Right-hander Shane Baz and the Baltimore Orioles are finalizing a five-year, $68 million contract extension, sources inform ESPN, fortifying the group’s beginning rotation long-term with a high-upside arm acquired in a commerce over the winter.
Once among the many prime pitching prospects in baseball, Baz, 26, has thrown simply 286 main league innings due to a spate of accidents. With 166⅓ of these innings coming final season for Tampa Bay, the Orioles are betting that Baz can hit on his important upside and turn into a front-of-the-rotation starter.
With a fastball that lives at 96 mph and tops out at 99, plus 4 different pitches that embrace a depraved knuckle curve, Baz options the kind of arsenal seen within the recreation’s finest arms. Baltimore dealt 4 prospects and the No. 33 choose within the 2026 draft so as to add him to a rotation it overhauled over the winter.
The contract quantities to the Orioles doubling down on the choice — and their perception that Baz will stay wholesome going ahead. The twelfth total choose within the 2017 draft by Pittsburgh, he went to the Rays within the Chris Archer commerce a yr later and by 2021 appeared like a future star as he debuted in Tampa Bay. The subsequent season, Baz underwent a pair of elbow surgical procedures, together with an ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction that induced him to overlook all of 2023 and half of 2024.
Baz hasn’t missed a begin since, and though his 4.87 ERA final yr was nicely above the league common, his 176 strikeouts recommended the return of his premium stuff and the potential to fit himself on the prime finish of a workers.
Baltimore’s beginning pitching, a definite weak spot a yr in the past because the Orioles completed 75-87 and missed the postseason following consecutive appearances, has markedly improved since. Left-hander Trevor Rogers threw seven shutout innings on Opening Day, right-hander Kyle Bradish appeared like a star upon his return final season from Tommy John surgical procedure, and Baltimore signed free agent veterans Chris Bassitt and Zach Eflin over the winter to spherical out the workers.
Baz, who is predicted to fit in on the center of the rotation, was set to succeed in free company following the 2028 season. The deal will begin this yr, cowl three arbitration seasons and purchase out two free agent years.
