Catcher Adley Rutschman and left-handed reliever Keegan Akin are on track to be reinstated from the injured list Monday ahead of the Orioles’ series against the visiting Toronto Blue Jays, interim manager Tony Mansolino said Sunday morning.

Rutschman is in Baltimore on Sunday for the team’s series finale against the Colorado Rockies and will go through final testing to confirm he’s ready, Mansolino said. Akin is not in the building Sunday but “will most likely be active tomorrow,” the interim manager added.

“My guess is [Rutschman] will catch tomorrow if all checks out today,” Mansolino said. “If he comes in healthy, body feels good, good chance he will be squatting behind the dish tomorrow. [Akin] pitched yesterday, so we gotta check all the boxes and make sure he recovered.”

Additionally, right-handers Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells are getting one step closer to their returns. Bradish, who made his first rehabilitation start Thursday at High-A Aberdeen, will make an appearance at Double-A Chesapeake on Tuesday, Mansolino said. Wells will make his first rehabilitation start Wednesday, also for the Baysox.

Rutschman has been sidelined since June with a left oblique strain, his first time on the injured list in his career. He began his rehabilitation assignment with Triple-A Norfolk last week, going 2-for-15 with a double and three walks in four games for the Tides. Akin pitched in three games during his assignment between the Florida Complex League and Norfolk and allowed one run across three innings.

Rutschman is one of three catchers on Baltimore’s injured list, along with Gary Sanchez (back) and Maverick Handley (wrist). Akin, who has not pitched for the Orioles since June 30 with shoulder inflammation, will provide Mansolino another left-handed option out of the bullpen, a role that became more of a necessity after the club traded Gregory Soto to the New York Mets on Friday.

On Thursday with High-A Aberdeen, Bradish threw 37 pitches across two innings in his first time on the mound since June 2024. IronBirds manager Ryan Goll called the start, which came 13 months post-Tommy John surgery, a “step in the right progression” and added that the right-hander was “back to his normal self.”

“Positive, optimistic, felt great,” Mansolino said Friday. “For the ball to come out of his hand the way that it did after missing so much time, we’re real excited.”

Wells has not pitched since April 12, 2024, with an ulnar collateral ligament strain. Unlike Bradish, Wells did not undergo Tommy John surgery, and the club has previously said Wells is about one week behind Bradish in their recoveries. Wells most recently threw a live bullpen session in Sarasota, Florida, last Sunday.

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But that does not mean all is lost over the next two months. If more everyday veterans are to be dealt, the players who remain will be benefactors.

Such is the case for two of the biggest contributors to the Orioles’ 5-1 win over the Colorado Rockies on Sunday to take the three-game set. Coby Mayo’s role would expand if those in front of him are traded. And Tyler O’Neill, the club’s most expensive free agent signing who was injured for much of the first-half disaster, bears responsibility for why the team is in last place in the American League East and would surely love a chance to recover and for some of that weight to be lifted.

“There’ll be some adversity throughout the week, without a doubt,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said before Sunday’s game when asked what he thinks the next few days will bring. “I think as we lose players that we love and have helped us for a couple years win a lot of games, there’s going to be some tough hugs and some tough goodbyes.”

The ones giving those embraces will be tasked with providing reasons for optimism in the coming weeks for next season. That started Sunday with Mayo, who went 1-for-3 with a double in the second inning that put him and Cedric Mullins in scoring position. Dylan Carlson brought both of them home on a single to give the Orioles a lead they would not relinquish. In the third inning, O’Neill homered for the third consecutive game to raise his season on-base-plus-slugging percentage to .724 and make it 4-1. Tomoyuki Sugano’s six-inning, one-run, eight-strikeout outing did the rest.

Mayo is hitting .273 over his past 14 games, a stretch that’s occurred despite inconsistent playing time. The Orioles have made known they’d rather this than the alternative: playing every day in Triple-A. And Mayo is beginning to prove why.

“I’m just trying to stay on my backside a little bit longer,” he said. “Not try to jump so much at the ball sometimes. I think I get into trouble when I do that, and I think I’m seeing the ball a little bit better. Making better swing decisions. Just a little bit of that contributes a lot.”

