As the clock ticks on the Major League Baseball trade deadline on Thursday afternoon, Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the suddenly depleted Orioles’ trade arsenal and the realities of what to expect from Mike Elias – and it isn’t “a haul” by any stretch of the orange imagination – for this last-place operation.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Orioles’ depleted trade arsenal and the realities of the MLB deadline. The Orioles, fresh from a sweep by the Guardians, will play the Colorado Rockies instead of the Savannah Bananas. Key players like Felix Bautista and Grayson Rodriguez face injury concerns. The team has lost seven of eight games and is considering trades for players like Zach Eflin, Cedric Mullins, and Adley Rutschman. The conversation also touched on the need for pitching reinforcements and the potential impact of these trades on the team’s future.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Orioles, trade deadline, pitching, Felix Bautista, Grayson Rodriguez, Kyle Bradish, Cedric Mullins, Adley Rutschman, Colton Cowser, Ryan Mountcastle, player development, minor league system, rebuilding, injuries, roster moves.
SPEAKERS
8
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T, am 1570 task Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are positively into summer weekends. We have ravens training camp going on. Luke has been out at ravens training camp. The Orioles have been out in Cleveland trying to get swept by the Guardians. They make their way back now to play the Savannah. Bananas are unavailable this weekend, so they’re going to play the Colorado Rockies instead. To put the circus on, we’re going to be doing the Maryland crab cake tour beginning August 7. That’s our next event. We’re going to be at Beaumont over in Catonsville. I will have the pressure Lux as well as the Lucky Seven scratch offs to give away. Gave a bunch of these away last week. I appreciate it all the kind words this week on having Kevin caliber on as well as versij and Dan Rodricks. John Allen, my rock star buddy, we did some Live Aid stuff, talk some beer and some Essex. You know, it’s not even like a work slowdown. I have all sorts of I got Adam Sandler’s brother in law coming on talking about Happy Gilmore to Hulk Hogan is dead. You know, Ozzy Osbourne. It’s just been, it’s been crazy. Luke Jones joins us now. We’re gonna like, we can do Hulk Hogan. And I know you want to do that. We certainly you’ve spent the last couple of days sweating it out, out there with that Trump supporter John Harbaugh and the Ravens put the Orioles, this thing turns on, and we’re weak out on the deadline now, and we got more guys going on the DL. And Charlie Morton had a heartfelt thing to say. Not sure if he’s made his last start or not. I’m sure they’ll roll him back out there at some point in the middle of next week. How are you? I know, it’s been a tough couple of days of baseball because it dissipates very quickly when you’re, you know, spending eight or 10 hours a day per Chad steals, wishes out and always Mills doing ravens work. And feels like football season to some degree to you, but this trading deadline thing, it’s sort of at the core of what the Orioles are
Luke Jones 01:57
going to be. Yeah. I mean, it’s really going to kind of reset them for the rest of the year in terms of clearing the deck, you know, creating more runway for Kobe mayo, maybe some Well, besides maybe Dylan beavers, Kyle braddish Just made his first rehab start at Aberdeen on Thursday night. Sounds like it went pretty well, you know, for two innings, right? I mean, it’s still at the earliest stages there. But, I mean, really, it’s to distract from the results, right? I mean, they were able to salvage the final game of the four game set in Cleveland, and they lost the first three. They had lost seven of eight. I mean, it’s we I remember when I was on vacation, you even made a post, I think because the Orioles had that six game stretch where things went well, and you kind of joked and said, Hey, leave Luke Jones on vacation. And Well, as soon as I came back, as I was listening to that second game of the Marlins series on my drive home, they fell apart again. And look, I mean, it’s just they’re not a very good baseball team. That’s the nicest way I can frame it, right? I mean, it’s been a miserable season, and even with