Addition by subtraction is Orioles trade theme this week

While the Orioles battle the first-place Toronto Blue Jays at Camden Yards, the real action will be in The Warehouse where Mike Elias will be fielding calls all over baseball to move veterans for organizational depth. Luke Jones and Nestor make final preparations for the Orioles and MLB trade deadline additions by subtraction and wonder who will be left to pitch next week – or next season?

Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Orioles’ trade deadline strategy, emphasizing the need for transformative deals by Thursday. They highlighted the potential trades of pitchers Zach Eflin, Charlie Morton, and Tomoyuki Sugano, noting Sugano’s recent strong performance. Jones mentioned the recent trades of Brian Baker, Gregory Soto, and Sir Anthony Dominguez, and the potential deals involving Felix Batista and Kyle Bradish. They also discussed the development of Trevor Rogers, who has improved significantly since his trade last year, and the importance of the off-season for the Orioles’ young core.

• [ ] Monitor the Orioles’ trade deadline activity and assess the value of any acquired players.
• [ ] Follow up on the progress of injured Orioles pitchers like Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells.
• [ ] Evaluate the performance of prospect Dylan Beavers and his potential fit with the Orioles next season.
• [ ] Continue to track the development of Trevor Rogers and his potential role in the Orioles’ rotation next year.

Orioles’ Trade Deadline Preparations and Player Performance

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the topic of the trade deadline week, mentioning the slow start for the Orioles and the upcoming trades.
• Luke Jones discusses the potential trades, emphasizing the need for deals that make sense and the importance of getting value in return.
• Luke highlights the performance of Tomoyuki Sagano, noting his improved velocity and effectiveness in his recent outing.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the challenges and anxiety of being traded, with Luke mentioning Sagano’s disappointment at joining a losing team.

Potential Trades and Player Movements

• Luke Jones mentions the upcoming appearances of Zach Eflin and Charlie Morton, and the potential trades involving them.
• Luke discusses the recent trades involving Brian Baker, Gregory Soto, and Sir Anthony Dominguez, noting the transformation of the bullpen.
• Nestor and Luke talk about the expectations for the trade deadline, with Luke emphasizing that the Orioles won’t get franchise-altering trades.
• Luke explains the types of players the Orioles might acquire, focusing on pitchers with low ceilings but who could help in the short term.

Player Prospects and Team Strategy

• Luke Jones discusses the state of the Orioles’ young core, mentioning Tyler O’Neill’s recent performance and the importance of taking inventory of the team’s assets.
• Luke talks about the potential returns of Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells, and the impact of their performances on the team’s future.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the emphasis on pitching in the trades, with Luke noting that the Orioles won’t be acquiring catchers or shortstops.
• Luke mentions the potential call-ups of Dylan Beavers and other prospects, highlighting their potential contributions for next year.

Player Development and Trade Evaluations

• Luke Jones reflects on the trade for Trevor Rogers, noting the initial disappointment and the subsequent improvements made by the Orioles’ development team.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of patience in evaluating trades, using the example of the Orioles’ rough start and the eventual improvement of the team.
• Luke highlights the challenges of trading players like Jorge Lopez and the potential returns, emphasizing the importance of making the right deals.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the potential trades involving Zach Eflin, Charlie Morton, and Tomoyuki Sagano, noting the uncertainty of their performances and the value they might bring.

Team Outlook and Future Plans

• Luke Jones emphasizes the importance of the off-season for the Orioles, focusing on the health of pitchers and the state of the young core.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the potential trades and the impact on the team’s roster, with Luke noting the importance of getting value in return.
• Luke mentions the potential interest in Trevor Rogers from other teams, highlighting his performance and the value he brings to the rotation.
• Nestor and Luke conclude by discussing the overall strategy for the trade deadline, focusing on the short-term impact and the long-term goals for the team.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Orioles, trade deadline, MLB, roster changes, pitching, bullpen, expiring deals, young core, Tyler O’Neill, Kyle Bradish, Trevor Rogers, Zach Eflin, Charlie Morton, Gregory Soto, Brian Baker.