O’Neill has taken a different path this season, but one that’s been just as mired in frustration. The outfielder has missed more games than he’s played in the first year of a deal that could keep him in Baltimore through 2027. It wasn’t the first impression he hoped to make.

Mansolino sees a lot of himself in O’Neill. The former minor leaguer, despite admitting he “wasn’t a very good one,” he joked, remembers stretches he went on akin to O’Neill’s. Only they lasted for much shorter lengths of time and were oftentimes cold streaks rather than hot ones.

“The few times I swung the bat good, I got hot, and it mattered,” Mansolino said. “Confidence is a thing. We are not robots. Human beings have confidence. It really changes the game in so many ways. As crazy as it sounds, a ball that you bloop in and you get a hit, you get a little confidence, and then you hit a ball hard, you get a little confidence, and then you feel completely differently. It’s a real thing.”

“We knew he could do it,” Gunnar Henderson added. “We knew it was only a matter of time. Just getting on the field and getting reps, and that was I feel like the biggest thing, was just getting out there.”

He’s doing his best to erase the poor introduction to Baltimore, even if the team is falling further out of the playoff race. O’Neill had a .868 OPS and six extra-base hits in 12 games in July before Sunday. His .535 slugging percentage this month entering the series finale leads the team as he looks to redefine his frustrating season.

After Sugano, Yennier Cano, Andrew Kittredge and Seranthony Domínguez were asked to go the final three innings without Félix Bautista and Gregory Soto, who completed the only save opportunity since Bautista landed on the injured list before being traded on Friday to the New York Mets. The trio tossed clean seventh, eighth and ninth frames, respectively, to seal Baltimore’s first series victory since the All-Star break.

It was no longer a save situation for Domínguez after Henderson scored from second base on a wild pitch in the eighth in a display of awareness and quickness perhaps only Henderson possesses. And in the top of the ninth, the shortstop fielded a weak grounder barehanded, turned and threw to first to help complete the win in another play that Henderson routinely makes look simple.

“Those are the types of players I want my kids to watch,” said Mansolino, who hits grounders to his two children on the Camden Yards infield before most games and joked Sunday morning he doesn’t want his boys to develop the bad, lackadaisical habits some major leaguers exhibit. “You don’t see people doing that.”

Postgame analysis

Sugano was masterful in his final start before the trade deadline. He surrendered a solo home run to Warming Bernabell in the second inning, then rebounded with four scoreless frames to lower his season ERA to 4.38. His eight strikeouts tied a season high from April 28.

The 35-year-old is one of several veteran pitchers whose contracts expire after this season and are attractive trade candidates. Charlie Morton’s recent turnaround is garnering attention. Zach Eflin is no stranger to being dealt this time of year. Domínguez, Kittredge and other relievers could be on the move.

If Sunday was Sugano’s final start in Baltimore, it offered a reminder of when he was one of the few bright spots on a floundering ballclub.

“It’s obviously my first time,” Sugano said through team interpreter Yuto Sakurai when asked about the approaching deadline. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I just look at it day by day and work on the things that are in front of me.”

By the numbers

Sunday was Mayo’s third consecutive game with an extra-base hit after homering Friday and doubling in his only at-bat in Saturday’s 18-0 beatdown. That’s the first such streak of the young infielder’s career. O’Neill hadn’t homered in three consecutive games since September 2021.

What they’re saying

Henderson and Mayo on Sugano’s outing:

“It was awesome. He was coming after guys and made pitches when he needed to. I was really happy for him.”

“I think he showed some of his best stuff today,” Mayo added.

On deck

The Orioles begin a four-game set with the AL East-leading Toronto Blue Jays, who entered Sunday winners of eight of their past nine games, at Camden Yards on Monday. Eflin will face right-hander Chris Bassitt (3.88 ERA) in the series opener.

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Bradish threw one pitch that reached 97 mph, a fastball on his second offering of the game, and hit 96 mph three more times. The right-hander threw 37 pitches, 22 for strikes, and collected two of his punchouts on breaking balls.

“It was awesome to see Bradish back out there,” Aberdeen manager Ryan Goll said. “Haven’t watched him throw live for a while, so it’s fun to see him back out there with some of his quality stuff that he’s always had. He brought some energy.”

