Orioles trade Taylor Ward to the Mariners for almost nothing as Adley Rutschman rumors swirl around the team

For the past few weeks, reports on the Baltimore Orioles' trade deadline plans suggested they were going to try to thread the needle of being both buyers and sellers. The idea behind this is that they could move a group of players who are impending free agents or just have one year of control left on their contracts after this season for prospects and then trade other prospects in exchange for controllable players that are currently in the majors but have multiple years of control left on their contracts. If done right, it could improve the Orioles' future without tanking the 2026 team, which, despite being very disappointing, still has a shot at the playoffs if they can go on a run.

Unfortunately, as soon as President of Baseball Operations Mike Elias met with the media and started talking about "not having any biases towards buying or selling," it was clear what was about to happen. For the second year in a row, the Orioles are selling everything that isn't nailed to the floor, and as the deadline approaches, don't be surprised to see them start pulling out some of those nails.

With Taylor Ward traded the next Orioles domino to fall might be Adley Rutschman

The big rumor is that Adley Rutschman will soon be a member of the Boston Red Sox. That deal is not yet official, but what is official is that the Orioles have traded Taylor Ward to the Seattle Mariners.

Ward was originally brought over to Baltimore as the counterpart in the controversial Grayson Rodriguez trade. Rodriguez has not pitched well enough to make anyone with the Orioles regret moving him, but the fact that the prize for trading Rodriguez was just four months of Taylor Ward hitting to a .729 OPS is disappointing.

The return that the Orioles got for Ward is interesting. The main prize is Alex Hoppe, a rookie reliever who has had poor results this year but has a very strong arsenal according to stuff+ and his strikeout and walk numbers would suggest that better days are soon to come.

The other two prospects the Orioles got back are older arms in the lower minors. Harrison Kreiling is 24 and just got to Low-A, and Brock Moore is a 26-year-old currently putting up a 5.56 ERA in Double-A. Orioles fans should not expect much from either of these two prospects, but their age does suggest they could move through the minors very quickly.

It's a disappointing return considering that at one point Ward was considered one of the best rental bats available, and now he's been turned into three arms that may never produce positive WAR at the big league level. If the Orioles had just finished the season with Ward and then given in the QO the draft pick they would have gotten for him signing somewhere else, it would have been more valuable than this package.

The fact that the Orioles are losing Ward is no big loss. After his blazing hot start in April, he's slashing .224/.362/.308 over the last 80 games. That kind of offensive production plus being really bad at defense and a terrible base runner combines for a net negative. That impact is only magnified when the Orioles manager won't take him out of the top two spots in the lineup. If this trade results in Dylan Beavers playing every day or an Enrique Bradfield Jr. call-up, it's probably addition by subtraction.

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