SPEAKERS

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Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

You welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 task Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We call this trade deadline week, because what happens when you’re in last place? Around here, Luke is out in Owings Mills doing all things ravens this week, we are expecting, we’re hoping there’ll be less news in Owings Mills this week than there will be that at the warehouse. See a baseball trading deadline coming on Thursday, and football happening, but not as fast as Luke probably would like it to happen or anybody else at this point. Certainly, Michaelia is going to have his hands full this weekend. We predicted good things for the Orioles against the worst team on earth over the weekend. It certainly felt that way on Saturday. Didn’t feel that way on Friday, but I don’t know, update us, Luke, you know, you go to the ballpark from time to time, and you’re after working on that NFL August hand that you’re about to have here trade deadline. It’s been a, you know, slow ish start for the Orioles in the trade deadline. No shocker there, but I have a feeling by Thursday night, we’re going to have a pretty transformative Major League roster,

Luke Jones  01:09

at least. Yeah. I mean, I’d be surprised if we’re not talking about at least a couple more deals, as I’ve said to you before. I mean, you still need to make deals that make sense. I mean, I also don’t think you just trade guys just for the sake of doing it, if you don’t feel like you’re getting anything of value. But I think you know, and Sunday is a perfect example, Tomoyuki Sagano, who, as we know, has not trended in a great direction over say, what the last six weeks or so? He pitched really well on Sunday. Velocity was up. Was missing bats, actually. That even was better than just saying the results of oh, he gave up one run in six innings. So

Nestor Aparicio  01:42

well, he didn’t turn 35 come over to America for the first time to play the last place team. So wherever they send him, it’ll be a blessing for him. It’ll be sure why they got though,

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Luke Jones  01:51

well and but at the same time, and I think you’ve talked to enough players, whether we’re talking about baseball players, football players, whatever the sport might be, being traded also is tough there. There is an anxiety and a challenge that goes with that, but certainly with the way things have gone for the Orioles this year. And to your point, when Tomoyuki Sugano decided to make the jump from Japan to the majors, he what he thought he was joining a team that was going to win. We all thought the Orioles were going to win in some capacity. It hasn’t worked out that way. And

Nestor Aparicio  02:21

I bet he’s pissed at his agent.

Luke Jones  02:24

I mean, I maybe, maybe not, at the same time, were any other teams offering him $13 million right? So that’s great. So, you know? So look, I mean, I think overall, and he’s talked about this via his translator, I think he’s been happy with his experience with the Orioles, just in a general sense, in terms of the clubhouse and get along with teammates and all that. No one’s happy with the results in the field. We get that, but he pitched well on Sunday. That was good to see. We’re going to see Zach Eflin here one more time. We’re going to see Charlie Morton here one more time, unless they get dealt before they’re scheduled to start against the Toronto Blue Jays over the next few days, and you’re going to see we’ve already seen the bullpen be transformed with Brian Baker dealt at the beginning of the month. Gregory Soto dealt late last week, Sir Anthony Dominguez closed out. Wasn’t a safe situation, but closed out Sunday’s win. I expect he’s going to be dealt because, honestly, of their healthy pitchers. Now that we’re excluding Felix Batista, he’s probably been the most intriguing in terms of how he’s pitched overall since, I don’t know, mid May, late May. I think Dominguez has pitched really well, so

Nestor Aparicio  03:34

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again, you might get the most for him.

Luke Jones  03:38

Yeah, and I was just going to say, and I’ve said this before, they’re not going to get any earth shattering franchise forming. You know, franchise, franchise transcending kind of talents in these trades that they’re going to make, I assume, right? I mean, we’re talking about guys on expiring deals. We’re not talking about superstar players that they’re dealing, we can get to talking about dealing members of the young core, maybe over the winter. I still think that’s the most if you’re going to deal anyone like that. I still think that’s going to be the most likely time where you make a bigger deal like that. So when you’re talking about these deals, I mean, look at the sodo deal, for example. They got two pitchers from the Mets. The one guy profiles to maybe be part of their bullpen here over the next calendar year, Cameron Foster, but the other guy, Wellington aracena, is a really interesting single way pitcher right now with kind of a profile that he might pop into something over the next couple years, but he’s not going to help them next year, most likely. So you’re, you’re kind of weighing what you want to get in these deals. Yeah, you can get some guys that are closer to the major leagues, but they’re probably low ceiling kind of guys, guys that are going to be, you know, kind of like what they have. In their bullpen right now, when you kind of look at the back end of their pen with Colin Selby and Kate and Cade Stroud and yaramil Geraldo and grant Wolfram, I mean, these are guys that, okay, you can say they’re Major League pitchers.

