Marlins' trade deadline update could be the solution to the Orioles buy/sell dilemma

For months, the Baltimore Orioles have been stuck in trade deadline limbo, hovering between one game and four games back of a playoff spot. That's close enough to the playoffs to be considered striking distance, but the problem is that in order to strike, they will have to beat out four teams that are currently ahead of them in the standings. That's a tall order and one that most people outside of Baltimore do not believe the Orioles are equipped to tackle.

If you were to give Orioles President of Baseball Operations Mike Elias a dose of truth serum, he might even tell you that he doesn't believe this team has what it takes. He sold at the deadline in 2022 despite the team having a much better record and being in almost the exact same position in the standings.

However, the difference between this year and 2022 is that in 2022 the Orioles' arrow was pointing up and the front office was still operating while thinking about teams of the future. As of today, the Orioles' arrow has been pointing down for two years. The Orioles have made a series of aggressive win-now moves and have spent a lot of money putting together this team. They are too invested in the present to kick the can down the road again as they did in 2022.

As much pressure as they are under, this Orioles front office is not going to completely divorce themselves from reason and go full buyer mode. It appears their most likely path at this deadline is going to be trying to thread the needle of both selling off the veterans on expiring contracts and also buying players with years of team control that will help the team this year and in the future.

If the Orioles are trying to buy and sell the Marlins would be a perfect trade partner

That's a difficult needle to thread, and with so few sellers out there, it looked like the Orioles' options for buying controllable young players would be sparse, but a recent update regarding the Marlins' deadline plans might have just provided the Orioles with exactly what they need.

According to The Athletic, the Marlins, after going on a 12-game losing streak that caused them to plummet in the standings, are willing to listen to offers on almost any of their young players. The report specifically named Otto Lopez, Xavier Edwards, Liam Hicks and Heriberto Hernandez.

Any one of these players would be a fantastic addition for the Orioles. They are all under team control for the next 3-5 years, and age-wise they line up perfectly with the Orioles' current roster and desire to compete. Positionally, the fits for all of these players are not perfect, but for how talented all of these guys are, the Orioles could find room for any of them. Having too many middle infielders makes a lot more sense than having four right-handed first basemen on the roster, which is what the Orioles will have once Ryan Mountcastle returns.

The one name that is both a talent fit and a positional fit from that group is Heriberto Hernandez, a right-handed power-hitting corner outfielder. The Orioles have been desperately trying to add exactly this kind of player for years. They overpaid for Tyler O'Neill, who has mostly been disastrous in an Orioles uniform. Then they made a big trade for Taylor Ward, who has been pretty good but not really what the Orioles envisioned when they acquired him.

Hernandez is the player the Orioles acquired O'Neill and Ward to be, except he's not a poorly aging veteran on an expensive contract. He's in his physical prime and would be under team control for the next five seasons. He is on pace for about 25 home runs and would be one of the Orioles' best hitters by batting average.

The future of the Orioles outfield is currently a little bleak. Colton Cowser appears to be a bottom-of-the-order, defense-first kind of player. Dylan Beavers has struggled to establish himself. Their only real outfield prospect in the upper minors is Enrique Bradfield Jr. (no, Heston Kjerstad doesn't count), who is also a defense-first center fielder. That outfield trio is entirely left-handed and contains zero plus bats.

At some point before next season, the Orioles are going to have to acquire an outfielder who can hit. As mentioned above, this has proven both costly and difficult for them. Why not acquire the outfield bat that they need at the deadline in Hernandez?

The Marlins are going to ask for a very high price for Hernandez, but if the Orioles pull off the buy-sell approach to the deadline, they should be able to afford it.

The move would be to trade Taylor Ward to one of the contenders currently thirsting for a right-handed bat that they can play every day and get a nice prospect package in return. If O'Neill's recent hot streak has given him some value, then they should move him as well; they should even be willing to pay down his contract to increase any prospect return for O'Neill. Coby Mayo is another bat who doesn't really fit on the Orioles roster; his splits vs. lefties should give him some trade value at the deadline.

The Orioles' pitching staff is probably too weak for them to trade from without crippling the team, but if a team comes in with a crazy offer for Trevor Rogers or Andrew Kittredge, those should be considered.

The idea is that by trading away the existing veterans and any bats that are surplus at their positions, the Orioles could bring in a sizeable group of prospects, maybe not 16 like they did last year, but with how Elias likes to negotiate packages, it's foreseeable that the Orioles could walk away from their sell trades with 6-10 new prospects.

With that much new blood in the farm system, they could afford to go to the Marlins and meet their high asking price for Hernandez. Old players on short contracts go out, and a young outfielder under contract through 2031 comes up, and the farm system is not entirely compromised. The Orioles' current team stays competitive, and their future teams are much improved.

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