Real trade, looks fair -- clearly the O's were interested in the pick ahead of this week's draft.

💁🏼‍♀️🥰 I love it, the Rays are chasing the prize‼️

Wow do I love this. The last time we got somebody of Bryan Baker's caliber for the pen, we had to give up Jesus Sanchez. Baker throws gas, basically leads baseball in K%, and doesn't walk anybody. He gets his titties ripped though when contact is made. I'll have to dive deeper, but velocity breeds velocity. If it comes in hard, it's going out hard. But secondly, maybe he's throwing too many strikes. Starting pitchers should try to strike guys out on three pitches. Relievers can miss a few times trying to induce swings and misses and bad contact on balls out of the zone.

Oh no, without this pick, the Rays will miss their annual overslot of an all glove, limp dick bat middle infielder that they always take with their second pick.

I guess I’m the lone Rays fan who doesn’t love this trade. One, we gave up very nearly the trade value required to acquire Bednar, and that’s who I want. Two, I worry the Rays just shot their wad and they won’t be acquiring anyone else. Three, Baker has some good ( 32.5% K rate, 6% BB rate, only allowing 11% of inherited runners to score (2 of 18) and some bad ( 3.95 FIP, a 1.88 HR/9, a low GB rate (37.6%), and blowing 3 of 5 save opportunities), but he’s hardly a high leverage guy like Bednar. He’s a medium leverage guy who is going to break your heart a lot. Fourth, the Rays always draft a light hitting defense first athlete who washes out of the system 2-3 years later, so giving up the pick they would normally use on that scrub means one less good draft pick (because they are still drafting the defensive scrub). For the record, I don’t blame Baker for tonight’s meltdown. Why the Rays threw him into the fire only hours after the trade was announced is beyond me. It was an incredibly stupid way to begin his Rays career. Unfortunately, we are seeing a lot of self inflicted wounds with the Rays these days.