Nestor Aparicio  05:12

Everybody’s like, Who the hell are these guys? Like, my wife’s never heard of any of those guys, so she had watched team

Luke Jones  05:18

play. And in fairness, every every team has those guys on their 40 man roster, even good teams have guys like that on the back end of their 40 man roster. So that’s where I kind of look at this trade deadline, and just say, temper your expectations, not that they shouldn’t make some trades, and they’ve already made a couple, and I expect they’re going to make a few more, but I just don’t know what you’re really going to get that’s really going to change their trajectory for next year. I mean, for next year, it’s about what are they going to do in the off season? In terms of pitching, how are their health, you know, their pitchers, like Kyle Bradish, who we expect to see over the next month or so, back in the major leagues and and also on the position player side, what’s where? What’s the state of their young core? You know, I’ll mention this in passing. Tyler O’Neill homered in three straight games, right? I mean, we’re finally starting to see a version of Tyler O’Neill that resembles what they thought they were going to get. Now that doesn’t mean that I’m going to guarantee or have any confidence that he’s going to stay healthy moving forward, but the point is, these last two months are all about trying to take inventory of what you’re going to have left. It’s going to look ugly in some some aspects. Other aspects could be a little more interesting, right? Because you’re going to see Kyle Bradish back, presumably in late August. You know, Assuming all goes well with his rehab assignment, Tyler Wells is going to start his rehab assignment this week. Doesn’t mean that I’m going to say these guys are going to pitch great when they come back, but it’s it sure beats them being on the 60 day IL and certainly in the case of Bradish, it’s something that you can hopefully assess and then take that into the off season and say, All right, we’re not going to say it’s gonna be our number one. We don’t know we’re going to get the peak Kyle Bradish right away coming back from Tommy John surgery, but we can at least feel good enough to say he’s going to be in our rotation, which, right now, Grayson Rodriguez, in contrast, I don’t think you can say that in any shape or form, whether he’s going to end up having surgery here in the not too distant future or not so, so, so you have that going on. But, yeah, they’re going to make some trades here. They’re going to get some pieces that you know, you’ll you’ll identify a guy or two where you say, okay, that that could help, that could be interesting, that might be able to help them. That guy might project as their sixth inning reliever next year. That guy,

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Nestor Aparicio  07:30

all you’re doing to talk about pitching like, it’s like, all they’re going to get are arms, right? Like, I don’t expect them to deal for another catcher or a shortstop. Well,

Luke Jones  07:39

certainly, certainly certainly not catch, especially after they just drafted two catchers, right? I mean, so look, I mean, I’m not going to say it’s impossible that they wouldn’t deal for a position player, but I think that’s obviously the the emphasis here, right? I mean, I think we all expect that. I mean, we’re already, you know, we’re, we’ve already been talking about, when’s Messiah arriving, you know, are they going to call up Dylan beavers, who’s who’s played very, very well at triple A, and I think, has a chance to be in the mix for them, you know, for next year. You know, again, these aren’t guarantees, but these are guys that in your top 10, in your you know, in the science case, one of the very best prospects in baseball, in beavers case, at least interesting enough to look at him as, you know, a few years later, a Kyle Stowers kind of guy, right? Which,

Nestor Aparicio  08:26

I was a better prospect than Mayo is all of a sudden, or kerstad, or all these guys that were ahead of him in the food chain.