the win on Thursday afternoon, which Charlie Morton got you know, was able to pitch deep into the game, pitch well enough that I think he’s still someone that can help a contender at this trade deadline, and it’s not to say the Orioles are going to get something fantastic for him in return, but you see that Zach Eflin came off the Il a couple of nights ago and looked solid enough what he’ll have maybe one more start here before the deadline, and we’re going to see if they move him, and, you know, we’ll see about O’Hearn, we’ll see about Mullins, but one guy we know now with some you know, in a definitive sense, even though I certainly wasn’t expecting it, but I think there was a non zero chance, at least Felix Bautista going on The il on Thursday, sore shoulder, we’ll see. I mean, he’s going to have a an MRI. I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 04:05
should really want to deal him, but somebody may have overwhelmed this, right? This is about, I mean, as much as we’ve made light of the Colton cowser thing around here, this is about getting overwhelmed for a couple of these guys, or finding out what the street value for Richmond really is, or, you know, just poking the bear a little bit, because you’re on the phone with these people, if they have an interest in something, you have any piece. And the Orioles have a lot of little pieces here that could be helpful to teams. I think it opens up Intel for the organization, right? Yeah,
8Luke Jones 04:38
yeah, even if, even if you don’t make a move, and look, you mentioned Adley rutschman. I heard Ken Rosenthal talking about it, just conjecture. I don’t think there was any. And he even said it wasn’t reporting. But, well, everybody thinks Elias is on the hot seat, right? Well, sure, yeah. I mean, you know whether he survives the year, whether he has one more off season, whether we’re talking. Talking about him being gone next year at this time. I mean that some things have to go really well, right, in some shape or form. But you just said it, even if you have some talks about, oh no, Adley rochman, Colton, cowser, because, again, that’s almost became the bit. Well, I’m
Nestor Aparicio 05:17
trying to find guys that have value, not Ryan mountcastle, right?
Luke Jones 05:21
Well, and, but keep in mind, I mean, yeah, I mean, Ryan mountcastle. I mean, they’re
Nestor Aparicio 05:25
8not something you’re going to get a lottery ticket night, which
Luke Jones 05:29
is what some of these moves that they’re going to make here over the next week are going to be like that, right? I mean, you’re going there’s going to be subtractions. They’re not going to be traditions in any way, right? But what you just said, I think, is where it does lend some interest to the idea that you might have some talks that might lead to something in the winter, right? It might lead to you might make a trade with Team X, and then you talk with that same general manager in December about maybe making a trade for a pitcher, or maybe you trade a member of your young core for something of value from that organization, right? And that might that that move might not happen. Now, as I said to you, I feel like those types of moves are probably more like winter moves,
Nestor Aparicio 06:12
but look, I gotta be honest with you, man, at the top of the all of this, if Elias is on the phone with these people, and he’s a smart guy, he’s only coveting their pitching, and he’s saying who are the three or four pictures I can get in here before next March? Now that could be in the off season, in a trade, how much time they have left on their deal, whether dealing cows or orchman is attractive to them or even Mayo would be attractive to them in November, December, January, whenever those deals would happen. But come on, dude, they better be looking for pitching. They better be identifying what pictures they really want, which ones will really be available, and what their value is, and what Colton cows are. They’re going to have to get give up to get it or sign it. And we all know what Corbin burns cost,
Luke Jones 07:03
sure. And, and look, I’m not even going to say only pitching. I mean, you’re telling me, having watched this offense all year, that they couldn’t still use a middle of the order bat. And look, I’m spitballing here, right? I mean,
8Nestor Aparicio 07:15
well, the Santander O’Neill thing here, right?
