BALTIMORE — The Super Bowl is in the books which means a lot of sports fans are switching their focus to baseball.
With less than two months before opening day, the Baltimore Orioles have had a busy offseason.
President of Baseball Operations Mike Elias has made a handful of moves highlighted by the free agent signing of slugging first baseman Pete Alonso.
Granted, the Alonso addition is a welcome one, so the O's deserve kudos for paying the $155 million over five-years to get him here.
For me, however, that's where the excitement ends!
In my humble opinion Elias severely depleted the franchise's farm system in a pair of trades I just cannot wrap my head around.
The first example is sending four prospects and the 33rd overall pick in the 2026 Amateur Draft to the American East Division rival Tampa Bay Rays, in exchange for starting pitcher Shane Baz.
Baltimore swapped outfielder Slater de Brun, catcher Caden Bodine, pitcher Michael Forret, and outfielder Austin Overn.
Prior to the trade, de Brun was ranked the team's number six prospect per MLB Pipeline.
Bodine was listed number 10, with Forret right behind him at 11, and Overn coming in 30th.
You read that right, two top 10 prospects were unloaded for Baz, a largely underachieving and thus far under-performing starter.
Adding insult to injury, the minor league stats put up by this group are astounding, meaning if they hold we could be in for a long road ahead facing these guys several times a season within our own division.
Lets dive into the numbers, shall we?
We won't even include de Brun, the big fish in this package, because he hasn't yet made his pro debut, considering he's only 18-years-old and was just selected in last year's draft 37th overall.
So lets move onto Bodine, who actually was drafted a few slots ahead of de Brun.
In 43 at bats with single-A Delmarva, Bodine slashed a .326 batting average. Quite the start to a pro career!
Forret has a couple years of minor league experience.
Although he performed decent in 2024 with an ERA less than 4, he really shined in 2025.
Between High-A Aberdeen and Double-A Bowie, the 21-year-old pitched to an ERA below 1.60.
But get this, he only allowed 40 hits in 74 innings pitched amounting to an 0.82 WHIP.
On top of that, opposing hitters batted an abysmal .152 against him at the plate.
That's front line potential, no matter the level.
As for Overn, he stole 64 bases in 2025. Enough said!
If you needed more justification, he's only 22 and was picked in the third round of the 2024 draft.
Between those three, let alone de Brun, Elias surrendered a young speedy base stealing machine, a starting pitcher whom hitters can't seem to figure out, and a catcher that hits for a high average.
Yes, I know Adley and Sam Basallo are entrenched on the depth chart, yet there's been talk of Basallo not sticking behind the dish long-term, and maybe being moved to first or DH. Whereas Rutschman's future is up in the air, especially considering his offensive decline.
Now, back to the prospects headed over to the Rays for Baz. Tampa now has control of this group for years to come at very affordable salaries.
I'm sorry, that is way too steep a price for Baz who went 10-12 in 31 starts with an ERA approaching 5.
To be fair Baz struck out more batters (176) than innings pitched (166.1), which no doubt is a plus.
Still, before last season the now 26-year-old never reached 80 innings pitched in a season due to a laundry list of injuries, including one resulting in Tommy John surgery.
What's more mind boggling about this trade is the similar returns the Nationals and Brewers received in exchange for pitchers MacKenzie Gore and Freddy Peralta, both of which in my mind are far superior to Baz.
In Peralta the Mets got a bonafide ace that won 17 games last season. In return the Brewers received two of New York's top six prospects, Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat.
For Gore the Nats picked up four of the Texas Rangers top 30 prospects, including third ranked shortstop Gavin Fien.
The bottom line is if Elias wants to give away the caliber and quantity of players he did for Baz, why not put that group towards a package that would've garnered a player like Peralta or Gore, neither of which played in our division, a big no-no in sports.
A second head-scratching trade in my view is Elias getting a 26-year-old out-of-options utility infielder named Blaze Alexander from the Arizona Diamondbacks, who batted a whopping .230 last season.
Elias felt Blaze was worth trading reliever Kade Strowd, 28, who did great last year as a rookie out of the bullpen.
Strowd put up a 1.71 ERA giving up only five earned runs over 26 innings pitched, a rare bright spot out of a troubled relief corps.
Yet, Strowd wasn't enough for Elias. He also decided to part with young minor league players Wellington Aracena and José Mejia.
Aracena, 21, struck out 114 batters in 92 minor league innings last year posting a 2.25 ERA. He joined the Orioles system from the Mets in a trade for Gregory Soto during the 2025 deadline. The O's ranked him the 23rd best prospect in their farm system.
For those counting, that's five top 30 prospects the O's let go of for Shane Baz and Blaze Alexander.
A third confusing move was trading 26-year-old pitcher Grayson Rodriguez to the Angels.
In return Elias netted 31-year-old outfielder Taylor Ward, who is entering his final year of arbitration, meaning he'll become a free agent years before Rodriguez. While there's no dispute Ward provides pop at the plate, his .228 batting average and 175 strikeouts last season are highly concerning.
Additionally, Ward is going to cost the Orioles nearly $14 million in 2026, which rings the question why wouldn't Elias pursue a Eugenio Suárez type who belted 49 home runs in 2025, only to settle for a one-year $15 million deal with the Reds this off-season. Or, how about Luis Arraez, a .317 career hitter just signed by the Giants for $12 million?
Assuming Rodriguez would've been ready to go at the start of 2026, he could've been part of a formidable 123 punch atop a starting rotation that already includes Trevor Rogers and Kyle Bradish.
Instead Elias chose to spend a combined $28.5 million on Chris Bassitt, a soon-to-be 37-year-old free agent, and the returning Zach Eflin, who missed most of last season with injury. We've been down this road before when Elias spent a fortune on pitchers like Charlie Morton and Kyle Gibson, both who were shipped out of town before season's end.
I'm skeptical why the team would sacrifice Rodriguez, a hard to come by homegrown starting pitcher, only to replace him with an aging and expensive one-year rental like Bassitt.
For whatever reason Elias believes Ward, who is five-years older and may possibly only be here for one season, was worth sending Rodriguez away.
Your guess is as good as mine. My two cents is that it makes no sense.
Here's to hoping I'm wrong and Elias is right. Like last year, I doubt it...