Luke Jones  08:34

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Well, I think, I don’t think it’s so much. I think that was more so just the product of his age. I mean, he’s still only 20, or, you know, you’re talking about someone who’s very who’s very young at triple A, he’s a, he’s a prodigy in that way. I mean, we still, there’s still some unknown in terms of where he ultimately is going to settle. From a position player standpoint. Will he catch a whole lot? Will he transition to be more of a first baseman? I mean, he might ultimately be more of a DH overall, but everyone universally loves the bat. You know, you see baseball America types talk about him that maybe he might be the Orioles version of your Don Alvarez in Houston, right? Which, if he’s anything close to that, holy cow. I mean, you’re talking about a cleanup hitter there, legitimate one so, but until he gets here, it’s still just hope and hype. And we never

Nestor Aparicio  09:25

would have thought that Santa there was going to hit 40 home runs, right? So, and he wasn’t project out,

Luke Jones  09:32

yeah, and Santander wasn’t that guy on an annual basis, but he became a legitimate 2530, home run guy as a former Rule five pick. So, so, so, you know, I’m still, I think you could tell by by the tone of how I’m talking about this trade deadline, I’m way more intrigued about those elements, more so than who they’re going to get back in these deals. Because I just don’t think it’s going to be a whole lot. I think you can, you can come away with a couple pieces that pop. I mean, like, for example. So when the Orioles traded Jorge Lopez, I remember you and I vividly talking about that three years ago. I didn’t love the trade. I’m not a scout. I’m not a MLB talent evaluator. They did get yen your canoe out of it. And I know canoes had his ups and downs this year, but that right there alone, if it had just been Jorge Lopez for yen your canoe, straight up, the Orioles still won that trade, and you know that that’s tossing aside anyone else they got in that deal. So you know. So you never really know. But again, you look at these pieces, you know you’re talking about bullpen arms. You’re talking about starting pitchers who haven’t been that great. I mean, I I think of their three starters, I still think Charlie Morton probably the most intriguing at this point. I mean, Eflin has a track record that’s better than what we’ve seen here of late. But you’re going to be going off of one or two starts for Zach Eflin that, you know, if he pitches great in the opener, then okay, but you

Nestor Aparicio  10:58

might be Jack Flaherty for team in the pennant race, right? I

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Luke Jones  11:01

mean, right? And you never really know. I mean, we’ve talked about this when the Orioles have been buyers over the years, as much oxygen that’s spent on the trade deadline. Most of these deals, across the board, not just the Orioles, that what they’re they’ve been involved in, most of these deals don’t end up doing a whole lot, right? They don’t end up moving the needle a whole lot for every deal. They think that,

Nestor Aparicio  11:25

if I’m the excited team right now, if I’m a Blue Jays fan, or I’m a Padres fan, or I’m in whoever’s in the chase, any of these teams that are in the chase, if you deal for effluent or Sugano or Charlie Morton, maybe Morton, to your point, you’d be like, well, we got something. We got a guy that’s gonna take the ball every fifth day. I don’t know if you know what you’re getting at this point, and that’s why I mentioned Flaherty from two years ago, because we all thought, well, there’s an arm that’s going to be in that’s going to make a start in October, and he barely made starts in September, because they just didn’t like where he was. I don’t know that I like where Eflin is right this minute.

