Baltimore Orioles: Mike Elias quietly wins big at the trade deadline
By Nick Stevens
Two possible lottery tickets may be making their way back to the Baltimore Orioles for Tommy Milone.
It wasn’t a total shock to see the Baltimore Orioles move starting pitcher Tommy Milone, but it was a bit surprising to see the Orioles acquire two Players To Be Named Later from the Atlanta Braves for the 33-year-old soft-tossing lefty.
With the Braves in desperate need of starting pitching help to slot in behind Max Fried and Ian Anderson, they decided to go the cheaper route to see if Milone can continue to be a valuable asset. That desperation turned out to be a win for the Orioles.
Milone was signed to a minor-league deal late in the offseason to compete for a back-end rotation spot in Baltimore but ended up being named the Baltimore Orioles Opening Day starter due to an injury to John Means.
After a rocky Opening Day outing, Milone gave up just nine earned runs across his next five starts, including six shutout frames against the defending World Series champion Washington Nationals, as he struck out 26 and walked only one batter across 24 innings.
That hot stretch was able to net the Baltimore Orioles two players, likely lottery tickets from the low levels of the Atlanta farm system, possibly a return similar to what the Orioles saw in last year’s Andrew Cashner deal with the Boston Red Sox.
Milone wasn’t supposed to crack the Orioles starting rotation this year and he certainly wasn’t going to be in the mix next season with a plethora of prospects knocking on the gates of Camden Yards.
Now, the Orioles can look forward to developing two potentially very young prospects in what is quickly becoming a modern and impressive player development system. Despite not know what the return is, mark this deal as a win for Mike Elias.