The Baltimore Orioles’ botched trade deadline handed the AL East to the New York Yankees

The Baltimore Orioles were in a close battle with the New York Yankees at the 2024 trade deadline, but the on-field results for each team changed in late July and New York won the American League East as a result.

It didn’t have to be like this.

The Orioles finished 64-44, a half game ahead of the Yankees, who were 64-45. But since then, New York has posted a record of 30-21 (7th best), while Baltimore is just 24-27, a bottom-place record in the MLB.

General manager Mike Elias missed the trade deadline. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman made his moves. Let’s find out what went wrong.

Across all of their summer signings, the Orioles have seen a whopping nineteen players either join or leave the organization:

Acquisitions: Zach Eflin, Seranthony Domínguez, Cristian Pache, Trevor Rogers, Eloy Jiménez, Austin Slater, Livan Soto, Gregory Soto, Patrick Reilly
Departures: Austin Hays, Connor Norby, Kyle Stowers, Matthew Etzel, Jackson Baumeister, Mac Horvath, Seth Johnson, Moises Chace, Trey McGough, Billy Cook

But the players Baltimore acquired have largely disappointed. That was to be expected – some of these were renovation projects. But it’s still frustrating to see how poorly some of them played during their Orioles tenure.

Starter Trevor Rogers, acquired from the Miami Marlins in a package that included infielder Connor Norby and outfielder Kyle Stowers, made it through just four starts before being traded to Triple-A Norfolk. The left-hander posted a 7.11 ERA, went 0-2 and allowed more earned runs (fifteen) than strikeouts (twelve).

That wasn’t all that surprising – his ERA with Miami was 4.53 and his fielding independent pitching of 4.43 showed that wasn’t a fluke or bad luck. (His FIP with Baltimore is “only” 5.01, so perhaps the Orioles are allowing poor defense to influence their perspective here.)

Zach Eflin, acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays, has shown good pitching (5-2, 2.31 ERA) but also missed two weeks on the injured list with an ankle injury.

Outfielder Cristian Pache, acquired along with Seranthony Domínguez from the Philadelphia Phillies for veteran outfielder Austin Hays, had just one at-bat for the Orioles before being DFA’d. (The Miami Marlins, who selected him on waivers and gave him 60 at-bats, also DFA’d him.) Domínguez wasn’t the only reliever moved from a contending team, as the Phillies also sent Gregory Soto to Baltimore – A contending team moving from subs is not usually a scenario where you get good players, and that’s exactly what happened here. Soto is 1-1 with a 5.87 ERA for the Orioles, while Domínguez is 0-2 with a 3.54 ERA.

DH Eloy Jiménez was optioned to the minors earlier this week after batting just .232 with a .586 OPS in 33 games, while outfielder Austin Slater started just six games in September, batting just .185.

Trades are not supposed to feel good. Typically, you have to give up good players to get a good player, regardless of a deal between the Atlanta Braves and the Oakland Athletics.

Baltimore has been unwilling to trade away good players at the deadline over the last two seasons.

The Yankees acquired the dynamic Jazz Chisholm Jr. from the Miami Marlins for three players: catcher Agustin Ramírez, infielder Jared Serna and utility player Abrahan Ramirez. Two of those players, Ramírez and Serna, are now among Miami’s top ten prospects at No. 3 (Ramírez) and No. 10 (Serna).

Baltimore could have beaten this deal. The Jazz’s 10 home runs, 16 stolen bases and solid defense at third base would have come in handy when the Orioles lost several infielders to injuries.

Was it a wise decision to stick with catcher Samuel Basallo and infielders Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo? Time will tell. But in hindsight, refusing to trade her or any other top ten prospect was a mistake. The organization hasn’t gotten significantly worse at the deadline, but one can argue it hasn’t gotten better either and there’s no obvious path forward for a postseason breakthrough.