Orioles’ massive draft haul from Bryan Baker trade finalized after 37th pick

Eric Cole

Baltimore Orioles v Atlanta Braves / Edward M. Pio Roda/GettyImages

The Baltimore Orioles shocked the baseball world with a very early trade with the Rays. The O's sent reliever Bryan Baker to Tampa in exchange for the #37 overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft which now gives Baltimore the highest bonus pool in this year's draft. Now that the Orioles have made their first round picks, we understand a bit more about their thinking behind the trade.

Heading into the draft, the rumor mill was saying that Baltimore was looking at college power bats with their early picks. That makes sense given the Orioles' draft history under Mike Elias despite the organization's very, very obvious need for more pitching depth.

After taking catcher Caden Bodine and slugging shortstop Wehiwa Aloy with their first two picks in the comp round after the first round, Baltimore finalized their trade with the Rays by picking high school outfielder Slater de Brun.

Orioles trade with the Rays is now complete after rounding out early draft bonanza

In terms of pure helium, de Brun has done more to improve his stock that any other prep player this season. While not a masher, de Brun's hit tool is well beyond his years and he can really, really run. There is also little doubt that he will stay in center field and likely be a plus defender out there thanks to his speed and arm.

With that, the Orioles' plans for their newly bolstered $19,144,500 draft bonus pool is now clear. While getting to this point did require giving up an arm that had been productive for them, getting this kind of return for a 30-year-old reliever with a mediocre track record who collapsed in his first appearance with the Rays should feel pretty good for Baltimore fans especially when you look at their ability to add Bodine and Aloy with that bonus pool as well.

Now comes the hard part: actually developing these guys into big leaguers. As the Orioles are finding out right now, just because a prospect is highly ranked doesn't mean that making it to and playing in the majors is going to be easy.

More Orioles News from Birds Watcher

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.