The Baltimore Orioles are in a favorable position with the July 30 MLB trade deadline approaching. Holding the best farm system in baseball and arguably being the top team in Major League Baseball, there’s a lot that can be done to improve this team.
Starting pitching has been the focus over the past few weeks, and there’s even a chance that the Orioles land a pitcher like Tarik Skubal. It’s uncertain if the Detroit Tigers would trade the left-handed ace, but if there’s one team that could interest them, it’d likely be Baltimore.
A package would almost certainly start with Jackson Holliday, the No. 1 prospect in baseball. Whether they want to trade him or not remains to be seen, but they’d likely not get Skubal back if he wasn’t in the deal.
While Holliday is an incredible player and has a chance to be a true superstar one day, trading for Skubal gives them a guaranteed ace. Sure, they already have Corbin Burnes, but having a 1-2 punch that’d be better than any in baseball would set this team up well for October and in the future if they pay Burnes.
Holliday, at the end of the day, is still just a prospect. Until he proves that he can play at the big league level, there’s not much more to say about him. That’s exactly why the front office has to think about possibly moving him, as crazy as it might sound.
Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com previewed the trade deadline and ranked nine teams that should be “all-in,” including the Orioles. He highlighted the fact that they were No. 1 on this list last year and had a quiet deadline, but noted that how the rest of the year played out only adds to the fact that they need to be aggressive this time around.
“The O’s were No. 1 on this list a year ago, yet had a tepid Trade Deadline that arguably came back to bite them come October.
“But the offseason Corbin Burnes trade kicked this club into another gear. And given that Baltimore is still short on controllable starters and has endured season-ending injuries to Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells, we expect that aggression to continue.”
He mentioned who they could land, which included Skubal. Castrovince did, however, add that they’d possibly be “venturing” into Holliday territory in that scenario.
Whether they trade for Skubal or not, there will be ways to improve this roster. They seemingly have a window that could be open for the next few years, but as teams have found out in baseball many times, windows are always shorter than they appear.
There’s no reason not to do everything they can to improve this roster right now.
