Discussing Mike Elias’ trade deadline comments | “The Bird’s Nest”

Discussing Mike Elias’ trade deadline comments | “The Bird’s Nest”

again. We’re busting ours to kick yours. That’s big time. 15. Respect all, fear none. Oh, D. He built that one. Intensity is not a perfume. It was a no doubter. 5 4 3 2 1. We are up in the bird’s nest here at Oral Park at Camden Yards. I am Annie Claf and then Brendan Mortonson our Mass and Insider is in Cleveland right now covering the series the four game series against the Guardians had a bit of a rough start to this four game set but otherwise how are things going for you in Cleveland? Well the weather is nicer than any of the other road trips that I’ve been on. Um I’ve been to Phoenix which was about 100° Anaheim which was about 100 degrees. So the fact that it’s about 80 and sunny in Cleveland uh is nice. It’s a nice change of pace. Um, the Orioles, as you mentioned, have not been playing great baseball over the first two games of this series, which would make things a little bit nicer, but at least the weather is nice, so I’ll take that. Right. At least you can get some some sun in, a little bit of that. Not too hot, not too cold um for the second half. But obviously, you mentioned a rough start to the second half. We’re going to get into all of that jazz, especially of course with the trade deadline coming up as well. So, we heard from Mike Elias, we not specifically, but on an interview uh on the radio with MLB Network. So, we’re going to dive into that, but first we have a lot of injury updates and news. Uh the big one is that Zack Efflin is coming back, making his start tonight for the Orioles in game three against the Guardians. He has had a very, very interesting season. had some injury early on and then came back uh in at the end of May and he had some kind of starts that weren’t characteristic to Zack Efflin where we knew he was going to be able to locate the ball well uh and walk and not walk a lot of guys but then so there were only maybe three starts in that spurt after coming back from the injured list uh in that time frame where he had quality starts and then after that it started to go downhill again which is where you kind of sensed that something wasn’t right. So he hit the injured list again with some back discomfort. Now he’s making another comeback. So hopefully he can get back to some typical Zack Ethan outing performance. Yeah, it’s been a really weird season for Zack Ethan. He starts the year with three straight quality starts, six innings in each of them, three earned runs or fewer in each of them. Then he hits the injured list for a while, comes back about a month later, looks solid in his return back against the Angels and then has a bad start against the Nationals. Has that weird start in Boston where it was just pouring rain and he was trying to pitch through it and then gets back to form and then it seems like something’s off. And over his last three starts, he’s allowed 17 earned runs and I think over just nine innings of work. So, it is not the Zack Efflin that we were accustomed to seeing at the beginning of the season or even during that middle stretch where it seemed like he was back to his old self. So, the hope for Zack Efflin is that he, you know, puts together a nice start today in Cleveland and and he gets back to being that Zack Efflin. Of course, we are going to get into the trade deadline conversation and you you can put two and two together in terms of some of the comments that Michaelas has made about the the current state of where things stand. Um where the Orioles are in the standings and how they will potentially operate surrounding guys on expiring contracts. Zack Efflin is one of those guys on an expiring deal. So, this is an important start for Zack Efflin to get back on track. It’s an important start for interim manager Tony Manelino and and the guys in that clubhouse that are just trying to win games every day and Zack Efflin gives you a good chance to do that. But of course from an organizational standpoint and the deadline that is looming now in 8 days, it is an important start for Zack Efflin given the circumstances and and what his future might hold in the coming weeks, right? And especially because we kind of just know what’s in the tank for Zack Efflin. We know that he is a really really good pitcher. He was supposed to be the ace going into this season. Then of course with the name of the game and how the story has gone for the Orioles uh pitching staff the last few years or the last two years there’s been a lot of injuries. So hopefully Zack Efflin can kind of put the pieces back together and maybe a second injured list stint and and some more full recovery status will help for Efflin especially because this team really needs that right now. Obviously the goals and trajectory for the end of the season uh and the second half of the season is very different from say earlier on when there was still a lot of time left but again it is the second half so there’s been a lot of focus towards 2026 but still you want the best out of Zack Efflin and the rest of this pitching staff. Another one of those injury updates we have is Grayson Rodriguez. This was on the 18th but we found out about another setback in his kind of way to get back to the big leagues and being healthy again. This was a shutdown of his most recent rehab assignment after some right elbow discomfort, which is what we saw from him earlier on in spring training. So, that’s never really great to hear, especially when you have your number one guy and Zack Efflin and then Grayson Rodriguez, who could have also been that number one guy uh is shut down again. Yeah, it’s been