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The Baltimore Orioles are having a miserable 2025 MLB season. They enter Memorial Day Weekend at 16-32, last place in the American League East. That has Orioles fans and pundits looking ahead to the MLB trade deadline, as this season slips away. Could they deal Felix Bautista or Tomoyuki Sugano? Ken Rosenthal could see one of those pitchers on the move this summer.
“Time to ask: Which Orioles player might bring back the most in a trade? The best guess is probably closer Félix Bautista, who is earning just $1 million this season and under club control for two more,” Rosenthal wrote in The Athletic.
When healthy, Bautista has been one of the premier relievers in baseball. He was an All-Star and received Cy Young votes in 2023, posting 33 saves with a 1.48 ERA in 56 appearances. Tommy John surgery took away his entire 2024, but he has come back with decent numbers. Despite a 4.30 ERA, he does have seven saves so far.
The Orioles signed Craig Kimbrel last year, and he was so terrible that he did not make the playoff roster. While this season won't have the important innings that last year did, the Orioles know how hard it is to replace Bautista. But if they can improve their starting pitching, it may be worth it.
Will the Orioles trade Tomoyuki Sugano?
The Orioles could not keep Corbin Burnes on a long-term contract this offseason, so they signed multiple veterans to one-year deals. One was Tomoyuki Sugano, who made his MLB debut at 36 years old this season. He has been the only starting pitcher to have consistent starts this year. Still, Rosenthal says that it is unlikely Sugano gets traded.
“And a trade of Sugano, whom the Orioles signed to a one-year, $13 million free-agent contract in December, would not be a good look for an organization trying to establish a presence in Japan,” Rosenthal wrote. “Before Sugano, the Orioles’ last Japanese free-agent signee to appear in their uniform was reliever Koji Uehara in 2009.”
The Orioles don't have many other players they could deal at the MLB trade deadline. Zach Eflin and Cedric Mullins would be rentals and may not help the team build their pitching moving forward. New owner David Rubenstein has to spend money on this team to get in the good graces of the fans. Trading away their pending free agents as an admittance that you cannot sign them would be doing the opposite.
