Orioles poised to take advantage of unfortunate free agent market quirk this offseason

The Baltimore Orioles are headed into a pivotal offseason for the direction of the franchise. Now two seasons removed from their last playoff appearance and 12 years removed from their last playoff win, the O's need to make the necessary upgrades this winter to take advantage of their squad before players start getting close to free agency.

Unfortunately for the Baltimore, this free agent class is extremely weak. After the headliner Tarik Skubal, there are no true star players who are guaranteed to be free agents. While there are a few players who could opt out and strengthen the class, MLB Trade Rumors' free agency power ranking has a player from Japan, Terukai Sato, at No. 2, and Trevor Rogers at No. 3. While that is unhelpful to the Orioles' ability to make upgrades, Baltimore does have one advantage for the upcoming offseason.

Baltimore is very well set up to wheel and deal on the trade market this offseason. After trading Adley Rutschman away at the trade deadline, their farm system is stacked full of prospects. At the major league level, they have logjams starting to emerge that they can make trades to clear.

Orioles are now at the point where the best way to make upgrades is trade from their surplus

A recent update by MLB Pipeline put six Orioles as Top 100 prospects, but they are all at similar positions. Baltimore has an even balance of three outfielders and three pitchers as their top prospects. Even though they aren't all at the same level of the minors, trading away one shouldn't hurt too much.

In the outfield specifically, the O's have other prospects and players they can trade from too. Outside the top six, the O's have three other outfielders in their top 20, including Enrique Bradfield Jr., the 24-year-old who was their first-round pick in 2023 and spent the entire season at Triple-A (when he wasn't rehabbing). Adding him to the players on the 40-man roster, which includes Dylan Beavers, Colton Cowser, Heston Kjerstad, Tyler O'Neill, and others, means one of them likely gets traded this offseason.

On the infield dirt, the return of Jordan Westburg will create a logjam as well. Westburg played third and second in the majors, and now Baltimore has Coby Mayo, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Jackson Holliday, and Blaze Alexander (who also plays outfield) at those two positions.

Mike Elias needs to explore different avenues for trades this offseason. He has the players to make a major splash. In the past, he has shown a deficiency in working the free-agent market, but he has done well making trades. He's made huge deals before, like acquiring Corbin Burnes; he should be able to do it again.

Baltimore needs to make a big acquisition this offseason. There are places on the roster where they can make upgrades, and could even make extra room on the roster if they trade from the major league squad. Even with a weak free-agent class, the Orioles should be set up to be a big winner this winter.

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