Luke Jones 07:19
And even putting that part aside. I mean, you know, I Pete Alonzo, I assume is going to opt out, right? I mean, Kyle Schwarber, even though I don’t think the Phillies are going to let him go like you’re telling me the Orioles couldn’t use someone like that. And look, that might be a pipe dream. But my point is, and I agree with you, obviously pitching first and foremost, overwhelmingly. But I’m not going to sit here and say that this offense is fine, right? This offense is underperformed. I’ve talked about this since April, how disappointing the offense has been, how there’s only a couple guys in that lineup. And really, if you’re talking to young core, really two guys, I think Jackson holiday, who I’m still hoping, has another level, but certainly you the thumbs. Thumbs are up for his 2025 and since he’s been back, and obviously the injuries you didn’t like, but Jordan Westberg swung the bat very well beyond that. I mean, Gunner Henderson, the average has been okay. It’s not like he’s been terrible, but he hasn’t hit for power, right? I mean, where are the home runs for gunner Henderson? I mean, we’ve talked about rotchman, Colton, cowser had, you know, for me, his walk rate has cratered, right? I mean, he strikes out a lot, I get that, but he at least walked a lot more last year than he did this year. So, and that’s not to say that I’m burying any of those guys. The point is, and this is where things do get dicey, because, as we talked about coming out of this past weekend, Grayson Rodriguez shut down again. What is that going to mean? Is he heading towards surgery? What’s the long term prognosis for him? And how does that impact what you’re going to try to do between now and opening day next year? Felix Batista, I’m not going to sound the alarm and say that this is a major shoulder injury. We don’t know that yet. It might be that he sits for two weeks and then he’s back and he’s fine, because that also happens too. Not every single shoulder and elbow injury or discomfort is, you know, sounding the alarm that it’s the worst case scenario. It’s not ideal, certainly. I mean, the thing that I didn’t like, and I didn’t necessarily say this to you in our conversation, but when Batista pitched last Sunday in Tampa, it was his first appearance in 10 days. I get it all star break. That can’t be helped entirely, but he had 10 days in between live game appearances. His velocity was down a little bit enough that it was a note. Was noticeable. It wasn’t three or four miles per hour, but it was more than one. He really labored. He issued a season high with three walks, and they allowed him to throw a season high in pitches. I looked at that, and I’m kind of wondering Tony Mancino and this coaching staff drew French, you know, three. 15 thumbs
Nestor Aparicio 10:01
down on this amateur hour, that baby, you know, I mean, Brandon Hyde put a front up of a big league Manager and Manager of the Year and all of that, and just the indignity he was treated with in the whole out, you know, like, I don’t know. I don’t, I don’t smell anything good here. And as I sit here, and Angelo’s is dead a year and a half now, and I just look at all of it, and it’s tis tisk, and I shake my head, and I don’t have confidence that they’re going to get a lot this week in the trading deadline, or what fans want to get blood out of the turnip of the lousy season, you know, squeeze something out of Charlie. Charlie Morton, I, you know, and renting him for eight weeks in another organization. Um, you know, nobody’s stealing, making any steals this week in the trading market. It’s certainly not this organization. And to your point, they’re going to be red, is it? The Trade rushman and cows are whose stock is down anyway, so they, I don’t know that there are good deals for them to be made when their pieces are falling apart. I mean, I mean, to your point, Bradish, I’m trying to figure out what could be good news the rest of the year. Five of these guys. Five of them, Henderson, ruchman, Westberg, cowser and holiday. That’s the five core guy. That’s the Fab Five, and getting Bradish back, hoping the Batista is not broken in half, even though people wanted to deal them off. But, I mean, there’s not Sugano is not part of their future, right? They’re like, who? Who among these guys is like a pile diver. By the way, spent the morning with Adam Jones on Thursday. That’s another story
Luke Jones 11:44
8altogether. Yeah. I mean, look, I that’s fair and I mean, just to go back to, just to finish my thought on Batista. I mean, if you watch that outing, this wasn’t me thinking that he was hurt or anything like that, but it was me 15 pitches into that sin. You can’t let him throw 34 pitches today. Like, how are you utilizing him? Yeah, and I just looked at that, and I’m just to me that was a lack of attention to detail right there. Like, Buck Showalter say what you want about bucks idiosyncrasies and Buck being a control freak. And look, a lot of those things were true over time, and that’s why Buck wore out his welcome at five different places. But fuck was so careful in how he handled his relievers, to the point where he he they were mindful about how many times a reliever would get up and warm in the bullpen, let alone how many times they do that. And then on top of that, how many times he’s going to pitch, how many pitches he going to throw? How many times is he going to let him pitch back to back days, or three out of four days. And then are you going to give them two days after that? And, you know, I just that Batista thing, and look, it was kind of an odd circumstance, because it sounds like he played catch earlier in the day and felt fine. He was kind of going through his preliminary warm up, like, but because these guys, they start getting loose. You know, you’re late inning, high leverage relievers, right around the seventh inning, and you don’t see this on TV, because they’re not picking up a baseball and starting to really heat up, but they’re stretching, you know? They’re using the weighted the weighted balls that pitchers use in this day and age. They’re the big leagues doing this. You have a regimen. Yeah, exactly. So it was during his regiment where he felt something, and I don’t look it may have nothing to do with Sunday, but I’m only going off of what we saw Sunday, which was his career season high in pitches that he threw in an outing where he didn’t look great anyway, and kind of looked uncomfortable. So I’m, I’m drawing a little bit of a making a little bit of an assumption, and hopefully that’s wrong, and hopefully he’s fine, and hopefully it’s this is something where he’s out two weeks and then he’s back and no problem the rest of the way. But that right there when we’re talking about Grayson Rodriguez, and whatever the imaging is going to tell for him at this point in time, you know, I think the easy assumption is, at the very least Grayson Rodriguez isn’t pitching this year, right? I mean, even if this is they get a handle on it, he’s fine. Goes into spring training, great, but he’s certainly not expecting him to pitch.
