Biggest Winners and Losers From the Orioles Adley Rutschman Trade

It was time for Adley Rutschman to go.

A strong case could have been made for doing it in the offseason, with him blocked at first base by new free agent signing Pete Alonso and with a 21-year-old catching phenom signing a long-term extension with the club (Samuel Basallo). And certainly with baseball failure Mike Elias still in charge of building another Frankenstein roster that wouldn’t come close to competing for anything real, and with Elias proclaiming it would challenge to win the AL East, we knew where this was going all along.

Even when the "insiders"' refused to put Adley as a top 100 trade target at the deadline, we told you on "The Daily Flock Show" for months on end where this story ended.

Boston is going to be quite an environment for Rutschman, and count me among those who think the pressure might be a bit too much for him. Especially with Beantown awash in Red Sox hype now. The fallout of this blockbuster - headlined by Red Sox starting pitching prospects Anthony Eyanson and Kyson Witherspoon - within the division will be deep and fascinating. Here are the biggest winners and losers from the transaction:

Biggest Losers

Orioles fans – Not only were they gaslit and lied to about Rutschman’s prowess and powers while the organization enabled and co-signed a two-year rot from him and the entire team, but the fact that Elias, conman that he is, will have the industry gushing about how much he got here even further solidifies the fact he probably isn’t going anywhere despite being an utter failure as a baseball exec and communicator and leader.

Owner David Rubenstein was setting Birdland up for the firesale when he finally came out of hiding to take questions last week as we explained. He cares about the bottom line and Elias is a wannabe private equity guy and they are running a grift on you. Even though he landed more than I thought he could getting three very legit prospects for a fallen catcher, he needed to be fired after the 2023 trade deadline, the first time I publicly expressed as much.

Rutschman – If you thought you had it tough before son, being a first overall pick and all, well, it just got real. It’s not going to be nearly as forgiving up there with a real media core and you are now expected to do damage in the playoffs, not just get there. Brand new pitching staff to learn on the fly. Burden of expectations never brought out the best in him here once the standard rose beyond being a fun-time, feel good story. I have concerns.

Can he stay healthy? Will the contract situation bring him down? Can he handle the increased scrutiny? He should be able to smash the Green Monster and hit a ton of doubles, but I suspect this doesn’t go nearly as swimmingly as he would hope.

Eyanson and Witherspoon – Sorry kids, you just went from an organization that has been pumping out starters like crazy and having them exceed expectations to one that can’t get much of anything right. So many blown out arms around here and the same mooks likely in charge moving forward, if Elias isn’t fired.

Will they get the infrastructure and expertise they need to excel? Especially Witherspoon, as he was having a difficult time adjusting to pro ball and replicating his delivery and harnessing his command.

Biggest Winners

Basallo – Rutschman didn’t really want to be stuck in purgatory here and he was never the right kind of true veteran catcher role model for him. Elias and his puppet managers were always going to genuflect to Adley and the double standards around here were sickening. Even as Adley moped around and hid from the media while his willing conduits in the media pushed absolute BS about his impact.

That’s over. It’s Sammy’s team now in terms of young players with real talent and true runway. Veteran catcher Carlos Narvaez is just fine working with him. No more walking on egg shells and having to hit behind Adley even though Adley stopped slugging the ball in June 2024. So fired up for him. Kid has busted his ass and no catcher in MLB history under the age of 22 has shown his power.

Coby Mayo – Adley was a total and complete failure as a DH the last two years – 1 HR and 17 RBI in 52 games doing it. And he did it more than any other Oriole in that span. Mayo can’t play third and with Christian Encarnacion-Strand planted there now and Blaze Alexander maybe back at some point, too, he’s blocked. But with Adley out of the picture, hopefully this kid gets a few more shots against righties and he damn sure better be in the starting lineup against every lefty.

Matt Wieters – Dude wasn’t flashy but caught 135-140 games a year and produced way better power numbers (and slightly better overall numbers) than Adley in doing it. Stayed away from the kind of long fielding slumps Adley succumbed to. And he truly anchored pitching staffs and brought out the best in starters (Kyle Bradish was better with James McCann and Trevor Rogers was better with Sammy) and he was a pitbull on the field and he actually won things that mattered. Like in the playoffs. Adley ain’t him, by a long shot.

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