Friday marked a VERY buy day in the Tampa Bay Rays‘ front office. First, they dealt Brandon Lowe and got back a couple of good prospects.
And in this case? They decided to trade pitcher Shane Baz, once considered a top prospect in the game and a part of the 2018 trade that sent Chris Archer to the Pirates and Tyler Glasnow and Austin Meadows to Tampa (wow, what a deal that was).
Baz is off to the pitching-hungry Baltimore Orioles, who gave back a bunch of prospects. So who won the deal? Great question. We’re going to hand out some grades as always:
Orioles and Rays trade details
ORIOLES GET: RHP Shane Baz
RAYS GET: OF Slater de Brun, C Caden Bodine, RHP Michael Forret, OF Austin Overn, Compettive Balance Round A pick
Orioles trade grades
The O’s bolstered the lineup by signing Pete Alonso, but as it’s been in recent years for Baltimore, the question marks were in the rotation. Baz certainly helps there, even though he wasn’t that great last year with a 4.87 ERA. Maybe this is a change of scenery deal with the Orioles hoping for a bounce-back, and they didn’t give up much in the way of top prospects.
GRADE: B+
Rays trade grade
They didn’t get back a top name like Samuel Basallo or Dylan Beavers. Then again, they didn’t deal a top pitcher, exactly. But a haul of prospects and a pick will work. If they didn’t want to pay what could be a bigger extension in the near future — that would be very Rays of the Rays — then this is the deal you make with the hopes that you nail one or two of the prospects.
GRADE: B+