Help me help you
As teams head to Arizona or Florida, some last minute roster adjustments seem needed, even for contending clubs like the Cleveland Guardians and Baltimore Orioles. Could we see a deal between these two 2024 American League playoff entrants?
Yesterday, I wrote an article going through ten potential moves the Guardians could make to improve their roster. As I was writing the piece, the Orioles added ANOTHER outfielder in Ramon Laureano. Their major league outfield depth chart goes something like: Cedric Mullins, Colton Cowser, Tyler O’Neill, Heston Kjerstad, Ramon Laureano, Daz Cameron, and Dylan Carlson. In the minors, Dylan Beavers is also knocking on the door of the bigs. On the opposite end of this immense outfield depth, the Orioles need more help in their bullpen as it is incredibly top-heavy and reliant on a return to form from Felix Bautista after he missed the entire 2024 season. Their rotation also needs depth as two of their top five starters are relying on a starter in his 40’s (Charlie Morton) and a 35-year old starter from his Japan who was in decline there last year. There are some interesting arms slated to start in Triple-A (Trevor Rogers, Cade Povich and Chayce McDermott) but nothing especially proven.
Meanwhile, as you’re probably well-aware of as a Guardians’ fan, Cleveland is projected to again have one of the best bullpens in baseball (Clase, Smith, Gaddis, Sewald, Stephan, Herrin, Sabrowski, Walters, Enright, Cecconi, and Aleman) and have solid depth in their rotation (Bibee, Williams, Ortiz, Lively, McKenzie, Cantillo, Bieber – mid-year, Vince Velazquez, Nikhazy, and Peterson). While I wouldn’t mind seeing a veteran arm added to the rotation from the numerous arms still out there in free agency, the clear need for Cleveland is to find a left-handed hitter who can play right-field or center-field, given their trade of Josh Naylor and his 130 wRC+ against RHP and the right-handed heavy options in their outfield (Thomas, Noel, Rodriguez, Freeman, and Arias). There are hardly any options available in free agency, so a trade acquisition seems to be the most likely to meet this need.
So, is there a fit here – could the Guardians deal from their pitching depth to receive from the excess of outfield depth the Orioles have? Let’s explore some deals.
Proposed Trade #1 – Orioles trade Cedric Mullins to the Guardians for either Hunter Gaddis, Franco Aleman or Andrew Walters, and potentially an additional 40-45 future value prospect.
Analysis: Mullins has a career 119 wRC+ against RHP but has been an overall league average hitter over the past three years. The primary reasons I could see the Orioles trading Mullins is that this is his last year of team control and he saw significant declines in his centerfield defense in 2024 (-5 DRS and 3 OAA). The Orioles can play Laureano, Cameron, Carlson and even Beavers if he handles Triple-A in centerfield and in this deal would get their choice of a top-shelf, controllable bullpen arm and whatever solid prospect the two teams can agree on from a deep Cleveland system. The Guardians get a proven platoon option who can help in center-field and likely fill in for right-field as well.
Proposed Trade #2 – Orioles trade Heston Kjerstad to the Guardians for Joey Cantillo and Trevor Stephan or Hunter Gaddis or Andrew Walters.
Analysis: Kjerstad had a 116 wRC+ and played a solid right-field for the Orioles in his 100+ plate appearances in 2025. Everyone is constantly wondering when the Orioles will trade from their collection of young outfielders, and they never do, so maybe this is foolish wishcasting. But, if I were an Orioles’ fan, I’d be excited about getting their choice of a top bullpen arm with proven value against major leaguers and a young starter who is projected to be good at the backend of a rotation. Kjerstad has actually handled LHP well in his short time in the majors, but there is some platoon risk when looking at his minor-league numbers. If the Guardians give up this kind of capital, they would be saying Kjerstad is their plan for right-field and perhaps they are planning to see if DeLauter’s feet will hold up for him to be an option in centerfield (or, heck, maybe they explore trading DeLauter at some point). I can’t say this is likely, and maybe Orioles’ fans would say the Guardians need to give up Cade Smith to get Kjerstad, but it’s a fun option to ponder.
Proposed Trade #3 – Orioles trade Dylan Beavers to the Guardians for Joey Cantillo and Nic Enright
Analysis: Beavers is an interesting player with a lot of power upside that has been mitigated by his swing-and-miss but who has speed and outfield defensive prowess that make him seem like a good bet to be an average major league centerfielder someday. Those kind of players are at a seeming all-time shortage in the majors. Given that fact, I have made this deal an overpay assuming that teams including the Orioles see Beavers as a centerfield option in the near future. The upgrade from Petey Halpin (the heir apparent in centerfield) or Kahlil Watson or Angel Martinez to Beavers is probably fairly significant and worth surrendering some pretty significant talent. But, again, it all depends on how teams evaluate these players. Notably, Beavers probably isn’t going to help a major league team until July at the earliest, so this may not be the kind of move the Guardians should make given their competitive window.
Bottom Line: For me, if I were the Orioles, I’d be trying to leverage a declining Mullins now to get some proven bullpen help and starting depth. I think a mutually beneficial deal is more than possible here. However, these teams don’t seem to have a lot of trade chemistry recently so I wouldn’t hold my breath on something happening. It’s still fun to think through, of course.