Orioles Boss Emphasizes That No Decision Has Been Made on Trade Deadline Plans

The Baltimore Orioles have a tough decision to make as MLB barrels towards the July 31 trade deadline date, and they look to be taking as much time as they can to do so.

Recent comments from Orioles general manager Mike Elias, per MASN's Roch Kubatko, suggest that the team has yet to make a plan on what to do at the deadline.

Preparations are being made on either side regarding sticking with the squad they have or becoming sellers.

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"I'm hoping that we aren't sellers, but we've got to realistic, look at the standings, look at how much time's left before the deadline, how much time is necessary to execute a deadline, because that's not one or two days," said Elias.

Baltimore's valley this season was at 16-34, which is where they were at about a month ago. Following Saturday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays, they are back to 35-47.

The Orioles started out hot in June, which is where some of the confidence that things could turn around must have come from, but they have started to slip again which has to hurt morale a little bit.

"We want to keep playing, keep giving this team that we think is very talented, but unfortunately has started off with a bad record, as much chance as we can," added the GM. "But we're gonna have to ultimately make a decision at some point here in July."

Every competitive team in the league will have their eyes fixed on whatever Baltimore decides to do, as they have some of the best talent expected to be made available.

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What seems like the best move on the surface would be to find a bit of a middle ground between the full-on fire sale that some suggested and a softer approach of just selling the players who are headed to free agency.

Guys like Felix Bautista, Ramon Urias and Ryan Mountcastle can stick around thanks to their arbitration years remaining. That would still leave them with plenty of valuable players to sell and bring in longer-term assets.

On offense, Cedric Mullins and Ryan O'Hearn project to be some of the more valuable bats available.

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O'Hearn has had a true breakout campaign as a first baseman and designated hitter. Through 68 games, he posted a .296/.383/.476 slash line with 11 home runs.

Mullins has had another dip in batting average, but has hit 12 home runs and has destroyed left-handed pitching this year with a .279/.389/.459 slash line.

Their pitching options that should be traded included Charlie Morton, Zach Eflin, Seranthony Dominguez and Gregory Soto.

It isn't the most exciting group of players, but they all could bring some sort of return that will salvage this disappointing season on some level.

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