Checking in on potential trade targets!
Back in 2022, the Baltimore Orioles began to emerge from a perpetual slumber akin to the one in which the Cincinnati Reds have been mired for nearly a decade and a half. They surged to 101 wins the following season, and just last year won 91 more games before being bounced in the AL Wild Card round.
This year? Woof.
Baltimore sits 10 games under .500 and in last place in their stacked division, and on Thursday they kicked off July trade season by shipping reliever Bryan Baker and his multiple years of team control to Tampa for a Competitive Balance Round A pick that they’ll use on Sunday on the first day of the MLB Draft.
Thing is, for as bad as their record is, there are still legitimate pieces around which they plan to build to compete with again in 2026. The trade of Baker bucks that trend a bit, but I’ll wager that they’re much more inclined to move the pieces on their current roster who will hit free agency at season’s end.
The question here, of course, is whether any of them fill a void where the Cincinnati Reds have one.
Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images
Ryan O’Hearn splits time between 1B, RF, and DH, making him something of the perfect acquisition for a Reds club that has few qualms moving guys like Gavin Lux and Spencer Steer all over the diamond. Unlike Lux, O’Hearn actually packs punch – he’s popped 11 homers already this year and is slugging .462 on the season. Unlike Steer, O’Hearn is a left-handed swinger who mashed RHP (to the tune of .299/.392/.500 in 250 PA in 2025).
O’Hearn is earning $8 million in this, his final year of team control before reaching free agency. He’d provide a big-ish bat somewhere for a Reds lineup that has seen its collective RF production (27th overall by wOBA), 1B production (17th overall by wOBA), or DH production (23rd overall by wOBA) come up way short, and that’s before we even get to the notion that Jake Fraley is reportedly going to try to play the rest of the season through a torn labrum.
Might a move for O’Hearn eat into PA otherwise set for Will Benson, Steer, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Fraley, and the catching combo of Jose Trevino and Tyler Stephenson? Yeah, it very well might. Might O’Hearn’s career-best numbers this year begin to take a step back? Yeah, they very well could, though his .318 BABIP is hardly screaming ‘regression at all costs.’
It’s less about whether O’Hearn fits with the Reds at this point and more about how long Baltimore will hold out for the best offer before moving him. MLB Trade Rumors listed O’Hearn at #4 on their list of the Top 40 trade candidates for this trade season – and he’s the top hitter among that group. Everybody could use a 144 wRC+ bat, especially when that comes as the strong-side of a platoon. The question is whether the Reds think he’d be enough of an upgrade to not only pay the O’s asking price, but also do so with pieces they value more than from any other franchise who’s interested.
Will the Reds be interested enough? Have they been interested enough at all since 2013? Since 1995? Since 1990?
We’ve got right at three weeks to find out.
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