The 28-year-old worked a three up, three down first inning on just nine pitches. He stumbled in his second and final frame, needing 28 pitches to work around two hits, a walk and an error. After a strikeout to open the inning, Bradish allowed a double to left field, then a free pass and an RBI single. An error on IronBirds second baseman Aron Estrada loaded the bases before Bradish stranded three with a 94 mph fastball that induced his fourth strikeout.

Goll said he hadn’t talked with Bradish yet, but that “from what I gathered, he looked good and he felt good.”

“It’s still going to be getting comfortable with it,” the manager said. “But ultimately, what he showed is more back to his normal self of what he’s had previously. He just attacked the hitters.”

Thursday was Bradish’s first game since he left his June 14, 2024, start against the Philadelphia Phillies with elbow discomfort. That was six weeks after returning from a sprained ulnar collateral ligament that he suffered last spring. He underwent Tommy John surgery days later.

His recovery has ramped up in recent weeks before his first game Thursday. He last threw a live bullpen session Saturday in Sarasota, Florida, that Orioles pitching coaches drove from George Steinbrenner Field in Tampa to watch. They relayed to Tony Mansolino that the ball was “coming out hot” and that Bradish “kind of looked like himself,” the interim manager said last week.

Bradish, one of 15 players currently on the Orioles’ injured list and among the 26 total to spend time on it this season, can spend a maximum of 30 days on his assignment before he must come off the injured list or go back on it. That would put the right-hander on track to return by late August, roughly 14 months post surgery.

“I like picking their brains about their minor league experience,” Griff O’Ferrall, Baltimore’s second first-round draft pick last year, said about what it’s like having major leaguers join the club. “It’s cool to just see all the different roads that people have had.”

It’s tradition for veterans on rehabilitation assignments to treat their new teammates. The IronBirds, with all the injuries in Baltimore, have gotten an assortment of luxuries bestowed from major leaguers.

Kyle Gibson brought a coffee truck to Ripken Stadium the morning of a Sunday game earlier this season, 21-year-old right-hander Michael Forret said. Zach Eflin and Andrew Kittredge gifted the team a new couch and Play Station 5 for the clubhouse and took the group to a steakhouse dinner. Forret joked that he’s eager to see what Bradish does.

“It’s always great to have those vet guys that are in the MLB with their experience,” said Forret, the organization’s second-ranked pitching prospect who holds a 1.86 ERA this season. “Not even necessarily to pick their brain, but just to watch how they go about their business. Their routines are so structured. Watching them pitch you can learn a lot from. So just being able to sit back and watch all that unfolds is really good for us to learn and see, like, if you want to be at this level, this is how you have to go about it.”

Bradish is one of many major leaguers either beginning rehab assignments or returning to Baltimore this week. Adley Rutschman played Tuesday with Triple-A Norfolk and could return this weekend, Mansolino said. Eflin joined the Orioles on Wednesday. Ryan Mountcastle started his assignment Thursday with Norfolk and crushed a two-run homer in his second plate appearance. Keegan Akin and Chadwick Tromp, who caught Bradish in Aberdeen on Thursday, are also nearing returns.

But the Orioles, who have lost seven of their past nine games and sit nine games back of a playoff spot, are stumbling toward selling ahead of next Thursday’s trade deadline. The 2025 season might be lost by the time Bradish and the others return. How the right-hander finishes this year instead will matter more for 2026, when he’ll look to solidify a rotation that lacks a true ace and faces uncertainty between impending departures and injury questions.

Thursday was the first step toward Bradish proving that he can once again be relied upon.

“Being able to actually feel that sense of pressure, anxiety, calm himself down, it was awesome,” Goll said. “That’s definitely a step in the right progression.”

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Handerhan, the commissioner of the Bel Air Women’s Lacrosse League, places cones on the corners of the field minutes before game time, gathers the two teams, readies the game time stopwatch, flips the scoreboard back to zeroes and grabs her pen. There’s two chairs at the scorers table, but one of them is empty. Today, she’s the scorekeeper, stat compiler, time keeper and historian, maintaining one eye on the game while fielding questions about how, and why, this league that she’s played an integral role in assembling has persisted for more than three decades.

