Among the 16 minor leaguers that the Orioles acquired at this year’s trade deadline, five of them can be found among Baltimore’s top 30 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline. Slater de Brun, selected with the draft pick acquired by sending Bryan Baker to the Rays, makes six. 

de Brun and Boston Bateman, the headliner of the trade that sent Ryan O’Hearn and Ramón Laureano to the Padres, are both ranked in the top 10. Juaron Watts-Brown joins a group of excellent starting pitching prospects in Double-A. 

But it’s three unranked deadline acquisitions, Anthony Nunez, Tyson Neighbors and Cameron Foster, that could make the biggest impacts in Baltimore next season. 

Why, then, are the three pitching prospects relatively unheralded?

Typically, in prospect rankings, more stock is put into arms with a starter’s upside than those that are already coming out of the bullpen in the minor leagues. If the starter fails to reach his potential, the “fallback” is in the bullpen. 

The rear view mirror is the best place for the Orioles’ 2025 season to be. 

With a 75-87 record, Baltimore found itself in the cellar of the American League East. Forty-one different O’s threw a pitch, and 35 took a swing. 

Trevor Rogers, the Most Valuable Oriole, was the team’s best player. Gunnar Henderson’s “down” season still resulted in 5.4 bWAR, according to Baseball Reference, but too many core position players followed that troubling, slumping trend. Just two regulars finished the season with an OPS of .700 or better, and nobody cracked 20 home runs. 

Those results are, now, in the past. The road that lies ahead is what’s important. 

That’s what we discussed on this week’s edition of “The Bird’s Nest,” which you can watch and listen to here. 

“I thought that tied it!”

My grandfather, with a chuckle, quickly realized from the reactions around him that Dylan Beavers had just won the game for the Orioles in the bottom of the ninth, and had not, in fact, just tied things up. 

Baltimore came roaring back in the eighth, highlighted by Coby Mayo’s two-run home run, but complimented by the less highlight-worthy Ryan Mountcastle run scored on a wild pitch. With things knotted in the ninth, Beavers only needed one pitch to send Orioles fans home happy. 

That feeling of elation, shared by my Pop and O’s fans that had come to Camden Yards to put a bow on the 2025 season, was one that they hadn’t felt as often as they would’ve liked at their favorite ballpark. The victory improved Baltimore’s home record to 39-42, even if some walkoffs felt as if they should count as an extra crooked number in the win column. 

But among the 81, No. 81 itself carries a different weight. 

The 2025 season hasn’t gone the way that anyone had hoped. 

At 73-81, the Orioles are likely on their way to a losing season, playing spoiler rather than contender. Just two active members of Baltimore’s roster have played more than 85 games, and only two pitchers have started more than 20 contests. 

Yet, despite disappointing results, there have been no shortage of positive stories. This week on “The Bird’s Nest,” we broke down some of our favorites. 

If you missed this week’s show, you can watch the full episode here: https://masn.me/v3mmyrwe. 

Trevor Rogers 

TORONTO – The O’s bullpen doesn’t have set roles. 

More often than not, you’ll see arms like Keegan Akin, Yennier Cano and Rico Garcia in the later innings. Unproven names like Grant Wolfram and Kade Strowd are working to gain trust, but aren’t quite established yet. 

It leaves Baltimore, and interim manager Tony Mansolino, playing the matchup game more often than not, trying to win with finesse and tactics.

That chess match becomes far more interesting in a bullpen game. 

This afternoon, the O’s bullpen didn’t come out on top in the game of chess, and Baltimore fell 11-2. 

TORONTO – On a given day in 2024, you never knew what you would see from Albert Suárez. 

On May 22 of last year, he tossed two-thirds of an inning against the Cardinals in high-leverage bullpen work. Three days later, he started against the White Sox, tossing four scoreless. 

It was the same story later that season. To kick off August, the right-hander came out of the bullpen for an inning and two-thirds only to follow it up with five shutout innings with six strikeouts against the Toronto Blue Jays. 

That’s exactly what the O’s are hoping for out of Suárez this afternoon, who starts in Toronto after appearing in the 10th inning in his last outing. 

“If you get him up to five, I think you’re probably doing a pretty good job right there,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said of Suárez’s upcoming outing. “I think he got up to five in one of his rehab starts. That’s a while ago. He hasn’t built up that high. I think here with us, probably, three innings is what he’s got. Albert has a tendency to be efficient at times and he can get some outs quick. If all goes well and he gets to the fifth, that would be great. If something went crazy and somehow he got into the sixth, it would be incredible.” 

TORONTO – For the last few weeks, the Orioles had been the ones doing the walkoffs. 

In fact, Baltimore had won four consecutive games in that fashion back at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. 

This afternoon in Toronto, though, Baltimore was on the other side of things in a 5-4 loss. 

The Gatorade was far less cold.

Alejandro Kirk was the hero for the Blue Jays with a walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth as Toronto stormed back with four runs in the final two innings of play. 

TORONTO – The legacy of three active pitchers in Major League Baseball towers above the rest. 

