After the Rutschman deal, where do the Orioles go from here?
Is it another rebuild, a re-load or something different?
They are breaking up the band.
That is a feeling an O’s fan might get after catcher Adley Rutschman was traded to Boston. The young core that helped lead the Orioles to back-to-back playoff appearances in 2023 and 2024, could never win a playoff game. And now, for the second season in a row, the Orioles have a losing record and might miss postseason again.
So given the chance to get a haul for Rutschman, the O’s made the move with a player that Mike Elias said recently they hope is here forever.
That hope will not be realized.
If the team tried to sign Rutschman and determined they could not, in the long run they may have made a proper move here. Remember it seemed like they did well when they traded Manny Machado, but they got just one top 100 prospect in that package. They got two for Rutschman because he had more team control.
The three prospects they got from Boston - pitchers Anthony Eyanson and Kyson Witherspoon and outfielder Enddy Azocar - were among the Red Sox top five prospects and now they are among the O’s top eight.
Last night MLBPipline.com ranked Eyanson as Baltimore’s new No. 1 prospect with Witherspoon No. 7 and Azocar No. 8. Righty Michael Forret, added from Tampa Bay for Tyler Wells, is now the O’s No. 6 prospect.
Three of the players traded away - Rutschman, Wells and Dean Kremer - had team control through 2027.
But here is a partial list of what remains and how they have some of those players tied up:
Thru 2028 – Gunnar Henderson, Yennier Cano.
Thru 2029 – Jordan Westburg, Colton Cowser.
Thru 2030 – Pete Alonso, Shane Baz, Blaze Alexander, Jackson Holliday, Rico Garcia.
Thru 2031 – Kyle Bradish, Brandon Young, Dylan Beavers.
Thru 2033 – Samuel Basallo (team option for 2034).
The Orioles still could chase a playoff spot this year with a foursome of Kyle Bradish, Trevor Rogers, Shane Baz and Brandon Young fronting their 2026 rotation.
Kremer’s spot is up for grabs and could be taken by Chris Bassitt, Cade Povich, Trey Gibson or maybe even the re-acquired Forret.
HOW WILL THE CLUBHOUSE REACT?
The vibe and dynamic will certainly be different in there today without the likes of Rutschman, Kremer, Wells and Taylor Ward.
This is the business side that players talk about - the side they can’t control.
Teams sometimes do rally after trade deadline changes, even sometimes when the club subtracted quality talent like this one did.
I don’t see complete doom and gloom here but I know some of the fanbase does and if they want to turn their back on the Orioles or not go to games or watch them or however they choose to handle it, it’s all cool by me.
As of yesterday morning, nine players in the current O’s top 15 prospects were pitchers. Now three have been added to that.
I love that depth to see who breaks through to help the Orioles and who could be used in future deals. I am a big fan of Forret as I mentioned yesterday.
Early last year, when he was with High-A Aberdeen, I profiled him in this story.
In 2025 for the Orioles between High-A and Double-A, Forret posted a 1.58 ERA over 19 games. Then he was traded in December to the Rays in the package for Shane Baz. Now after going 7-2 with a 3.29 ERA this year between Double-A and Triple-A, he’s back with his original organization as he gets closer to his first call to the majors.
He was ranked this year as the Rays’ No. 8 prospect by both Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com. For me he’s both close to MLB ready and close to being a top 100 pitching talent.
WHAT DID ELIAS SAY?
The O’s Mike Elias spoke to local media last night via an O’s Zoom call.
Elias said the team is still hopeful of a 2026 playoff run: “We did not dismantle the team. We still have a very good team, very good rotation, and we’re going to keep grinding. And we’ve got talent in the minor leagues, some new talent, some players that will come up. This is part of running the baseball organization is sometimes with the deadline, you sell some guys off, especially as they’re toward the end of their contractual control.”
Elias on the plan going into last weekend: “We did go into the deadline with a buy-sell mindset. We had a lot of conversations and were ultimately looking for baseball trades, exchanges of talent that we wanted to do that we thought would help the overall talent level of the organization, and do right by the organization. And I think we made a lot of really successful talent exchanges today, even though this was not the situation that we wanted to be in at the beginning of the year.”
Elias on the trade of Rutschman: “It is an incredibly emotional moment to have Adley depart the organization in this way. When he was projected to be the No. 1 pick and he realized the gravity of the assignment ahead of him with the Orioles, with the way that the Orioles organization had been playing recently, he really embraced it. And I felt Adley worked together with us as an organization to elevate the Orioles back into a very competitive state. And he was an enormous part of that.
“He’s a wonderful human being. We love his family. This was an unfortunate reality of the business of major league baseball.”
Elias with more on the deal with Boston: “I think this was a great trade for us in terms of the return. I could go on about the players. Anthony Eyanson’s one of the top pitching prospects in baseball, one of the hotter pitching prospects in baseball. Kyson Witherspoon, great first-round talent from last year who’s in High-A doing really well, up to 99 mph. Enddy Azocar, very exciting center fielder. We got really great players back.”
Elias likes the arms they added: “We got a tremendous amount of impact pitching in this trade.”
Nimmala was one of the ones I was hoping the Orioles would draft in 2023. Alas no, he went 3 spots later to the Jays.
These are all good questions. I watched the entire Elias questioning and thought it fascinating. I disagree with him about this year. This year is a bust. We have to look toward next year. Need to sign Rogers. Elias believes that Mike Forrett is within weeks of major league ready. He should be up before the end of the year. If we sign Rogers, the starting pitching is there. Bullpen we'll have to be patched together and we need an outfielder for sure. Don't forget Westburg will be back. He's got to put together a solid season, and I think Mayo could be a premier power hitter. I think we can legitimately compete for the playoffs next year. The future is not dim.