None of this gets old for Handerhan, 61, who was around for the league’s founding in 1992 and has led it through uncertain times and growth. The league, playing its 33rd season this summer, consists of five teams with players ranging from 14 years old to some in their 50s, most local but others coming from several counties and states. There’s high schoolers looking to stay fit over the summer, young adults looking to meet friends and mothers playing alongside their daughters.

They’re all here — Ewing Street Park nestled less than a mile away from Bel Air’s Main Street — for different reasons but drawn to the same unique opportunity.

“When I was in my 20s, there really wasn’t that much opportunity for women beyond college to play,” said Handerhan, a Catonsville native who played lacrosse at University of Richmond and now lives in Bel Air. “It was either softball or soccer. It’s just nice that there’s another option for ladies to continue to play.”

The Bel Air Women’s Lacrosse League has taken several forms since its founding. They’ve played in parks across Harford County, including Bel Air middle school for a time, but now call the private and quant Ewing Street Park home.

They play every Tuesday and Thursday night from the first week of June through the end of July — each team plays about 10 regular season games, weather permitting. A semifinal and championship game are slated for the end of the month. The league has played every year since its creation, even during the pandemic impacted summer of 2020.

Most players are local, but some come from Baltimore and Cecil counties. And a few make the half-hour drive from just over the Pennsylvania line. There’s nine mother-daughter pairs in the league, Handerhan said.

Amy Clough, 53, has played since the 1990s. She took a break to raise her two daughters. One of them, Aurora, 22, has played since her sophomore year at Fallston seven years ago. She used to watch her mom compete from the sidelines. Now, they share the field.

“That was pretty much me,” Aurora said, pointing to a group of kids playing nearby. “Then high school came around and she was like, ‘You should play.’”

“Everybody’s so forgiving out here,” Amy added. “Everyone’s friendly. That’s a huge draw for me. Everyone just wants to have a place to play. I’m just grateful that they let us — let me — at my age. It feels rare. It’s a rare thing.”

Cari Biscoe is one of Handerhan’s top volunteer helpers, arriving early to set up the field and managing other aspects of the league’s operations. Her two daughters, Addison, 18, and Molly, 16, play. Like Aurora Clough, they were once the younger children running around the sidelines watching mom.

“I like being able to play with her. I enjoy it. Sometimes she yells at us, but it’s fun,” Molly Biscoe, a rising junior at John Carroll who’s in her second summer with the league, said through a smile.

The league is not without its challenges. Participation has dipped in recent years as club leagues pluck talented high school and college-aged players away. The league once also fielded a junior level. There’s just one level now, but promising regrowth helped the league expand from four to five teams in 2025. Handerhan credits the Bel Air Recreation Committee’s increased social media presence for helping word spread.

“We’ve had our battles,” Cari Biscoe said. “But since COVID, we’ve been able to bring back that resilience.”

Handerhan is also some of the players’ biggest cheerleaders. Between answering questions and jotting who scored the latest goal, she’s shouting words of encouragement or coaching tips to players as they maneuver around defenders to attack the net.

She hasn’t taken the field herself for several years now, but Handerhan is still spending her Tuesday and Thursday nights here. She doesn’t see herself — or the Bel Air Women’s Lacrosse League — slowing down any time soon.

“So they don’t have to stop,” Handerhan said as she updates the score board and tells referees the time. “I just want to let it be known that you don’t have to stop after you have kids. You can come back and play with us. You can get married and come back and play with us. And when your kids get older, you come back and play with them.”

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With those four picks, the Orioles acquired catcher/outfielder Ike Irish, catcher Caden Bodine, shortstop Wehiwa Aloy and outfielder Slater de Brun. Three more college hitters and no pitchers made Sunday’s first round a continuation of the organization’s draft strategy throughout the Elias era.

The Orioles acquired those three additional picks from losing major league players. Their pick at No. 19 was their own, and Nos. 30 and 31 were compensation for Corbin Burnes and Anthony Santander leaving in free agency. No. 37 was the return for right-hander Bryan Baker from last week’s trade with the Rays. Baltimore made seven selections in total Sunday night, adding left-handed pitcher Joseph Dzierwa at No. 58 overall, right-handed pitcher JT Quinn at No. 69 and outfielder RJ Austin at No. 93.

