On July 24, the Baltimore Orioles traded their veteran righty closer Zach Britton for prospect pitchers Dillon Tate, Cody Carroll, and Josh Rogers. Surprisingly, this is the first season that the Orioles are actually selling, as they’ve traded away their veteran guys Manny Machado and Brad Brach with Britton. Rumors have circulated around Britton for awhile, but he’s been injured a lot for the past few years. This was the first legitimate year they could’ve gotten a good offer for him, and he only had pitched 15.2 innings for Baltimore this year! In this article, I’ll breakdown how this trade affects the Yankees, Orioles, if the Yankees can make a legitimate World Series run out of this, and who won the trade.

zach-britton-100516-getty-ftrjpg_1kifr0vja624b10823l5po6rl2.jpg
Photo by Getty Images

First, I’ll breakdown how this trade affects the Orioles. They got a pretty solid haul for Britton, who’s a rental. Tate, the now number 6 prospect for the Orioles, was solid in AA for the Yanks, posting a 5-2 record, 3.38 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 75 strikeouts, 25 walks, and a .218 BAA in 82.2 innings pitched. Caroll, the now number 14 prospect for the Orioles, was really solid in AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for the Yanks, posting a 3-0 record, 2.38 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 55 strikeouts, 18 walks, and a .184 BAA in 41.2 innings pitched. Rogers was below average in AAA, pisting a 6-8 record, 3.95 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 83 strikeouts, 29 walks, and a .273 BAA in 109.1 innings pitched.

Like I said before, this is a really solid haul for a rental. Tate does have a history of some injuries and scouts say it’s still unclear about whether he can be a starter or reliever. If he doesn’t get injured as much, he should be a starter as his durability will last. Carroll will most likely become a reliever for the Orioles, and some people say that if he does a better job of “harnessing his power stuff”, he’ll be a closer or important reliever in their bullpen. Rogers doesn;t have a very good WHIP, but he could potentially be a 4 or 5 starter for them if he gets the amount of base hits he gives up down.

Now, I’ll breakdown about how this trade affects the Yankees. When not injured, Britton is a decent reliever. For Baltimore this season, he has posted a 1-0 record, 3.45 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 13 strikeouts, 10 walks, and a .212 BAA in 15.2 innings pitched. He does help their bullpen, as some of their guys like David Robertson and Chad Green have been underperforming a bit, so it’s nice to have a 3.5 ERA reliever to supplement the pen a bit more. Although Britton won’t be a closer, it’ll be nice to have him to get holds in some decent leads and even close games.

Now, the big question is how will this affect the Yankees’ potential World Series run. I think it’ll affect it a bit, but not a lot. Britton is a barely above average reliever, and although he helps them, they already have an incredible bullpen so it isn’t a game-changing move. The rental move helps though, as their solid starter/long reliever Jordan Montgomery has been injured for a majority of the season, so having a rental like Britton to supplement him for the rest of the season could help them get a bullpen like last year. So, while this addition isn’t a big one, it’ll certainly help a bit more than having those pitching prospects, especially because a majority of the Yankees’ farm system are pitchers.

So, the second biggest question is who won this trade? In my opinion, it has to be the Orioles. The biggest argument you can make for Britton is that he’s a bit above average at best, so giving up three pitching prospects who have been decent or solid in the minor leagues is much more than needed for a rental who isn’t incredible. They could’ve used another reliever, but I don’t think Britton was an extremely good fit for them. I think they could’ve used someone like Fernando Rodney or Tyler Clippard. Overall, I think this trade will help them, but it won’t significantly help them.