Episode

#633 Adley Trade

Section 336

August 5, 2026 · 1 hr 10 min

The trade we never thought Baltimore would actually make is real: Adley Rutschman is a Boston Red Sox.Matt and Josh take a beat and try to process what the move means—not only for the 2026 Orioles, but for the entire Mike Elias…

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The trade we never thought Baltimore would actually make is real: Adley Rutschman is a Boston Red Sox.

Matt and Josh take a beat and try to process what the move means—not only for the 2026 Orioles, but for the entire Mike Elias rebuild. They revisit Adley’s arrival as the face of a new era, debate the timing and value of the deal with Samuel Basallo already locked up, and ask the uncomfortable question: if “lift off” never really happened, why should Orioles fans trust the next phase?

Plus: what the deadline says about Gunnar Henderson and the rest of the core, why the Orioles still aren’t starting another rebuild, the other moves around the roster, and how Baltimore can remain in the Wild Card fight after trading one of the most important players in franchise history—to a division rival, no less.

It hurts. It may also make baseball sense. Both things can be true.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Three, six, we on this, so true.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, welcome to Birdland.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Baltimore Sports fans of all ages.

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to section 336.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next generation of Baltimore Sports Talk.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm you're in doing something host to Matt's Roca.

[SPEAKER_00]: As always, I'm joined by the button lover Josh Roca.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, hey, I'm glad we uh, I'm glad we took a couple days to kind of let the trade settle.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, as it settled for you, I find myself I was last night while Emily was sleeping.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm in bed and I can't stop thinking about it I go to work.

[SPEAKER_00]: This has been the most unproductive three days professionally.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think in my career.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just I can't stop thinking about it Probably to the show.

[SPEAKER_00]: I started

[SPEAKER_00]: Not part of the show.

[SPEAKER_00]: In prepping for the show a couple of days ago, I thought we're going to do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I started to write down some notes.

[SPEAKER_00]: I now just have three pages of just rambling notes all about just the

[SPEAKER_01]: Take me both ways where I'm, I've changed my mind so many times but yeah, half my comments contradict one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can take myself out of it, but then I can't.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I go back and forth with, I like to trade.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is a ridiculous trade.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the end of the organization.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm glad I don't have season tickets.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, we'll be okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's all, it's so bipolar, my notes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: The overwhelming emotion for me is not even anger towards my collious or towards ownership or whatever.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just to be honest, I'm still kind of depressed about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't think it's the end of everything with Doritos.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think we're going full rebuild.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm depressed.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm depressed for what I'm trading badly represents and for what happened to this rebuild.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I'm 100% with you there, where it's, I got angry, I am sad, I am disappointed, I am at the stage of we can never have good things in Baltimore, like what we ever see the Orioles waiting in the world series, because Adley was the face of that rebuild.

[SPEAKER_00]: Josh, and if you go back, I just can't stop.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was going back, okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, he's drafted, and this is why we've delayed the podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, he's drafted in 2020.

[SPEAKER_00]: Michael Lies comes in his first draft takes Adley and Gunner, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and then we're still like, that's peak tanking, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So 2021, he's in the minors.

[SPEAKER_00]: I got my, uh, Ironbirds, are they brought up in shirt?

[SPEAKER_00]: I also have a Delmarve of short birds.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't believe Basak's shirt because I watched him and every step in the minors.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, in 2021,

[SPEAKER_00]: and 2020 we cared more about the minor leagues that we did about the major league team with good reason.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then 2022 he makes his debut.

[SPEAKER_00]: And from the moment he steps on the field, and he kind of takes his helmet off and looks around, and he is a triple.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a triple in line with Machado, and the time with weeders, for a debut triple, I think, oh, well, this is it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then, and it is it, Josh, because the next year in 2023,

[SPEAKER_00]: Gunner makes an appearance and we win 100 games.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, we win the A-A-A-L-East and Gunner makes it a rival in order to Westburg makes it a rival.

[SPEAKER_01]: Multiple all stars that year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, Cab Radish is awesome.

[SPEAKER_00]: He kind of jumped on the scene.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're like, and they're all young players.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a bunch of kids out there.

