MIAMI – It is an interesting lead-up to the trade deadline this time around in the Orioles clubhouse. Interesting in that the players who are being rumored and speculated about by media and fans alike are players mostly not currently in the Baltimore clubhouse.

There has been more speculation about prospects a step below at Triple-A and questions about whether the O’s deal some of their highest-rated young talent.

I asked Ryan O’Hearn, a veteran of a few deadlines with two teams, how the pre-deadline lead-up has been this year in the Baltimore clubhouse.

“I think guys maybe, a story comes out and they might pay attention to it a little bit. But not to a great degree,” he said. “I know when the deadline is, but don’t know what is going to happen or what Mike (Elias) and the front office want to do. That’s kind of their job to plan out the long-term health and success of the organization, and it’s kind of my job to be present and win a baseball game today. And that is kind of how I look at it.

“Obviously, there are some really good players out there that could be dealt and if we get some of those guys or one of those guys that can help us win, that’s awesome. We want to win deep into October and do special things with this group.”

MIAMI – The first game of the Orioles' road series against the Miami Marlins could have started better. A whole lot better. 

As the last of the third inning ended tonight, the Orioles found themselves down three runs and two injured players.

The Marlins, who entered with a National League-worst 35-65 record, scored four runs in the second to lead the Orioles 4-1. After the Birds pulled within 4-3 in their half of the third, Miami scored twice more in the home half to make it 6-3.

In that inning, both second baseman Jorge Mateo and starting pitcher Albert Suárez left with apparent injuries. It was definitely an injury for Mateo, who left with head athletic trainer Brian Ebel and assistant Pat Wesley. Suárez left with Wesley, but he may have been about to be pulled from the game anyway.

After a leadoff single in the home third, Jesús Sánchez, who homered an inning earlier, hit a grounder up the middle. Both shortstop Gunnar Henderson and Mateo at second went for the grounder on the first base side of the bag at second. They came together and hit each other with Mateo left’s arm and elbow becoming badly twisted as he went sprawling into Henderson. He came up holding his left arm, and after Ebel looked it for several minutes, they walked off the field along with Wesley.

MIAMI – After opening their post-All-Star break schedule with a series win in Texas, the Orioles road trip has moved back to the East Coast. They open a three-game series tonight in Miami at loadDepot park. 

The Orioles (60-39) lead the American League East by 1 1/2 games over the Yankees (60-42) while the Red Sox (53-46) are seven games back in third place. 

The Orioles scored 17 runs and hit seven homers in winning the first two games of their series in Texas. On Sunday, their offense was held to five hits and two runs in a 3-2 loss.

In the eighth inning, Anthony Santander hit a first-pitch two-run homer. It was No. 27 for Santander and his fourth in four games.

Santander hit 13 homers and produced a .960 OPS in June. That number is now .976 in July. In 43 games since June 1, he is batting .278/.326/.639/.965 with 18 homers and 37 RBIs. As of Monday night, Santander’s 18 homers led the majors since June 1, with Shohei Ohtani next with 16 and Aaron Judge third hitting 15 homers in that span.

MIAMI – The signs seem to be pointing toward right-hander Chayce McDermott making his major league debut on Wednesday night and getting a start for the Orioles against Miami.

But it’s not official yet.

McDermott was added to the taxi squad today and could be activated to start tomorrow.

“Not yet,” manager Brandon Hyde said pregame when asked about Wednesday’s starter. “Chayce is here and we’ll see how tonight goes and make a determination after tonight’s game.”

Hyde has said that Corbin Burnes will start Thursday and he would be on normal rest tomorrow, but he's going to get the extra day. He's not starting tomorrow and it is too soon to recall Cade Povich. So again, signs point to a rookie debut in that game. 

MIAMI – The Orioles (60-39) play Game No. 100 tonight and begin a three-game series at loanDepot park versus the Marlins (35-65), who have the worst record in the National League.

The O's will face right-hander Kyle Tyler (0-1, 3.38 ERA) with Gunnar Henderson leading off, Ryan O'Hearn batting fourth as the designated hitter and Jorge Mateo hitting ninth at second base.

Albert Suárez (5-3, 2.82 ERA) will be making his 13th start. In the first 12, he is 4-3 with a 3.13 ERA and the Orioles are 7-5 in those games. 

The Birds took two of three at Texas and lead the American League East by 1 1/2 games over the Yankees and seven games over the third-place Red Sox.

Baltimore has won its last four games against Miami going back to late July, scoring at least five runs in each. It is the Orioles’ longest winning streak against the Marlins and the first time they have scored at least five runs in four straight against them.

