Dillon Atkinson: Orioles need to be extremely active on summer trade market

The July 31 non-waiver trade deadline is two months away, and it will be the time of year where every baseball fan is refreshing his or her social media feed, waiting to see what blockbusters are going down around the league. The Orioles have made a few noteworthy moves prior to the non-waiver trade deadline in years past: They traded Eduardo Rodriguez to the Red Sox for Andrew Miller in 2014, sent Zach Davies to the Brewers for Gerado Parra in 2015, and dealt Jonah Heim to the Rays for Steve Pearce and Ariel Miranda to the Mariners for Wade Miley in 2016.

This year, it's unclear at this point whether the Orioles will be buyers or sellers, as we'll have to wait to see what the next two months hold for the Birds in the standings. But one thing is for sure. The club needs to make a bigger push in trades this summer. The contracts of Miley, Chris Tillman, Welington Castillo, Hyun Soo Kim, J.J. Hardy, Seth Smith and Ubaldo Jiménez expire after this season. Manny Machado, Adam Jones, Zach Britton, Brad Brach, manager Buck Showalter and executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette have expiring contracts at the end of next season. So it's safe to assume that the window of contention for this club is closing, and it's going to be slammed shut very soon. So what exactly do I mean by a bigger push?

Well, if the club puts its May struggles behind it and plays well enough to stay in postseason contention, it could use some help in multiple areas, whether it be the starting rotation, the bullpen, or maybe finding a more productive shortstop or utility man. With a window closing and possibly having just one last shot to make a run, the Orioles should not have anyone in the organization listed as untouchable. Top prospects in the organization such as Chance Sisco, Ryan Mountcastle, Cody Sedlock, Keegan Akin, Tanner Scott, Jomar Reyes and a couple of others could be brought up in trade discussions, and the Birds can't hang up the phone or be too greedy with them. And for those wondering, as I said in my last guest blog, I wouldn't make Trey Mancini untouchable. For the right price, it could be worth letting him go to improve the club in another area.

If the O's struggles continue and they fall below .500 and out of contention, they can't just stay put in mid-to-late July. At that point, the closing window will already be slammed shut and the team will need to build for the future. The club would then need to auction off its veteran players to teams willing to part ways with young talent to make a postseason run. Tillman, Brach, Castillo and Miley are four of many veterans who should be pushed by the O's front office in trade discussions, while also listening to all offers for Machado, Britton and Jones. I know the thought of trading away any of the latter three seems absolutely insane. But if the Orioles cannot reach contract extensions with them and/or plan to contend in 2018, then the club should part ways with them in order to build for the future. Letting Machado and Britton play all of 2018 in an Orioles uniform and then letting them walk in free agency would sting a whole lot more than getting young talent in return for them beforehand.

The Orioles will face tough organizational decisions in July, on whether the club is a true postseason contender or if it's too much of a long shot. Whether they decide to be buyers or sellers at the deadline is yet to be seen. But whichever route they decide, they cannot take it lightly. The club needs to either trade off young talent to make one final legitimate postseason run, or they need to sell high on all of their veterans to jumpstart the rebuilding process in hopes to bring contention back to Baltimore sooner rather than later down the road. If the club both misses the playoffs and fails to build for the future, the Birds could be setting up for multiple depressing seasons in Baltimore.

Dillon Atkinson blogs about the Orioles for Orioles Uncensored. Follow him on Twitter: @DAtkinsonOU. His thoughts on the O's appear here as part of MASNsports.com's continuing commitment to welcome guest bloggers to our little corner of cyberspace. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.