Luke Jones  11:59

Sure, I think that’s fair, and I’m a Zach Eflin guy, but Let’s call a spade a spade. He hasn’t been able to stay healthy. He’s been on the IL multiple times this year, and other than earlier in the year, he hasn’t picked particularly well. So is one or two starts going to change perception now, I mean, I’ve just mentioned Sagano. Sagano was really good on Sunday. I mean, he struck out eight. He was missing bats. The velocity was up a little bit, you know. I mean, he was touching 95 miles per hour. I don’t think that’s, you know, that that’s not the every start version of Sagano that you’re going to get, but it does speak to, hey, if you’re a team that, you know, especially if you’re a team that has relatively decent weather. You know, we’ve kind of talked about that element, how he struggled in some of the heat and humidity, although it’s didn’t seem to bother him on Sunday. So that was nice to see. But you know, what exactly are you getting? I mean, let’s face it, when you see some of the names that are out there, and I thought it was interesting late Sunday night. I mean, Seth Lugo, someone who’s been talked about on, you know, on the radar of many people for a pitcher would be traded and look what ends up happening with him. He he ends up signing an extension with the Royals, right? I mean, I thought, I thought what happened with Seth Lugo was something that might happen with the Orioles and Zach Eflin six weeks ago, right before effland struggled as mightily as he did and ended up getting hurt, you know, with the back issue. So I assume that’s not in the cards. I mean, you never know, but, you know, but, but that right there, people were talking about Lugo quite a bit as, oh, he’s going to be one of the better starting pitchers available at this trade deadline, and Kansas City ends up extending them instead. So it’s still very much feels like a seller’s market. That’s where you know, if you’re trying to put a silver lining on what’s been such a bitterly disappointing season for the Orioles that you know you’d like to think you can do a little bit better on your returns. But again, who are you talking about here? I thought the Orioles did very well on both the Brian Baker and the and the Gregory Soto deals. That doesn’t mean that they’re that any of those pieces are going to amount to anything meaningful for them. It’s just looking at it, practically speaking, in terms of what you’re giving up. You know? I mean, none of these. This isn’t trading Manny Machado, right? This isn’t trading Colton cowser, if you decided to trade Colton cowser over the winter or something along those lines. I mean, these are all expiring deals, veterans, guys that have some good, some bad, in terms of their their performance this year. And you know, Cedric Mullins, I I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a beautiful night for him on Saturday. I thought that was really cool to see. Hits a home run, makes a phenomenal diving catch. To me, it felt a little bit like, if you recall, think back to three years ago, Trey Mancini had that inside the park home run, and Orioles fans were able to give him his flowers that it for his last home game before he was traded. Sat. 30 night kind of felt that way for Mullins, that being said, we’ve also talked about it, Cedric Mullins since May 1, has not been very good. So I’m not saying there aren’t, there isn’t a team that would take them off your hands, and there isn’t a team that wouldn’t find a use for them. But are they giving you something that’s really going to shift or move the needle in any way in terms of what you’re getting back, probably

Nestor Aparicio  15:23

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not. So you’re not going to 3030, player back. Yeah, yeah, right. I mean, reset this. Luke is here. Luke will be out knowing spells Orioles are on the trading deadline. I wanted to bring up Trevor Rogers just as a year ago this week, a month ago this week, two months ago this week. Everybody hated that trade. Everybody’s upset because towers is an all star and whatnot for another also ran team in Miami at this point. You know, the Orioles get two or three years of starts out of Trevor Rogers, and he’s at the top of the rotation next year, makes 29 starts for the team, and it looks anything like the last six weeks has looked like um. We judge these things the way we judge the Ravens draft the day after Matt Elam or Rashad Perryman or Sergio Kendall? Yeah.

