While they entered the season viewed as a surefire contender, the Orioles are buried in the standings headed into the second half of the season. Their 35-46 record entering play today leaves them 11 games under .500 and seven games back of a playoff spot. They’d need to leapfrog seven teams in order to fight their way back into one of the AL’s three Wild Card spots, but that doesn’t mean that GM Mike Elias and his front office are entirely committed to selling. Elias spoke to reporters (including Roch Kubatko of MASN) about the team’s status headed into July, and revealed that he’s preparing as though either buying or selling this summer are on the table.
“People are making their preparations, they understand that we’re not committed to a path yet, but we’re doing preparation in both directions and have an understanding of where that might go,” Elias said, as relayed by Kubatko. “So we want to keep playing, keep giving this team that we think is very talented, but unfortunately has started off with a bad record, as much chance as we can. But we’re gonna have to ultimately make a decision at some point here in July.”
It sounds as though Baltimore is content to wait for at least a little while longer before committing to an approach for this trade season, though Elias did acknowledge that the Orioles will have to be “realistic” about the amount of time required to act upon their goals for the deadline before adding that it’s “not one or two days.” Whatever path they end up committing to, Elias made clear that ownership is willing to spend this deadline. That can take the form of adding salary in buy-side trades, or perhaps retaining salary on a sell-side trade to bring back a stronger return.
For a team in Baltimore’s situation, a willingness to retain salary can be a game changer in terms of the return they can expect for their players. The Orioles have a number of veterans with relatively hefty salaries who could be potential trade candidates this summer. Zach Eflin ($18MM), Charlie Morton ($15MM), and Tomoyuki Sugano ($13MM) all have salaries that could be difficult for some clubs with tight budgets to take on, while even players like Gary Sanchez ($8.5MM) and Ryan O’Hearn ($8MM) could be a problem for teams pressed up against the luxury tax threshold. Eating salary not only makes the player inherently more valuable to the buying club, but it can also allow teams without much money to spend to enter the bidding…
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