The Orioles have taken plenty of heat for how their draft haul has aged, but that’s not the only way this front office has tried to build a roster. If anything, the more interesting part of the story may be how often Baltimore has found useful players after other teams had already moved on.
That’s the thread running through a long list of waiver claims, cash deals and low-profile pickups that have quietly helped shape the club over the last several seasons. And with Matt Blood out after seven years as vice president of player development and domestic scouting, there’s at least a case to be made that the organization has been especially sharp at spotting value where the rest of the league didn’t see much.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand is the clearest current example. Baltimore landed him from Cincinnati on April 13, 2026 for cash considerations after Ryan Mountcastle got hurt and the Reds designated him for assignment following a rough, injury-shortened 2025.
Since arriving, Encarnacion-Strand has given the Orioles exactly what they needed: a .277/.326/.520 line, an .846 OPS and 35 RBIs in 51 games. He’s been one of the team’s best clutch bats, he’s hitting close to .300 over his last month, and he’s handled third base well enough to keep Baltimore from leaning too hard on the risky “Coby Mayo at 3B” setup.
For a player acquired for almost nothing, that’s major return.
The bullpen has followed a similar script. Yennier Cano remains the best-known success story, one of four players Baltimore got from Minnesota in the July 2022 Jorge López trade.
Cano was a mess in Minnesota, but he turned into an All-Star in 2023 with a 2.11 ERA and 65 strikeouts in 72 2/3 innings. He hasn’t lived at that level every year since, but he has still produced 1.3 WAR over three seasons and is sitting on a 3.06 ERA this year, along with a new two-year extension.
Rico Garcia has been another win. The right-hander joined the Orioles as a waiver pickup last August after time with both New York teams in 2025, worked in 20 games last season, and has broken out in 2026 with career bests in ERA (2.94) and innings (64 1/3). Craig Albernaz has leaned on Garcia to escape ugly bases-loaded jams, and the changeup has given Baltimore a real weapon in those spots.
That same pattern showed up all over the roster-building phase that helped support the 2022-23 teams. Ramón Urías came off waivers from the Cardinals in 2020 and wound up winning a Gold Glove while piling up 10.5 WAR in six seasons before being dealt to Houston at the 2025 deadline for pitching prospect Twine Palmer.
Jorge Mateo arrived on waivers from San Diego in August 2021, then led MLB in stolen bases in 2022 and won a Fielding Bible Award at shortstop before injuries took away his value and Baltimore let his option go last November. Cionel Pérez was claimed from Cincinnati in November 2021 after a 6.38 ERA there, then immediately posted a 1.40 ERA in his first Orioles season.
Danny Coulombe, picked up from Minnesota for cash in March 2023, put up a 2.81 ERA and then a 2.12 ERA over two years before elbow surgery ended that run.
Tyler Wells belongs in the conversation too. Baltimore took him from Minnesota in the Rule 5 draft in December 2020, and he became a useful swingman from 2021-26, good for 5.3 WAR.
He had real peak moments, including a strong first half of 2023 when he was arguably the Orioles’ best starter with a 3.18 ERA and 103 strikeouts in 104 2/3 innings. Injuries and inconsistency kept interrupting things, Tommy John surgery wiped out most of 2024 and 2025, but he returned in September 2025 and was throwing well enough by mid-2026 - 2.67 ERA in 54 innings - that Baltimore was able to trade him to Tampa Bay at the deadline for pitching prospect Michael Forret.
And if you want the original blueprint for this kind of roster move, Anthony Santander is right there. Baltimore grabbed him in the December 2016 Rule 5 draft, got past the early injury and inconsistency, and eventually ended up with an All-Star middle-of-the-order bat who produced 11.0 bWAR across eight seasons before signing a five-year, $92.5 million deal with Toronto. Tony Taters is the pure version of this idea: a player another club was willing to let go, acquired for nothing, then turned into a star.
None of this means the Orioles can build a contender entirely on these kinds of moves. They can’t.
But the record does suggest something real: this front office has repeatedly found useful players in places most teams would ignore, and sometimes turned them into something even more valuable. Encarnacion-Strand and Garcia show that the pipeline is still working.
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Orioles Suddenly Have Surprise Contributors They Cant Easily Ignore
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Luis De Len is part of that same group of surprise contributors, and his work has made the Orioles think more carefully about how he fits going forward. Craig Albernaz has pointed to those kinds of developments as part of the larger point of player growth, with Baltimore now weighing not just who has helped in the moment but who deserves a longer look when the team keeps sorting out roles. [Read more 🡒]
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Instead, his production has slipped in 2025 and again in 2026, with key offensive numbers trending the wrong way and his overall value dropping with them. For a team that has watched its playoff hopes fade in recent seasons, Hendersons decline has added a frustrating layer to the bigger picture, because the Orioles are no longer just waiting on team-wide improvement. They are waiting for one of their most important players to look like himself again. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Front Office Shakeup Could Signal More Changes Ahead
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Matt Bloods departure adds another layer to the uncertainty, especially because it has not been officially announced either. For a club that has built a reputation for staying ahead of the curve, any movement involving key voices in the front office naturally invites questions about how the Orioles want that structure to look going forward and whether more changes are coming. [Read more 🡒]