It was no surprise when the Orioles began trading off their assets at the trade deadline this year. Out of contention and with a fair number of players approaching free agency, it only made sense. But when news broke that they had traded Ramón Urías to the Astros, it was a little confusing.
For one, Urías was not a pending free agent. He is still under team control through 2026. He also had proven himself a valuable part of the Orioles since he made his Major League debut in 2020, despite being consistently underrated. There was always talk that he would get pushed out by the young talent in the infield, but he kept hanging in there.
Urías came to the Orioles in February 2020 as a waiver claim from the St. Louis Cardinals, and what a waiver claim he turned out to be. When he was traded, he had played in 506 games with a batting line of .259/.324/.404, which shakes out to a slightly above-average OPS+ of 105. He played first base, second base, third base, and shortstop while he was an Oriole and took home a Gold Glove in 2022 for his work at third. He was always a very easy guy to root for.
In 2025, things went about the same for Urías as they had in previous years. The predictions about him not playing because of the other infield talent fell by the wayside as those other players were injured. When Gunnar Henderson started the season on the IL, the Orioles needed Urías at third base as the infield shuffled. Jordan Westburg also spent time on the IL, making more room for Urías.
He did spend a few week himself on the IL at the beginning of May, but even with his trade at the end of July, Urías made more starts at third base, 66, than any other player. He has been the odd man out for several years, yet the playing time just kept coming.
Urías was having a bit of a down year on offense when he was traded, with a hitting line of .248/.300/.388. On July 30th, Mike Elias sent the six-season veteran to Houston for a Low-A pitcher named Twine Palmer. The 20-year-old Palmer was drafted in the 19th round in 2024 and was not on any of the top 30 prospect lists for the Astros. FanGraphs had him down as their 37th best prospect.
That’s not a very big return, but Urías is not the kind of guy who gets a big return, even if he has been a steady contributor. As I have always liked Urías, I hoped the trade would give him the chance to contribute to a playoff team and maybe get to the World Series. Unfortunately for him, but not really for the rest of the baseball world, the Astros crashed and burned and missed the postseason altogether.
Urías looked primed to play every day in Houston as both Jeremy Peña and Isaac Paredes were injured. But his potential playing time got cut down the very next day when the Astros snagged a much bigger fish in Carlos Correa. Correa settled in at third base. Urías slid over to second base but made just 23 starts for the team down the stretch. He didn’t help himself offensively, though, with pretty dismal numbers. As an Astro, he put up just a .267 OBP and had an OPS+ of 76 in 101 plate appearances.
MLB Trade Rumors predicts that Urías will receive $4.4 million in arbitration in 2026, his final year before free agency. His underwhelming play, plus having Correa locked down for the new few years, makes Urías a non-tender candidate. For his sake, I hope he gets the money.
As for Twine Palmer, he has not been good. When the Astros sent him to the Orioles, Palmer had pitched in 13 games for low-A Fayetteville (eight starts) and had a nice ERA of 2.13. He did that despite very bad walk numbers to the tune of 22 in 42 innings.
After the trade, Palmer was assigned to the Delmarva Shorebirds. He made five starts to close out the season, none of which were good. He pitched a total of 19.2 innings with a 9.15 ERA. His walks remained high and he allowed a lot of traffic on the bases. It stands to reason he will begin 2026 with the Shorebirds.
Per FanGraphs, Palmer’s best shot to make the majors is has a relief pitcher, and at 21 years old and in Low-A, even that would be a ways off. He’s not a player worth getting excited about, but here is FanGraphs’ blurb for context on what he can do:
Palmer is unrefined…but he’s also 6-foot-5 with a Josh Collmenter arm slot. He only sits 90-93 mph, but he gets 19 inches of IVB and massive amounts of in-zone miss on his heater in a manner that merits further study. Palmer’s north-south attack with his slider, cutter, and curve gives lefties fits…
It was a little sad to me when Urías was traded, even if I knew he was not part of the Orioles’ future for a while. The trade will likely end up meaning very little to either team, but I hope Urías thrives wherever he ends up in 2026.