It was a question that came up during the recent MLB Draft. Why do the O’s draft some college pitchers with modest stats? What do they see here?

Said O’s vice president of player development and domestic scouting Matt Blood: “It’s usually a combination of raw stuff, physical capacity, the athleticism, the way they move and then performance. It’s some sort of combination of those things. We have people that feel with this adjustment or that adjustment or this improvement or this other thing, that they will be better than maybe they have been in the past. It’s a combination of all those things.”

Pitching well right now at High-A Aberdeen we have an example of a pitcher working to improve to be better than he ever has been.

For 22-year-old right-hander Jackson Baumeister, that improvement may be coming with the development of his third or fourth pitch, his changeup.

He already throws his fastball and curveball often and is confident in those solid offerings, but he needs more pitches than those two.

The Orioles that played in Texas over the weekend look more like the Orioles we saw for most of this season and not the Orioles who went 1-5 on their homestand heading into the All-Star break.

Perhaps whatever ailed the team for several days of lackluster baseball is gone forever and more solid play and wins are ahead of us.

What is directly ahead of us – besides the rest of this road trip – is the July 30 trading deadline. And news in recent days that the Orioles have interest in Detroit ace lefty Tarik Skubal.

What we don’t know is if the Tigers would move him under any circumstances or only if they get blown away by a deal.

The Orioles, with their fertile farm, could probably blow away any team with an offer – if they choose to make such a blockbuster deal.

Even though the Orioles' first half ended with that crazy win over the Yankees last Sunday in Baltimore, they did go 1-5 on that homestand and were 9-13 in their past 22 games heading into the break.

But today, after wins by 9-1 and 8-4 at Globe Life Field, they have a chance to begin the second half with a three-game sweep of the Rangers.

For the second time in a less than a month, they have a chance to sweep the team that swept them out of the 2023 American League playoffs. They took the first three games of a four-game series in Baltimore late last month, but they lost the fourth game. Now they have a shot for a three-game road sweep.

The Orioles have swept five series of three or four games this year: They've had three-game sweeps at Boston (April 9-11), versus Minnesota (April 15-17) and at Cincinnati (May 3-5). They have four-game sweeps in Chicago against the White Sox (May 23-26) and in St. Petersburg, Fla., versus the Rays (June 7-10).

The Orioles are 5-1 against the Rangers this season, scoring 6.33 runs per game in the season series. They have hit 14 homers versus Texas, batting .273 with an .879 OPS. They have a team ERA of 3.83 in the six games.

Orioles right-handed reliever Yennier Cano is a pretty important pitcher in the Baltimore bullpen. He has three saves this season but has made most of his appearances as a setup man in the eighth inning.

While some numbers for him are not as good as last season when he was an American League All-Star, he recently made a few tweaks that helped him find his sinker again. He’s now put together six straight scoreless outings through last night’s game. (Although he did allow two inherited runners to score and gave up a double when he entered with two on in the eighth last night.) 

His ERA (2.11 to 2.75), WHIP (1.00 to 1.32) and his opponent's OPS (.600 to .703) are higher this year. But Cano does lead the AL with 24 holds. And his 116 appearances since the start of 2023 are tied for fourth-most in the major leauges.

But from June 14 to 28, he allowed five runs and six hits in 3 1/3 innings. However, in his last six games over 5 2/3 combined innings, he has allowed just three hits with a .158 batting average and .449 OPS against.

“I’ve been able to recover my sinker,” he told me during the last homestand through team interpreter Brandon Quinones. “I think a few weeks ago I lost it a little bit. And then these last few outings I have back that feeling with it and it’s a huge factor in my recent success.

After mashing four more home runs, to lead the majors with 153, the Orioles opened the second-half with a 9-1 romp over Texas last night. They improved to 59-38 and could open a two-game lead atop the American East with another win tonight.

Lefty Nestor Cortes allowed six runs in 4 1/3 innings this afternoon as the New York Yankees (59-41) lost 9-1 to Tampa Bay. The Yankees are now 17-20 in AL East games. They have lost 9 of 14 games and are 9-19 since June 15.

The Orioles ended the first half going 1-5 on a homestand and had lost five of six, six of eight and seven of 10 heading into the Texas series. Now they are 10-13 since June 21 with Friday's win.

Anthony Santander hit two of their four homers, driving in five runs. With his first home run last night, Santander reached 25 home runs and he's the ninth player in O's history to do so in at least three straight seasons. He matches Frank Robinson (1969-71), Lee May (1976-78), and Manny Machado (2015-17), and trails Eddie Murray (1982-85) and Rafael Palmeiro (1995-98), who did so in four consecutive years, Chris Davis (2012-17) and Cal Ripken, Jr. (1982-87), who had six, and Adam Jones (2011-17), who hit at least 25 homers in seven straight years. He now has 15 multi-homer games, eighth-most in club history.