Nestor Aparicio 14:11
But, and then, guess what? Though, I don’t want to hear anything from you or anybody else in October, November, December, how you’re counting on him, right? You know what? I mean, like number two. I mean, as far as the off season, he is a red question mark, and he’s off my board, sure. I mean, he’s a horse not running right now, and he’s off my board. Well, think
Luke Jones 14:33
about this. And I looked at this the other day when the news broke that that he was being shut down again. We think about Kyle Bradish, who, as I said, pitched, pitched at Aberdeen on Thursday night. You know, by all accounts, sounds like his velocity was good. He got some strikeouts. All that so far so good. First rehab outing, right? With the thought that he’s probably going to have at least a few more of these, with the thought that he might pitch in the majors late next month. I mean, I think that’s what we’re talking. About here, which is fine. I mean, he’s a little past 13 months since Tommy John surgery, so that’s still, you know, that’s kind of a on the good end of the time frame. Typically, that’s 12 to 18 months. You know, a lot of that depends on the timing of when the surgery happens, correlating with an off season. But point is, he’s got a chance to look the part and feel good about him going into the off season to say, hey, he’ll report for the start of spring training. He made five starts in late August and September. It looked good enough that you felt that he’s healthy, and the velocity was in the neighborhood of where he wanted to be. And then what I say to that is, no, I’m not going to sit here and say, well, they don’t need to go get a top of the rotation guy, but I at least feel good enough saying there’s no reason to think that Kyle radish compared to any other starting pitcher that carries the same risk that all pitchers that we think, that all pitchers have a chance to break at any point, then I’ll pencil him into my rotation, right? Doesn’t mean I still don’t need to get top of the rotation guy. But, yeah, you’re right. I mean, Grayson Rodriguez, now, whether he ends up having Tommy John surgery next week, or whether, you know, this is the latest in a long string of, you know, the kinetic chain. You know, you’ll hear really smart pitching, you know, kind of scientific descriptions of the kinetic chain, talking about, you know, a pitcher with his elbow, his lat, you know, triceps, you know, shoulder, all the you know, just wherever this breakdown is occurring with him that they haven’t been able to pinpoint. Yeah, you can’t count on that. And again, even if this isn’t a worst case scenario where he’s going to go under the knife. And then, I mean, if that’s the case, I mean if he if he’s getting Tommy John surgery at some point the next few weeks, and he’s out all of next year too, practically speaking. So, you know, it’s tough, but to kind of bring it back to the trade deadline, and your point in terms of they’re going to be diminished team this time next week. What are we looking for sure? And look, the reality is, Cedric Mullins isn’t having a very good year anyway. You know, if they can trade Zach Eflin, Zach effin hasn’t been available for a lot of the
Nestor Aparicio 17:16
earnings in the other days. He already six Well, you know, I mean, that much help is he providing
8Luke Jones 17:23
exactly so. So that’s part of my point with you know, some of these trades, whether they’re going to get a whole lot in return anyway, in some cases, it’s just going to clear some runway. You trade Cedric Mullins. You know what I want to see? Let’s see Colton cows are playing center field every day, and that’s not because I’m guaranteeing you that he’s going to be their everyday center fielder next year, but I think you want to see what that looks like on an everyday basis, and saying, Can he be my everyday center fielder next year? I think he’s more than a good enough athlete to be a really solid center fielder. Maybe not for the next 10 years projecting, but at least for next year and maybe the year after that. But I want to find out. I’ve said it now for weeks and weeks now Kobe mayo, play him every day. I mean, you’re out of this anyway. If he really struggles, then I can make a more informed decision of whether he’s going to be, you know, going to spring training with a great chance to be my first baseman, or do I need to go make a play for Pete Alonso. I mean, I don’t know
Nestor Aparicio 18:22
why the things that’s crazy about even Kyle Stowers, is how they ran out of options on guys, and shuttling them up and down, and that runs their value down to run them out and
Luke Jones 18:35
caught in between. I mean, you’ve heard me talk about this a lot,
