Heading to July, the Baltimore Orioles had the worst record in baseball. The had several veteran players set to hit free agency within the next year or two and an incredibly flawed roster and weak farm system. Most who rank such things had them around the bottom third in terms of prospect rankings. 

Basically, this organization needed a radical reboot. When most teams are in this situation, there isn't really a question about what is going to happen, but with meddlesome ownership, there was a legitimate concern that the Orioles just wouldn't do that much. 

Instead, general manager Dan Duquette took a wrecking ball to the big-league roster and built up the foundation. 

Out went six players: Manny Machado, Zach Britton, Kevin Gausman, Jonathan Schoop, Brad Brach and Darren O'Day.

It couldn't have been easy. Those names above were a big part of the foundation that made the playoffs three of five years from 2012-16. 

No ad available

Still, it had to be done. Duquette went nuts and got back a whopping 15 players. Also, he acquired a bunch of international bonus money: 

The best ways to bulk up the minor-league system are to trade veterans (check!), spend big in the international market (check coming soon) and to hit on high draft picks. On the latter, the Orioles are likely to pick first or second next June. 

Among the more intriguing players added via trade are as follows: 

  • Luis Ortiz is a 22-year-old pitcher who has been ranked in the top 100 among prospects for the last few years. He's got a 3.71 ERA and 65 strikeouts in 68 innings in Double-A this season.
  • Outfielder Yusniel Diaz was ranked as the 73rd-best prospect in baseball entering the season by Baseball Prospectus. He's hitting .291 with a .407 on-base percentage in Double-A this season. 
  • Starting pitcher Dillon Tate is a former top-100 guy. He has a 3.58 ERA and 79 strikeouts in 88 Double-A innings this year. 
  • Righty reliever Cody Carroll has a 2.47 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 43 2/3 Triple-A innings. 
  • Infielder Rylan Bannon is hitting .287/.391/.546 with 18 doubles, six triples, 21 homers and 63 RBI in High-A (89 games) and Double-A (seven games)
  • Righty reliever Evan Phillips has a 1.99 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and 59 strikeouts in 40 2/3 Triple-A innings.
  • Left-handed starter Bruce Zimmerman has a 2.86 ERA and 125 strikeouts in 113 1/3 innings across Class A (14 starts) and Double-A (six starts). 

And, again, there are more. The Orioles acquired 15 minor-league players in July. The organizational depth got a huge uptick, especially when considering that several of the players they traded were going to be gone in free agency anyway. 

No ad available

It might be a while before the plan starts to bear fruit, but the Orioles are moving in the right direction now. There's still a lot of work to be done before the tear-down would be considered a success, but it's now underway.