But Irish, Bodine, Aloy and de Brun will headline Elias’ seventh and Matt Blood’s second draft — and hopefully become center pieces for the club’s depleted farm system for years to come. Here are 10 things to know about four of the newest Orioles:

Projections (and the Orioles) are split on Irish’s future position

The first sign that Irish’s best positional fit was a question mark was his description on the ESPN broadcast Sunday night. The network labeled the No. 19 pick an outfielder, while commissioner Rob Manfred announced Irish as a catcher.

Irish spent much of his final season at Auburn in the outfield, playing 41 games in right field, four in left field and just 12 behind the plate. He opened the year as the Tigers’ starting catcher but fractured his scapula and played mostly outfield upon his return.

Unfortunately for the Michigan native, both positions are the organization’s deepest. At catcher, Irish has Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo in front of him. And four of Baltimore’s past five first-round picks have been outfielders.

Those same projections had Irish ranked much higher than where the Orioles got him

According to four publications that ranked draft prospects, Irish was a value for Baltimore at 19. Baseball America ranked the catcher as the 13th-best player in the class. MLB Pipeline and ESPN had Irish 11th. The Athletic ranked him fifth.

Moving around the diamond never impacted his offensive production. Irish hit .364 with a 1.179 on-base-plus-slugging percentage and struck out in just 14.3% of his at-bats last year at Auburn. Despite defensive questions, the left-handed hitting catcher is more of a sure thing in the batter’s box.

“When I saw him in person, I walked away thinking, ‘This guy is one of the best pure hitters in the draft and he’s not going to get to us,’” Blood said. “He can catch one day, he could play first one day, he could play in the outfield one day. That’s a pretty valuable type of player, especially if he’s one of the best hitters on the team.”

He played for a stacked high school team

Irish’s team, St. Mary’s Prep in Orchard Park, Michigan, dominated the area high school circuit. He played with two other top draft picks there: Brock Porter (2022 fourth round, Texas Rangers) and Alex Mooney (2023 seventh round, Cleveland Guardians). Their team won three consecutive state championships in Irish’s four seasons.

The 21-year-old Irish didn’t enjoy as much team success at Auburn but is now the school’s fifth-highest drafted player ever. He’s the Tigers’ first first-rounder since 2020 and first first-round position player since 2016. He could have shared the field with Gunnar Henderson, an Auburn signee who instead signed with the Orioles after being drafted out of high school. That day might now come in Baltimore.

Bodine has a knack for the postseason

Bodine, the Orioles’ second pick Sunday night, has led teams on deep postseason runs at every level.

The 21-year-old switch-hitting catcher starred for Coastal Carolina this spring and led the Chanticleers to the College World Series final. At Haddon Heights High School in New Jersey, he helped his team win a state championship in his senior year, going 2-for-2 with a home run in the title game.

Bodine hit .318 with a .454 on-base percentage as a junior and became the school’s second first-round selection. And he boasts one of the draft’s best contact tools — he struck out in just 8% of his at-bats last season.

“He’s just a very polished player,” Blood said. “He was a high-level competitive wrestler when he was in high school, and you can see that athleticism and body control and just awareness using the ground when he’s catching. He’s one of the better receivers in the country. He’s a very accurate thrower. He’s just a very effective catcher.”

Baltimore wasn’t afraid to take two catchers

Despite having rich catching talent in the major leagues and the upper minors, adding two catchers with their first two selections was not a concern for the Orioles, Blood said. Irish’s bat was simply too impressive to ignore, and the club was impressed with Bodine’s defense enough to spend another pick at the position.

“He has the ability to catch, he has the ability to play corner outfield, he has the ability to play some first base, and we’re pretty big on defensive versatility,” Blood said on Irish. “We’ll probably explore all those options.”

Aloy was college baseball’s best player who took a modern path to the top

Aloy won the Golden Spikes Award this past season at Arkansas, college baseball’s version of the Heisman Trophy given to the sport’s top player. The 21-year-old did so after hitting .350 with a 1.107 OPS and 21 home runs in 65 games for the Razorbacks.

