The Orioles kept selling on deadline day, sending their steadiest reliever to Tampa Bay for a pitching prospect they drafted and developed.
The Baltimore Orioles were not done dealing on Monday, sending right-handed reliever Tyler Wells to the Tampa Bay Rays hours before the 6 p.m. deadline, a move first reported by ESPN's Jeff Passan.
The return is pitching prospect Michael Forret, a 22 year old the Orioles drafted, developed and traded away less than eight months ago.
Wells had become the steadiest arm in a banged up Baltimore bullpen, which made him one of the most obvious trade chips once the season went sideways.
Why Baltimore Traded Wells
Wells is having the best year of his career at 31, and his value was never going to be higher.
He leaves with a 2.67 ERA, a 0.96 WHIP and four saves across 54 innings, and he allowed two earned runs in all of July while handling the ninth inning with Ryan Helsley on the injured list.
Tampa Bay also gets more than a rental here, since Wells stays under club control through the 2027 season, and that extra year pushed the price up to a real prospect.
It caps a strange Baltimore run for Wells, who missed most of two seasons after elbow surgery before coming back as a genuine bullpen weapon this year.
A Familiar Name Comes Back
Forret went to Tampa Bay in December as part of the package for Shane Baz, a trade that also sent Caden Bodine, Slater de Brun and Austin Overn out of the organization.
Baltimore originally took him in the 14th round of the 2023 draft, and he broke out in the system last season with a 1.58 ERA and 91 strikeouts over 74 innings between High-A and Double-A.
The Rays moved him up to Triple-A Durham in June, and he entered deadline day ranked as the No. 8 prospect in one of the deepest farm systems in baseball.
He should be a starter who is close to big league ready, so Baltimore just clawed back part of the Baz price while Baz settles into its rotation.
Why the Orioles Are Selling
Baltimore sits at 54-58, fourth in the American League East and 11.5 games behind these same Rays, who own the best record in the league.
The wild card race looks closer at 2.5 games out, but four teams sit ahead of the Orioles in that chase and Detroit is tied with them.
The Wells trade came the same day Baltimore sent Adley Rutschman to Boston for a package built around pitching prospect Anthony Eyanson, after Mike Elias publicly shot down the idea of moving his catcher earlier.
Taylor Ward is off to Seattle and Dean Kremer to Minnesota as well, so this is a full reset of the veteran group rather than one hard goodbye.
The future now runs through Samuel Basallo behind the plate once he is healthy, plus new arms like Forret, Eyanson and Kyson Witherspoon, who all joined the system in one afternoon.
Wells gets a pennant race out of this, while Baltimore walks away holding a pitcher it probably never wanted to give up in the first place.
