After the Orioles traded for starting pitcher Jack Flaherty, Mike Elias complimented the St. Louis Cardinals on getting a “great deal” from Baltimore.
Last Tuesday’s trade deadline was Elias’ first as a buyer since he took over the club’s baseball operations in November 2018, and while the executive vice president and general manager didn’t acquire a marquee name, he did have to part ways with three prospects the organization valued.
To get Flaherty, a right-handed rental in his seventh big league season, the Orioles gave up infielder César Prieto, left-hander Drew Rom and right-hander Zack Showalter — Baltimore’s Nos. 13, 15 and 16 prospects, according to Baseball America.
“It’s always tough,” Elias said about trading prospects. “You look at the trades this year, these were huge returns, even for the rentals. I think that this landed in an appropriate spot for both teams. I’m sure these players will go on to have very fruitful careers, but we’re here. 2023 is a priority.”
Whether the trade goes down as a good one for the Orioles depends more on how Flaherty pitches down the stretch and in the postseason than how the three prospects pan out. Bolstering a contender with a quality starting pitcher — one with playoff experience — doesn’t come cheap. While Elias didn’t have to give up any of Baltimore’s top 100 prospects, the trio of youngsters represented a significant haul for the Cardinals in exchange for a starting pitcher with a 4.43 ERA at the time.
Elias acknowledged shortly after the trade that buyers often end up in the red. To get two-plus months of Flaherty’s services, the Orioles gave up potentially 18 years of service time among Rom, Prieto and Showalter.
“But that’s part of trying to win, and the focus [is] on the team that’s in a good position,” Elias said.
In total this year, Elias has traded five prospects in player-for-player deals. Before shipping off Showalter, Prieto and Rom, he gave up left-handed reliever Easton Lucas for reliever Shintaro Fujinami in July and shortstop Darell Hernaiz for left-hander Cole Irvin and a pitching prospect in January — two trades with the Oakland Athletics.
The fact that this season — one in which the Orioles have surprised once again and own the American League’s best record — was one worth taking a risk for doesn’t change the fact that giving up prospects is, still, a risk. Given that, here’s a look at the five prospects Elias traded — how they joined the organization, what makes them intriguing players and how they’ve performed so far in their careers.
The conventional logic behind trading Hernaiz, a shortstop the Orioles selected in the fifth round of the 2019 draft, was similar to that used when giving up Prieto. The Orioles’ farm system isn’t just ranked tops in the sport, it’s chock-full of infielders, meaning Hernaiz was perhaps blocked from making his way to Baltimore.
At the time of the Irvin deal in January, Hernaiz’s ranking as Baltimore’s No. 16 prospect on MLB Pipeline had him behind several other infielders, including Jackson Holliday, Jordan Westburg, Joey Ortiz, Coby Mayo and Connor Norby. When Hernaiz joined the Athletics’ farm system, he was rated by Baseball America as its 18th-best prospect, but after a successful first half in Double-A, he jumped up to No. 8 in the publication’s midseason ranking.
Hernaiz hit .297 with 31 stolen bases last year between Low-A Delmarva and High-A Aberdeen before struggling in 13 games with Double-A Bowie to end the year. In his first season in Oakland’s system, he dominated the level he struggled at just six months prior, hitting .338 with a .879 OPS to earn a promotion to Triple-A Las Vegas. He’s been even better at the highest minor league level, slashing .355/.419/.553 for a .971 OPS, although those numbers could be inflated considering the offense-friendly environments in Las Vegas and other Pacific Coast League stadiums.
While Irvin hasn’t stuck in Baltimore’s rotation, he has a 3.60 ERA since he was recalled from Triple-A in June. The Orioles also acquired right-handed pitching prospect Kyle Virbitsky, a 24-year-old with a 4.54 ERA with Aberdeen, in the deal.
Disclaimers aside, Hernaiz’s stock has risen since the Orioles traded him away, but the organization’s infield stockpile is still plenty strong.
For a pitcher with Fujinami’s upside, giving up a 26-year-old reliever with minimal Triple-A experience seemed more than fair. But similar to most of the prospects the Orioles traded, Lucas was having perhaps his best professional season this year.
In 17 innings with Bowie, he allowed just three runs and struck out 24 batters. The success earned him a promotion to Triple-A Norfolk and an appearance on Baseball America’s midseason list, ranking No. 30 in Baltimore’s farm system.
Lucas, who the Orioles acquired in the Jonathan Villar trade with the Miami Marlins in December 2019, didn’t have the same level of success to begin his Triple-A career, posting a 4.61 ERA and walking nine batters in 13 2/3 innings. In his first 4 2/3 innings with Oakland’s Triple-A affiliate, Lucas has allowed seven hits and four runs.
Meanwhile, in 8 2/3 innings with the Orioles, Fujinami has displayed his volatile profile, but he has a 3.12 ERA with 11 strikeouts — many courtesy of his blazing fastball.