The 6-foot-2 Aloy’s path to becoming one of the nation’s top players is representative of the modern college athletics landscape. He was underrecruited out of Hawaii and played his freshman season at Sacramento State. After an impressive showing there, he entered the transfer portal and bounced to the Southeastern Conference to become one of the nation’s best players.

Baltimore did not expect him to fall to No. 31

Four picks and a record bonus pool gave the Orioles unique flexibility in the draft. Aloy is an example of a player they might not have been able to acquire without those extra assets, Blood said.

“He’s been a trend-up guy. He’s gotten better each year in college,” Blood said. “We really like the way he goes about playing the game and his skill set. So we see a lot of upside with him, and we did not expect him to get where we were able to draft him. We’re very excited to be able to get him.”

De Brun has a familiar background

The Pacific Northwest and SEC are two places the Orioles have always found success in. De Brun, like Rutschman, is an Oregon native. And the 18-year-old is a Vanderbilt commit — 2023 first rounder Enrique Bradfield Jr. and interim manager Tony Mansolino both played there.

De Brun is an undersized outfielder with elite defensive skills that give scouts confidence he’ll be a true centerfielder. His 5-foot-10, 187-pound frame has drawn comparisons with Arizona Diamondbacks All-Star outfielder Corbin Carroll. Bradfield fit a similar mold as a draftee with plus speed and defense but questions about his bat.

De Brun is the only high schooler the Orioles chose on Day 1 of the 2025 draft, the type of player they have typically steered away from early in drafts.

He isn’t old enough to drink, but he can sing about it

The 18-year-old has passions that extend beyond the diamond.

He’s released five songs that he calls a mix of country and pop, headlined by “Find Me a Bar,” which has over 10,000 streams on Spotify under the alias “Lil Slayyy.” He started experimenting with music in high school and taught himself how to produce from YouTube tutorials.

“He’s one of the more charismatic and likeable people you’ll ever meet,” Blood said. “He’s got a lot of energy. He’s great to be around. He works really, really hard. He’s very deliberate and diligent about everything that he does. Cares a lot, and so that’s a great place to start when you’re talking about an 18-year-old kid.”

Four picks, three college hitters

Baltimore’s first-round picks fit the type of player Elias and Blood have often sought in first rounds. With Irish, five of the Orioles’ past six top picks are college hitters, and four of those five are left-handed.

That philosophy has mostly worked. Each of the club’s first four first-round picks under Elias reached the majors. Bradfield is steadily improving in Double-A Chesapeake. And Blood said last week that he isn’t worried about Vance Honeycutt’s slow start to his first full professional season.

The Orioles continue to show they feel most confident developing college bats, although Dzierwa is the club’s highest drafted pitcher under Elias. They proved such again in 2025.

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Right-hander Corbin Martin was designated for assignment in the corresponding move for Wolfram. Catcher David Bañuelos was also recalled.

“I wasn’t too sure, but in baseball, things happen quick,” Wolfram, 28, said Sunday when asked if he expected to return to the majors after his last appearance Thursday. “I’m just gonna try to pitch the best that I can and help this team win. That’s the main focus right now.”

Blewett becomes Baltimore’s 15th player and ninth pitcher currently on the injured list — and the 25th player to be placed on the IL this season — as the club’s injury woes continue. The 29-year-old right-hander pitched in Saturday’s 6-0 loss, allowing four earned runs on four hits in the ninth inning to make a comeback insurmountable in the second game of the series against the Miami Marlins. His ERA grew to 6.17 after the outing.

Blewett will undergo an MRI to determine the severity of his injury, interim manager Tony Mansolino said after the final game of the first half, an 11-1 loss to the Miami Marlins.

Wolfram, meanwhile, shined in his latest major league appearance. He pitched a scoreless two innings in the 3-1 win against the Mets to open Thursday’s doubleheader and save the bullpen for the nightcap. The left-hander struck out four, including catching Juan Soto looking, and allowed just one hit to keep the Orioles’ lead at two.

“That’s something you dream of,” Wolfram said. “I grew up a baseball fan my whole life. To get the opportunity to be out on a big league mound and face those guys is a dream come true.”

