The trade deadline doesn’t arrive until Tuesday at 6 p.m., but the Orioles got aggressive today. They found the opportunities to strike and didn’t let them pass.

They latched onto a starter under team control beyond 2024 who didn’t cost one of their top prospects. They strengthened their bullpen and added a plus defender for the outfield.

The total cost was outfielder Austin Hays and minor leaguers Jackson Baumeister, Mac Horvath and Matthew Etzel.

Hays went to the Phillies for reliever Seranthony Domínguez and outfielder Cristian Pache. The Orioles later announced that they acquired Zach Eflin from the Rays.

Eflin will report this weekend. Domínguez and Pache arrived at Camden Yards this afternoon.

The Orioles made their move for a starting pitcher on a busy day of roster shakeups.

An industry source confirmed that right-hander Zach Eflin, 30, has been acquired from the Rays for minor league pitcher Jackson Baumeister, outfielder Matthew Etzel and infielder/outfielder Mac Horvath. MLB Pipeline ranks Horvath as the No. 10 prospect in the system and Baumeister at No. 17.

Eflin, who’s under team control for $18 million next season, has posted a 4.09 ERA and 1.164 WHIP in 19 starts with only 13 walks in 110 innings. He went 16-8 last season with a 3.50 ERA and 1.024 WHIP in 31 starts and finished sixth in Cy Young voting in the American League.

This is the controllable starter that the Orioles sought without surrendering one of their top prospects. And they might not be done.

The Padres made Eflin the 33^rd-overall pick in the 2012 draft and traded him to the Dodgers two years later. He was flipped to the Phillies the next day in the Jimmy Rollins deal.

The first three pitches from Grayson Rodriguez tonight were clocked at 98.9, 99.2 and 99.8 mph, resulting in a fly ball from Dodgers leadoff hitter Mookie Betts.

That’s when he decided to turn up the heat.

Rodriguez concluded an eight-pitch at-bat against Freddie Freeman by getting him to ground a 101-mph fastball to third baseman Ramón Urías. Six of his pitches exceeded 100 mph in the inning. He didn’t top 99.3 during his first stint with the club.

This wasn’t the same version of Rodriguez. Not until he came back out for the sixth.

Twice handed three-run leads, Rodriguez couldn’t record an out in the sixth and watched from the dugout as Chris Taylor hit a grand slam off Bryan Baker in the Dodgers’ 6-4 victory over the Orioles before an announced crowd of 21,956 at Camden Yards.

Dan Simonds didn’t need consecutive years to form an opinion on Mac Horvath. He didn’t even need a full season.

The relatively brief amount of time that Horvath spent at IMG Academy in Florida revealed traits that made him special. Intangibles that Simonds knew would separate Horvath from a talented group of players.

The total package prompted the Orioles to draft Horvath in the second round last week out of the University of North Carolina. Maybe a little higher than Simonds imagined before Horvath walked onto the Chapel Hill campus, but understandable based on the projections.

Simonds has spent 10 years at IMG Academy and oversees the entire operation as Baseball Director, including camps that run throughout the summer, winter and spring, and the professional training at the Bradenton facility. Horvath transferred from Century High School in Minnesota for his senior year.

In the fall of 2019. Before the world shut down early in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.

The amateur draft resumes this afternoon with the third through 10^th rounds. The Orioles have nine selections, including a Round 3 compensation pick, the 100^th overall, for failing to sign Oklahoma State pitcher Nolan McLean last summer.

The Orioles are choosing 86^th overall, 100^th, 118^th, 154^th, 181^st, 211^th, 241^st, 271^st and 301^st.

They are thrilled with the results at Nos. 17, 53 and 63.

Picking later than ever under executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias, the Orioles grabbed Vanderbilt center fielder Enrique Bradfield Jr., North Carolina outfielder Mac Horvath and Florida State strikeout machine Jackson Baumeister – a good nickname when you’re a pitcher.

“Ecstatic,” director of draft operations Brad Ciolek said on a video call.