The Orioles Just Signaled Their Trade Deadline Intention

Perhaps it was simply bad luck. Maybe it was the worst coincidence that could befall a team in this situation.

But now, with a little hindsight, I reckon that Mike Elias choosing to put both over-producing 21-year-old catcher Samuel Basallo and under-producing 28-year-old catcher Adley Rutschman on the Injured List at the same time, with the team in such desperate straits so close to the trade deadline, was a tell. And so was the way this team has been reported on heading into the deadline.

There were some initial indications that perhaps neither catcher injury situation would be that bad, and manager Criag Albernaz wouldn’t indulge on any timeline with Rutschman’s wrist situation but it didn’t seem a major cause for alarm at first. And they always downplay anything Basallo might be going through despite him re-writing the record books for under-22 catchers, and made it sound like he’d be back in just a few days before a pre-game batting cage session allegedly derailed all of that.

And then a few days later some of the biggest water-carriers in the media – who wouldn’t even dare put Rutschman’s name on their list of 100 players who could be dealt and then all of a sudden he's 15th– were peddling his name all over the place. Hmm. Maybe I’m just a conspiracy theorist, but I believe this front office has long known this Orioles team is as flawed as last year’s, their internal models indicate as much, and their willingness to shut two players down at the same time at such a vital position was an indicator that Elias is trying to maximize what’s left of Rutschman’s trade value.

Suspicious Timing All Around

What Elias couldn’t risk is his alleged bulldog catcher – who has caught well less than half the team’s innings since June 21, 2024 – breaking down for real and aggravating any of his many tweaks and ailments and scuttling his trade prospects. That would be a disaster. Without these two catchers the team would invariably suffer, but that’s fine for a GM who wouldn’t get anything real at the deadline for 2023 and 2024 teams that were legit winners and had 100-win potential.

It’s just not in him.

So he’s making sure Basallo gets right and is ready to go if/when Rutschman is dealt, the team likely looks more like a seller anyway by August in the process, and he avoids Rutschman suffering a real injury in the interim. What Elias really could never stomach is having to go out and compete with the most dedicated and aggressive GMs in MLB for the top veteran talent at the deadline (and take on more dreaded payroll!). So this helps take him out of that mix, too.

While Elias will only continue to gaslight fans about his baseball team in public in a shallow attempt to sell ticket, he’s a slave to numbers, and there’s no true way to make a case for the 2026 Orioles being real October winners given all their flaws. Again, this clown had teams with that potential and refused to recognize it in them and gave them virtually nothing to improve with at those trade deadlines. No way he’s doing much for this bunch.

So a week before the deadline, through the media, it starts to get mainstreamed that the face of his failed rebuild, the first ever draft pick he selected, might be a spare part after all. He starts using them to get his fanbase acclimated to this fact

And it would be malfeasance not to be shopping him hard now with two years of playoff control. And, I’ve long thought, Rutschman himself is ready to pursue his pot of gold elsewhere knowing its never coming here and Basallo and Pete Alonso are blocking him anyway with their long-term deals

Conveniently, the Orioles being potentially massive sellers went from so taboo some insiders would dare even speak about it aloud, to so obvious the particulars become a daily major deadline subplot, at a time the team is having its best month of the season in the standings (which should project buying). Okay. Whatever.

I don’t really care how they got there or where it comes from or why they got there, Rutschman indeed must go, along with Trevor Rogers and Taylor Ward and Rico Garcia and Andrew Kittredge. The only one of those that might really sting a bit is Rogers, but that’s what happens when you are one of the worst teams in the American League through 100 games two years in a row.

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