Prieto fell into the same bucket as Hernaiz, although the two are different players. Hernaiz’s speed and defensive ability are his best tools, while Prieto is two years older with his contact ability at the plate his best trait. At No. 13 in the Orioles’ system, he is the highest prospect Elias has ever dealt, but he was ranked behind 10 other hitters, half of whom play infield as their primary position.
In 378 plate appearances between Double- and Triple-A this season, he has struck out just 28 times — a rate of just 7.4%. Prieto, who the Orioles signed as an international free agent in January 2022, hit .364 with Bowie to earn a bump up to Norfolk, where he hit .317.
Earlier this season, Bowie manager Kyle Moore said Prieto’s bat-to-ball skills were “elite,” noting how rarely he swings and misses. Given that ability, Moore said the organization’s focus on “swing decisions” was critical to Prieto’s improvements in 2023.
“Before this year, he was making contact with pitches maybe on the outer black of the plate, right on the corner outside, inside, up, down, whatever,” Moore said. “This year, we’ve sort of gotten him to understand that if he really hunts a zone where he does damage that he can really increase some numbers, and he’s done that. He’s no longer making the weak contact ground ball out on a pitch that he can’t really do damage on.”
Rom is the only one of the five players who has made it to the major leagues — although he still hasn’t made an appearance yet.
The Orioles promoted Rom, whom they drafted in the fourth round in 2018, in May, but the 23-year-old didn’t pitch out of the bullpen before being optioned back down. Last week, Elias called Rom a “major league-ready lefty.”
Rom has had an up-and-down 2023 campaign, performing as Norfolk’s top starter to begin the season, including an 11-strikeout performance across six scoreless innings in May, but he’s struggled of late. He has a 3.79 ERA in 439 2/3 career minor league innings with 514 strikeouts. At Triple-A, though, his ERA is 5.09 and his 25.4% strikeout rate is just slightly above average.
Elias said all four of the players he gave up at the deadline are “big leaguers if they stay healthy.” That’s not a surprise admission for Lucas, Prieto and Rom — three Triple-A players — but it was high praise for Showalter, one of the organization’s biggest risers in 2023 who is still several years away from potentially playing in the majors.
The Orioles drafted Showalter, 19, out of high school last summer, persuading him to sign for more than what an 11th-rounder would typically receive rather than pitch for the University of South Florida. He didn’t pitch in rookie ball last season and opened the year not ranked inside the organization’s top 30.
But with a mid-90s fastball and a deceptive delivery, Showalter struck out 31.8% of batters he faced in 30 1/3 innings between the Florida Complex League and Delmarva. His performance earned him a hefty bump in the rankings, appearing on the list for the first time at No. 16 when Baseball America released its midseason update.
Another week, another award for pitcher Chayce McDermott.
The right-hander has spent three full weeks with Norfolk and has won the International League Pitcher of the Week award twice. After claiming the honor last week, McDermott won it again after allowing one hit and striking out seven in six shutout innings Wednesday. McDermott, who the Orioles acquired from the Houston Astros last summer in a trade for slugger Trey Mancini, is 3-0 with a 1.89 ERA since being promoted. He’s struck out 31.3% of the batters he’s faced in 87 1/3 innings between Double- and Triple-A.
McDermott wasn’t the only Orioles minor leaguer to win an award Monday. In his first week as a professional, 2023 10th-round pick Matthew Etzel won the FCL’s Player of the Week Award. The outfielder out of Southern Miss went 5-for-14 with two doubles and a triple.
Also on the farm, Holliday returned from an illness to hit two home runs over the weekend for Bowie. The 19-year-old top prospect is slashing .396/.448/.642 — good for a 1.090 OPS — in 13 games at Double-A. Bowie outfielder Billy Cook hit four home runs and drove in 12 runs last week. Norfolk outfielder Kyle Stowers went 6-for-15 with two home runs, Tides shortstop Ortiz went 10-for-25 to boost his OPS to .976, and DL Hall, the organization’s top pitching prospect, returned to Triple-A with two scoreless innings, striking out five and displaying improved velocity.
The Orioles are promoting 10 prospects within their farm system, a source with direct knowledge of the moves confirmed to The Baltimore Sun.
The biggest name on the move is 2023 first-round pick Enrique Bradfield Jr., who is being promoted from the FCL to Delmarva along with second-round outfielder Mac Horvath, third-round outfielder Tavian Josenberger, Etzel and 20th-round shortstop Jalen Vasquez. In his first weekend of professional ball, Bradfield, a speedy outfielder out of Vanderbilt, went 5-for-9 with four runs, three walks, one double and a stolen base.
No. 20 prospect Max Wagner was bumped up from High-A to Double-A, along with outfielder Collin Burns and former Terps standout Maxwell Costes. Delmarva infielder Carter Young was moved up to Aberdeen.
MASNSports.com first reported the promotions.
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