Since the start of June, Santander is slashing .280/.322/.640 (45-for-161) with five doubles, one triple, 17 home runs, 24 runs, 34 RBIs, and 11 walks across 41 games. His 17 homers and 103 total bases are the most in MLB during that span, while his 23 extra-base hits are tied with teammate Gunnar Henderson for the most in the AL in that time.

For the first time since they drafted him No. 1 overall in 2022, you hear fans open to trading one of baseball’s best prospects in Jackson Holliday.

I don’t have a vote or say here in anything and neither do fans, but I do have an opinion. And I still see Holliday as an untouchable.

While he may have lost his No. 1 prospect status with some outlets, that is fine. He did go 2-for-34 with 18 strikeouts for the Orioles in April.

Once it started going south for him with the O's, it stayed that way.

He looked overmatched for whatever reason. This will sound like an excuse but some players coming up from Triple-A Norfolk agreed with an opinion that while Holliday was getting every pitch out of the zone called a ball against him in Triple-A with the ABS system, that changed in the majors. He seemed to be down 0-2 every at-bat. He took some pitches that may have been called balls by the computer but were strikes in the bigs. 

With a one-game lead atop the American League East, the Orioles have played 96 games with 66 to go. They begin play after the All-Star break tonight at Texas to start a three-game series on the same field that hosted the All-Star Game on Tuesday night.

Last season at the break, the Orioles were 54-35 (.607) and two games out of first. Now they are 58-38 (.604) and leading the division by a game.

When last seen the O’s pulled out that crazy 6-5 win in the last of the ninth Sunday versus the Yankees. Had they not won that game they would have gone 0-6 on their homestand.

So even with that victory, one that gave them sole possession of first place in the American League East, they have lost five of six, six of eight and seven of the last 10 games.

Since June 21, the Orioles are 9-13 with a minus-45 run differential. In that span they have scored 3.8 runs per game with a team ERA of 5.69.

As the Orioles begin the second-half tonight, they take the field in Texas at 58-38 and are leading the AL East by one game over the New York Yankees and 4.5 over the Boston Red Sox.

It looks like the division race could be tight all year and it’s now a three-team, not just a two-team chase.

The O’s .604 win percentage has been dragged down by the 1-5 homestand they finished on Sunday and by going 9-13 since June 21.

On June 20 they were 49-25 and a ½-game out of first in the division, playing .662 ball and on a 107-win pace.

But even in going 9-13 they gained 1.5 games on the Yankees to now lead the division as New York is 7-14 in that time. The O’s are now playing at a 98-win pace.

After a stretch of days where another MLB Draft has come and gone and we’ve seen Gunnar Henderson start the All-Star game at shortstop for the American League, it is still somewhat remarkable that the Orioles got an MVP caliber talent with the 42^nd pick in 2019.

If you look back at some picks in that 2019 draft just ahead of Henderson’s selection by the Orioles, Tampa Bay took JJ Goss, Pittsburgh selected Sammy Siani, the Yankees took T.J. Sikkema, the Twins took Matt Wallner, who at least has made the majors. With a selection at No. 40 that draft, the Rays took pitcher Seth Johnson, who is now an Oriole.

Those teams could have had Gunnar.

A few days ago in the Baltimore clubhouse, Henderson, from Selma, Ala., remembered thinking as that draft approached that he would go higher than he did.

“Yeah. I had talked to some scouts, and they made it sound like I would definitely be their (team’s) pick if I fell to them,” he said. “But I was also told draft night, always expect the worst. Stuff like that happens. It was definitely a whirlwind of a night for me.”

The latest MLB Draft has come and gone. The Orioles, since Mike Elias and his staff took over, are known for scoring well in the draft.

Once again this year they showed they tap into the college ranks much more than the high school ranks, getting 17 of 21 drafted players from college.

But that is actually twice the number of high school players the club drafted in the last two years, when they took just two high school players among 22 selections in 2022 (including Jackson Holliday) and two last year. Their first high school pick last year came in round 15 and they did not sign Qrey Lott.

This year they selected prep players in rounds six, 12, 16 and 19. They seem quite high on sixth rounder, DJ Layton, the shortstop from Charlotte. He hit .449 and also is said to have a big arm.

From 2019 to 2023, the O’s selected just nine high school players among 91 draft picks in the first 20 rounds. But a few of those nine were high picks and are premium prospects with the likes of Holliday, Gunnar Henderson and Coby Mayo. No one is putting this kid in that class, but he sounds promising. Catcher Creed Willems was another high school pick and he is a top 30 O’s prospect.