[SPEAKER_03]: Three, six, we on this, so true. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, welcome to Birdland. [SPEAKER_00]: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Baltimore Sports fans of all ages. [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to section 336. [SPEAKER_00]: Next generation of Baltimore Sports Talk. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm you're in doing something host to Matt's Roca. [SPEAKER_00]: As always, I'm joined by the button lover Josh Roca. [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, hey, I'm glad we uh, I'm glad we took a couple days to kind of let the trade settle. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, as it settled for you, I find myself I was last night while Emily was sleeping. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm in bed and I can't stop thinking about it I go to work. [SPEAKER_00]: This has been the most unproductive three days professionally. [SPEAKER_00]: I think in my career. [SPEAKER_00]: I just I can't stop thinking about it Probably to the show. [SPEAKER_00]: I started [SPEAKER_00]: Not part of the show. [SPEAKER_00]: In prepping for the show a couple of days ago, I thought we're going to do it. [SPEAKER_00]: I started to write down some notes. [SPEAKER_00]: I now just have three pages of just rambling notes all about just the [SPEAKER_01]: Take me both ways where I'm, I've changed my mind so many times but yeah, half my comments contradict one another. [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly. [SPEAKER_01]: I can take myself out of it, but then I can't. [SPEAKER_01]: So I go back and forth with, I like to trade. [SPEAKER_01]: This is a ridiculous trade. [SPEAKER_01]: This is the end of the organization. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm glad I don't have season tickets. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, we'll be okay. [SPEAKER_01]: It's all, it's so bipolar, my notes. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: The overwhelming emotion for me is not even anger towards my collious or towards ownership or whatever. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just to be honest, I'm still kind of depressed about it. [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't think it's the end of everything with Doritos. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think we're going full rebuild. [SPEAKER_00]: But I'm depressed. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm depressed for what I'm trading badly represents and for what happened to this rebuild. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I'm 100% with you there, where it's, I got angry, I am sad, I am disappointed, I am at the stage of we can never have good things in Baltimore, like what we ever see the Orioles waiting in the world series, because Adley was the face of that rebuild. [SPEAKER_00]: Josh, and if you go back, I just can't stop. [SPEAKER_00]: I was going back, okay. [SPEAKER_00]: So, he's drafted, and this is why we've delayed the podcast. [SPEAKER_00]: Uh, he's drafted in 2020. [SPEAKER_00]: Michael Lies comes in his first draft takes Adley and Gunner, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Um, and then we're still like, that's peak tanking, right? [SPEAKER_00]: So 2021, he's in the minors. [SPEAKER_00]: I got my, uh, Ironbirds, are they brought up in shirt? [SPEAKER_00]: I also have a Delmarve of short birds. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't believe Basak's shirt because I watched him and every step in the minors. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes. [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, in 2021, [SPEAKER_00]: and 2020 we cared more about the minor leagues that we did about the major league team with good reason. [SPEAKER_00]: And then 2022 he makes his debut. [SPEAKER_00]: And from the moment he steps on the field, and he kind of takes his helmet off and looks around, and he is a triple. [SPEAKER_00]: He's a triple in line with Machado, and the time with weeders, for a debut triple, I think, oh, well, this is it. [SPEAKER_00]: And then, and it is it, Josh, because the next year in 2023, [SPEAKER_00]: Gunner makes an appearance and we win 100 games. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, we win the A-A-A-L-East and Gunner makes it a rival in order to Westburg makes it a rival. [SPEAKER_01]: Multiple all stars that year. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, Cab Radish is awesome. [SPEAKER_00]: He kind of jumped on the scene. [SPEAKER_00]: Right. [SPEAKER_00]: And we're like, and they're all young players. [SPEAKER_00]: This is a bunch of kids out there. [SPEAKER_01]: We thought we were gonna dominate for years. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and the 2024 happens, and again, we win 90 games. [SPEAKER_00]: We finished second place, Adley is not quite as good as he was the year before, but Adley's still good. [SPEAKER_00]: And that's when Gunner kind of goes off and has an insane year in 2024, and we win 90 games. [SPEAKER_00]: So at this point, our conversation as oral fans is, [SPEAKER_00]: And we talked about this in terms of Michael IS, not just like, what do we need to do to get in the playoffs? [SPEAKER_00]: But what do we need to do to get in the world series? [SPEAKER_00]: And any criticism of Michael IS was not about playoffs, is about, is he willing to push all his chips to go to the right series? [SPEAKER_00]: Because it was an assumed, at the end of 2024, it was assumed that the order was going to be in the playoffs in 25 and 26, 27, 28. [SPEAKER_00]: It's assumed. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, what was... [SPEAKER_01]: What was similar in 2024 and 2025, and now in 2026, is we always also then talked about the injuries. [SPEAKER_01]: And how this team has all the potential but they keep getting struck with injuries at a wrong time. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, what, well, at 2025 happens and there's a tons of injuries to our pitching staff. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, look at this. [SPEAKER_01]: It's the one, the Tista went down the end of 2024. [SPEAKER_01]: So we had that hole, if we had Batista, [SPEAKER_00]: Well, and Brad is too, because Brad is just only showed up like the last, he only pitched like five games at the end. [SPEAKER_00]: Um, and so if you have those back and then you injects the holidays okay, you seem he's going to progress. [SPEAKER_00]: Gunner is not quite as good, but the gunner is still one of the best short stops in the game. [SPEAKER_00]: And then you also have this crop remember we traded stowers because we had too many outfielders who were really good. [SPEAKER_00]: Right, cursed that was about to be here and of course we had Dylan Beavers on the way up and we just had this plethora of outfielders and Everybody think looked So bright and then the right to 2025 injuries and some regressions and then you think well that was just a weird down year Like that's just bizarre So let's run it back at 2026. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, go back go back to our 2026 Places and show as we were making our predictions. [SPEAKER_00]: We think we're running away with this thing [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and to Eli says credit for 2026, he brings in. [SPEAKER_00]: He addresses the offense by bringing a Lanzo and Ward. [SPEAKER_00]: He addresses the pitching by bringing in BAS. [SPEAKER_00]: All right, we have people coming back from injury, like Braddish, he addresses the closure situation with Housley. [SPEAKER_00]: So, all right, we have those injuries. [SPEAKER_00]: He addressed them, we have these young players who had down years last year, they'll bounce back this year and let's go. [SPEAKER_00]: but it just hasn't happened. [SPEAKER_00]: Gunner hit his peak at 22. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I hope not, but maybe so. [SPEAKER_00]: So far, this is best year. [SPEAKER_00]: And the young players haven't evolved like we thought they would. [SPEAKER_00]: We have had had, I mean Jordan Westburg's been playing by injuries. [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of injuries to Adly this year, but it's just, it's just, [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's just amazing how set up we were to kind of dominate the ALEs and make the playoffs. [SPEAKER_00]: If you look at 2023 and 2024 and how quickly, I mean, that's the 2024 feels like 10 years ago. [SPEAKER_00]: Just two years ago, a year and a half ago, we were thinking this is going to be a freaking perennial playoff team and now it feels like what scenario is there that we can actually write the playoffs. [SPEAKER_01]: Now it feels like we failed. [SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, and it's not even like, you take Adley's been hurt a bunch this year. [SPEAKER_01]: So you take that away and you look at the team on the field and it's not that much different. [SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, this team can still win, but it doesn't feel that way. [SPEAKER_01]: It feels like trading Adley means to rebuild to failure. [SPEAKER_01]: Which it doesn't mean that we still have other parts. [SPEAKER_01]: And I think back to one thing Michaelis said at the beginning. [SPEAKER_01]: was he didn't say I want to bring a world series to Baltimore. [SPEAKER_01]: He said I want to be competitive every year. [SPEAKER_01]: And I feel a little bit like the Adley trade is that competitive every year is looking beyond twenty twenty seven and saying when I can't resign Adley when I can't resign gunner I still need reserves in here. [SPEAKER_01]: I still need to stay competitive. [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, it's hard to look at that now when we haven't want to play off game yet with Michael Lys. [SPEAKER_00]: Right. [SPEAKER_00]: And listening to Michael Lys' comments, he sound to me as shocked at anybody, as anybody, that this thing hasn't worked out. [SPEAKER_00]: Right, because he did the process, he drafted the right guys. [SPEAKER_00]: They showed all the signs of promise. [SPEAKER_00]: and then Colton Cowes or Gunner. [SPEAKER_00]: Henry said, I think all of these regression periods. [SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, I think, from my collection perspective, he was like, I did, I made all the right moves. [SPEAKER_00]: Right. [SPEAKER_00]: Except this freaking thing is harder than it looks because due to injuries, which is a legit thing that sad relis. [SPEAKER_00]: And kind of just people not being as good as they first were and just kind of regressing to kind of where we are. [SPEAKER_01]: Right. [SPEAKER_01]: So there's so many ways to go about and look at this trade. [SPEAKER_01]: And I think the first thing to address is the emotions of it. [SPEAKER_01]: None of us want to see Adley go. [SPEAKER_01]: Adley is the face of the organization. [SPEAKER_01]: And at least when Manning Machata was traded, we saw it coming. [SPEAKER_01]: It was his final year, the Oriol sucked. [SPEAKER_01]: It's not like we expected to make it run. [SPEAKER_01]: We're here all season, we've seen glimpses that, hey, maybe we can sneak into that wildcard spot. [SPEAKER_01]: And I think even in there were rumors of Adley, you didn't really think they were gonna trade Adley. [SPEAKER_00]: No, and I have a couple of questions for you, but before that, the, I think the minimum child comparison is apt [SPEAKER_00]: Um, I think in that scenario, I think we were refusing to offer an extension. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes. [SPEAKER_00]: And much out of it. [SPEAKER_00]: So it wasn't going to happen, but we thought that we could put another good year together, um, similar to kind of this team where you thought you could put another good year together, but it just failed and it completely failed and our return from a shadow, I mean, all we got back now. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that was valuable was Dean Cramer in the piece and so doing now moved again. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the return was much more significant, at least on paper. [SPEAKER_00]: No, we'll get for Adley because a year and a half of Adley is a lot better than just six months of Machado. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, and we'll get to the return because I do think the Red Sox overpaid. [SPEAKER_00]: So in retrospect, with the Machado deal, we should have done his extended time. [SPEAKER_00]: But the plan B should have been traded him when he had a year and a half left. [SPEAKER_00]: So in that respect, I think, right. [SPEAKER_00]: This might be learning from past and. [SPEAKER_01]: And then remember, what the final results of the Machado trade was fire in the GM. [SPEAKER_01]: Because it failed. [SPEAKER_00]: Right. [SPEAKER_00]: And it might be wher

Show notes

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