Orioles lack of real trade chips makes selling at the deadline a depressing proposition

The trade deadline is about a month and a half away, and speculation about who will be moved is heating up. Unfortunately for the Baltimore Orioles, for the second year in a row, they are considered to be a candidate to sell at this year's deadline. As dissapointing as it is to go into a season beleiving you'll make the playoffs and with a couple months have experts saying it's time for you to intentionally tank away the rest of your season becuase you stink, what makes matters worse for the Orioles is that with how their roster is set up there is no hope of a massive trade haul to set the franchise up foi success down the line.

Last year, when the Orioles were sellers, they had a lot that other teams wanted. They had an all-star in Ryan O'Hearn, they had a corner outfielder with an OPS over .800 in Ramon Laureano, they had two gold glove caliber defenders at important positions in Cedric Mullins and Ramon Urias, and on top of all that, they had a strong bullpen full of arms that contenders were eager to get their hands on.

By the time the dust settled on the deadline, the Orioles had moved nine major leaguers in exchange for 16 prospects and a draft pick. Some of those prospects have already made their MLB debuts with the Orioles, some of them got used in trades to acquire Shane Baz and Blaze Alexander, and most of them are still making their way through the minors. All told, it was a very productive deadline for the Orioles.

The Orioles aren't set up for a profitable fire sale at this year's trade deadline

This year looks like a different story. Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passon put out a list of the top 100 trade pieces ahead of this year's deadline, and the list of Orioles included in the article does not excite the imagination when thinking about what the Orioles could get in return.

Here are the Orioles mentioned in the article: Taylor Ward, Rico Garcia, Trevor Rogers, Andrew Kittredge, and Ryan Mountcastle. You look at those names and what they've done so far this season, and it's hard to imagine getting much in return.

Ward is the best trade chip of the bunch, and with how scarce quality right-handed bats have become, it's possible to dream on a decent return for him, but at the end of the day, he's a rental corner outfielder who plays poor defense with an OPS in the mid-700s; you're not going to get a top 100 guy for him.

Garcia got off to a great start to the season, but he's got a nearly five ERA in the last month. Are teams going to empty the farm for him?

Last year, Kittredge was worth a 17-year-old kid in the DSL, and he’s been worse this year. Would someone trade a 16-year-old for him now?

Rogers is interesting as he's looked a little better of late, but the more he's pitched, the more 2025 seems like an outlier and the rest of his career seems like the rule. What contender is looking for a starter with a 5.66 ERA to plug into their rotation?

Mountcastle needed to be traded at the last deadline, and then he needed to be traded this offseason, but he wasn't. If the Orioles couldn't find someone who wanted him, then it feels unlikely they'll find a taker now that he has a broken foot.  

If the Orioles traded all of these guys, it feels like at most they'd come away with a handful of unranked high-A prospects unless they're able to drum up a real bidding war for Ward or Garcia has another month-long stretch of giving up no hits at all.

That being the case, it feels like, despite where they are in the standings, they might have to be soft buyers instead of soft sellers, if only because selling wouldn't be worthwhile at all, and doing nothing would feel absurd.

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