a really, really strange season for Grayson Rodriguez. He hasn’t been able to pitch in any games. We haven’t seen him in the minors. He hasn’t been rehabbing in that sense, but he has just been working back from injury and it’s been a bunch of different injuries for him. We heard coming into the season that, you know, he was trying to figure out the lat issue and that was, you know, what kept him out for a lot of the time in 2022 and then in 2024 he has the shoulder inflammation. He has a muscle strain. And then early this year, he has the elbow triceps inflammation. That was kind of a mysterious injury in terms of what exactly was ailing him. And then in April, it’s back to the lat muscle strain, which he has dealt with before. and and he told us that he was trying to work on some things mechanically with his arm slot and delivery to try to avoid some of those lat injuries and and keep the pressure off of, you know, that muscle. And then, as you mentioned a few weeks ago, it’s classified as elbow discomfort for Grayson Rodriguez. So, it it’s hard to say exactly how those injuries are related, if some of those mechanical adjustments have put more stress on the elbow or vice versa with the lat. It’s just been kind of a big mystery season for Grayson Rodriguez because we are not privy to everything that he is doing dayto-day. We get updates here and there, but the general takeaway is that it it’s not a great prognosis for Grayson Rodriguez. he is um awaiting imaging and and things like that. But anytime that you’re out for this extended length of time and you’re not able to get to the point where you are rehabbing and you are seeing game action and facing live hitters, it’s tough and this is one of the best arms in this rotation and you want him to be healthy and back in there for you. But we’re going to have to wait and see what the prognosis is on him and and what his potential timeline could look like. Well, you mentioned that Rodriguez is one of the best arms in this rotation. Another one of those guys is Kyle Bradish. He is supposed to start his rehab assignment tomorrow. So, that’ll be huge uh just for him and coming back from a major injury last season. The Orioles have definitely been without him for uh you you feel it with this starting rotation of not having Kyle Bradish in there. Um Albert Suarez is supposed to face live hitters before August, so that is good. Kade Povich is still on his rehab assignment. He’s registered three starts with the Tides and Aberdine. Um but he has not gone more than 75 pitches or four and one third innings yet. So hoping to see more out of Cade Povich uh and Keegan Aken as well because right now a huge storyline at least going into the second half is that the Orioles offense can put some runs on the board but then they can’t necessarily sustain it throughout the game and we’ve seen a pretty exhausted bullpen as of right now even after the all-star break uh and allowing a lot of walks to this pitching staff for the last number of games since the all-star break. You can see some tax some taxed bullpen arms right now. Uh, so getting Keegan Akin back and having him on the injured list right now is definitely a bad thing for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, interim manager Tony Manolino mentioned it yesterday where he goes, “Yeah, I mean, Keegan Aken is is kind of an underrated piece that we’re missing at this point. That’s an important part of the bullpen to be another reliable lefty along with Gregory Sto. Grant Wolfrom had a tough outing against Cleveland. He’s shown some flashes, but Keegan Aken is one of those just reliable, steady guys out of the pen that you don’t have right now. He is outstanding entering a game with inherited runners. So, he has done a great job of of keeping the Orioles in a lot of games. But, you know, it’s funny how many I mean, it’s not funny, but it’s a real microcosm of of what the starting pitching injuries have looked like for the Orioles over the past two seasons when we have just given injury updates on Zack Epin, Kyle Bradish, Cade Povich, Tyler Wells, Albert Suarez, and Grayson Rodriguez. That’s an entire starting rotation in itself. And it’s good that you’re getting back today. And Bradish has had a lot of positive developments. It seems like Albert Suarez is on the right track, as is Kate Povich. But man, that’s just that’s a pretty good rotation of the guys that you just mentioned. So, that’s a really tough spot for the Orioles to be in. But, you know, in general, I I think with these injury updates outside of Grayson Rodriguez, things are pretty positive on the injury front in terms of guys coming back relatively soon. Abby Rutman, another guy that is making a rehab start. He just started for TripleA Norfol yesterday as the designated hitter. Plan for him is to catch today on Wednesday as we are doing this podcast. Um and then Manelino said he’s a possibility for this weekend. Ryan Mount Castle is scheduled to be in TripleA Norfol at some point over the next few days. If all things go well, then he could be back uh tomorrow on Thursday. So those are some positive updates on the hitting front. There’s pretty positive updates on the pitching front with Effin and Bradish and Suarez. um and Povich as well. Um you know, obviously Grayson Rodriguez is is the big detractor there, but I think in general there are some dates circled on the calendar that you have to look forward to with bigname pieces coming back. Yeah, as far as our podcasts have gone and giving injury updates, I feel like this is definitely probably one of the more positive one, especially considering we’ve done, you know, a draft recap, a draft um you know, preview. we