10 all-time worst trades in Baltimore Orioles history

The Orioles traded for Sammy Sosa

Sammy Sosa's name coming up in conversations always brings with it some strong mixed feelings. He was, without question, one of the more exciting players in the league when he played and his at-bats during his home run record chasing prime were appointment television even if the most ardent PED opponents would prefer to forget that they were tuning in to all of them back then. However, the Orioles trade for Sosa before the 2005 season had a lot of red flags beforehand even if you take out the PED accusations.

Not only did Baltimore give up Jerry Hairston and Scott Fontenot who put up some useful seasons away from the Orioles, but Sosa was in a clear decline before Baltimore acquired him and that is exactly how things played out. In his one season with the Orioles in 2005, Sosa was banged up and posted just a .221/.295/.376 line with 14 homers. Sosa would take the next season off from baseball altogether before finishing his career out with the Rangers in 2007.

Orioles trade away Josh Hader

In fairness to the Orioles, they were not the only team to bail on Josh Hader too early as the Astros mucked their opportunity from this deal up. Hader was just a 19th round pick by the Orioles back in 2012 and while he pitched well early in his pro career with the organization as a starting pitching prospect, he ended up getting packaged in the deal with the Astros that brought Bud Norris to Baltimore in 2013.

Funnily enough, the Astros messed things up with Hader, too, as they traded Hader to Milwaukee in the Carlos Gomez trade. The rest of the story is well-known. Hader would go on to give up starting and has become one of the better relievers of this generation. Meanwhile, Norris would put up 48 meh to bad starts with the Orioles before getting DFAed during the 2015 season.