds prospect this year, with Christian Encarnacion-Strand off to a strong start.
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