Baltimore Orioles
Last season the Orioles were historically bad, finishing the year at 47-115 and ending the season having traded away most of their assets. This is not a team that is going to compete in 2019.
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That doesn’t mean that they’re going to be totally stagnant. Focused on a rebuild, the Orioles need to find way to acquire prospects, and fast. Losing is only half of the rebuilding equation, and the Orioles farm system is not where it needs to be if they want to put a competitive home grown team on the field within the next five years.
They’ll get a good position in the draft thanks to their record, but they’ll need to absorb other team’s prospects to compliment their draft choices, and they moved pretty much everyone they had worth moving last year.
So, maybe they should trade for Puig. The Orioles don’t have any huge superstar contracts for next season, excluding the disastrous Chris Davis deal, so they can afford to take him on and maybe even give the Dodgers some money in return; it doesn’t seem like the Dodgers are looking for a huge return here.
During the preseason, a walk year trade candidate isn’t always ideal, but they can become a hot commodity at the mid season trade deadline when teams have decided it’s time to make an all or nothing run at the playoffs.
Investing in Puig now could lead to some great returns later on, and if nothing works out just chalk it up to the rebuild. There’s not so much to lose.