ST. PETERSBURG -- The Rays didn’t necessarily head into this offseason looking to trade starter Shane Baz. The right-hander is under club control for three more seasons, just made a career-high 31 starts and still has the potential of a front-end starter.
Then the Orioles came calling with an offer the Rays felt they couldn’t refuse.
On Friday, Tampa Bay dealt Baz to Baltimore for four highly ranked prospects and a Day 1 pick in the 2026 MLB Draft. The Rays’ rotation depth took a big hit, but their Minor League system received a big boost in high-upside, up-the-middle talent.
In exchange for Baz, the Rays received outfielder Slater de Brun, catcher Caden Bodine, right-hander Michael Forret, outfielder Austin Overn and a Competitive Balance Round A pick, No. 33 overall.
TRADE DETAILS
Rays get: OF Slater de Brun, C Caden Bodine, RHP Michael Forret, OF Austin Overn, Competitive Balance Round A Draft pick
Orioles get: RHP Shane Baz
All four prospects join Tampa Bay’s Top 30 Prospects list, according to MLB Pipeline: Forret at No. 7, de Brun at No. 8, Bodine at No. 13 and Overn at No. 22. The Competitive Balance Round A pick will give the Rays another opportunity to add talent, and even more bonus pool space, in a Draft where they will pick second overall.
Moving Baz for players who likely won’t help them next season wasn’t a priority for the Rays, but the Orioles’ offer -- which was immediately regarded as significant by rival evaluators -- forced the hand of a front office that feels it must be open to anything and everything.
“That's not necessarily the direction we were looking to go, because of how highly we think of Shane,” Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander said Friday night. “But we had teams coming after him aggressively, and there is a point where, if a certain threshold is reached, you can't help but have to consider it.”
The Rays will miss Baz, the 26-year-old right-hander coming off his first full, healthy season in the Majors, and they might not enjoy seeing him in their division for years to come. Even after posting a 4.87 ERA this past season, he attracted interest from the Orioles and Astros due to the quality of his arsenal, his three years of club control and his potential to improve -- traits Tampa Bay appreciated, too.
“Love the person, love the human and someone that we feel very, very strongly [that] the best is right in front of him,” Neander said. “I think that Baltimore agrees, and that speaks to why the transaction [came in] at the acquisition price that it did.”
And that price was high. De Brun and Bodine were both first-round picks by the Orioles in the 2025 Draft. Forret took a huge leap this past season. Overn is a potentially elite defensive center fielder. And the Rays will now have five of the first 86 picks in next year’s Draft.
“It's in your division, it's in front of you and we think Shane is about to take a really big step forward, and that part is difficult,” Neander said. “But just the return, we were able to get what we thought was a premium because we were willing to be patient and accept a proposal from them that was focused on players a lot further away from their Major League club. Those are the kind of things that ... they're difficult, but we've got to do them.”
Coincidentally, the toolsy de Brun landed in Baltimore with the Competitive Balance Round A selection that Tampa Bay dealt away in exchange for former Orioles reliever Bryan Baker in July. The Rays had kicked around scenarios where they would have selected de Brun in the first round, but after accepting a $4 million bonus from the Orioles, he’s a Ray anyway.
“It was first-round talent in our mind, without question; went a little later, got his bonus and it all worked out,” Neander said. “He's someone that we're really, really high on.”
Bodine, the 30th overall pick in this year’s Draft, has received rave reviews for his defensive work behind the plate in addition to his switch-hitting ability, and the Rays are always in search of long-term solutions at catcher.
Forret was a 14th-round pick in the 2023 Draft who posted a 1.58 ERA and 0.82 WHIP at two Minor League levels this year and finished the season with Double-A Chesapeake. The right-hander ranked second among all Minor League pitchers (minimum 70 innings) in both ERA and WHIP, and his .157 opponents’ average was the fifth-lowest mark in the Minors (minimum 260 batters faced).
“I think our system is pretty deep with position player talent. We've got to get the pitching side to be in a similar place,” Neander said. “And he's somebody that is going to help immensely in that regard.”
Overn was a third-round pick in 2024 who slashed .249/.355/.399 with 13 homers and 64 steals across two levels this year while also finishing in Double-A.
“You talk about de Brun, you talk about Bodine, talk about Overn -- these are premium position, up-the-middle talents with some real ability and ceiling to them, and Forret's a legit Major League starting pitching prospect that's not terribly far off,” Neander said.