PHILADELPHIA – The Orioles reinstated left-hander Cade Povich from the injured list today and he gets the ball to start a three-game series against the Phillies.

That wasn’t the only move.

Infielder/outfielder Vidal Bruján was activated and he’s wearing No. 40. The Orioles claimed him yesterday.

The counter moves were optioning reliever Houston Roth and outfielder Jordyn Adams. Roth didn’t make his major league debut before departing.

Povich has a 5.15 ERA and 1.500 WHIP in 13 games (12 starts). His only relief appearance came on June 15, with 3 2/3 scoreless innings before going on the IL with left hip inflammation.

Attempts to get comfortable with the structure of the Orioles’ roster is time wasted. The changes and debuts are coming at a dizzying pace.

The Orioles set a club record by using 62 players in the 110-loss 2021 season. The total is 55 this year and they have infielder/outfielder Vidal Bruján and relievers Elvin Rodríguez and Houston Roth waiting for their first chance. Bruján will meet the team in Philadelphia.

Terrin Vavra received his first at-bat Saturday since 2023, and before the Orioles designated him for assignment the following day. He just made it under the wire.

A corresponding move is pending with Bruján. Vavra seemed to be the most likely player to go but he’s already out the door. Shortstop Luis Vázquez could be vulnerable.

Jeremiah Jackson has started in right field the past two games and he’s hit, moving up to fifth in the order yesterday. The ground beneath his feet might be more solid.

CHICAGO – A post-trade deadline world involves a lot of moving pieces. 

The Orioles will take chances on waiver claims and young talent, hoping to find diamonds in the rough. 

Who knows if Ryan Noda will be a flier that becomes a piece. This afternoon, though, he was a ninth-inning hero. One of two, but we'll get to that.

With the O's down 3-2 and down to their final out, Noda brought Colton Cowser home to tie the game at three. 

But the heroics, and the good feelings it brought, were short lived. The Cubs walked it off in the ninth, and the Orioles fell 5-3. 

The trade deadline left plenty of room for the Orioles to add players to their 26- and 40-man rosters. It’s a byproduct of being sellers. Lots of subtractions allow for future additions.

Two more moves came this afternoon while the Orioles played the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias claimed infielder/outfielder Vidal Bruján, 27, on waivers from the Cubs. He hasn’t reported but should join the Orioles in Philadelphia.

Elias also claimed right-hander Carson Ragsdale, 27, from the Giants, and the Orioles optioned him to Triple-A Norfolk.

The 40-man roster has increased to 37 players.

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• Claimed INF/OF Vidal Bruján off waivers from the Chicago Cubs. He has not yet reported.
• Claimed RHP Carson Ragsdale off waivers from the San Francisco Giants and optioned him to Triple-A Norfolk.

The Orioles’ 40-man roster currently has 37 players.

CHICAGO – The process was supposed to be smoother for Jeremiah Jackson. 

Entering the 2018 MLB Draft, the Alabama high schooler was the No. 57 prospect in the class, according to MLB Pipeline. They noted that the shortstop had been starting at that position for his high school team since the seventh grade, winning two state championships in the process. 

His upside was high enough for the Angels to make him the 57th pick in that year’s draft.

Jackson hit the ground running with a .939 OPS in 65 games in rookie ball in 2019. In 2021, he advanced to Single-A, and finished that minor league season with an OPS over .900, too. 

But then, in Double-A, he hit a road block. 

The latest roster move this morning brings Ryan Noda to the visiting clubhouse at Wrigley Field.

Noda, claimed on waivers yesterday from the White Sox, has been recalled from Triple-A Norfolk. He’s wearing No. 41.

The Orioles designated infielder/outfielder Terrin Vavra for assignment.

The 40-man roster has 35 players.

Noda, 29, appeared in 16 games with the White Sox this season and went 3-for-34 with a home run and 10 strikeouts. He played in 128 games with the Athletics in 2023 and 36 in 2024 and is a career .204/.341/.357 hitter. He smacked 16 home runs with 54 RBIs and a .770 OPS in ’23.

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• Recalled 1B/OF Ryan Noda from Triple-A Norfolk. He will wear No. 41.
• Designated INF/OF Terrin Vavra for assignment.

The Orioles’ 40-man roster currently has 35 players.

The Orioles didn’t free up as much room in their rotation as anticipated at the deadline.

They also didn’t bring in a starter or reliever who would be assured of a roster spot in 2026, though they considered it. The role of seller comes with certain limits.