haven’t talked about injuries in a while and they have unfortunately stacked up over the past, you know, few weeks. And I feel like also Albert Suarez is a guy that we haven’t necessarily given a lot of attention to and how big of a contributor that he would have been if he were on this big league roster since day one of the season. Just kind of given what he did last year and filling in the shoes for a lot of injured guys in the rotation, being kind of a a a reliever and a starter hybrid, having that kind of versatility, too. He would be a huge difference maker to this team from the start of 2025. Feel like he hasn’t gotten a lot of attention from us this season just for what kind of difference he would have been able to make. But again, you did mention the positives in Adley Rutman, Ryan Mount Castle. Um hopefully you can see them soon. Chadwick Trump as well part of that kind of catcher relieving door of injuries. So he is on his rehab assignment with Aberdeen and that started on the 18th. And down in the minor leagues as well, Samuel Basio um is out with some sore oblique kind of whatever that’s going on right now. I don’t think he’s hit the injured list, so I think we should be finding out more about that right now. But that’s pretty much all the injury related news and updates we have. Are you sure? It feels like there’s more. It feels like there’s a list of things that we need to run down. Trying to make sure that, you know, we didn’t miss anything. I suppose a a smaller injury update that we don’t know if is a long-term injury update or not. Dylan Carlson promoted to the big leagues yesterday. Kind of a one for one swap with Luis Vasquez, infielder for outfielder. Tyler O’Neal was Manolino classified it as staying away from Tyler O’Neal yesterday and if there was an injury in the outfield they wanted Dylan Carlson there to be a fillin. So, it sounds like Tyler O’Neal was unavailable yesterday. Called it general soreness. So, we don’t really know what the injury to O’Neal is. Um, he has not been back a long time since his last injured list stint, but you know, hopefully O’Neal is is not a candidate for the injured list. Manelino said he didn’t think he was, and we’re going to learn some more information today. But, that was the the roster move yesterday. Dylan Carlson up as a kind of insurance policy. if Tyler O’Neal ends up missing any sort of significant amount of time, but we’ll we’ll find out more today if there is a move to the injured list for O’Neal. Um, but Manfolino didn’t didn’t think that that was a a potential move at this point. Yeah. No, I’m glad you brought that up because Tyler O’Neal, he’s he’s been kind of a Tyler O’Neal season where lots of injuries of course and we knew that that was kind of to be expected, but Dylan Carlson of course is a good option to have just in case if you need an extra outfielder. Um and then Maverick Hanley as well kind of back to that catcher rel revolving door is uh close to clearing protocol um concussion protocol. So hopefully you can get him back just as a clubhouse guy some extra catching stability um because right now the the two catchers on the big league roster are not what you expected at the start of the season. Yeah. And those two guys have have performed admirably especially I mean Alex Jackson has hit the ball really well. Jacob Stallings, I know, hasn’t put up the best offensive numbers, but that’s still a 10-year major league bet that, you know, can just come right in. And Mantelino has has really praised his work with the pitching staff right away, just being able to to come in and adjust and and that’s a hard thing to do. So, those two guys, given the circumstances especially, have have really performed admirably. Yeah, 100%. Well, I think that’ll uh wrap a bow on our injury updates, but you know, they will they will never uh they seem to never stop coming. So, we will see if we get any others um before tonight’s game. But, we will also provide a little quick recap of the draft since now we are a little over a week since our last podcast. uh recapping that first kind of seven draft picks that the Orioles made, which is actually a really huge to look back at how the draft has gone for the Orioles because you have the Ike Irishes, the Vehiva Aloy, who you kind of expected a lot from, but you have now seven of the Orioles that were drafted this year slot into Baseball America’s top 30 Orioles prospect list. You have Ike Irish at number five, which is ahead of Enrique Bradfield Jr. at number six, which I found interesting. Viva Aloy at number eight, Kaden Boddine at 11, Slater Debrun at 12, Joseph Jera 14, JT Quinn at 24, and then fourthrounder Colin Yemen creeps in at number 25 on that Baseball America top 30 list. He is a shortstop from UC Irvine. Um, one thing to note too, of of the 30 top prospects for the Orioles, according to Baseball America, 12 of them are pitchers. you kind of knew that the Orioles might not have gone the route of getting some pitchers, but they did acquire some earliest earliest on in the Michaelas era. So, it’s good news to see when you get a guy like Joseph Jera, JT Quinn up there in that top 30 for the Orioles. Yeah, this is, you know, we talked about it on draft night. We talked about it in our podcasts right after the draft. The Orioles had a chance to to really do some damage with four picks in the top and you see it in their top dozen prospects at this point. Joseph Gerwa, their highest drafted pitcher of the Michaelas era as well, slots in as one of their top prospects, too. The only prospect that that hasn’t signed among that group is Slater to Brun. The Orioles have signed, I believe, nine of their first um top 10 round