Nestor Aparicio 18:39
8and curse that’s getting there now too, right? Yeah, some of these great,
Luke Jones 18:43
I mean, with cursed at I mean, I will say in defense of them. And as you know, a criticism of him. He got close to everyday playing time from the moment that cows are got hurt that last day him, and he didn’t perform. So that doesn’t mean he can’t make adjustments, because Kyle Stowers at one point in time, I’m not going to sit here and use revisionist history. When Kyle Stowers was traded, I thought they were trading a quad a player, because even though he hadn’t gotten the necessary runway that you’d like in an ideal situation for a young guy, he still really struggled. I mean, this kid is flat out, admitted he wasn’t sure he was going to make Miami’s 26 man roster out of spring training this past year, right? Like this year, so it speaks to some of the adjustments he made. My question is, one, yes, the one of opportunity. And two, why didn’t? Why weren’t you able to fix Kyle Stowers in the way that Miami did? And it’s not like the Marlins have this great reputation as this amazing team from a player development standpoint. I mean, how many of their pitchers have kind of hit the brick wall the last few years, including Trevor Rogers the last couple years, right? So, so that’s where I kind of look at this thing. And this almost go back, goes back to the point that you were making after I, you know, had my. I said my piece about how they handled Batista this past Sunday, where, you know, there’s just a real lack of confidence in so much of what they do at this point in time, where you know, whether I’m talking about Elias, other members of the, you know, their player development, certainly the Major League coaching staff.
Nestor Aparicio 20:19
I mean, oh, just, it just feels like, Dude, you’re not a major league manager, not it
Luke Jones 20:23
just doesn’t. It doesn’t, right? And, I mean, that was part of my concern, not so much that this was justification not to fire Brandon Hyde, but when you fire him in mid May, you know that
8Nestor Aparicio 20:36
has got to go. I mean, at the heart of this, if you and I are having a beer right now, I’m like, this just isn’t it worked for a bit. It’s cool. You left us some nice let me say we have a new owner. We need more confidence for the fan base. Just yeah,
Luke Jones 20:52
I mean, let me say this. Am I ready to say that? He just needs to go point blank? No. That said there need to be some changes, some meaningful changes in their process and what they look for when they’re hiring coaches, and what they are doing with their player development, this idea that we’ve seen, how many different players get to triple A and look like they’re going to be world beat, you know, like they’re they’re going to be total studs, and just about all of them have struggled, and really struggled. I mean, in the case of Stowers, struggled so much that you gave up on them, even though they again, yes, they did not give him a full blown everyday opportunity. You know, I I want to see some meaningful change. I want to see a change in how they approach pitching and acquiring pitching and signing pitching, right? So I hear what you’re saying, and I’m not this is not me sitting here saying that I’m completely satisfied with Mike Elias and banging the table for him to keep his job. I want to see some real change. I’ve talked about this a lot. I want to see and not necessarily that there’s evidence of this, but I really hope there’s a lot of introspective work going on with whatever is going on with their strength and conditioning that they’ve had so many guys at the major league level and throughout the minor leagues. I mean, Enrique Bradfield, you know, their their first round pick from two years ago, who, if he didn’t have so many issues with hamstring strains this year. You know, maybe there’d be a discussion that maybe he’d be ready to take over for Cedric Mullins next year, right? Where? Whereas now, like the best case scenario, would maybe be the second half of next year, certainly not an option for opening day. So, you know, it’s one thing, if you’re talking about a 36 year old vet who has that long injury history and has a hamstring pull or things like that. But even their young guys, even their minor league guys,
Nestor Aparicio 22:46
holiday and Henderson, could deodorize that by just being great, even though the whole thing’s not great,
Luke Jones 22:52
8oh, sure, sure. And look that that’s where I I’m still not ready to just completely that. That’s why I’m not ready to give up even on Mike Elias entirely, because I do recognize the work that was done from the moment he arrived in what November of 2018 to where they were last June.
