The Orioles were eager sellers at the trade deadline. There is no other way to put it despite how their top baseball exec Mike Elias wants to spin it. There just isn’t.

They sold the first player Elias ever drafted – getting it wrong by taking Adley Rutschman over Bobby Witt in what would be a litany of personnel failures for him – to a division rival. They sold the starter who logged the most innings in the rebuild. They sold they best relief arm. They sold their regular lead-off hitter.

And they “added” fringy AAAA quasi-prospects, swapped out back-up catchers and got one of the worst relief pitchers in baseball from Seattle. Come on man. We all know what this was and smart people know what it should have been – even more sweeping than it was.

Yet they want you to believe since they couldn’t get exactly what they wanted for their Opening Day starter and their set-up guy, that they still believe in their grizzly MLB product. Regardless, they’ll stay around .500 without these guys and this was never a death knell.

But it also is mere precursor to next year’s madness, when they run the same grift and overhype the roster in March to sell tickets and then burn it down by August, with Gunnar Henderson, undoubtedly, the headliner in their next firesale. After talking to smart people in the industry and learning more about the youngsters they brought in, here’s how I’d size up the moves:

Adley Rutschman and Jake Rogers for 4 prospects and Carlos Narvaez

Grade: A-

Adley was cooked here. Never caught reguarly enough for years, was the worst DH in AL when he did that and his power was sapped. Didn’t hit for impact since June of 2024. We todl you the Orioles would go high after top arms in AA or higher and they two who quialify here (though one was still in High-A but was just selected 15th overall. I

They got a bilingual veteran catcher back to help Samuel Basallo, who is still just 21 and coming back from the IL soon. Even Elias, as pathetic as he is at this, probably can’t totally mess Anthony Eyanson up, and he should be in this rotation by the All-Star break next season if he stays healthy. Meantime Adley was blocked at catcher and first base and didn’t want to be here.

Says here Adley will have problems in Beantown. And with any luck Sammy will have a new skipper in Baltimore in 2027 after the current overmatched puppet tried to shame him. This team won’t any strides until they have a proven dugout leader.

Tyler Wells for RHP Michael Forret

Grade: C (for cynical)

Why does this kid get his name in the sub-headline and not anyone else? Because we’re going to see him make a start or two for Baltimore this season. Just you watch. It hurt Elias to include him in the deal with Tampa for Shane Baz in the winter and we knew he wanted him back, with Forret projecting to a mid-rotation arm and Elias doesn’t produce any of them within his org.

When Tampa wants one of your young arms, they tend to have a good reason for that. But this was about those optics more than anything else. Most years Elias’s bullpens stink, Wells could have been huge for them next season too and the fact he has done everything – excel as a starter, and a set-up guy, and a bulk guy, and a closer – stings. They yo-yoed him around and broke him a few times and he came back from all the injuries and was a winning ballplayer again.

And Tampa will turn him into real weapon, like they did with Bryan Baker. It’s impossible to give Elias the benefit of the doubt when he makes any transaction and especially with the Rays who are everything that fraud wishes he was.

Taylor Ward For 3 RHP

Grade: A as a salary dump; F as a baseball trade

They waited too long for his new offensive profile – forget the 30 homers and 100 RBIs; he doesn’t even want to swing the bat – to take hold. It was obvious he couldn’t hit inn Camden Yards or hit with anybody on base all season. By August he had no real value and the salary looked even more bloated. Garbage asset management by Elias, but that’s The Elias Way. He doesn’t know how to sell high on anyone.

Saying all of that, the fact that I don’t have to watch this guy bat leadoff or clean up anymore and keep Dylan Beavers out of the lineup (when he should lead-off regularly) is a big win for me. But they got literally nothing back here that will ever help the MLB product in anyway, and the reliever they got will actively make it worse. Watch.

Dean Kremer for a prospect

Grade: B+

He had to go.

His diva crap had worn thin and I would have traded him the ifirst time he tried to show up Basallo, a kid who was thrown into the deep end and whose the hopes and dreams of this ever being a real team ride with. He’ll probably be sold for the Twins but who cares. He had to go. The super-toolsy 18-year-old outfielder will probably never impact the Orioles but it’s worth a shot. He was off to a great start to his pro career albeit in the low minors.

Orioles Keep Rogers and Kittredge and O’Neill

Grade: F

When you are this far down the road, these guys who are doing their jobs quite well with expiring contracts must go too. I don’t care that your super-computer says you aren’t getting enough back. I don’t care that your billionaire overlords won’t eat money top move Andrew Kittredge or Tyler O’Neill. Convince them.

Now was the time to shed all dead weight and assess every internal option since you are on to 2027 (probably really on to 2028 because Gunnar is getting dealt). Rogers is high-risk to break down again and that 2027 draft pick they lust over if he receives a Qualifying Offer and signs elsewhere is three years from helping in MLB. Shoulda grabbed the best Brewers pitching prospect you could and called it a day.

They played the PR/marketing game here thinking you will keep coming out to the ballpark because this guy is going to pitch once a week as they see if their compromised roster can be as middling as the one they just tore apart (but not as much as they should have)

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