selections. Slater to Brun being the only one they haven’t signed at this point, but teams do have until Monday the 28th at 5:00 pm to sign all of their draft picks. This is a really talented high school outfielder that has a commitment to Vanderbilt. And if you are keyed into college baseball or just really have an outside perspective of college baseball, you know that Vanderbilt is one of the most, you know, respected and um formidable programs in the country. And a lot of high schoolers understand the value of going to a program like that and developing there. And so if you are selecting a high schooler that has a commitment to Vanderbilt, especially a prospect as good as Slater Debrun, you are probably going to need to go over slot to sway that player away from their commitment there. Now I I will say in the case of the Orioles, they haven’t signed any of their draft picks outside of the top 10 rounds. And I would imagine that that strategy has a lot to do with the fact that they really want Slater Debrun to sign as the 37th overall pick and they will need to go pretty significantly over slot to make that happen. U they also went over slot with their fifth and 10th round picks. They went under slot on some other guys and they have a lot of money to play with because with four picks in the top 37, they had the most um slot money available to them in the MLB draft. If you’re not super familiar with how the MLB draft works, teams are allocated a specific amount of money to sign their draft picks with. If they don’t use it, it’s not like they just get the money. And and if a team doesn’t sign a draft pick, it does not mean they are being cheap because they either have the money and are able to use it to sign draft picks or they lose the money and are not able to sign those draft picks. So there is nothing incentivizing the Orioles to not sign to Brun. They would rather have a guy that they feel like fell to them at number 37 than the 38th pick next year, which is what they would get if the Brun does not sign. But still plenty of time to make that signing happen. Back to your original point, Annie, with with what you were talking about, you know, it there are a lot of top prospects from this draft, and I think the Orioles really viewed this um this draft in particular as one where they could really bolster the farm system. We’re going to talk about the trade deadline as as a potential avenue to do that as well, but this was a draft with as many high selections as you had and the bonus pool money that you had to work with where you could really really bolster this farm system and the Orioles have have absolutely done that, right? And we talk about all the time too the the difference between the draft and the trade deadline and the draft is for bolstering the farm system and getting some raw really great talent. Uh that’s best player available which is where we tend to see that strategy of draft the bat trade for the arm. This year was different just because of how many picks early on that they had where they had a little bit more wiggle room to get some pitchers and arms into the organization which is going to be huge. And I think that when you look at how the draft went for the Orioles, you would probably grade it pretty highly just because of the diverse type of talent that they got. You got some players that you knew would fit the mold for an Orioles draft type of profile, but then you also got some guys which could bolster a little bit of a pitching need down the line and being able to develop pitching in this farm system, which we haven’t necessarily seen so much in the Michaelas era. But of course, it go it does lead to the conversation of the trade deadline because now you have a wealth of new bats that you could use later down the road for some potential trades or as trade pieces, whether that’s in the off season or at the trade deadline. I obviously it’s probably very soon to be able to trade some new draft picks that you get in 2025, so don’t count on that. But obviously just bolstering the farm as a whole to be able to use those bats or even some arms later down the road for potential trade pieces is really crucial and I think that that was a huge part of the strategy that the Orioles were this year in the draft. Uh not to mention just that they’ve had a lot of really key players graduate from the farm system. Yeah. And you know it this kind of plays into our our conversation about the trade deadline as we transition into into that you know part of our talk here. But nobody wants to be in this situation right? Nobody in the front office or in the clubhouse thought they would be in a situation where they are sellers at the deadline. Nobody in the clubhouse wants to be moved or wants to be dealt. But it kind of affords you, oddly enough, a a unique opportunity to bolster a farm system that has seen, as you mentioned, a lot of good players graduate. They have traded prospects away in order to acquire talent that they believed was going to help them win at the major league level. And to a large extent, they have done that. you know, Corbin Burns, Trevor Rogers, you know, Zack Efflin, those have been guys that have helped you win big league ball games. And ultimately, that is the point of the farm system. The point of the farm system is to get you big league talent, whether that is through the literal guys in the farm system that are promoted up to the big leagues and turn into talented major league players or if that’s trading for already established major league talent. um you know with some of the prospects that have big league potential. So in a season that has not gone the way that you planned, you have both an MLB