In his previous 16 innings before Sunday dating to May 29, 14 of which came in Triple-A, Wolfram did not allow an earned run and had a 37.3% strikeout rate. His sinker reached 97.8 mph in the scoreless appearance against New York and he induced eight whiffs on 17 swings, including four on his looping curveball. Wolfram entered Sunday’s blowout after starter Brandon Young and allowed one hit with one strikeout in 1 2/3 scoreless frames. It lowered his season ERA to 3.60.

Wolfram said this stretch is because, in part, of an increase in two-seam fastball usage up in the strike zone, which accentuates his breaking ball that drops away from left-handed batters. His return gives Mansolino another southpaw to pair with Gregory Soto in the bullpen.

Martin, 29, made just one appearance with the Orioles, a 1 1/3 scoreless outing against the Texas Rangers on July 2. Bañuelos, 28, is the third catcher on the 26-man roster and has not appeared in a major league game this season.

Around the horn

• Zach Eflin threw 58 pitches across four innings in his first rehabilitation assignment start with Double-A Chesapeake on Sunday. The right-hander, who has been on the injured list since June 30 with lower back discomfort, gave up two earned runs on five hits, two strikeouts and one walk. Mansolino said Saturday that Eflin will pitch again in Sarasota, Florida, on Friday, then potentially rejoin the major league club after that.

• Cade Povich, also completing his first rehab start Sunday, pitched three scoreless and hitless innings with three strikeouts and no walks for High-A Aberdeen. The left-hander, who has been sidelined since June 16 with left hip inflammation, threw 23 of his 30 pitches for strikes. Mansolino said that Povich will have another rehab start Saturday.

• Charlie Morton, Dean Kremer and Trevor Rogers will start the opening three games of the second half for the Orioles in Tampa Bay. They’ll face right-handers Taj Bradley, Zack Littell and Ryan Pepiot, respectively.

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Blood, who oversees Baltimore’s drafts, gained an extra pick and that selection’s assigned slot value in return for the reliever. It gives the Orioles four first-round picks, more than any other team, and the most bonus pool money to spend on draftees in MLB history.

That provides the Orioles unique flexibility in this year’s draft, which begins Sunday, to add to a farm system that’s become deprived of top talent and depth since the major league club’s rebuild ended — and target a type of player they might not have previously been able to.

“What it allows us to do is be dynamic,” Blood, the Orioles’ vice president of player development and domestic scouting, said Friday. “We’re going to have the ability to make some decisions that other teams aren’t, and that’s that’s exciting. It just gives us another shot, another pick, some more money, which, in terms of strategy, gives you a little more flexibility to maybe do some more things.”

The Orioles hold pick Nos. 19, 30, 31 and 37 on Sunday. The first is their own, and Nos. 30 and 31 came via Corbin Burnes and Anthony Santander’s departures in free agency. Baker brought them No. 37. Baltimore will make four selections before the Dodgers, Yankees and Mets make one.

Executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said Thursday the team did not shop Baker, but that Tampa Bay was simply too aggressive to ignore. It’s a coincidence, then, that the deal got Blood another pick in a range the team was already tantalized by.

“There’s a large group of players, sort of between pick 10 and 35, that I think all the organizations are probably seeing in a lot of different ways,” Blood said. “There’s a lot of depth in that range, and I think that’s a benefit to us.”

Acquiring the No. 37 pick also comes with the $2.6 million bonus pool allotment for that slot, giving the Orioles a bonus-pool era (which began in 2012) record $19.1 million to hand out to draftees. Only three other teams have more than $16 million.

That historic collection of assets gives Blood versatility to chase players they believe could require an overslot contract to sign. That’s how the club landed Gunnar Henderson in 2019, giving him a $2.3 million signing bonus, just more than half a million over the value for his slot. They did it again the next season with Coby Mayo, whom they gave a $1.7 million bonus to, more than triple the slot value of the No. 103 pick.

“That gives us a big opportunity to flex our muscle and hopefully, if there are players that cost a little extra money because they’ve got college commitments, we’ll be able to use it,” Elias said Thursday.

