Two Baltimore Orioles Prospects Are Still Off Limits for Most Teams

The Baltimore Orioles will try their best to keep these two prospects around past the trade deadline.

Shorebirds' Samuel Basallo (21) swings in the game against the Cannon Ballers Tuesday, April 11, 2023, at Perdue Stadium in Salisbury, Maryland. The Shorebirds defeated the Cannon Ballers 7-2 / Lauren Roberts/Salisbury Daily Times /

The Baltimore Orioles have plenty of top prospects to work with at the upcoming MLB trade deadline, but it looks like they'll try their best to keep a couple of their top players.

As Jim Bowden of The Athletic examined the situations of different contenders at the deadline, the question of how many prospects Baltimore is willing to part with came up.

"The Orioles were proud that they didn’t trade any of their top-seven prospects when they landed Corbin Burnes and they’re continuing down that path in negotiations for starting pitchers now," said Bowden. "They believe they don’t have to trade Samuel Basallo or Coby Mayo because they can instead deal from the depth of their strong farm system."

Though Jackson Holliday isn't listed among those two, it's just assumed that he's off limits as well.

Basallo is the No. 2 prospect in the Baltimore farm system and No. 12 in all of baseball. While some thought he might be made available given that he's a catcher and the Orioles have Adley Rutschman around, they've been preparing him for the first base role when he's finally called up.

He's just 19 years old and continues to look more promising as he progressed through the minor leagues. In his first full season at the Double-A level, he has a .283/.345/.468 slashing line with 12 home runs and 38 RBI.

Mayo has been talked about in most potential trade talks, so it's interesting to see that the team themselves really want to keep him around. It does make sense, though.

He's the No. 3 player in their pipeline and No. 15 overall. He's a couple of years ahead of Basallo at 22 years old and that shows in his progression.

The right-handed batter has had a .304/.383/.622 slashing line in Triple-A ball with 18 home runs and 54 RBI in 57 games this year. That's not the type of player that you give up lightly.

Dowden did mention that if Baltimore wants to trade for a starting pitcher of the highest quality, such as Garrett Crochet, that they would likely have to move one of those two players.

The Orioles do desperately need to find more starting pitcher after losing both John Means, Tyler Wells and Kyle Bradish for the season. Players like Cade Povich or Cole Irvin may get you through the regular season but you don't want to rely on them once the playoffs come around.