draft where you have the most bonus pool money of any team in the majors and you can make a lot of big moves there to bolster a farm system that that needs bolstering after a lot of the promotions and trades that have happened over the past few seasons. Couple that with a tread trade deadline where you are unexpectedly sellers and can bring in some top prospects as well. Again, it’s not a situation you wanted to be in, but it’s still a situation that you can turn advantageous and can, you know, benefit you in a lot of big ways down the line. Yeah. Yeah. And I think unexpectedly being sellers is kind of the key phrase that you just used for where the Orioles stand right now where you could say a couple of months ago or even earlier on in the season when you and I were discussing, okay, how can the Orioles still salvage this season and make it a successful season at that point in time? And at that point in time, you and I were throwing out some avenues and routes for the Orioles where it still felt like they had the chance to turn things around, maybe be buyers at the trade deadline, maybe be a little bit of both, do some buying and selling. We both agreed that I I guess wherever you were at this point in time before the trade deadline, they weren’t necessarily going to have to do a complete rebuild. And I think that that still stands true. Um, but at least right now, we kind of know where the Orioles are going to be come this trade deadline. Uh, and that comes with some confirmation from Mike Elias who had an interview with MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM on the 20th. And he basically just said, “Listen, we are about 11 days away.” That was back at the interview. We’re about 11 days away from this trade deadline. We know how the season has gone. We know that our veterans who have expiring contracts are getting a lot of attention from a lot of other clubs. So, we might as well be able to use that, utilize that kind of opportunity, and that’s kind of the only way that they know where they’re going to go. And he, Michael, even said, uh, they’re talking about everything, listening to everything, exploring opportunities, and they’re trending in that direction. Um, so he just said, we just got to listen to the amount of value that the expiring contract players have. Yeah. And and that’s not Elias naming specific players, right? but you’re able to read between the lines a little bit based on what he said. You know, a direct quote from him was um you know, to the degree that we have players that interest other clubs um that are coming towards the end of their contracts, we’ve got to listen to that. And you couple that with the fact that he also said, “We’re not blowing up the team and we plan on being very good again in 2026 and we think we’re going to be very good again in 2026.” You understand what that means from Elias’s standpoint, right? I I wouldn’t look at players at this deadline that are considered the core of this team. Tony Manelino kind of echoed that sentiment as well where the Orioles are in a unique situation where they believe the core of this team is good enough to win them a lot of ball games because it has done that over the past two seasons. So that obviously names like Gunnar Henderson, Abby Rodman, like you know what guys are not going to go anywhere and you also understand at the same time that if there are guys on expiring contracts and you are where you are in the standings right now, 12 games under, those are the guys that are going to garner interest from other clubs. there are good players that you brought in to help you potentially make a run in 2025. It didn’t work out that way and you are going to be able to get some good pieces back for those players. I I think the interesting conversations and probably the ones that we will be having over the next week or so as we’re now eight days out from the trade deadline are what to do with players that have two years of team control that potentially have options for next season. I think that’s where the interesting conversations come in. But in terms of the guys that are on expiring deals that will be free agents at the end of 2025, whether they’re in an Orioles uniform or not, Michaelas was very honest about the fact that those guys have value to other teams and based on where the Orioles are in the standings and what the second half outlook looks like, you’ve got to see what that value is for those sorts of guys. So I think over the next eight days there is a little bit of an unfortunate reality that is is setting in for a lot of guys. We have heard from you know players like Ryan O’Harn that have been pretty vocal about the fact that they don’t want to be traded. They they want to be here right said the same thing. They don’t want to be dealt. They want to be here. They want to win with this team. Tommy Sugano said the same thing. They want to be winning with this team because that was the outlook for 2025. That’s what everybody expected to happen and it just didn’t go that way. And so it’s it’s going to be a tough week because you are seeing what has come from the fact that this has been a disappointing first 100 games of the year. Nobody wants to be in this situation, but it’s the situation they’re in and it’s going to be a hard week as mentioned, but that’s where the Orioles find themselves at this point. Yeah. Yeah. And it says a lot too with guys like Tommy Kusugano and him saying that he doesn’t want to leave this clubhouse. He already really loves this atmosphere and the team that he has joined for his first season in Major League Baseball. So it really says a lot when you hear players like Sugano and even veterans and and leaders