Cardinals Traded Jack Flaherty To Orioles

In an effort to strengthen a starting rotation that has helped the Orioles take the lead in the American League East but now faces fatigue concerns heading into the stretch run, Baltimore acquired right-hander Jack Flaherty from the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday.

The Orioles had a chance to be one of baseball’s more aggressive clubs before the trade deadline because to a low budget and a stockpile of prospects, especially position players. In the end, they decided to hang onto their most highly regarded minor league players and sign Flaherty, a 27-year-old who would be a free agent after this season.

Orioles general manager Mike Elias stated, “We need help with the innings load down the stretch. Many of our young starters have never performed this task before. We simply needed pitching aid of all shapes and sizes because we have wounded and worn-out members of our relief corps.

For the Cardinals, who are buried in last place in the National League Central, Flaherty went 7-6 with a 4.43 ERA this season. On Sunday, St. Louis also traded Jordan Montgomery, a left-hander, to Texas.

In exchange for Flaherty, the Orioles handed up infielder César Prieto, pitchers Drew Rom on the left and Zack Showalter on the right. MLB Pipeline ranks Prieto as Baltimore’s No. 16 prospect and Rom as its No. 18, but the Orioles didn’t trade any of their other eight top-100-ranked prospects.

“The top of our prospect list is as good as there is out there,” stated Elias. “Removing people from that section of the list took a while.”

However, the Orioles ultimately chose to make a smaller trade instead of trading any of their most highly regarded prospects.

Many of the teams were “really fixated” on the guys we had, who, in our opinion, weren’t acceptable to be included in those trades, Elias said. “That’s part of the reason this came up for us at the last minute,”

In 27 games for Triple-A Norfolk this year, the 24-year-old Prieto hit.317, and the 23-year-old Rom had a 7-6 record and a 5.34 ERA. For Class A Delmarva, the 19-year-old Showalter had a 2.37 ERA and a 0-2 record.