Insider Hints Baltimore Orioles No Longer Involved in Cease Trade Discussions

For a while, it seemed like the Baltimore Orioles landing an ace this offseason was inevitable.

They have the best farm system in the game and could put together the most appealing package to land elite players available on the trade market.

Based on what the Chicago White Sox were asking for Dylan Cease, the Orioles were one of the few who could match that.

However, Mike Elias doesn't just give his star prospects away, even for one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball who's one season removed from being Cy Young runner-up and is a perennial 200-plus strikeout guy.

Cease would certainly slot into their No. 1 spot with Kyle Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez rounding out the top three.

That would have been formidable.

Instead, entering February, the rotation has lost 192 innings of production and has questions about who will even be in it.

Baltimore still has time to get something done, but Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY hints that they are officially done with the Cease sweepstakes and have turned their attention elsewhere.

"If the White Sox can't complete a trade with the Mariners, they are expected to open the season with Cease. They could revisit trade talks with teams towards the July 30 trade deadline or wait to see if a team becomes desperate with a sudden injury," he reports.

That seems to be standard with what other Orioles insiders have reported.

The asking price was just too high for Elias and his front office to feel comfortable parting ways with as many talented prospects that it would take to land the right-hander.

Baltimore is comfortable with the one-two punch of Bradish and Rodriguez going forward and don't feel like they need to overpay for Cease.

Nightengale doesn't explicitly say the Orioles are done with the trade talks, but he's alluding to the Seattle Mariners being the only team still at the negotiating table as Spring Training is right around the corner.

It will be seen if Baltimore gets back involved at the trade deadline, but it seems like this entire Cease saga was much ado about nothing.