Despite widely circulated Jeff Passan report, the Orioles are not about to trade core pieces away for prospects

During his Monday trade deadline rumors podcast, MLB insider Jeff Passan dropped a rare Orioles rumor that caught a lot of people's attention. Per Passan, the Orioles have discussed trading numerous players on their roster, including Adley Rutschman, Colton Cowser, and Jackson Holliday. Seeing these three names in particular is interesting. Throughout this era of Orioles baseball, one thing has been a constant: this Orioles front office has not wanted to trade away their top prospects and young players. You rarely hear stories or rumors about the Orioles dangling their young players in trades to the point where it's actually been a roster-building problem.

So, to go from no trade rumors ever to suddenly three core members of this Orioles rebuild reportedly being bandied about in trade talks creates almost a whiplash effect that induced panic for many Orioles fans and a frenzy for opposing fan bases hoping to get their hands on the Orioles' talented but underperforming former top prospects.

However, the thing about trade rumors is that they are not all created equal. If a rumor that a team is looking to trade a player comes from that team, that's good info worth paying attention to. If it comes from other teams, then you have to be aware of those teams' motives. Passan did not say where he had heard that the Orioles were discussing trading Rutschman, Holliday and Cowser, but the way he phrased his report made it seem like that was something other front offices had told him. Based on this Orioles front office's track record of moving in utter silence and secrecy, it feels very unlikely that they are Passan's source on this.

Understanding that this information is coming from another front office outside of Baltimore is important. If the Orioles were telling Passan that they were discussing trading Rutschman, Holliday, and Cowser (which, again, they almost certainly didn't), that would really mean something. Since the information almost assuredly comes from outside the organization, it could very easily mean nothing.

The Baltimore Orioles are not about to start another rebuild

That's not to say that the rumor is not true; it just means that the rumor might not mean what most people are interpreting it to mean.

It would appear that most fans and media understood Passan sharing this to mean that the Orioles are thinking about committing to a fire sale at the deadline, shipping off their young players for prospects and going into a rebuild. That is very simply not going to happen.

There are two reasons for this. One is that this Orioles front office does not want to acknowledge that they failed. At no point in the last two seasons have they really acknowledged their mistakes, and trading one/all of Rutschman, Holliday, and Cowser, two players they took with the first overall pick and another with the fifth for prospects before even winning a playoff game with this core would be a major admission of failure. That's not their style.

The other reason is that the Orioles are too committed to their current window to take a step back right now. In the last calendar year, they signed Pete Alonso and extended Samuel Basallo, Shane Baz and Kyle Bradish. Those are win-now moves, and the Orioles spent a lot of money making them. They are not going to do all that and then hit the reset button. The only path for the Orioles right now is forward.

If the Orioles really are discussing trading these young core players, the goal of the trade is not going to be to load up on prospects and take a step back. If they are trading these players, they are going to trade them for major league talent that can help the team win now.

As much as other teams would like to be able to trade prospects, that's just not likely to happen. It would be surprising if any of Rutschman, Holliday, or Cowser were traded, and it would be shocking if they were traded for prospects. There is no rebuild coming in Baltimore.

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