The Orioles might need to be sellers, but they shouldn’t blow up their roster.

The Baltimore Orioles came into the season with huge expectations.

There were a lot of people (myself included) who believed the Orioles could compete for the American League East crown, AL pennant, and World Series if they added some starting pitching to replace Corbin Burnes.

But the Orioles didn’t replace Burnes.

Not even in the slightest. In fact, they lost Burnes and a slew of other pitchers to injuries this season.

And every pitcher, besides Tomoyuki Sugano, has struggled for the team this year.

This has resulted in a very bad Orioles team that’s looking for somewhere to put the blame.

It was eventually placed on manager Brandon Hyde, who was fired partway through this season.

With the trade deadline coming up, there are a lot of rumors surrounding the Orioles and what they should do.

But they must avoid making a crucial mistake in order to put themselves in the best place to contend moving forward.

The Orioles don’t need to blow up their entire roster this season

The biggest rumors surrounding the Orioles have to do with them being sellers at the deadline. For a team that’s over a dozen games under .500, selling makes perfect sense.

That’s not the issue here. The issue is the extent which some are indicating the Orioles could sell.

Let’s be clear. The Orioles should not blow up their roster and trade anybody with value.

They have a very, very talented core of players and a lot of them are rather young. But there are some players who could be moved off the roster this season, headlined by Cedric Mullins and Ryan Mountcastle.

There’s even an argument that the Orioles should both sell and buy this season.

By that, I mean the Orioles could sell their expiring contracts while buying on players with multiple more years of team control.

Potentially a guy like Sandy Alcántara, Luis Castillo, or Andrew Abbott to anchor the pitching rotation going forward.

Either way, there’s no reason for the Orioles to blow up their roster. Injuries and a few huge front office mistakes have put this team in a huge hole this season. It’s not because the team is bad and needs some drastic changes to win.