10 all-time worst trades in Baltimore Orioles history

Orioles traded away Jayson Werth way too early

Frankly, this is a move that was perfectly reasonable at the time. While the Orioles did spend a first round pick on Jayson Werth out of high school, Werth just wasn't hitting in the minor leagues and the Orioles needed some reinforcements for their bullpen. So, Baltimore decided to send him out of town in a trade with the Blue Jays for reliever John Bale.

Bale was just objectively not good for Baltimore as he only made a handful of appearances for them and struggled to find the strike zone. Werth took a little while to find his stride as a hitter in the big leagues, but he would eventually figure things out with the Phillies and Nationals where he was a fantastic all-around hitter for the better part of eight seasons. Again, this move made all the sense in the world at the time, but sometimes players end up surprising us all.

Trading away Dennis Martinez did not end well for the Orioles

Another understandable trade here as Dennis Martinez was coming off several sub-par seasons for the Orioles in the mid-1980's. It was clear that Martinez didn't really have a role with the team anymore, so they decided to ship him to the Montreal Expos for infielder Rene Gonzales. Gonzales never really amounted to much as a part-time player, but this deal is more about what Martinez did after he left the organization.

From 1987 to 1998 after he left Baltimore, Martinez would make 354 appearances including 304 starts and post a 3.27 ERA across over 2,000 innings pitched and make four All-Star teams. For a guy that certainly looked liked he was completely washed out, Dennis definitely made the Orioles wish they had kept him around given that he turned into one of the more consistent performers in the late 80's and 1990's.

Baltimore traded away Jake Arrieta

When a pitcher averages a 5.33 ERA across three seasons and 334.1 innings for any team, the writing is on the wall that things are probably not going to work out for that pitcher. So, Baltimore decided to send such a pitcher to the Cubs in a midseason deal that brought back Scott Feldman and Steve Clevenger. However, the bad news is that pitcher turned out to be Jake Arrieta.

Arrieta's star in the league burned hot and quickly as he put up a four year run of dominance with the Cubs from 2014 to 2017 with a 2.67 ERA and 756 strikeouts in 751.1 innings and won the NL Cy Young in 2015. His production would certainly drop off after he left Chicago, but he was still a steal for the Cubs as not only was he awesome, but Feldman and Clevenger were quite bad in their limited time with the Orioles.