The Orioles made a small splash today, as they acquired two pitchers from the Oakland Athletics, left-hander Cole Irvin and right-handed prospect Kyle Virbitsky.
The O’s, in exchange for the two arms, are sending 21-year-old infielder Darell Hernaiz to the A’s.
Irvin, who turns 29 this week, was a major part of the 2022 Oakland Athletics pitching rotation. Last season, he started in the 30 games and had a 9-13 record with a 3.98 ERA in 181 innings pitched.
He gave up 174 hits and 80 earned runs and walked 36 while striking out 128. Last season was Irvin’s second full season as a big league pitcher and the best of his career thus far.
Irvin joins a rotation with names such as Kyle Bradish, Dean Kremer and newly acquired veteran Kyle Gibson. What makes this acquisition intriguing is that Irvin has four years of team control left before hitting free agency
Also in the trade and heading to Baltimore is right-hander Kyle Virbitsky, who Baseball America ranked as having the best control in the entire Oakland farm system.
Virbitsky was a 17th-round pick of the 2021 draft out of Pennsylvania State University. His 2022 saw the 24-year-old pitch in both Low and High-A.
The young righty had a 7-7 record with a 4.63 ERA in 126.1 innings pitched and 23 total games, 22 starts. He gave up 136 hits and 56 earned runs while giving up 30 walks to 140 strikeouts.
Heading to Oakland is infield prospect Darell Hernaiz. The fifth-round pick in 2019 out of Americas High School had an impressive run last season, spending time between Low-A, High-A and Double-A in 2022.
He slashed .273/.341/.438 in 406 at-bats and had 111 total hits, 21 doubles, five triples and 12 home runs. He also had 62 RBIs and stole 32 bases.
Hernaiz was also the Orioles’ No. 16 prospect.
This trade was the first in Orioles GM Mike Elias’ tenure, where he has shipped off a top prospect for a veteran player. It shows that the tide is finally starting to shift in Charm City.
What do you think of this trade? Let us know in the comments below! And make sure to follow The Baltimore Battery on Facebook and Twitter, and use the hashtag #baltimorebattery when sharing our content!
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Great to have a left handed starter again. I love that Kyle Virbitsky is part of this trade. He may turn out to be the best pitcher in this trade. Love his aggressiveness and and different leg kicks to throw the hitter’s timing off. Throw in a big time arm and control and you could have the make up of a TOP pitcher for years to come. Great trade.
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Time will tell is about where I’m at with it.
At 1st glance, OUTSTANDING trade. I’m all for winning the AL East in 2023, and the addition of Irvin should certainly help right away. And that he has 4 years left of team control? Can’t knock that.
At 2nd glance, I hope we don’t end up regretting losing Hernaiz who we’ve been hearing very good things about lately. But then to make money you have to spend money so to speak.
Hey … I love the current young staff we have already, but as they say, you can never have enough arms. Being a total layman and schill for the home team, I’m going to give Elias a B+ on this trade today. 2 years from now … I may change my fickle mind. Time will tell
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