in this clubhouse like O’Harn and Mullen say that they really just love this organization. So it really just means a lot. And it also makes it a little bit more of a tough pill to swallow. Say something happens. Now, I’m not necessarily saying with either of those three guys, but just in general, like the trade deadline is never a fun period of time. Um, and and the players know that it’s business. Everybody knows that that’s the nature of the sport and the game. But I think that the biggest takeaway from what Elias said, at least in my opinion, is they’re not changing the foundation of the team. And you mentioned that too. It’s not going to be like the guys that hold the identity of this Baltimore organization since at least the Elias era. Um, so I think that that’s probably the biggest takeaway. And we talked about strategy and those avenues for the Orioles come the trade deadline. And I think a couple of months ago, we mentioned that it’s not going to be a complete rebuild, but maybe some retooling. And I think that that’s the biggest thing of what we can look to see from the Orioles in the next few days in this last week before the trade deadline is retooling is going to be huge. whether you’re trading away guys for a pitcher, but maybe some guys who have expiring contracts or also like you mentioned some some guys that have some team control left. You can take a look at the example of the Trevor Rogers trade from last year, but from the Marlins perspective where you get where you’re giving away someone with team control and Trevor Rogers, but you’re getting back some young prospects who haven’t necessarily proved themselves at the big league level yet, but end up being really really crucial big league contributors. You can see that from Kyle Sters right now for the Marlins. Yeah. And I think the Orioles are in a a bit of a different situation where as mentioned, you know, with Elias’s comments about competing in 2026, I think it would come as a surprise if they do move on from guys with multiple years of team control. And with that being the case, you’re probably not getting back a top five 10 prospect in somebody’s system if you’re just talking about moving guys that are on expiring deals. And so I I think as the trade deadline approaches, it’s important to keep that in mind just how many games are left in the regular season and and going into the postseason for a lot of these teams that are going to be buyers. There is still value to be had in those types of moves. The Orioles aren’t just going to give guys away and the Orioles player development system is is a darn good one. So, if there is somebody that comes from another team that’s their 25th ranked prospect and they enter the oral system, you know, somewhere in the 20 to 30 range, I would be willing to wager that a prospect ranked 20 to 30 in the oral system might be more valuable than a prospect ranked 20 to 30 somewhere else just because of what this player development staff has been able to do with prospects over the years. Point being though, I think there needs to be a little bit of a brace period for the kinds of prospects that you’re going to get in return for a lot of these key pieces because they are on expiring deals and you’re probably not moving anybody with team control. And I think that couples interestingly with the oral strategy in the draft where you are potentially going overslaught for somebody like Slater Debrun with your 37th pick. you drafted really high-end talent with a lot of your first selections, especially on the position player side where I think the draft is providing a lot of the top 15 prospects. I mean, what Annie you mentioned five or six of them that entered the top 15 in in Baseball America’s updated rankings, whereas the trade deadline might offer a lot of depth. You might see a lot of prospects ranked in that 15 to 30 range in an Orioles top 30 somewhere once we see the returns for a lot of these guys. So the draft may have given you a lot of the top prospects that you’re able to select in the first few rounds like the Orioles did and and perhaps the trade deadline gives you a lot more depth in that farm system as well and and some potential arms or potential future big leaguers. So, it’s going to be an interesting strategy, but just wanted to throw out the kind of grace period for this trade deadline where you’ve got to keep in mind that these guys are on expiring contracts that the Orioles are more than likely moving and expiring contracts do not get a huge huge return because of the nature of how many games they are playing for the team that acquires them, right? And it also just kind of goes to show how important it is for this club to not focus on a complete rebuild, but also just move to the near future in 2026. Well, Brendan, I’m sure we’re going to have much more in-depth discussions about this trade deadline in the next coming days and weeks. But thank you so much for taking the time over in Cleveland and best of luck with the last two games of the series. But thank you so much to all of those who are tuning in live to this edition of the Birds Nest. If you missed it live, you can also tune in and watch watch it back and listen to it back on Apple Music or Apple Podcast, excuse me, Spotify, Google Podcast, wherever you get your podcast. But thank you so much for tuning in to this edition of The Bird’s Nest and we’ll catch you next time.

Mike Elias has expressed confidence that the club will be competitive in 2026, and that the O’s will be “realistic” at this year’s deadline. Brendan Mortensen and Annie Klaff discuss the looming decisions to be made and more.

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