Orioles Send Intriguing Infielder To Kansas City Royals in Early Season Trade

The Baltimore Orioles ended their three-game losing streak by beating the Kansas City Royals on Saturday that sets up a rubber match for Sunday.

It was an important win.

Their season was front-loaded with division rivals and American League contenders, so the Orioles needed to start stacking victories against those types of opponents.

They did that with an emphatic 8-1 domination.

However, that wasn't the only story that came out of Saturday between these two teams.

Robert Murray of FanSided first reported that Baltimore traded infielder Nick Gordon to the Royals with Jacob Calvin Meyer of The Baltimore Sun later reporting that cash was sent back to the Orioles in this deal.

Gordon, who was the fifth overall pick in the 2014 draft, has not had the career that many expected.

The best performance of his career came in 2022 with the Minnesota Twins when he slashed .272/.316/.427 and hit nine homers to go along with 50 RBI and an OPS+ of 111.

That was his second year of Major League Baseball, so it looked like he was going to reach the ceiling that comes with being a first-round pick. However, he fractured his tibia in May of 2023, which limited him to just 34 games where he posted an abysmal OPS+ of 35.

Gordon was traded to the Miami Marlins ahead of this past season, and he struggled to produce once again.

Now 29 years old, he signed a minor league contract with Baltimore this winter in hopes that he could play his way into the mix at some point.

But with Gunnar Henderson now activated off the injured list and Ramon Urias performing well in his utility role, the Orioles decided to get some cash back by trading Gordon to Kansas City.

How this newfound money gets spent will be seen, but Baltimore has now boosted their war chest in preparation for a potential deadline blockbuster.

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