The Orioles and Mariners swapped LHP Wade Miley for Ariel Miranda. ESR staff react to the news…
Derek Arnold
Hard to see Miley moving the needle too much. He’s a very “meh” pitcher, but the Orioles rotation could actually use a little bit more “meh” at the moment. They didn’t give up a prospect, and Miley is under contract through 2017, so there really isn’t much to get worked up about either way in this deal. Here’s hoping Wade can inject some stability to the back end of the rotation.
Andrew Stetka
The deal for Wade Miley doesn’t move the needle for me at all. It feels a lot like the Orioles’ trade for Gerardo Parra last year. It’s not a move that pushes them into more of a conversation as contenders in the American League. That said, the O’s don’t have the bullets in the chamber to pull off such a move. But making a trade for the sake of making a trade is not a good way to operate. What’s more, is Miley is under contract next year, virtually making him a rotation lock. This means the Orioles will be less inclined to improve the rotation in the offseason (despite a weak market) even though they need to do so. Giving up Ariel Miranda doesn’t seem like a big deal, but everyone said the same thing about Zach Davies last year. He’d look nice in this rotation right now.
Phil Backert
Miley will fit right in with his mid to upper 4 ERA, but this is the exact move we knew the Orioles would and could make. They give up another arm, but this isn’t at the level of Eduardo Rodriguez or Zach Davies. The hope is Miley can put together a strong two months to help this team make it back to the playoffs.
Does this finally end Ubaldo Jimenez‘s tenure in Baltimore?
Ryan Blake
Wade Miley is a mediocre addition to a very sub-par starting rotation. I don’t have the highest of expectations but it’s going to be hard for the lefty to perform any worse than our current options have thus far. He has experience pitching in the AL East, though the numbers aren’t great. I wish the Orioles weren’t in a position that makes Wade Miley look like an upgrade but it is what it is. Hopefully, Miley can contribute down the stretch.
Joe Polek
Orioles fans wanted the team to make a move for a starting pitcher for the last couple of months. We knew they could not get a number 1 or a number 2 starter. We knew it would be closer to a number four starter as they have done each of the last three or four seasons. So picking up Wade Miley stays consistent with what they have done in the past. My thoughts? Why not! You get a left-handed starter who is as good if not better than many of your 4th or 5th starters this season. Plus the Orioles did not give up much. And they have this player under team control for the next two seasons. Let’s not be negative when the Orioles did exactly what we wanted them to do. I hope it works out.
Josh Sroka
Wade Miley for Ariel Miranda is a typical Duquette move. Yes it looks like a small move but we gave up a future bullpen arm for an average left-handed starter who has looked great the past few starts, including giving up 1 run over 7 innings to the Cubs this past weekend. This team had a need for a southpaw in the rotation and now we have it. Miley is an improvement over Jimenez or Gallardo. We have said this team needs average pitching that can keep the game in check long enough for the bullpen and bats to take care of the game and Wade Miley is a great move to support that.
Jonathan French
Wade Miley is your typical deadline pitcher that the Orioles have acquired in the past few seasons, only this time it seems that Dan Duquette has been able to trade a minimal amount to get his target. Perhaps it seems the Mariners really didn’t want to pay Miley in 2017 for mediocre results, which is what he delivers. Mediocre as we all know is an upgrade for the Orioles in 2016, where in the past these types of pitchers never really moved the needle.
Miley seems to fit all the Orioles’ criteria, he’s a left-handed middle to back of the rotation pitcher with a career 3.91 FIP and has been pretty durable over his career averaging 190-200+ IP per season. Plus he’s cheaper than Gallardo or Jimenez, as he’s owed just over $8.9 million in 2017 and if he pitches well enough, there’s a $12 million option for 2018 the Orioles could pick up.
Most importantly, the Orioles can now afford to put Dylan Bundy back into the bullpen to protect his valuable right arm while keeping Jimenez/Gallardo out of the rotation, and for the price of Ariel Miranda, that’s a deal you make any day of the week.
0 Responses
Were you guys sitting next to each other when writing this article and copying with the doesn’t move the needle remark??? Real professional writing skills there! No O’s fans care now especially when there were other players the O’s could have had! Typical Angelos. I mean the Padres alone had the entire team up for trade and the O’s sat there with their thumbs up their asses. Doesn’t help either when they don’t have crap for a farm system to offer. Can’t wait to see the Blue Jays win the division again! Bring on football Baltimore!
One thing no one talks about is that we had Gonzalez on a $5m contract and we cut him to save $4m. Didn’t send him to the minors, just cut him. At the same time we gave up a draft pick and signed Gallardo just to say we did something in the off season to improve the team. Now we are trading for a mediocre pitcher who makes $9m and $12m in 2018.
Last year we gave up Zach Davies, a young quality young starting pitcher who was putting up good numbers in AAA for a end of the season rental that we never had any intention on keeping. We should have been selling last year, we had no chance to make the playoffs. We got nothing for Chan and we paid through the nose for Davis and his .200 batting average, ton of strikeouts and an overall hall at the cleanup spot.
Year before we rented Miller. Why not resign the guy who you know is a stud. We let him and Nelson Cruz go for nothing. Now Yankees are trading him for 4 prospects. We could have traded him last year if he was expansive and gotten something, at least we would have had something in our system.