Baltimore Orioles Ideal Trade Fit for Former Cy Young Award Winner

With spring training underway for the Baltimore Orioles, the team is hoping to take another step forward this campaign. 

After years of rebuilding, the Orioles have finally been able to find some sustained success in recent campaigns. During the regular season, Baltimore has been one of the best teams in baseball the last two years, recording the most wins in the American League during that span. 

However, this winter is a hard one to judge for the Orioles with some key players leaving in free agency. Despite pleas to spend more money, which the team finally did this winter, they saw two of their best players go to other teams. 

The most notable departure was that of their ace, Corbin Burnes. Acquiring the former Cy Young award winner from the Milwaukee Brewers last winter was a good trade, and he lived up to the hype in what ended up being his one year with the Orioles. 

Last season, he totaled a 15-9 record and 2.92 ERA. Unfortunately, despite pitching well in the postseason, Baltimore was still unable to record a win in the postseason. 

Since the team didn’t bring in an adequate replacement for him to lead the rotation, there is some concern about the unit. While it won’t happen in free agency at this point, the team could look to make a deal to improve. 

Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report recently wrote about Sandy Alcántara being an ideal trade fit for the Orioles.  

The star right-hander missed the entire 2024 campaign due to Tommy John surgery, but he appears to be healthy and ready to go to start the 2025 season. 

Since the Miami Marlins are going nowhere fast, Alcántara is a player who might be on the move in an attempt to help expedite their rebuild. 

In 2022, when the 29-year-old won the Cy Young, he had a 14-9 record, 2.28 ERA and totaled 207 strikeouts. 

With a pedigree of being able to be one of the best pitchers in baseball when healthy, Alcántara makes a lot of sense for a team that needs an ace. 

While the asking price in any potential deal would be high, the right-hander could be the ace that this staff needs. Furthermore, the Orioles have a farm system that has the high-end talent to pull off such a deal. 

Even though it would come with some risk after missing the entire 2024 season, Alcántara is the type of pitcher that could change the outlook for the franchise. 

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