O's try to tune out Trade Deadline noise, refocus on winning

TAMPA -- Though Jackson Holliday barreled the ball, he didn’t quite get all of it. But his Orioles have played enough games against the Rays at George M. Steinbrenner Field this year to know the 21-year-old’s fly ball hit to deep center field with two outs in the ninth inning could end up over the wall.

Instead of a go-ahead two-run home run, it was a flyout landing a Statcast-projected 401 feet away and into the glove of a jumping Chandler Simpson. Baltimore took a 4-3 defeat Saturday night to extend its losing streak to four games -- the final two before the All-Star break and the two since.

“I guess I just hit it a little bit too high,” Holliday said. “But I’ve seen some balls go out that have been hit a lot less hard than that here. So I thought I had a chance, but it just didn’t go far enough.”

Over the course of a 162-game season, one night -- or one week, even -- doesn’t matter too much in the big picture. But for the O’s (43-54), the past week has all but sealed their fate as likely sellers ahead of the Trade Deadline on July 31.

Eight days earlier, the Orioles won a series opener against the Marlins that trimmed their record to seven games below .500. It was their sixth victory in seven games, and it seemed they were making a final push to convince the front office to not deal key pieces later in the month.

The Trade Deadline now looms as a time at which Baltimore’s roster could look quite different.

“Obviously, we want everyone in this clubhouse to stay in this clubhouse,” Holliday said. “We’ve got to start winning games like that tonight and just stack day after day and see what happens. We need to start winning more, and obviously, we don’t want anyone in this room to get traded because I love every guy in this room. But yeah, we’ve got to start winning.”

Unfortunately for the O’s, it may have become a bit too late to change what is likely to happen.

The Orioles have 12 games to play before the Deadline. After Sunday’s series finale in Tampa, they’ll head to Cleveland for a four-game set. The O’s will then return to Baltimore for a seven-game homestand featuring matchups against the Rockies and Blue Jays.

If the Orioles win every game before July 31, they’d be one game above .500. The odds of a 12-game winning streak are low, however, especially for a club that has strung together more than three in a row only once (a six-game run from May 30-June 5).

No MLB team has made the postseason after winning 43 or fewer of its first 97 games.

Have players been putting pressure on themselves in an effort to prevent the possible sale?

“If you guys want to write the story that they’re feeling the pressure, then so be it. But for me, I think they’ve felt that pressure for two months, because we were up to 18 games under .500, and so, these guys have been playing under a ton of pressure for a while now,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “So if it’s the Trade Deadline pressure, then so be it. If it’s trying to get back in the pennant chase pressure, so be it. If it’s all the other pressure they have, then so be it.”

While teams on the selling side of the Trade Deadline listen to many offers this time of year, Baltimore is most likely to part with players on expiring contracts. Especially because general manager Mike Elias has already confirmed his intention on the team competing in 2026.

The Orioles’ best trade chips include All-Star designated hitter Ryan O’Hearn, center fielder Cedric Mullins and multiple pitchers, including starters Zach Eflin, Tomoyuki Sugano and Charlie Morton as well as relievers Seranthony Domínguez, Gregory Soto and Andrew Kittredge.

Eflin is on the 15-day injured list because of low back discomfort, but the 31-year-old right-hander is likely to return during the upcoming week. He knows what it’s like to be traded this time of year, as he was sent from Philadelphia to Baltimore ahead of the 2024 Deadline.

However, Eflin doesn’t believe it should impact how players approach games leading up to it.

“It can be [challenging], but you honestly can’t look at it like that. I got traded over here last year, it wasn’t easy moving with four kids in a matter of a day or two,” Eflin said. “But it is what it is. It’s part of the game, but I don’t think anybody’s really focused on that. We’re here to win and focusing on today.”