The next Orioles trade domino has fallen.
With six days to go until the trade deadline, Mike Elias has moved again. On Friday afternoon, the Orioles traded reliever Gregory Soto to the Mets. The trade, which as of this writing has not been announced by the teams, was first reported by Mets/Yankees reporter Andy Martino.
The Orioles are getting back two pitching prospects from the Mets in the trade: Wellington Aracena and Cameron Foster.
Aracena is the more interesting of the two to me, since he’s younger and looks to be more likely a starting pitcher. The 20-year-old righty has been pitching for the Mets High-A affiliate this season, where he’s got a 2.38 ERA while striking out 84 batters in 64.1 innings. The walk rate is higher than you’d like: Aracena in fact had a 9.3 BB/9 just last year. He’s nearly cut that in half this year, down to a 4.9 BB/9. It’s still high.
The Orioles probably think they can help out on the command. Maybe they’re right. My cursory glance at scouting reports on Aracena suggests he’s not likely to remain as a starter. I can believe it after looking at those walk numbers. Even so, this is a more interesting player than I would have thought Soto would fetch at this point.
Foster is 26 and has pitched almost exclusively as a reliever this season. He was dominating the Double-A level, as you’d expect for a 26-year-old: 1.01 ERA and 0.825 WHIP. The Mets have had him up at Triple-A for a couple of cups of coffee. One of those went quite badly, with Foster allowing six runs in two-thirds of an inning. I sure hope the Orioles will assign him to Norfolk and see what happens.
The lefty Soto is a free agent at the end of this season. His Orioles tenure wraps up with an overall 4.33 ERA in 68 appearances. Mike Elias probably thought it was going to go better than that when he acquired Soto. The 30-year-old made a horrible first impression a year ago and had some substantial stumbles over the course of this season as well. He is not a player many Orioles fans will miss as a result.
Getting a flawed but interesting prospect in Aracena and a lottery ticket throw-in reliever like Foster is a solid return for a two-month rental of a better-stuff-than-results reliever like Soto.