Luke Jones  16:09

I mean, it really is a reminder, and I’m as guilty of this as anyone. We all do it. We We always talk about sample size in baseball, there’s always here every day we have to evaluate, of course, we’ll have a choice of waiting a year to evaluate travel, of course. I mean, it doesn’t matter how many times me or how many times I you, whoever it might be, will say, hey, early in the season, you got to let it breathe, right? It’s early. It’s early. How many times you talk about a player, you know, he gets off to a rough start in April, and people are flipping out, and then you look at their numbers, and that player ends up looking more like that guy over the course of the season. But we also know that sometimes it doesn’t happen that way. Hey, the Orioles got off to a rough start in April. In mid April, I think both of us were still kind of believing that they were going to play better baseball. And never happened, or it did happen, but they were so bad through the third week of May that it was over then, right? And it’s like, okay, they’ve been a 500 ish team since then. Well, it’s too late then, right? I mean, you weren’t good, you weren’t good enough. You’re, you’re, you are what you are your last place team. But in the case of Rogers, obviously, the early return on the deal was a disaster. Because let’s, let’s be clear about this, as much as Mike Elias and he to his in his defense, I don’t want to say to his credit in his defense, he said at the time that that deal was made also with an eye towards 2025 and 2026 because he’s under club control through next season. But they also did acquire him to help out the back of the rotation in 2024 and he did nothing of the sort. He was so horrible in four starts that they sent him the trip away, and he didn’t pitch again last year. So the initial Return of the deal wasn’t an absolute failure, because he didn’t help them at all last year. So that said, Rogers went to work over the off season the Orioles, you know, player development and their pitching coaches all that they made some adjustments with him, as far as keeping his front side a little bit more closed up, you know, he was able to add a couple miles per hour back to his fastball Vilo which, you know, he had when he was a a standout all star in Miami, back in 2021 when he was kind of this rookie sensation, and everyone thought, oh My gosh, this guy’s going to be a Cy Young candidate. And, you know, instead, just kind of regressed from there, you know, you know, had had very much a, you know, not a spiral, but certainly a decline over the last few years, leading up to his trade last year. But it is a reminder that’s where we got him for a quad, a outfielder, that’s what, yeah, I mean, and look, the Orioles deserve blame for how they handled Kyle Stowers. There’s no doubt about that, right? And at the very least, even if you then, you know, even if it was a case of not handling him, well, why couldn’t you make the adjustment that the Marlins were able to unlock? Right? And we know that happens in the same way that the Orioles what would have saved you a lot of money on Tyler O’Neill, sure, but, but in the same way that the Orioles figured out how to help Ryan O’Hearn in a way that the Kansas City Royals couldn’t for years. Every team has these stories, right? So I’m not even picking on the Orioles about one specific case like that. But you know, in this case, they were able to get Rogers turned around. You know, they lost hours. You know, Norby is what it is, but you are seeing a way better version of Trevor Rogers. And let’s be clear, he’s not going to pitch to a one and a half era next year, right? Everything about his peripheral stats would tell you, Okay, this guy isn’t Randy Johnson, right? He’s not striking out, you know, 13 guys per nine innings, or anything like that, but he’s pitching well, even the peripheral sets like I’m looking at fit right now, it’s Fielding, independent pitching, and I’m not going to bore you with the details of it, but FIP is a number that is meant to closely resemble era his FIP is 2.84 Yeah. So that tells you, even with the idea that, okay, this guy is not going to continue to pitch to a sub to, you know, one and a half era, he’s still pitching really well, right? So even that regret, even with some peak to take the ball or 15 exactly when he’s been he’s been really good. I mean, there’s, let me be clear, I’m not dismissing what he’s done. I’m just, I’m just saying, Yeah, let’s not, I don’t think he’s going to

Nestor Aparicio  20:25

win the Cy Young thing, the modern thing, when these guys go five innings anyway, no matter who they are, you’re either Corbin burns or You’re something else. And that’s something else is somewhere between Dean Kramer and Sugano and Eflin and all the pitchers we’ve seen here, which is, you see our race of four or five, something, something, something. Some days it’ll be a three something, but most days it’ll be a four or five. Most I mean, most days this is, he’s going to give you five innings. You’re going to give up three or four runs. Like that’s what’s it’s going to be. That’s what it’s going to look like for most of these pitchers who aren’t Corbin burns, if Rogers is that, if he’s Dean Kramer for the next three years, I would accept that at this point, what we’ve seen the last four weeks has been, you know,

Luke Jones  21:08

tremendous. He’s been excellent. I mean, I mean, he really has been, he’s been really, really good. And it hasn’t even just been that he’s gotten deep in the games. I mean, he’s pitched, Bradish

