Orioles timely trade for Taylor Ward exposes last year's free agent blunder

The Baltimore Orioles made the first big splash of the 2025-26 offseason by acquiring outfielder Taylor Ward from the Los Angeles Angels. The O's paid a stiff price, trading injury-prone starter Grayson Rodriguez — and his four years of team control — to LA in exchange for Ward, but at least now Baltimore has quite the thumper in the middle of their batting order.

The trade for Ward, however, feels a lot like a mulligan following last year's horrific failure in free agency. Orioles fans still aren't over Mike Elias' haphazard decision to hand over a three-year, $49.5 million contract to Tyler O'Neill, and Tuesday's trade revealed just how badly Baltimore's front office bungled last year's offseason deliberations.

Orioles timely trade for Taylor Ward exposes how badly they botched the Tyler O'Neill signing last offseason

The last thing the Orioles needed was another outfielder. In addition to Ward and O'Neill, Baltimore has Colton Cowser, Heston Kjerstad, Dylan Beavers, the recently-signed Leody Taveras, and top prospect Enrique Bradfield Jr. Did the O's really need another outfielder?

If Elias were a better evaluator of talent, the answer would be no. But instead, Baltimore is now stuck with a player who represents quite the redundancy on the roster at a cost of over $16 million per year for the next two seasons.

O'Neill appeared in just 54 games for the Orioles in 2025. The slugger was haunted by injuries during his first season in Baltimore, something that should've been obvious to Elias and Co. before inking O'Neill to such an expensive free agent pact. The outfielder's injury history was well known throughout the league, and yet the Orioles still decided to hand over a hefty salary.

Not only was O'Neill limited to playing in less than one-third of the O's games last season, but he also failed to produce when he was on the field. The slugger posted a pathetic .199/.292/.392 slash line with nine home runs, 26 RBI, and a 91 wRC+.

Having Ward and O'Neill in the lineup together isn't the worst thing imaginable, especially if O'Neill bounces back following an atrocious performance from a season ago. Still, Baltimore has several roster holes to plug this offseason, and making up for last year's mistakes only compounds the problem. With Ward in the fold, however, Elias can now turn his full attention to the team's pitching staff.