Baltimore Orioles: Reevaluating the Manny Machado trade

When the Baltimore Orioles traded Machado, the direction of the franchise was immediately altered. As for the results, we have yet to truly see them.

This weekend will mark the four year anniversary of the Baltimore Orioles trading Manny Machado to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and officially skyrocketed into their rebuild phase. Machado is, for lack of a better term, a generational talent, and you can see why when you watch him today.

In the O’s trade to the Dodgers, they in return got a basketball team worth of young talent. OF – Yusniel Diaz, IF – Rylan Bannon, SP –  Dean Kremer,  IF – Breyvic Valera, and RP – Zach Pop. Out of those five minor leaguers, only three remain. Just two years later and Zach Pop was out of the organization and picked up by the Diamondbacks, and Valera was traded just a year later.

The Machado trade is not yet a bust, but it’s also not yet a dashing story of success either. Since that day in 2018, Machado has continued to be the superstar that he is and the other three have been a flash-in-the-pan of success and disappointment.

Baltimore Orioles: Reevaluating the Manny Machado trade

Dean Kremer was the first of the bunch to make his MLB debut with the Baltimore Orioles, and has been the most consistent since the deal that brought him to Charm City. He’s had three different spells in the Majors, with his biggest coming in 2021. Kremer got 13 starts with the Orioles, but he underwhelmed going 0-7 with a 7.55 ERA.

The Baltimore Orioles faithful finally got a glimpse of Rylan Bannon this year, but only just for a moment. The third baseman came up to The Show for four games, got two hits, some really nice defensive plays, and a swift exit back to the Norfolk Tides. Much like Kremer, that potential is there, but the experiment is still very much under way.

Last but not least, but possibly the most exciting pull from this trade is Yusniel Diaz. Whether it has been injuries or other setbacks, Diaz hasn’t quite panned out to be the player we all wanted him to be. He is very much still in the running to be one of the next great outfielders for the O’s, he just needs to stay consistent and healthy.

Like was mentioned at the start, this trade isn’t yet a bust, and is still way better than a few others (Tejada, Bedard, etc.) they just need time. Due to COVID, this is the third “full” season with the Orioles organization. The clock is ticking, but there is still time to see if this trade will blossom, or if it will wither away into something to complain about every year around this time.