Baltimore Orioles Reportedly Were Interested in Landing Reigning Cy Young Winner

With the trade deadline now in the past, some information has come out regarding which teams were interested in what player, and it sounds like the Baltimore Orioles were eyeing a huge deal.

Jul 22, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Blake Snell (7) delivers to the plate in the second inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Now that the trade deadline has passed, the Baltimore Orioles largely have their group set in stone for their second-half stretch.

Knowing they primarily needed to add starting pitchers because of the injuries they are dealing with, the front office was able to accomplish that goal by getting two veterans in Zach Eflin and Trevor Rogers.

They also made some bullpen upgrades, adding two flamethrowers to the mix as that unit has started to have more and more question marks throughout the course of the season.

While the Orioles were able to plug many of their holes on paper, they didn't pull off the blockbuster deal that many around the league were hoping they would with Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet getting floated as possibilities for them to pursue.

Instead, Mike Elias leaned into his past strategy of holding onto their elite prospects and going after some stopgap solutions who can help them in the immediate future while still keeping their perceived World Series window wide open.

While some fans might be disappointed in the lack of aggression, the result of their deadline apparently wasn't for a lack of trying.

MLB insider Jon Heyman shared on "B/R Walk-Off" that Baltimore was one of six teams who reached out to the San Francisco Giants about the availability of the reigning NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell.

Nothing came to fruition, but it is interesting to hear that this was a call they made.

What they might have offered the Giants isn't known, but based on them holding onto many of their players when they were viewed as potential sellers, it would suggest they were looking for a haul to give up their ace.

Again, that's not something the Orioles had any interest in doing.

Perhaps they offered the Giants the same package it took to land Rogers from the Miami Marlins as they dealt current top prospect Connor Norby and former top prospect Kyle Stowers to get that done.

For a team like the Marlins, that return more than made sense as they underwent a fire sale at the deadline to get back multiple future assets as they seemingly are ready to rebuild again after making the playoffs last season.

San Francisco doesn't view themselves that way, hoping a healthy version of Snell can power them into the playoffs with a hot close to the year.

So, while the results might be disappointing regarding the lack of star power that was brought to Baltimore for the back half of the season, that doesn't mean Elias and his front office weren't looking to get something done.