Should the Baltimore Orioles Trade Colton Cowser?

Jeff Passan of ESPN reported on Tuesday that the Baltimore Orioles have had conversations involving Adley Rutschman, Jackson Holliday and Colton Cowser ahead of this year's trade deadline. 

There is a clear rationale for moving on from Rutschman and Holliday. Rutschman is entering unrestricted free agency after the 2027 season and the Orioles already have a capable long-term replacement in Samuel Basallo.  

As for Holliday, he has struggled across three seasons now and moving him at whatever value remains makes sense. Cowser is the most complicated case out of the three, and trading him now would mean selling at the lowest point of his career value. 

Since finishing runner-up in American League Rookie of the Year voting back in 2024, Cowser has really struggled to build on that debut. The 26-year-old outfielder entered Wednesday with a .205 batting average, .311 on-base percentage, .639 OPS, eight home runs and 27 RBIs across 95 games this year.  

From 2025 to 2026 combined he has totaled 24 home runs, the same amount he hit in his rookie season alone, suggesting his power has plateaued rather than developed the way Baltimore envisioned when they drafted him fifth overall in 2021. 

However, if the Orioles believe Cowser's best days are behind him, trading him could be the most practical path forward. Baltimore has the outfield depth to withstand his absence.  

Leody Taveras would likely take over center field duties, and Heston Kjerstad has been performing well enough at Triple-A Norfolk to warrant a promotion and a legitimate opportunity in the outfield at the big-league level. 

The question is whether this is the right time to make that call. Cowser was considered one of the game's brightest young outfielders before his promotion and dominated his rookie year in a way that suggested he was a key piece of this roster for years to come.  

He still has plenty of team control, not reaching free agency until 2030. That gives the organization a reason to be patient and allow him more time to rediscover the form that made him such a coveted prospect in the first place rather than selling low on a player who may still have more to give. 

It will ultimately come down to how aggressively president of baseball operations Mike Elias wants to approach this deadline and whether he views this as a selling opportunity or simply a chance to add pieces while keeping the core of the roster intact.