The Baltimore Orioles were one of the most aggressive teams at the trade deadline, doing pretty well overall, at least in a vacuum, by selling off short-term veterans for an injection of youth into the farm system in the midst of what is a lost season.
However, when one expands beyond the lens of only the 2025 season, things start to get a little more dicey.
General manager Mike Elias may be remorseful that things turned out this way, but the predicament the Orioles found themselves in has largely been his own doing.
After all, this is the man who has consistently refused to add real impact starting pitchers to his rotation, and instead has hoarded some prospects even if there is no clear pathway for them to find consistent playing time.
While Elias may prefer to talk about how the club is positioned to pivot back to contention in 2026, it’s a deal from 2024 that still haunts him and the team, looming large over the 2025 trade deadline proceedings.
The Kyle Stowers trade makes the Orioles’ 2025 trade deadline look even worse
In his desperation to acquire cheap arms in 2024, Elias made the ill-fated decision to ship outfielder Kyle Stowers and third baseman Connor Norby to the Marlins in exchange for starter Trevor Rogers.
Rogers has since battled injuries and inconsistency since coming to Baltimore, while Stowers showed his old club first-hand what they had given up on, torching them right before the All-Star break.
Stowers’ revenge against the Orioles wasn’t a one-off either. The 27-year-old has blossomed into a star this season, crushing 25 homers while slashing .295/.372/.571 and taking home NL Player of the Month honors in July.
With team control through 2029, that’s the sort of player that would look real nice in the Orioles’ outfield, which is a unit with a lot of holes following the departures of Cedric Mullins and Ramon Laureano at this year’s deadline.
What this comes down to is a gross mismanagement of assets on the part of Elias. It’s fine to trade away a piece from a position of surplus in order to solve a need, but as Stowers is showing, he is far and away more valuable than the return Baltimore received in Trevor Rogers.
If Elias had recognized this earlier, he could have maneuvered at last year’s deadline to flip either Stowers or one of the other aforementioned veterans in exchange for a real difference maker in the rotation, potentially avoiding the need to sell at this year’s deadline.
Instead, he stands here with egg on his face, giving up a star-level outfielder in exchange for a 27-year-old starting pitcher who has yet to find his groove in the big leagues, and then opening up two more holes in his outfield the following season.
If the Orioles are going to get back on track in the offseason and gear up for a run in 2026, Elias will have to be a lot smarter in how he manages his assets.
