Now that Yu Darvish is off the market, the dominoes are expected to fall among the free agent pitchers. Guys like Jake Arrieta, Alex Cobb and Lance Lynn can use Darvish’s deal as a baseline when finding new homes. But beyond that, teams are still considering some pitching options in trades.
According to MASN’s Roch Kubatko, the Baltimore Orioles are one team that’s shown interest in trading for some pitchers. He reported on Sunday that Baltimore has been in contact with the Houston Astros about pitcher Collin McHugh. He also noted that The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal previously reported that Baltimore was in the mix for Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Jake Odorizzi.
The Orioles have Kevin Gausman and Dylan Bundy in their rotation, but they need some more starters. Kubatko expects them to add some of the lower-tier free agents, such as Chris Tillman, Andrew Cashner, Jason Vargas, Drew Hutchison and Jaime Garcia.
Houston has an excess of capable starters since acquiring Gerrit Cole from Pittsburgh, which could make McHugh expendable. Odorizzi has long been viewed as a trade candidate. Both McHugh and Odorizzi won’t be free agents until 2020, which makes them even more desirable to interested teams.
