Baltimore Orioles: 5 players most likely to be traded before 2019

Will Dylan Bundy ever live up to his expectations?

Probably not. He was the 4th overall pick in the 2011 amateur draft, and the Orioles considered him their future ace for a long time. But Bundy hasn’t lived up to those expectations so far.

Yes, the Orioles would be selling very low on Bundy, but it might be time to just cut and run here. Bundy did debut in Baltimore in 2012, but he’s essentially pitched in three full seasons for the Orioles.

He has a career 4.65 ERA/4.74 FIP, a 2.97 K/BB rate and a 1.7 HR/9. He hasn’t shown much of anything to suggest he’ll ever develop into the ace we expected a few years ago.

The real question is what kind of value does Bundy hold, and would any competitive team trade for him?

Well for one, Bundy is just 25, going into his age-26 season in 2019. He has three arbitration years left, and at the rate he’s pitched, those should come fairly cheap. And we know how the Orioles have typically fared with pitching development, so there could be teams who feel they can fix Bundy and turn him into a quality starting pitcher.

So he’s young, affordable and should absolutely be available. Why shouldn’t the Orioles consider just keeping Bundy and hoping he can become a leader on this team?

Because this team has been notoriously bad at developing starting pitching and there’s little chance that Bundy will be on the next good Orioles team, even if that is 5 years from now.

Where could he fit?

I don’t want to get too specific with this part, but an organization with a solid pitching development structure in place and competitive enough to warrant trying to rebuild Bundy.

Cleveland, Atlanta, the White Sox and Tampa could be potential destinations.

Ultimately, chances are probably slim that Bundy gets moved, but he seems like the most obvious choice to go. The Orioles can’t keep holding on to hope.