Roughly a month after trading former top pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez, the Orioles have acquired someone who fits a similar upside profile for their 2026 starting rotation and beyond.
On Friday, president of baseball operations Mike Elias acquired right-hander Shane Baz from Tampa Bay in exchange for four minor-league prospects — 2025 first-round picks Caden Bodine and Slater de Brun, right-hander Michael Forret, and outfielder Austin Overn — as well as a competitive balance pick (33rd overall) in the 2026 draft. Once regarded as one of baseball’s top pitching prospects before health concerns piled up, the 26-year-old Baz is coming off his first fully healthy season in the majors in which he pitched to a 4.87 ERA over 31 starts covering 166 1/3 innings.
The Orioles are betting on Baz’s improved health going back to the second half of 2024 being the precursor to him realizing his potential as a 2017 first-round pick who was included in the blockbuster Chris Archer between the Rays and Pittsburgh in 2018. Unfortunately, injuries began plaguing Baz from the time he arrived in the majors late in the 2021 season, and those woes were headlined by him undergoing Tommy John surgery late in the 2022 campaign, which sidelined him for all of 2023.
With his elbow problems finally behind him, Baz averaged 97.0 miles per hour on his fastball and showed a plus knuckle curve this past season despite underwhelming results overall. He averaged 9.5 strikeouts and 3.5 walks per nine innings and pitched to a 3.86 ERA in 15 road starts compared to an ugly 5.90 ERA in 16 starts at hitter-friendly and non-climate-controlled Steinbrenner Field, which served as the Rays’ home ballpark in 2025.
While Baz isn’t the ace for which many are still clamoring, his stuff brings intriguing upside to the rotation, and his improved durability gives him a higher floor than Rodriguez, who hasn’t pitched in the majors since July 31, 2024 and was traded to the Los Angeles Angels for starting outfielder Taylor Ward in November. Baz remains under club control through 2028, which should make him a solid option for the back half of the rotation at the very least.
It’s fair to say the price for Baz wasn’t cheap with Elias surrendering three prospects ranked in the top 11 of Baltimore’s MLB Pipeline top 30 list. While de Brun and Bodine arrived in Baltimore’s system only last summer, Forret had a superb 2025 with High-A Aberdeen and Double-A Chesapeake to emerge on the prospect radar.
