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Orioles restart deadline sell-off by trading high-strikeout reliever to AL East rival

Orioles deal away another bullpen arm—and gift it to a division rival
Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Birds Watcher

Baltimore Orioles v Cleveland Guardians / Nick Cammett/GettyImages

The Baltimore Orioles have been widely expected to be major sellers at the 2025 trade deadline. While the team fully expects to try and compete next season, they have several pending free agents that still make sense to move, especially with the Orioles not likely to compete this season and the trade market looking very shallow at the moment. On Tuesday, Baltimore's plan took further shape.

The position that the Orioles have the most tradable depth, without question, is in bullpen arms, which is a popular demographic this time of year. After trading Gregory Soto a few days ago, Baltimore is continuing to try and capitalize on their depth and position by striking a trade with the Blue Jays to send Seranthony Dominguez in exchange for pitching prospect Juaron Watts-Brown.

Orioles trade Seranthony Dominguez to the Blue Jays for intriguing pitching prospect Juaron Watts-Brown

Being a pending free agent that is making real money ($8 million) this season made Dominguez a prime candidate to get moved from the beginning. In 43 appearances this season, Dominguez has posted a 3.24 ERA with 54 strikeouts in 41.2 innings of work.

In exchange, the Orioles are getting a pretty intriguing starting pitching prospect, which is great news since rotation arms are not an organizational strength at the moment. Watts-Brown was a third-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft and has already pitched his way to Double-A thanks to a plus slider and big-time strikeout numbers. Orioles fans should expect Watts-Brown to move quickly and potentially play a role in 2026.

The return for Dominguez was never going to be massive as a rental, non-closing reliever, but Baltimore was smart to send over some cash in the deal to make sure they got an impact pitching prospect in the deal. Assuming this is a trend, the Orioles could end up in a really strong position post-deadline with a restocked farm system and the loss of few (if any) long-term assets.

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Eric Cole

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.