Baseball's hot stove season, especially when the Orioles aren't involved, is an occasion to compare what other teams are doing now to what the Orioles could have done in the past.
But this month, it's not the salary-driven trade of Robinson Cano to the New York Mets and the flawed notion that it could be compared to Chris Davis' situation that's worthy of local attention. Instead, Wednesday's four-player trade that sent Diamondbacks star Paul Goldschmidt to the St. Louis Cardinals for three prospects harks back to last year's attempt by the Orioles to trade infielder Manny Machado with one year of club control and is the biggest case of what could have been.