Orioles trade Austin Hays to Phillies for Seranthony Domínguez, Cristian Pache

Four days out from the trade deadline, the Orioles have made their first move. Rather than being a trade where the Orioles send out prospects to get an MLB-experienced player, the O’s have dealt an MLB-experienced player for other MLB-experienced players. The deal, which was announced by the team with absolutely no media leaks preceding it, is this:

Phillies receive: OF Austin Hays

Orioles receive: RHP Seranthony Domínguez, OF Cristian Pache

My initial reaction to this trade is: Why?

This trade doesn’t seem to solve any problems for the Orioles, other than maybe that it’s been awkward for them to have Hays as a bench player. I’m making that statement based on 2024 results to date for Domínguez and Pache.

The 29-year-old Domínguez is a righty reliever who has a couple of good big league seasons under his belt, neither of which are this year or last year. Over 2024, Domínguez has allowed a 4.75 ERA and 4.26 FIP. I guess they think they can get him back closer to his 2022 results. We’ll see how that goes. Who does he even squeeze out of the bullpen? Well, okay, that one’s easy, at least for me: Bryan Baker. There is an $8 million team option for next year for Domínguez.

Pache, 25, has now been traded three times in three years. This is the first July trade; the other two were in March. Across parts of five major league seasons, he has combined to hit .179/.243/.272. Pache was a top prospect once, as high as the #7 prospect in Baseball America’s preseason ranking in 2021. He has not lived up to that as a big leaguer yet. Pache has chiefly been a center fielder, so perhaps the O’s are looking to get a righty fourth outfielder into their mix.

Hays, 29, was an All-Star for the team just a year ago but he hasn’t hit too well ever since making that game. His starts have been more sporadic with the arrival of Colton Cowser and Heston Kjerstad into the outfield mix. I’m surprised to see this trade because to the extent that there were rumors hinting at it, the idea was that the Phillies were maybe interested in Cedric Mullins and the Orioles wanted to get more right-handed balance into their outfield mix.

Instead, they traded a righty batter who’s been doing well as a platoon player for a righty batter who has never hit at the MLB level, at all. There’s more to it than that, of course. I’m sure Pache is seen as having more defensive value than Hays, and that’s something that matters too. But the results at the plate speak for themselves. It’s a weird end to an Orioles tenure for a guy who straddled the rebuilding era into a more successful era.

If the Orioles are going to be open for these kinds of MLB veteran-for-other MLB player trades as the next few days move along, then I have no idea what to expect. I didn’t think they’d actually move Mullins, or Hays, or Ryan Mountcastle. Now, maybe they will make another one of these deals. Or maybe they will actually trade some prospects for a starting pitcher next time.

If this is the only bullpen move that is made, the Orioles had better be right about whatever makes them think they can get something better from Domínguez than the Phillies have been getting from him up to this point.