Are We a Better Team Now?

[interloper]

Yes.

[Aristotelian]

Yes. It's incremental improvement but we are better.

[baltfan]

Soto and Dominguez are both capable of being dominant over stretches.  The playoffs are a short stretch. 

[Rbiggs2525]

I think Elias used Analytics and more of a track record approach to buy low on some guys. The deadline will be determined by how Holiday fills in for Norby and the 4 pitching acquisitions do. I like the odds. 

[Rbiggs2525]

They also basically replaced Baumeister for Billy Cooke today which makes that trade hurt less.

[Bahama O's Fan]

If Kjerstad goes down for one of those outfielders and Vavra stays up instead of Mayo or Holliday, then the hitting could be worse

[Say O!]

Unquestionably better team this year AND next.  The controllable SPs (Eflin, Rogers) and RPs (Seranthony, Soto) will be factors in 2025 too.  And some for 2026 too.  Can replenish prospects in the draft if unable to sign Burnes and Santander in offseason. 

[Just Regular]

5 minutes ago, Rbiggs2525 said:

I think Elias used Analytics and more of a track record approach to buy low on some guys. The deadline will be determined by how Holiday fills in for Norby and the 4 pitching acquisitions do. I like the odds. 

Rogers, Eloy, Soto and Seranthony are all more "Scout Elias" flavored guys for me.

[sportsfan8703]

A lot better. The trade deadline gorilla is off our back. 

[Jammer7]

Much better. Deeper. Eflin, Dominguez, G. Soto and Rodgers are excellent pick ups. Slater is underrated. Is L. Soto the new UT infielder for Mateo? The roster is potentially so much more balanced. Swing and miss in the pen from both sides. Eflin is going to surprise many here, judging from the negative comments. I want to see what French does with Rodgers. There is a good pitcher in that kid. 

I admit I do not know what to think of Eloy Jimenez coming in. Is he healthy? And Pache, maybe they DFA him in a day or two and see if they can sneak him through for depth. Talented kid, truly elite, we’ll see what they do.

They cleared some prospects who would not have had an impact in Baltimore in the next year or two. I think Norby will hit, and I like Baumeister. They kept their elite prospects and young players. This is huge! And they added a very intriguing Reilly kid from the Pirates. 

Frankly, I am absolutely shocked at all of the trolling hatred directed at Elias. If these moves don’t work out, have at it. But for a bunch of fans who complained about the relative inactivity of previous years, Elias makes a flurry of good moves and he gets slammed because he didn’t come away with a glamorous huge splash. When Holliday, Mayo, Basallo, Kjerstad and Cowser are still here, along with Rutschman, Henderson and Westburg, you’ll be glad they kept them. 

[Sports Guy]

Yes but I think another reliever may have been needed although we will see how Suarez is in the pen.

Also, I wish there was more room for Mayo up now. The Jimenez move really blocks that. Not a huge fan of that but I also get they don’t know where to play Mayo either. 
 

They haven’t handled him well positionally this year in the minors and now it has hurt him.

[bpilktree67]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

Yes but I think another reliever may have been needed although we will see how Suarez is in the pen.

Also, I wish there was more room for Mayo up now. The Jimenez move really blocks that. Not a huge fan of that but I also get they don’t know where to play Mayo either. 
 

They haven’t handled him well positionally this year in the minors and now it has hurt him.

I think they want him getting every day at bats so getting stop gap guy in Jimenez who will spot start vs lefties and pinch hit is more for veteran type guy imo.  

[Jammer7]

3 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Yes but I think another reliever may have been needed although we will see how Suarez is in the pen.

Also, I wish there was more room for Mayo up now. The Jimenez move really blocks that. Not a huge fan of that but I also get they don’t know where to play Mayo either. 
 

They haven’t handled him well positionally this year in the minors and now it has hurt him.

The thing with Mayo is I wonder how long it will take him to truly become an impact bat. If it’s 2-3 months, that’s a problem for me. I am not sure we can withstand his struggles at this point in the season. I’m not sure what to make of Jimenez either. It’s a bit of a head scratcher for sure. 

[Roll Tide]

according to ESPN insider writer Bradford Doolittle the Orioles were one of the winners of the deadline movement 

Quote

Baltimore Orioles

The Orioles didn't trade as much prospect value -- by my measures, to be clear -- as San Diego, but this was the most serious culling of Baltimore's accumulated talent base we've seen yet. No team added as much present value, though that value is spread across eight new Orioles. The pieces were moving so fast it wasn't until after the deadline passed that I began to see the revamped Orioles roster in a holistic way.

 

I'm seeing a much more dynamic one-to-five rotation, with newcomers Zach Eflin and Trevor Rogers joining Grayson Rodriguez, Corbin Burnes and Dean Kremer. I'm seeing a deeper and filthier bullpen with Seranthony Dominguez and Gregory Soto -- a surprising last-minute addition -- now part of the crew behind Craig Kimbreland Yennier Cano.

And I'm seeing a potential first-class answer to the Orioles' need for a righty bat in Eloy Jimenez. Alas, Baltimore needs to win now and Jimenez has not been a win-now player in 2024. Injuries, as usual, have been a problem, but when he has played, Jimenez has a .642 OPS over 65 games. He hasn't homered since May 14 -- a span of 36 games.

But Jimenez is going from a team that resembles the 1899 Cleveland Spiders to one with legit aspirations of winning the World Series. Perhaps the change will spark something.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/40680706/2024-mlb-trade-deadline-reaction-biggest-winners-losers

[Hallas]

I think we're better and we have some more depth for next year and the year after.

Depth is good.  Subtracting Hays removes a block in our prospect backlog.  I think Jimenez is basically here to keep the bench warm for Holliday until Mayo comes up in a few weeks, and he was practically free anyway.  Getting Eflin and only giving up 3 guys in the 10-15 range was a huge win after seeing the absurd haul Kikuchi brought.  We got some potentially impactful relievers, which was sorely needed.  Dominguez already pitched well for us once.

 

I don't like the Rogers trade - I think we could have gotten a bit of a safer bet, or maybe given up some more prospects for Snell.  But that has some promise and he has a chance to stick with us for a couple years, so that's good.

 

We did more than last year, so that's good.  Elias is still taking it pretty careful with trading our prospects, and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. it'll be interesting to see how our traded guys fare in a few years.  They weren't going to help us much anyway, but it'll be interesting to see what kind of talent they show in the Majors.