This Orioles trade package should tempt Marlins to surrender Edward Cabrera

What's it going to take?

Eric Cole

New York Mets v Miami Marlins / Tomas Diniz Santos/GettyImages

The Baltimore Orioles are reportedly pursuing a trade for Miami Marlins starter Edward Cabrera. The Winter Meetings are wrapping up, and the word from Orlando is that no trade is close. The Orioles are not alone in their pursuit of Cabrera, but no other teams were named.

It appears as though most teams have found the asking prices for the top free agent starters on the market to be very high, and the trade route may provide better value for payroll-conscious teams like the Orioles.

It is fair to debate whether or not Cabrera is the right starter to place a bet on, however, he's definitely cheap and would come with four years of team control; both of which are nice amenities for any trade target. As for what it would take for Baltimore to land Cabrera, well...that is a bit trickier.

What might an Orioles track package for Marlins starter Edward Cabrera look like

Cabrera's 27 years old and throws in the upper 90's with both off-speed and breaking stuff that grades out very well. He's also cost-controlled through arbitration for four morte years, which is going to bump his price up a bit.

We also know that the Orioles and Marlins made a successful high-profile trade recently and are very familiar with each other's players. Miami is understandably setting a high asking price right now, so Baltimore is going to have to pony up. With that info, here's what a potential trade for Cabrera could look like.

If this package looks heavy for Cabrera, that's because it is. The Marlins are going to require some offensive upside in order to move Cabrera. Coby Mayo was one of the top offensive prospects in baseball 12 months ago, and still has big-time potential. Stiven Martinez is young and raw, but is a high-upside lottery ticket. Boston Bateman is a good pitching prospect, though he's further away from the majors at the moment which makes him more expendable given the Orioles' competitive window.

This package has the added benefit of finding a solution as to what to do with Mayo in the event that the Orioles actually land Pete Alonso this offseason. Though that still feels like a pipe dream, it's a nice ancillary benefit of a trade package that would give the Orioles' big league rotation a major boost.

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.