Nestor Aparicio 23:11
But I want to know, you know, it’s a very simple answer, even if it’s very complex or a very simple question, even if it’s a very complicated answer, what the heck has happened over the last 13 months? I mean, seriously, well, they’re under new ownership, too, and so that goes without saying that this could be a real train wreck, in a way that I don’t it’s a train wreck. I mean, they’re awful. They’re in last place. The guy who owns the team made a bobble of himself, and now he’s invisible for the last three months, like ripkens kind of half in making commercials, but not really. And they’re giving bobble heads out and T shirt doing Hawaiian shirts twice in one way. I mean, I don’t know what they’re doing. I don’t know what their season is going to look like. I don’t know what their pitching looks like. I mean, I have no indication any of these people are serious people. I mean, Greg Bader still running stuff around there. So I, you know, like, I, Jennifer grand all is still like running things like, I don’t. There’s no signs of life to me. But the sign is that, like, Elias is in control of this right now, and he should own how bad the manager is. He should own how that Batiste is wrecked all of a sudden, and he should own that all of these guys are wrecked at the trading deadline. He can’t get anything for any of them. This is just the fact that, well, two weeks ago, you went after the trading deadline, is they’re going to deal five guys. They might get a couple of relief pitchers they can use next year. Ain’t getting any of that. I mean, look, I mean that maybe for O’Hare,
Luke Jones 24:42
yeah, I mean, to their credit, they have found guys and turned them into effectively. I mean, Danny coulomb was a scrap heap guy they got at the end of spring training and was really good for them for two years. Now, they shouldn’t have got rid of him. They should have picked him over C and L. Perez, I mean, there’s another perfect example, but you. But the point is, I’m not going to sit here and say they can’t get anything of value for the guys that they’re going to trade. But I do think we need to be realistic here. This is not going to be, you know, I’ve even seen some former General Manager types that are now in the media space, you know, Jim Bowden, you know, comes to mind. I saw something he wrote for the athletic where he was kind of talking about this being an opportunity for the Orioles to reload for next year. And I’m just like, I don’t really see that with the guys that they’re going to be trading here. I think they can, if they can come away with a couple useful pieces for them next year, in the year, year beyond that. And you know, maybe they get, they get a pitcher who’s ready to graduate from double A to triple A and becomes their seventh inning guy next year. I mean, great. You know, I those types of things happen a lot around baseball, right? There are all kinds of discarded relievers who stink one place and then they’re really good the next place. I mean, Evan Phillips, even though he’s hurt now, he was a really big piece of the Dodgers bullpen the last couple years, he was completely discarded by the Orioles during in the middle of the rebuild, right? I mean, that that kind of thing happens all the time, and the Orioles have picked up guys that have been discarded by other teams and so, so you have some of that. But I guess the point is, no, you’re you’re not going to come away from whatever this fire sale is going to be, you know, whatever the the four or five six guys they might trade between now and when you and I talk about this a week from now, you know that’s not going to completely change the complexion of their minor league system. It’s not going to revamp their top 10 prospects in their system. It’s not going to revamp this roster as it’s currently constructed, other than, like I said, it’s going to open up some opportunity for a couple other young guys that I want to see get that opportunity. I mean, I’ll be honest with you, the last thing I want to see, and I say this with no disrespect to Ryan mountcastle, the last thing I want to see is Ryan o’hern be traded. Ryan mountcastle goes back to an everyday role, and Kobe mayo, still getting sporadic, two or two starts a week. I mean, that would be the worst possible thing they could do. I I’d rather see them. DFA, Ryan mountcastle, if it comes to that, right? And I don’t think they’re, you know, there’s, there’ll be a middle ground here. Who knows? They might trade mount castle for next to nothing. What’s he got six home runs the last year and a half, or something? Insane. He hasn’t been healthy. And when he has been healthy, he hasn’t hit for any power.
