Baltimore Orioles Boss Discusses Trade Talks Featuring Their Star Prospects

The Baltimore Orioles executive discusses how close they were to actually trading away three of their star prospects.

Jul 18, 2023; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Orioles general manager Mike Elias on field prior to the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards / Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports

With the trade deadline officially in the rearview, the Baltimore Orioles largely have their group of guys who will be around to make a push for the World Series title.

Some roster adjustments will come because of injury, something that just happened in their game on Wednesday, and through poor performances, but they can no longer go out and make a deal to find an upgrade.

If the Orioles are going to win their first championship since 1983, this will be the group who's going to accomplish that.

There was some expectation Baltimore was going to be ultra-aggressive ahead of the deadline, but ultimately that thought was a little overzealous based on how general manager Mike Elias has operated in the past.

He was able to bring in the players he needed to land, acquiring two starting pitchers, bullpen help, and a high-profile hitter, but they had the capability of completely changing the landscape of baseball if they were willing to trade their star prospects.

That didn't come to fruition as Jackson Holliday, Samuel Basallo, and Coby Mayo all stayed with the organization. And in the case of their top guy Holliday, he was given another crack at the Majors, making his presence known in grand fashion.

How close were the Orioles to actually dealing this trio?

Based on Elias' comments, not close at all.

"You never really fully say (untouchable), but more or less, every time a ranking came out, Holliday, Basallo and Mayo were ranked higher and higher and higher and you got three very young kids that are consensus top 15 prospects in all of baseball. The value on that makes it really hard to find something to trade them for that makes any sense and the types of players that you would even fathom having discussions with those guys didn't even get traded. So, it really didn't come up," he said per Roch Kubatko of MASN.

While that's not surprising to fans of this team who have followed how Elias has operated since taking over the general manager role, the national media ran with the idea they could deal some of these prospects to land someone like Tarik Skubal or Garrett Crochet.

Doing so would certainly have been a blockbuster, but they were able to hold onto their elite minor leaguers while still making the requisite upgrades that was needed.

This team has shown they are good enough to compete for a championship.

Last season they won 101 games before getting swept in the playoffs because they didn't have the top-end starting pitching required to truly make a run.

Elias went out and landed Corbin Burnes to solve that.

As Grayson Rodriguez continues to grow into his career, the two veteran arms of Zach Eflin and Trevor Rogers give them two legitimate arms to slot behind their two aces, giving Baltimore a chance to close out the year strong and contend in the postseason.