With the trade deadline about 48 hours away, the interest in Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman remains.
Team president of baseball operations Mike Elias said Friday the Orioles are remaining “pretty open-minded” regarding every possible outcome of the trade deadline, and Rutschman is in that open-minded category despite a large role in the clubhouse and his current placement on the 10-day injured list with left wrist inflammation.
According to three sources, teams remain interested in Rutschman, and two say the Orioles are listening to offers. It’s not worth closing any door currently, despite the Orioles being 1.5 games out of the final American League wild-card spot ahead of Saturday night’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies.
A report from MLB.com indicated several teams, including the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers, are interested in catching help. Another wrinkle is whether the Orioles are willing to trade Rutschman — Elias’ first pick in 2019 and the centerpiece of Baltimore’s rebuild — to an American League East foe.
The asking price for Rutschman is, understandably, very large, two of the sources said.
Not all of the discussions include a major league-ready starting pitcher but at least one does, a source said. The asking price would also include high-end prospects, and even then, three sources said, there is no guarantee Rutschman will be dealt ahead of the deadline.
Rutschman remains under team control next season, but he will become a free agent ahead of the 2028 season — unless the Orioles finalize another contract extension. Baltimore has locked down right-handers Shane Baz and Kyle Bradish and catcher Samuel Basallo to extensions in the last year, which shows a willingness from ownership to commit money in the long term.
The Orioles, who traded right-hander Dean Kremer to the Minnesota Twins late Friday night, are operating in a buy-and-sell mode, Elias said. Moving Rutschman would be a decisive move to restructure an underperforming roster.
The Orioles are also without Basallo, who’s dealing with shoulder inflammation. Elias said Basallo and Rutschman are progressing as hoped and Rutschman could begin rehab games next week.
In the interim, Baltimore acquired catcher Jake Rogers from the Detroit Tigers on Thursday.
“He’s going to be catching a lot here in the next few days to help hold down the fort until one or both of those guys are back,” Elias said. “And, even when they are back, we’ve run a three-catcher roster quite a bit here. We also don’t know what the trade deadline is going to bring, in terms of what the roster is going to look like. It just made sense to us to pick Jake up, but actually we’re quite hopeful that Adley and Sam are back soon.”
Rutschman, who made his third All-Star Game in July, has faced three injured list stints this season. He dealt with ankle inflammation and a concussion in addition to his latest wrist injury. He’s hitting .251 with a .764 on-base-plus-slugging percentage — a large improvement over a difficult 2025 that was reduced to 90 games because of a pair of oblique strains.