Orioles trade former first round pick for once-promising Twins talent

The Baltimore Orioles head into Friday's non-tender deadline with a few roster moves still to make in order to reset the roster for the rest of the 2025-26 offseason.Ryan Mountcastle's days appear to be numbered, but not many other moves are expected before Friday evening's deadline passes. President of baseball operations Mike Elias, however, had at least one trick up his sleeve before moving forward with the rest of Friday's roster trimming.

With Samuel Basallo now on the big league roster, and Adley Rutschman (for now) coming back in 2026, plate appearances at the catcher position are going to be tough to come by heading into next season. The Orioles, however, are expected to be aggressive this offseason and that will require them to find every single spare penny they can. The team just took one step to that end on Friday by trading catcherAlex Jackson to the Minnesota Twins for intriguing infield prospect Payton Eeles.

Orioles strike non-tender deadline trade to send Alex Jackson to Twins for infielder Peyton Eeles

Jackson was a prime candidate to lose his roster spot at some point before the 2026 season began. A former first-round pick with big time raw power, Jackson's hit tool never developed and he's basically resorted to latching on to organization after organization as a third catcher the last few years. The Orioles opted to get something in return for him instead of just sending him packing for nothing which is pretty wise.

For Jackson, the Orioles are getting Eeles who is a 26 year old "prospect" which is less than ideal, but he has hit a good bit in the minors. In 428 plate appearances across three levels of the minors, Eeles slashed .261/.382/.332. While the power output has been inconsistent at best, it does seem like Eeles has a good approach at the plate and makes pretty consistent contact.

With the pending non-tender deadline, one can expect a lot of roster moves of varying stripes to pop up. With Mountcastle's fate still up in the air, don't be surprised if we see Baltimore among those wheeling and dealing.