Morning, Birdland!
Be honest. There was a part of your brain that said “The Orioles aren’t serious about this rebuild.” Up until yesterday, that thought process had some merit. What had they really done? They traded away expiring contracts. So? They had no choice there. Sure, Dan Duquette and Buck Showalter had acknowledged a rebuild publicly, and there were rumors of significant interest in international free agents. But there had been no actual movement there, and talk of trading the players under control beyond 2018 had died down. Then, the deadline happened.