Between them, they have combined for nine Cy Young awards and two Most Valuable Player awards, the last pitchers not named Shohei Ohtani to win that honor since Dennis Eckersley in 1992. 

They’re the only active pitchers in the game with over 200 career wins. They’re also the only trio to each accumulate over 3,000 strikeouts over their Hall of Fame careers. 

Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer have another thing in common, too: They’re the last three starters to oppose Tomoyuki Sugano. 

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Sugano is set to become the second pitcher in O’s history to face a 200-game winner in three consecutive outings, joining Dave Schmidt in 1987, who faced Bert Blyleven twice and Joe Niekro. So, Sugano will actually become the first Oriole to face three different 200-game winners consecutively. 

TORONTO – Trevor Rogers’ early exit from tonight’s game due to left toe discomfort, and the subsequent questions that followed in the brief absence of that injury update, perfectly summed up his recent stretch of dominance. 

The lefty wasn’t his sharpest tonight in Toronto. He walked four batters, contributing to more traffic on the basepaths than we’re accustomed to seeing, and had to work through lengthy innings. 

He didn’t allow an earned run in five innings of work. 

And yet, given Rogers’ standards and the level to which he’s raised the bar, many were left pondering what went wrong. 

That’s the luxurious viewpoint that we’re able to have on Rogers, whose mastery on the mound has made elite outings commonplace and merely good outings surprising. 

TORONTO – On Aug. 1, the Orioles’ outfield no longer included Cedric Mullins, a mainstay in center field since his breakout 2021 campaign. The next day, right-fielder Tyler O’Neill was a late scratch from the lineup due to illness. And a few days later, after a collision with the wall, O’Neill hit the injured list with wrist inflammation. 

On Aug, 1, Jeremiah Jackson was called up to the big leagues after hitting a staggering .377 in 40 games with the Triple-A Norfolk Tides. Most anticipated that Jackson, who played 35 of those 40 games in the infield, would fill the role vacated by Ramón Urías. 

Instead, through 35 games with the Orioles, Jackson has spent 27 days in the depleted outfield and has mostly been patrolling right field, a position that he had played on just seven occasions as a minor leaguer. 

Today, Baltimore’s primary right fielder, O’Neill, returns from a rehab assignment. But don’t expect Jackson and his .829 OPS to just hit the bench. 

“We’ll see kind of where it goes,” Tony Mansolino said of his lineup upon O’Neill’s return. “It’ll be very day-to-day, and we’ll do the best we can with the lineup and get people in the right spots.”

Each year, in preparation for the MLB Draft, MLB Pipeline ranks their 250 best draft-eligible prospects. From the college ranks to the high school prep class, this list is filled with names that could change the outlook of an organization’s future. 

In 2024, that list included the O’s first-round pick Vance Honeycutt, ranked No. 22 among the 250. Griff O’Ferrall came in at No. 38, and his college roommate Ethan Anderson was 40 spots below. The speedy Austin Overn, in Double-A Chesapeake with O’Ferrall and Anderson, checked in at No. 131, and Baltimore’s fifth-round-pick, Ryan Stafford, was ranked 175th. 

More often than not, there’s little conversation to be had about the prospects ranked outside of this list. 

Baseball America takes things a step further, though, ranking 500 prospects before draft season. Coming in at No. 272 was an “under-the-radar prep prospect” hailing from Illinois with a commitment to Northwest Florida: Nate George. 

The center fielder and his raw skillset fell to the 16th round of the 2024 Draft, and that’s where the Orioles selected him, swaying him away from his college commitment. 

From hot dogs’ validity as a sandwich to drawing up the best starting 11 if the Orioles were fielding a soccer team, all bases were covered in Episode 100 of “The Bird’s Nest.” We talked about some baseball, too. 

If you didn’t get the chance to tune in, you can watch the full episode here: https://masn.me/tc1q2qs8 

As we did on the show, let’s start with the fun ones. 

If you both were stranded on an island and could listen to only one album, which one would it be? And is lasagna a casserole?

I have no idea how to pronounce the name of the person that asked this question. Roch? Strange spelling. 

Three minutes into episode 229 of the “MASN Orioles Podcast,” Paul Mancano and I reveled in the Baltimore Orioles’ 15-7 start to the 2023 campaign. 

The Birds had come a long way from the start of the podcast, with shows like Episode 12, titled “What can the O’s get for Manny,” and Episode 66 named “Fill in LeBlanc.” 

Gone were the days of Episode 123, highlighted by Adam Plutko’s addition to the roster, or Episode 157, discussing how Baltimore had claimed Lucius Fox and left Robert Neustrom III unprotected from the Rule 5 draft. 

Instead, the main topics of discussion for episode 226 included Yennier Cano’s outstanding start to the 2023 season, and Jackson Holliday’s promotion to High-A Aberdeen after hitting close to .400 for the Delmarva Shorebirds. 

40 minutes and 35 seconds in, Paul said his goodbyes. 

