The Orioles and right-hander Shane Baz are finalizing a five-year, $68MM extension, stories Jeff Passan of ESPN. The Cornerstone Baseball Group consumer was beforehand slated to achieve free company after the 2028 season and had agreed to a $3.5MM wage for 2026. Passan says in a follow-up tweet the deal buys out his three arb years and two free agent years, so it seems it will overwrite his 2026 wage not directly. If that proves to be the case, this deal would pay him $64.5MM in new cash over 4 added years. MLBTR has discovered that Baz will get a $4MM signing bonus and $1MM wage in 2026, adopted by salaries of $7MM, $10MM, $21MM and $25MM within the subsequent 4 years.
Baltimore is evidently fairly assured of their capacity to get one of the best out of Baz, a pitcher who’s clearly gifted however who nonetheless comes with some query marks. Baz is a former first-rounder and prime prospect however accidents had held him again to the purpose the place he had barely 100 huge league innings going into 2025. He did pitch 166 1/3 innings final 12 months however with an uninspiring 4.87 earned run common. Regardless of that, the O’s surrendered a bundle of 4 prospects and a draft choose to get him just a few months in the past and at the moment are making a giant monetary dedication to him for years to come back.
The Pirates took Baz with the twelfth general choose again in 2017. Earlier than reaching the majors, he was flipped to the Rays within the 2018 Chris Archer commerce. Baz debuted with the Rays late in 2021, making three begins. Within the minors that 12 months, he posted a 2.06 earned run common whereas putting out 37.9% of opponents and limiting walks to a 4.4% clip.
Going into 2022, he was thought of one of many prime pitching prospects within the sport however he required arthroscopic elbow surgical procedure in April of that 12 months. He got here again later that 12 months and made just a few extra begins however then elbow points popped up once more. He underwent Tommy John surgical procedure in September of that 12 months and missed your complete 2023 season.
He was nonetheless rehabbing at the start of 2024 however finally received again on the mound and confirmed some promise. He made 14 begins for the Rays that 12 months with a 3.06 ERA, although his 21.6% strikeout charge and eight.5% stroll charge have been each round common. Going into 2025, Baz was lastly wholesome after a few years of elbow points, which had restricted him to 119 2/3 profession innings. He made 31 begins and logged 166 1/3 innings in 2025. Sadly, the general outcomes weren’t good. As talked about, Baz had a 4.87 ERA on the 12 months.
There are some causes for optimism below the hood. The Rays have been taking part in in a minor league park final 12 months resulting from hurricane injury to Tropicana Subject. It’s attainable Baz could have been impacted by that, as he had a 5.90 ERA at Steinbrenner Subject however a 3.86 ERA on the highway. Usually, about 12% of fly balls flip into house runs on the main league degree. For Baz, that quantity was 18.9% at house and 11.1% on the highway final 12 months.
For the entire 12 months, house and away, Baz struck out a stable 24.8% of batters confronted. His 9% stroll charge was round common. His 46.7% floor ball charge was just a few ticks higher than par. His 3.95 SIERA was optimistic that he deserved to have an ERA a couple of run higher than the place it truly ended up. His fastball averaged 97 miles per hour on the 12 months whereas he additionally blended in a cutter, slider, curveball and changeup.
The Orioles are clearly of the thoughts that Baz nonetheless has his greatest days forward of him. Again in December, they despatched prospects Slater de Brun, Caden Bodine, Michael Forret and Austin Overn to the Rays, together with a Aggressive Stability Spherical A draft choose, to get Baz and his three remaining years of membership management. Three of these 4 prospects have been taken within the first three rounds of latest drafts. The opposite, Forret, was a 14th-round choose however had develop into arguably one of the best prospect within the bunch. The draft choose would be the thirty third general choose this summer season.
There are some parallels to Baltimore’s journey with Trevor Rogers. He was the Nationwide League Rookie of the 12 months runner-up in 2021 after he posted a 2.64 ERA over 25 begins for the Marlins. Then Rogers was injured and/or struggling for a few years, diminishing his inventory. From the beginning of 2022 to the 2024 deadline, Rogers solely tossed 230 1/3 innings with a 4.92 ERA. The O’s felt they might get him again on monitor and despatched Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby to the Marlins to get Rogers when he nonetheless has two-plus years of management remaining.
It took some time for that wager on Rogers to repay but it surely did. He struggled with the O’s late in 2024 and had a knee damage initially of 2025. After that, he was sensible. He finally made 18 begins for Baltimore final 12 months with a 1.81 ERA, 24.3% strikeout charge, 6.9% stroll charge and 46% floor ball charge. He received the Opening Day nod yesterday towards the Twins and earned a win by throwing seven shutout innings.
Extra to come back.
