It’s a “guys who are maybe about to be traded” matchup on Wednesday afternoon as the Orioles and Tigers close out their three-game series. The starting pitchers, Trevor Rogers for the Orioles and Tarik Skubal for the Tigers, could each be on the move regardless of what happens in this game. The losing team is going to be pushed hard towards a sell-off; the winning team might end up selling off this particular pitcher even if it tries some modest buying.
Each team’s record sucks, yet they really aren’t
far out of the playoff picture. But it’s a seller’s market out there and if a team is able to get the right trade, they can probably get a package of prospects that’s superior to just waiting to make the qualifying offer to the pitcher and then collect a draft pick next year.
The trade deadline is August 3. Counting today, there are four games remaining before the deadline. Rogers and/or Skubal are making their final starts for their current teams. Enjoy it while you can. Skubal has won the last two Cy Youngs and is pitching like he’ll win a third, unless he gets traded to an NL team. Rogers pitched like a Cy Young candidate for 18 starts last year and has been pitching like one for the most recent nine of his 19 starts this season. These two things together do not add up to a Cy Young award.
The Orioles have shown us the good and the bad over this series so far. Last night’s blowout loss was rather pathetic. Monday’s win was a nice, competent game. They are both of those things this year, the pathetic one slightly more often than the competent one. Facing Skubal does suggest this is more likely to be another pathetic game. This team has surprised us frequently after people have given up on them for a game or even for the season. They don’t surprise us for long, but they can still surprise us.
We’re running a poll this week with the simple question: Will Mike Elias be the GM next year? If you haven’t voted yet, check it out:
Orioles lineup
- Taylor Ward – LF
- Pete Alonso – 1B
- Gunnar Henderson – SS
- Tyler O’Neill – RF
- Christian Encarnacion-Strand – 3B
- Coby Mayo – 3B
- Leody Taveras – CF
- Jeremiah Jackson – 2B
- Chadwick Tromp – C
Tigers lineup
- Gleyber Torres – 2B
- Kevin McGonigle – SS
- Hao-Yu Lee – 3B
- Dillon Dingler – C
- Riley Greene – LF
- Eduardo Valencia – DH
- Spencer Torkelson – 1B
- Matt Vierling – RF
- Javier Báez – CF
I look at this lineup and I think, this team should be better. I have felt this about the Orioles lineup a lot of days this season. Today is not one of those days. This particularly lineup, it’s fairly clear why the Orioles are where they are. Even so, neither team should be where they are, and yet, here they are. One walks away a winner of the series today. The other seems to be ticketed for trade deadline selling.