“Yeah, we definitely tried for that,” executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias said in Friday’s video call. “It’s a rental reliever, a rental player, and I say, ‘Hey, give me your major-league-ready starting pitcher that’s under control for six years,’ it’s just not a real likely trade to happen in that context. So rather than try to force that and either come away with nothing or come away with a guy that’s not very good, I think the right thing to do is get the most value back for the organization, and so that’s what we did.

“Obviously, we would have loved to do that, but you’ve got to be realistic and there’s just not a lot of major-league-ready starting pitchers being traded by teams that are right there in contention, especially for rental-type returns.”

Charlie Morton was in a late trade to the Tigers, but Elias didn’t move Zach Eflin or Tomoyuki Sugano. Eflin is on the injured list with lower back discomfort, his third trip but nothing that should keep him out for an extended stretch, and Sugano started yesterday and allowed three runs in five innings.

CHICAGO – For seven and two-thirds innings, things looked bleak for the Orioles' offense. 

Yesterday, the Birds were blanked in nine innings. Trevor Rogers' eight-inning complete game, allowing just one run, was for naught. 

This afternoon, it looked as if the Orioles would squander another solid pitching performance. Baltimore had allowed just three earned runs in seven innings, and the offense was, once again, shut out. 

For over sixteen innings, the O's offense was lifeless. 

A three-run home run from Gunnar Henderson in the eighth inning changed everything, and the Orioles walked away victorious, 4-3. 

CHICAGO – For years, the Orioles’ rebuild afforded them the opportunity to find diamonds in the rough. 

You know the story here. Cedric Mullins wasn’t a highly touted prospect as a 13th-round pick out of Campbell, but became Baltimore’s everyday center fielder. John Means was selected in round 11. Anthony Santander was a Rule 5 draft pick that turned into an All-Star. Ramón Urías was a waiver claim. 

For the last few seasons, dart throws like that wouldn’t have found much playing time in Baltimore. Even top prospects like Coby Mayo have had to wait patiently for more playing time. 

But after a deadline in which the Orioles traded away nine big leaguers, the final two months of the 2025 season give the O’s roster a familiar feeling: opportunity. 

“Weird to think that I’m sitting at the most service time down there now,” Keegan Akin joked about the O’s bullpen. 

The Orioles filled the last opening on their 26-man roster this morning by activating left-hander Dietrich Enns. He’s in the bullpen for this afternoon’s game against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Enns is wearing No. 71.

Today’s lineup has the same nine players but the order and positions are altered.

Jeremiah Jackson, who collected his first major league hit yesterday, is the right fielder instead of designated hitter, a role filled today by Tyler O’Neill. Mayo is batting sixth instead of seventh.

Dylan Carlson remains in center field, with Colton Cowser in left.

The Orioles wouldn’t budge.

Talks with the Padres leading to the trade deadline took multiple shapes. First baseman Ryan O’Hearn and outfielder Ramón Laureano could be dealt separately or packaged. Different prospects were discussed. The whole thing would have fallen apart if the Guardians accepted an offer for Steven Kwan.

To make it work for the Orioles, they had to get left-hander Boston Bateman. He was the potential deal-breaker.

I’ve heard that the Padres were reluctant to part with him. They tried other combinations to avoid losing their No. 4 prospect. The Orioles had to include Laureano, whose contract contains a $6.5 million option for next season. And they had to stay patient and stick to their demand.

The six minor leaguers who came to the Orioles are products of the 2024 draft – Bateman in the second round, infielder Cobb Hightower in the third, pitcher Tyson Neighbors in the fourth, shortstop Brandon Butterworth in the 12^th, pitcher Tanner Smith in the 15^th, and first baseman Victor Figueroa in the 18^th.

CHICAGO – The message from interim manager Tony Mansolino and the players remaining in the Orioles clubhouse is clear: Yes, the trade deadline may have shaken things up, but the goal of winning a baseball game each day remains the same. 

The Orioles, with their young core still in place, believe they still have the talent to do just that. The names on the lineup card, particularly in the middle, have changed a bit, and Mansolino will need to get creative with a bullpen missing many of its established arms. 

But as Mansolino said pregame, there’s no time for licking wounds. There’s baseball to be played out in Chicago. 

Trevor Rogers was more than up to the challenge. The O's offense, though, couldn't find a rhythm in a 1-0 loss to the Cubs.

The lefty tossed the first complete-game loss for the Orioles since Chris Tillman did it back in 2013. 

CHICAGO – The usual nametags weren’t anywhere to be found in the visitor’s clubhouse this afternoon. 

There’s no Cedric Mullins, who patrolled center field in Baltimore for parts of eight seasons. Ryan O’Hearn and Ramón Urías won’t be digging into the infield dirt in Wrigley Field this weekend. The bullpen has about half of its normal arms. 

