Baltimore Orioles: Three Potential Left-Handed Starter Trade Targets
The Baltimore Orioles are rumored to be seeking a left-handed starter to shore up their rotation – who will they end up with?
The Baltimore Orioles want a left-handed starter, but that’s a tough market to crack this July. The best left-handers are on contending teams, and even if the Orioles were interested in making a blockbuster deal for say, a Chris Sale, how could they ever afford it? Their farm system isn’t exactly loaded, and they are not a big-market team in terms of payroll.
This puts the O’s in a precarious position. They have to get a lefty at the deadline in order to prop up their struggling rotation and stay in contention. So far, they’ve gone with an all-right-handed starting five. That’s okay in some cases – see the Cleveland Indians – but it works a lot better when the pitchers have some of the best arms in baseball.
The Orioles don’t necessarily have bad pitchers, but they don’t have outstanding ones, either. That is demonstrated in their 4.22 team ERA, which is ranked 17th in all of baseball and tenth in the American League.
Of course, the right package will be needed to entice a team into trading one of their lefties. Both of the Orioles’ top pitching prospects – Hunter Harvey and Dylan Bundy – have seen their brief careers marred by injury issues, and most of their other prospects are still a long way from the majors.
Bundy is currently pitching out of the bullpen for the O’s, and it’s hard to imagine Baltimore giving up on him and dealing him after patiently waiting on him to stay healthy for so long. His value also isn’t very high at the moment, given his injury history, but he could become a key starter again sometime down the line. Reliever Mychal Givens is pitching better than most of the O’s arms, and could be a good trade chip – but if they lose him, it would leave a huge hole in their bullpen.
The Orioles do have several position players at the top of their prospect rankings, all of whom could be interesting trade chips, but it will certainly be a challenge to come up with the right combination to acquire one of the following left-handers:
Next: The Lefty Veteran