The 2024 MLB Draft resumed today shortly after 2 p.m. as the clubs began making selections in round 11. Today the three-day draft will conclude with selections in rounds 11 through 20.

The Orioles will have one pick in each round today and they selected a lefty college pitcher in round 11.

Round 11 (No. 339) - O's took Louisville senior lefty Sebastian Gongora. This season over 15 starts he went 5-4 with a 6.14 ERA. Over 77 2/3 innings he allowed 86 hits with 29 walks and 89 strikeouts. He produced a 1.481 WHIP with a 3.4 walk rate and 10.3 strikeout rate.

He had a better season in 2023 at Wright State with a 3.17 ERA in 93 2/3 innings and a 22.4 strikeout rate. He was the Horizon League Pitcher of the Year.

Gongora is ranked as this draft's No. 353 prospect on the Baseball America Top 500.

There was a lot for the Orioles to like about their second day of draft picks. They saw third rounder, USC outfielder Austin Overn, move up some draft boards when he produced a .947 OPS in the Cape Cod League.

They saw Auburn pitcher right-hander Chase Allsup, their fourth rounder, sit mid 90s with his fastball in the SEC and touch 100 mph.

They like the three catchers they selected but did not set out to draft three, it just worked out that way. They had some high school players they liked on their board but have only selected one thus far.

But the O’s sure do like that young man, DJ Layton, a sixth round pick shortstop from Charlotte Christian High School. Layton, who has a college commitment to Southern Miss, turns 18 in a few days.

“DJ is a young, very athletic, switch-hitting shortstop from Charlotte, North Carolina,” said O’s vice president of player development and domestic scouting Matt Blood. “He’s a great kid with a lot of tools and we feel like there is upside to his game when it comes to coming into our organization and helping him get stronger and helping him offensively while continuing to build his defensive skill set. Where we got him, we felt like this was a really good bet for us. I’ll give credit to our scouting department and people put a lot of work in on this kid to get to know him and his family and the coaches at his high school. The whole room was ecstatic when we were able to get him in that round.”

The MLB Draft resumed this afternoon as the clubs will make selections in rounds three through 10 on the second of three days of drafting. The Orioles today added another college hitter to begin their day.

In round three: With pick No. 97 overall, the O's selected University of Southern California outfielder Austin Overn. A lefty hitter and righty thrower, he is 21 and just completed his second season at USC.

Over 59 games, he hit .270/.349/.461/.810 with 12 doubles, five triples, eight homers, 57 runs, 17 steals and 32 RBIs. He was honorable mention all-Pac 12.

Overn's best tool, per MLB.com is a 75 grade run tool. The site ranks him as its No. 131 prospect.

On the streaming of the draft today, analyst Jonathan Mayo said, "he might be the fastest guy in the draft class. Not a lot of power. We are talking speed from the left side. Maybe the best defensive outfielder in the entire class."

On the first night of the 2024 MLB Draft, the Orioles seemed to play into the strength of this draft in adding three college position players, all three from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

For the sixth straight draft since Mike Elias took over in his role with the club, the O’s did not take a pitcher in the first round. Or any among the three selections Sunday.

With their first round pick, No. 22 overall, they added center fielder Vance Honeycutt from North Carolina. The righty batter hit .318 with an OPS of 1.124 and hit 28 homers, a UNC single-season record. He also was named the ACC’s Defensive Player of the Year two straight years, a first in the conference.

He was ranked the No. 13 prospect for this draft by Baseball America and No. 22 by MLB.com.

A player with some loud tools, the one area to clean up for him on the stat sheet is strikeouts. He had a 30 percent K rate as a freshman and 28 percent last season.

For the fifth time in six years since his first draft in 2019, O's executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias took a college bat with his first draft selection.

With the No. 22 overall pick in round one, the Orioles selected University of North Carolina outfielder Vance Honeycutt, a right-handed batter and thrower from Salisbury, N.C.

In 62 games this season for the Tarheels in his junior season, Honeycutt hit .318/.410/.714/1.124 with 13 doubles, two triples, 28 homers, 88 runs, 28 steals and 70 RBIs. His 28 homers is a UNC single-season record. 

He was ranked by Baseball America as the No. 13 player in this draft and was rated No. 22 by MLBPipeline.com.

In three seasons at UNC, over 176 games, he hit .293/.412/.638/1.050 with 65 homers and 170 RBIs. He hit 25 homers and stole 29 bases as a freshman. He had four multi-homer games this season.