There’s not much worth longing for when looking back on the 2025 Orioles season. Given we are nearly four months into a season of uncertainty and, often, underperformance, there’s something nice about being able to look back and know with little ambiguity that the 2025 team would be selling at the trade deadline.
It was striking, the scale of it at the time, but the massive deadline teardown looks a year later to have been plenty worth it for the Orioles. The players acquired this time last year added quality and depth to their farm system, and while I certainly won’t be advocating for another round of sell-off trades of pending free agents like Trevor Rogers and Taylor Ward, that doesn’t take away from the work the Orioles did in their opportunity to sell last year.
The Ramón Laureano and Ryan O’Hearn trade
The biggest in-season trade the Orioles made was also among the more surprising, with the Orioles holding an inexpensive club option for Laureano and thus having a strong case to keep him for the 2026 season. Instead, they brought back six players from the Padres for the pair: left-hander Boston Bateman, infielders Victor Figueroa, Cobb Hightower and Brandon Butterworth, and relievers Tyson Neighbors and Tanner Smith.
Bateman remains the prize of the deal, with the 20-year-old left-hander striking out 11.8 batters per nine with a 1.38 WHIP and a 4.10 ERA at High-A Frederick, though he left his most recent start with a triceps issue. He’s carrying his mid-90s fastball deep into the season and continues to miss bats with his slider. Figueroa is excelling at Frederick, too, with the 22-year-old boasting 22 home runs with a .929 OPS in 314 plate appearances, albeit with a 31.8% strikeout rate. His is a challenging profile long-term as a bat-first, first base-only prospect, but he’s satisfying the slugging criteria at the moment.
Butterworth has missed time due to injury and has just 34 games at Double-A Chesapeake, but has seven home runs with a 13.9% walk rate and an .867 OPS at the level. Hightower, a former third-round pick, has dealt with multiple injuries and appeared in just 14 games for Low-A Delmarva this year.
Injuries have also limited Neighbors this year, as he’s made 19 appearances with 16.5 strikeouts per nine and 10 walks per nine and a 10.02 ERA, while Smith hasn’t pitched this season.
The Cedric Mullins trade
Dealing Mullins, the 2021 Most Valuable Oriole and a rebuild survivor who was a popular player since he debuted with the Orioles in 2018, was probably the toughest part of the deadline to stomach.
A pending free agent, Mullins went to the Mets for relievers Anthony Nunez, Raimon Gomez and Chandler Marsh. Nunez made the Orioles’ opening day roster as a surprising inclusion and was immediately in a leverage role in the Orioles’ bullpen before the league caught up to him; he has a 4.81 ERA with 9.4 strikeouts per nine and a 1.27 WHIP in 35 appearances, and has the look of a long-term bullpen piece as a rookie.
Gomez, though, was the highest-touted part of the deal given his fastball routinely hits triple-digits. His velocity remains intact but he’s pitched sparingly this year as the Orioles work on his command — he’s walked 20 in nine innings. Marsh has spent the whole year at High-A Frederick with a 3.74 ERA, 11.5 strikeouts per nine, and a 1.13 WHIP.
The Gregory Soto trade
The Orioles had a chance to get familiar with the Mets system before the Mullins trade when, a few days earlier, they sent pending free agent left-handed reliever Gregory Soto to New York for right-hander Wellington Aracena and reliever Cameron Foster.
Aracena was a 20-year-old starter in the midst of a breakout season, thanks to a mid-90s fastball and some swing-and-miss secondaries, and had a 2.35 ERA in five starts after the trade at High-A Aberdeen. But the Orioles, recognizing the pending Rule 5 roster crunch they’d be facing this fall, dealt him with reliever Kade Strowd and infield prospect José Mejía to the Diamondbacks in the spring for infielder Blaze Alexander.
After a slow start, Alexander has been a revelation; before suffering a fractured left hand before the All-Star break, he was batting .312 with an .807 OPS in an everyday role for the Orioles. Aracena remains in High-A with a 5.03 ERA and a 1.63 WHIP. Foster made six appearances for the Orioles this year out of the bullpen with a 9.00 ERA and is on the injured list with a shoulder issue.
The Andrew Kittredge trade
Dealing Kittredge was an interesting move at the time, considering his $9 million club option for 2026, but the Orioles instead dealt him to the Cubs for teenage infielder Wilfri De La Cruz at the deadline — then reacquired Kittredge in November.
De La Cruz was having a strong pro debut in the Dominican Summer League with an .862 OPS, and matched that figure after the trade in the DSL for the Orioles. At age 18 this summer, he made his stateside debut in the Florida Complex League with a .711 OPS and 36 walks to 43 strikeouts, showcasing the plate discipline that stands out in an intriguing overall profile.
The Seranthony Domínguez trade
Domínguez was probably the most appealing of the Orioles’ rental relievers last year, and they made a one-for-one trade with Toronto for right-hander Juaron Watts-Brown. Watts-Brown was enjoying a breakout season between High-A and Double-A and brought a wipeout slider to the Orioles’ organization, where he had a 3.82 ERA with 11 strikeouts per nine at Double-A.
He had a late start to his season due to a shoulder injury and has a 5.83 ERA in 13 starts back there this year, but has pitched better of late, with a 2.73 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, and 32 strikeouts in 26 1/3 innings over his last five starts.
The Charlie Morton trade
Given Morton’s disastrous first two months with the Orioles last year, it’s a small miracle that he pitched well enough as the season progressed to even be traded at all. That they got a left-handed reliever in Micah Ashman who is striking out 14.5 batters per nine with a 1.78 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP in 35 1/3 innings at Double-A Chesapeake is a bonus. Ashman is one of the most promising relief prospects in the Orioles’ system and has a chance to impact the major league team in 2027.
The Ramón Urias trade
Urias was a valuable piece for the Orioles in the first half of the decade, but would have been a relatively expensive role player in 2026, so they moved him to Houston for right-hander Twine Palmer and opened up a role for Jeremiah Jackson in the process.
Palmer, 21, has been solid at Frederick this year with a 3.49 ERA and 9 strikeouts per nine with a 1.21 WHIP in 69 2/3 innings for the Keys.
The Bryan Baker trade
The first trade the Orioles made last summer might be the most fascinating of them all. Baker was having a bounce-back year and had four years of club control remaining when the Orioles dealt him to Tampa Bay before the draft for a competitive balance pick (37th overall). The Orioles, already holding picks 31 and 32, liked the potential talent available in that range and added the pick they ultimately used on prep outfielder Slater de Brun.
de Brun was then part of a four-player package to acquire Shane Baz from the Rays. While de Brun hasn’t played this year due to a shoulder injury, Baker is Tampa Bay’s closer and was an All-Star.
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