Things feel different. 

The Orioles’ farm got significantly better over the last month with an influx of talent from both the MLB Draft and trade deadline. That impact won’t be felt in the big leagues until those prospects either develop into major league talent themselves or are traded for established veterans. 

For now, the Orioles will be playing the rest of the 2025 season with a different cast of characters. It’s a good thing that Baltimore finds itself in “The Friendly Confines” with so many new faces. 

The 2025 trade deadline is over and the Orioles are left to play the final 53 games of their season with a roster that’s undergone a serious makeover and a room full of players who aren’t kidding about their intent to keep winning. 

Doing so just got a lot harder.

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias did what he felt was necessary in trading away nine players and aiming mostly at the lower levels of the farm system with the returns. It wasn’t supposed to be this way in 2025, but the Orioles tried to spin a negative into something positive.

“As we saw yesterday, we had a very active trade deadline,” Elias said earlier today in a video call that lasted almost 27 minutes. “We were in a position to have to sell because of a very disappointing first half with this team. I’ve spoken about it. This is not how we envisioned this season going and it’s something that we’re taking a hard look in the mirror about, about how we got here. I think a lot of it was bad luck, but there’s also stuff that we need to improve on as an organization, and we’re going to do that. But this is a business where there’s a lot of competition and we fell short in the first half.

“I think the team has played really well lately and we’ve gotten healthier, and we’ve seen the style of play and some of the success that we were hoping for in the last few weeks on the field. But looking at our record, our front office and our entire operation made a decision to sell at the deadline, and I think in the context of that, we are very pleased with the talent that we’ve received in return. And I think along with our draft, this has been an enormous injection of talent into the Orioles organization over the month of July.”

CHICAGO – The trade deadline has come and gone, and what a busy day it was. 

For most of us, anyway. Kevin Brown and I were stuck in an airport vying for a plane to Chicago for about six hours. 

The Orioles were certainly busy, though, trading away Cedric Mullins, Ryan O’Hearn, Ramón Laureano and Charlie Morton, adding to their previous deals sending Ramón Urías, Andrew Kittredge, Seranthony Domínguez, Gregory Soto and Bryan Baker out of town. 

On a lengthy edition of “The Bird’s Nest,” Annie Klaff and I broke down all of the deals in great detail. You can listen to the full episode here.

The biggest prospect returns came in the form of arms Boston Bateman and Juaron Watts-Brown, who joined the O’s top 30, according to MLB Pipeline, at spots six and nine, respectively. 

The Orioles filled the remaining openings on their roster this morning by selecting the contract of outfielder Jordyn Adams from Triple-A Norfolk and infielder Terrin Vavra from Double-A Chesapeake and recalling infielder Luis Vázquez from Norfolk.

The trio joins infielder Jeremiah Jackson and reliever Yaramil Hiraldo, who were recalled last night.

Ryan O’Hearn, Cedric Mullins and Ramón Laureano will be by their absences from today’s lineup against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Jordan Westburg has nine hits and seven runs scored over his last three games. He's likely the starting third baseman.

Left-hander Trevor Rogers has registered a 1.49 ERA and 0.786 WHIP in eight starts.

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• Recalled INF Luis Vázquez from Triple-A Norfolk.
• Selected the contract of OF Jordyn Adams from Double-A Chesapeake. He will wear No. 80.
• Selected the contract of INF Terrin Vavra Double-A Chesapeake. He will wear No. 54.

The Orioles’ 40-man roster currently has 35 players.

OK, so now what?

The Orioles traded center fielder Cedric Mullins to the Mets yesterday for three minor league relievers, first baseman/outfielder Ryan O’Hearn and outfielder Ramón Laureano to the Padres for six players drafted last year, and starter Charlie Morton to the Tigers for a left-hander also drafted last year, after they made earlier moves with relievers Bryan Baker, Gregory Soto, Seranthony Domínguez and Andrew Kittredge and infielder Ramón Urías. This isn’t an entirely new team, but it’s got a drastically different look heading into the weekend series against the Cubs.

The final count: Nine players traded and 17 received, including left-hander Dietrich Enns, who arrived for cash considerations and is expected in the visiting bullpen tonight at Wrigley Field. No one else among the newbies gets in without a ticket.

The bullpen is almost unrecognizable, and that perception is enhanced by Félix Bautista’s extended stay on the injured list. The inflammation in his right shoulder made an MRI inconclusive and it’s going to take a few more weeks to get a reading.

Yennier Cano and Keegan Akin should hold hands.