The Orioles are talking like buyers, even though the standings still say they should be sellers.
That’s the strange reality hanging over Baltimore with the trade deadline only a few weeks away. On Sunday, Bob Nightengale reported that sources told him the Orioles were discussing moving multiple prospects to address the starting pitching they need. Then on Monday, Jim Bowden’s trade deadline buzz piece backed that up, saying Baltimore is aggressively pursuing starting pitching.
For a club that has spent most of the season 4-8 games under .500, that’s a bold stance. But the message from those back-to-back insider reports is hard to miss: the Orioles are determined to buy their way back into the race.
The problem is that this is shaping up to be a brutal market for pitching.
A lot of the teams that were expected to sell are now acting like they might hold or even buy, which means the supply of available arms could be thin. That drives prices up fast, especially for rental starters. And if a team is chasing a pitcher with multiple years of control, the cost only climbs higher.
Bowden’s list of possible Orioles targets was especially revealing. It included names Baltimore has already been linked to, like Joe Ryan and Sandy Alcantara, but it also had the Orioles in on Tarik Skubal, the priciest pure rental on the board. Bowden also listed other rental starters who figure to draw plenty of attention, including Freddy Peralta, Sonny Gray, and Robbie Ray.
That kind of shopping list says plenty about how urgent this feels. Trading for a rental while sitting under .500 would be a move driven by desperation, and it would come with a real risk of being an expensive mistake.
Still, Baltimore isn’t buried. The Orioles are 3.5 games out of the final wild card spot with 71 games left, so the path is there.
It’s just crowded. They’d have to climb over four teams to get there, and that’s no small task given how this season has gone.
There’s also the larger question of what kind of move actually makes sense. If the Orioles are going to part with prospects, they need to be able to live with the possibility that the season still ends without a playoff berth.
That’s a much easier answer when the pitcher coming back has multiple years of control. It gets a lot harder when the arm in question is just a rental.
The issue is that the controllable starters are the ones everyone wants, and several of the names Bowden mentioned - Joe Ryan, Sandy Alcantara, Reid Detmers, and Jose Soriano - come with the kind of appeal Baltimore would love. But their teams are not signaling that they’re ready to sell.
So the Orioles may be boxed in. If they want to upgrade the rotation, they might have to do it through a rental that costs a lot, doesn’t guarantee a playoff push, and disappears after a few months.
And if that happens, then Baltimore could wind up with the worst possible outcome: a 2026 season that still falls short, plus less prospect capital left to fix the roster in 2027.
In Other News...
Orioles Just Sent Gunnar Henderson A Message They Couldnt Avoid
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The concern is not limited to the bat. Hendersons stolen-base production has slipped after he swiped 30 bags last year, and his defensive consistency has also dipped, leaving the Orioles with fewer easy answers as they try to climb back into the race. He still has the kind of talent that can change the tone of a lineup in a hurry, but the gap between that ceiling and what he has delivered lately is getting hard to ignore. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles May Have Finally Found The Bullpen Fix They Need
The Orioles have spent the past stretch cycling through left-handed relief options since losing Keegan Akin, a reminder of how quickly a bullpen can go from deep to unsettled. Nick Raquet has been among the arms shuffled through the roster, but the larger issue remains the same for Baltimore: finding a lefty who can stick, not just pass through on the way to another move.
With the trade deadline approaching, that search could push Mike Elias toward the market if the Mets decide to listen on veterans and reshape their roster. Baltimore has the kind of prospect capital that can make those conversations interesting, and David Stearns' willingness to deal would only add another layer to the equation, but the Orioles still have to decide how much they are willing to pay for a bullpen answer that feels more necessary by the day. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Outfield Is Putting Even More Pressure On This Deadline
The Orioles outfield has become one of the clearest reasons this month matters so much, because the group is offering both help and headaches as the front office weighs its next move. Taylor Ward, Leody Taveras, Tyler ONeill, Colton Cowser and Dylan Beavers have each left a different imprint on the roster, giving Baltimore a mix of production, uncertainty and contract questions that makes the position worth a close look.
Wards presence adds another layer to the discussion, since his value could shape how aggressively the Orioles approach the market if they decide to move pieces. ONeills contract complicates the picture from the other direction, while Cowsers rebound and Beavers return from a strained oblique give Baltimore some reasons to think the group can still stabilize. For a team trying to sort out whether this is a roster to add to or rework, the outfield is suddenly doing a lot of the deadlines heavy lifting. [Read more 🡒]