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Nestor Aparicio  21:19

came back and had these numbers the last five weeks, you’d be to the moon,

Luke Jones  21:23

sure, no question. I mean, he doesn’t strike Rogers doesn’t strike out people at the clip that someone like Bradish, when he’s at his best, can do, but he’s he’s missing enough bats. He’s pitching Well, he’s really limited the walks. While he has 13 walks in 48 in the third innings, that’s been really good to see. I mean, he’s been really, really good. You know, I’m, let’s be clear, and I would say the same thing. If Kyle Bradish comes back in late August and has five starts and looks close to Kyle braddish pre injury, I’m not saying that you pencil in Trevor Rogers as your opening day starter in your race. No, no, no, no, that you don’t want to make that mistake again in the way that they did that with Grayson Rodriguez this past year. But he’s certainly looking like someone that you feel really good about putting in your starting rotation next year, and whether that means he’s the two, the three, the four or the five, you know you need five guys, regardless of the order that they’re in. So he’s been really good. That’s been good to see. Hey, I’ve seen some people mention it in passing, and I certainly wouldn’t subscribe to it, but I’m sure there’s teams that are calling the Orioles about Trevor Rogers right now. I mean, like, Hey, I would assume that you’d have to pay an arm and a leg to get them because, I mean, someone’s got to be in a rotation next year if they want to contend, right? And Rogers looks like someone you want in your rotation next year. So, but, you know, I’m sure they’re getting calls about him in the same way that they were getting calls about Felix Batista before the shoulder started barking on him. So, you know, it’s been a good development for as much as there’s been so much lousy about this team in so many different ways, even talking about some of these trade deadline candidates not performing at a level that you’d like to see leading into the to the deadline. But Trevor Rogers has been, he’s been excellent. And I get it. It was the Rockies on Saturday night, but you know, he’s, he’s had some really good performances here. You know, had a great outing against the rays, you know, his first outing out of the break. So that’s been good to see. So as we’re talking about them, moving on from some of these other starters that you know have mostly been disappointing, let’s say, I mean, Morton’s been good since mid May, but terrible the first six weeks. Effluent was really good. The first three or four weeks of the season, first, you know, first two months, I guess, you know, but, but he was injured. Then he’s, he’s had stints on the IL and hasn’t been very good. Sagano was really good the first two and a half months, not so good since then. So what’s that going to add up to in terms of trades? You know, are all three of them traded, or two of them traded? Just one. I mean, my guess right now would be, we’ll see two of them traded. I don’t know if we’ll see all three, but what are you going to get in return? We’ll see, you know, I just,

Nestor Aparicio  24:16

I who’s going to pitch for this team next week? Sure, sure. I

Luke Jones  24:19

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mean, that’s, that’s not the that’s not what’s driving the decision. But that goes back to what I said, that that’s where you’re not just giving these guys away, just for the sake of doing it. You’re hoping to get something, something in a deal where you say, You know what, we like that guy when he came out of the draft. We didn’t get to draft him, but we liked that prospect. We liked this guy. We think we can make an adjustment with this guy. We’re going to see

Nestor Aparicio  24:41

how further you want to drive this thing into the gutter of last place and deplete the team further to pick up to your point. Quad, a, you know, some Dominican, and they’re going to make

Luke Jones  24:51

some trade, and they’re going to make and they’re going to make deals, because they’re going to get some, don’t get a couple pieces here and there. That’s better than that. But I just. It’s, I know these deals sometimes are a little more complicated to make, especially when you’re trying to figure out who the heck is actually buying and selling. And you know, you’ve got teams that are hovering around 500 that’ll talk themselves into it, and other teams that you think are buyers, and they end up selling a little bit. So there’s still some mystery here. But again, I just for me, I’m much more, I’m much more of the thought, let’s get to the other side of this, see what your roster looks like the rest of the way, and then play Kobe Mayo every day and call up aside and play him every you know, like, I’m much more interested in that element of the trade deadline, more so than thinking that they’re going to restock their farm system in this overly meaningful way. I think they can get some, a couple guys here and there that might be able to help them over the next couple of years. But I don’t think this is going to be a transformative deadline, other than just what we’re going to see on the major league roster here in the short term.

Nestor Aparicio  25:55

If anybody calls it a hall before Thursday night, I you know, I’d be surprised. Figure out what a hall is going to be. Luke will be in the halls of Owings Mills as well as the backfields of Owings Mills this week. You can find him at Baltimore, Luke, we are on to August. We are on to the trading deadline. We’re on to all sorts of things. We’re on to our 27th anniversary, which begins this weekend. We’re going to be eating some good food next week. I actually got one of the items on my 27 list over the weekend, so it’s going to be a great, great August and a great summer here as we get ready for Buffalo in football. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S, D. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.