Nestor Aparicio 27:24
Well, nobody’s trained for him. Nobody thinks they’re winning the World Series
8Luke Jones 27:27
of them, some someone might, but they’re not going to give you anything, right? I mean, it would be like when the Orioles acquired Eloy Jimenez from the White Sox at the deadline last year. They gave up anything, right? Exactly It would be. This would be, we’re opening a roster spot. There’s some guy in low, you know, rookie ball, or something like that, that we think we might be able to develop in the next four years. And this is going to give us a chance to play Kobe Mayo every single day, or it’s going to give us a chance to play some visayo at first base, when, when we call them up in a month, you know? So we’re going to see but, yeah, I mean, you look at this, it was nice to see Morton pitch. Well, it’s nice to see Eflin look pretty good in his return from the IL O’Hearn is o’hern. I mean, Cedric Mullins is not swinging the bat. Well, you know, I think back in April, you know, everyone thought, Wow, this a big contract year for said, got off to a great start, and it just, he just has not been very good at the plate ever since. So, but will some team take them on? Will some team give you something for them? Sure? You know? So we’re just gonna have to see how it plays out. But so much of the rest of this year is going to be about the young guys and about, you know, what’s Kyle Bradish look like when he gets activated? You know, where is Felix Batista? What is going to happen with Grayson Rodriguez? Is he still going to be some kind of an option for you next year?
Nestor Aparicio 28:48
Let’s get rid of Morton and Eflin. I’m wondering who pitches,
Luke Jones 28:51
sure, uh, sure. But who pitches, yeah, so, I mean, no, it’s gonna be a big question. I mean, there’s no doubt. So
Nestor Aparicio 28:58
8my wife said, If Otani pitches when the Dodgers are in, she wants to go see him. So I’ll give you that. And you know, I’m going to do for the trading deadline to be nice to Mike Elias, because he’s been so maligned around here and so available to me. I’m going to do what I do with the Orioles the last 35 years, just lower the bar. You know, I’m going to lower the bar and just say, I don’t, I I don’t expect much, and therefore I won’t be disappointed. I mean,
Luke Jones 29:24
the truth is, once the trade deadline hits, and again, I don’t, I don’t think there’s a whole lot of oxygen for it. Obviously, they’re, they’re sellers, so no one’s excited about that, but there’s at least a little bit of interest in what’s going to happen. But after that, they’re just the last place team. I mean, what’s left? Braddish coming back? Sure. I think fans will absolutely be interested in seeing that if and when, besides debuts, sure, fans will be interested in seeing that. Same with Dylan beavers to a lesser extent, but, but after that, I don’t think there’s going to be a bar Nestor. I think it’s just going to go away. For most people, I think it already has for most people, yeah, I think it did two months ago. For for many people,
Nestor Aparicio 30:05
it’s very easy to do, yeah. And across town and kids are at soccer, the beach. Is there? Concerts are happening, tracking the country? Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Luke Jones 30:16
So, I mean, it’s just that that’s not being mean, that’s reality, and that’s their reality. They’ve got a heck of a lot of work, and even if people aren’t going to be paying attention, boy, they’ve they’ve got to get to work, because there is a path to get this thing back on track next year. But man, they need a lot of things to go well and, boy, they’ve got to make some changes and do a lot of soul searching as an organization in terms of how you’re going to go about fixing this. Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 30:39
can be found at Baltimore. Luke, He can also be found on the backfields in Owings Mills. He is covering all things. Ravens will be having all of that coming to you. We have locker room, Sam. We’re gonna be talking about John Harbaugh’s dalliances with the felon king. And we’re also be talking about their defense and the Colts coming. The Colts are coming. The Colts are coming for preseason action two weeks from now. I’m gonna get the Maryland crab cake tour back out on the road. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. I like these pressure luck tickets. They’re actually $3 tickets. You get a better chance to win a little bit more scratch involved there with 30 grand top prize. We’re gonna be doing that at Beaumont on the seventh in Catonsville. We’re also gonna be down in Ocean City for Mako for two days with a lot of electeds and a lot of business leaders. And then at the end of August, 27 days of 27 great places to eat, great things that I love to eat throughout the month of August to celebrate our 27th anniversary. We’re proud of that Coco celebrating 40 years. I’m wearing my Coco shirt right now. They’re having their big 40th anniversary. It’s in August as well. So, uh, happy anniversary to them and to us. 27 years, 27 foods, 27 days, and a whole bunch of crab cakes as well. Along the way, I am Nestor, he’s look, we are wnsd AM, 1570 towns in Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.