The American League Cy Young race is one of the two-man variety, coming down to the wire between Detroit’s Tarik Skubal and Boston’s Garrett Crochet. 

The latter has been dominant in a Red Sox uniform, posting a 2.38 ERA and over 11 strikeouts per nine innings entering this afternoon’s contest against the Orioles. 

The O’s were lucky to avoid Crochet for a two-game series up in Fenway. They didn’t get so lucky in this afternoon’s series finale in OPACY. 

In a game that Crochet starts, you’re fortunate to not be trailing when he leaves. That’s where the Orioles found themselves entering the seventh inning, all knotted at two. 

But it was the Red Sox bullpen that got the best of the Orioles, blanking the birds' bats in the final three innings. The Sox were able to push one run across in the eighth, and that was all they needed. The O's fell 3-2 and were swept in this four-game series. 

“Steal bases I guess, I don’t know,” first-round pick Ike Irish answered with a laugh. 

“Steal bases, the first thing out of the catcher’s mouth, huh?” I replied with a chuckle. I had asked Irish, the No. 19 pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, if he had any goals for the remainder of his first professional season. 

“Hit the ball hard and steal bases,” he doubled down. “And outside of that, have fun.” 

That element won’t be missing for MLB Pipeline’s second-best Orioles prospect. The catcher/outfielder/first-baseman hybrid is keeping things light after being drafted just a few months ago. 

It’s the message the organization has sent him, too. 

The trade deadline is a date that looms large for any professional baseball player, whether you’re at the big league level or working your way through the minor leagues. 

Very few are truly safe from any kind of movement. 

Those feeling the least secure would include anyone in the Padres organization and rising arms in the system of a winning ballclub. 

Juaron Watts-Brown, a starting pitcher in the Blue Jays’ Double-A affiliate, found himself in the latter category as the calendar inched towards August. 

“We all thought it was a possibility,” Watts-Brown told me ahead of Double-A Chesapeake’s matchup with Richmond yesterday. “Me and a couple of other guys, a couple of other guys that got traded, there was talk of like, ‘the Blue Jays are doing well, they’re probably going to go get a few pieces and we could be part of those package trades.’

HOUSTON – “For a lot of the year, for the first month and a half, there were a lot of nights when we probably looked like the worst team in major league baseball,” Tony Mansolino said after Friday night’s dominant win over the Astros. 

“We were probably 30th of 30 how we played the first month and a half. Tonight, for nine innings, we looked like the best team in baseball in all facets of the game. On the mound, defensively, and then also at the plate.” 

Today, the Orioles excelled in all facets once again in a dominant 12-0 victory. 

"The Friday night game, the game today, we’ve played really well, and we’ve played well for a while now," the interim skipper said today. 

After taking two of three against a playoff-caliber Mariners team, they took two of three against a playoff-caliber Astros team. Baltimore didn’t play favorites with who they want to win the American League West. 

HOUSTON – All eyes are on the future of the Orioles. Calling up one of the best prospects in baseball only fuels that fire. 

On Friday, Brandon Young came within four outs of a perfect game. Yesterday, Dylan Beavers made his long-anticipated debut. 

And today, for the grand finale, Samuel Basallo, the No. 8 prospect in the game, according to MLB Pipeline, puts on an Orioles jersey for the very first time in the big leagues. 

His dad was the one to call and tell him that he had made the Show. 

“There’s no better feeling than getting that phone call from your family,” Basallo said this morning, via interpreter Brandon Quinones. “My dad is very special to me, he means a lot to me. To get that phone call from him and from my family, it means everything.” 

HOUSTON – The August schedule isn't an easy one for Baltimore. 

With inexperience everywhere, the O's have had to face the two crown jewels of the American League West, the Mariners and Astros, in two consecutive series. 

Baltimore took two of three against Seattle. And after taking game one in Houston, the Birds fought tooth and nail in Game 2. 

In the end, though, it was Houston that came away with a 5-4 victory in 12 innings. 

And, of course, it was Ramón Urías. Last night, the former Oriole broke up Brandon Young's perfect game bid. Tonight, he walked it off. Another slow dribbler to third, and another heartbreaker. 

HOUSTON – The second half of the Orioles’ 2025 season won’t go the way that many had expected. 

Baltimore won’t be competing for an American League East crown, nor will O’s fans be keeping an eye on wild card playoff spots. Instead, the excitement will come from memorable moments, encouraging signs for the future, and individual accomplishments. 

Last night, Brandon Young provided the excitement. The rookie tossed 7 ⅔ innings of perfect baseball before surrendering his first hit with one out to go in the eighth. He did so in front of family and friends, who made the short trip from Lumberton, TX to watch Young deliver the best start of his young career. 

Today, it’s Dylan Beavers who provides the excitement, making his MLB debut as one of the O’s most anticipated prospect promotions. 

“It’s super exciting,” Beavers said this afternoon. “It’s what I’ve kind of been working for my entire life. But there’s nerves, too, kind of uncertainty in not knowing when it’s going to happen. A little bit of a mixed bag of emotions, but yeah, exciting.”