Recently Traded Orioles Reliever Blows Lead for His New Team

It wasn't a pretty debut for the former Baltimore Orioles reliever in his first outing with his new team.

Jul 10, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Tampa Bay Rays relief pitcher Bryan Baker (47) looks on from the mound during the seventh inning against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park | Eric Canha-Imagn Images

On Thursday, the Baltimore Orioles made a notable move by trading their reliever Bryan Baker to the Tampa Bay Rays.

It came as a surprise, with the Orioles previously stating they were waiting to decide if they were going to be sellers or not, only to turn around and ship out a bullpen arm who owned a 3.53 ERA across 42 outings.

Naturally, this trade brought on a ton of questions about if Baltimore was ready to waive the white flag.

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However, they turned around and won both games of the doubleheader on Thursday, beating the New York Mets by a combined score of 10-4 that earned them a series win.

For Baker, his day wasn't quite as good.

After making the trip up to Boston to join his new team on the road against the Boston Red Sox, the Rays wasted little time using the right-hander.

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With a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning, the former Orioles reliever was called upon for the first time, only to have a rough outing where he was credited with the loss after allowing three earned runs on two walks, a double and a single before the first out was recorded.

He bounced back to induce a pop out and ground out before striking out the final batter of the frame, but the damage had been done.

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Baker will be interesting to monitor for the rest of the year.

Baltimore got a future asset from this trade after acquiring a competitive balance pick in the upcoming 2025 draft that comes in at 37th overall, but if the Orioles are able to get hot and make a push for the playoffs, not having a key reliever the rest of the way could come back to haunt them.

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