Baltimore hired Blood, who’d worked with Elias and assistant general manager Sig Mejdal since 2009 with the St. Louis Cardinals, in 2019 as director of player development. The club promoted him to oversee their drafts before the 2024 season. This year’s will be the second Blood leads.

Taking a pitcher in the first round, something the Orioles have never done under Elias, is a possibility, the general manager said Thursday. Blood acknowledged that that chance increased by acquiring a fourth pick. The earliest Baltimore has taken a pitcher under Elias was Jackson Baumeister at No. 63 overall in 2023, and he was traded for Zach Eflin last season. Only one pitcher the Orioles have drafted in the last five years has reached the majors with the organization.

Instead, the Orioles have sought a specific archetype early in drafts. Five of the team’s past six first rounders have been college hitters, and three of those five were left-handed hitting outfielders.

Blood mostly danced around questions on whether this could finally be the year the team takes a first-round pitcher and said, despite never doing so, he feels little pressure to choose one for the sake of checking a box.

Blood added that he “knew going in that it was going to take time” for last year’s first-round pick Vance Honeycutt to settle into the minors. The 22-year-old outfielder, Blood’s first selection, is hitting just .177 in 70 games for Low-A Aberdeen this season and has done little to boost a system that no longer boasts top prospects at all levels.

Baltimore dropped from first last season to 17th this year in Baseball America’s farm system rankings. There’s several reasons for that, Blood acknowledged. That, in addition to having a record amount of selections and money to toy with, heightens Sunday’s importance.

“We have a lot of our talent here, in the big leagues,” Blood said. “We’ve had some trades, and we have some players that are working their way up. I think there are some that are lesser known than maybe some in the past, but we know that we want to constantly improve, and we’re hoping that through last year’s draft and this year’s draft, we’ll continue to improve.”

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Those same New York batters who pounced on Sugano early pummeled pitch after pitch into the Camden Yards dirt or tapped them weakly into the sky. The right-hander controlled Thursday’s nightcap, originally scheduled for Wednesday but moved because of thunderstorms, as the game went on in what will likely be his final outing of the season’s first half.

Sugano’s efforts, plus another offensive outburst, produced a 7-3 Orioles win over the Mets on Thursday to cap a doubleheader sweep, Baltimore’s first since June 2016, and another series victory, the club’s second in a row and third of its past four.

“You guys don’t wanna hear it, but there’s still time,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “Despite making a move this morning, and I’m sure our obituary is probably getting written somewhere … the fellas went out and played, man, and they had energy.”

It’s the first time the Orioles are eight games under .500 since May 6, when Brandon Hyde was still managing the club.

The victories closed an eventful day for the Orioles. After trading reliever Bryan Baker to the Rays for the No. 37 pick in Sunday’s draft, executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias spoke confidently about the direction his disappointing team was headed. This won’t be a complete teardown, he said, while admitting the club might begin focusing on potential moves that help future years at the expense of this one.

But, Elias also acknowledged, Baltimore isn’t out of the playoff race yet. Thursday’s wins proved such.

Sugano faced his biggest test in the fifth inning. Brandon Nimmo singled and Juan Soto was intentionally walked to put two on for Pete Alonso, whose 21 home runs are tied for the club lead with his $765 million teammate. But for the seventh time of the evening, the right-hander induced a groundout to strand the pair and end the threat.

Sugano ended his night with nine outs via the ground ball. Twelve of his 18 outs came from groundouts or fly outs. He needed just two strikeouts to produce his seventh quality start of the season and perhaps enter the All-Star break putting his dreadful last six weeks behind him.

“Tomo’s making adjustments,” Mansolino said. “We’ve talked about that. The league has adjusted to him, and he’s got to kind of adjust back. That’s a heck of a lineup he kind of rolled through right there.”

The Mets started Game 2 of the doubleheader with a two-run first inning. Baltimore snatched the lead away with a three-run second that featured an Alex Jackson RBI double and Jordan Westburg’s 10th home run of the season. The Orioles’ lead grew to 7-3 with two-run fifth and sixth innings as Sugano turned the game over to a rested bullpen — only Grant Wolfram and Félix Bautista threw in Game 1.

Andrew Kitteredge, Gregory Soto and Seranthony Domínguez didn’t allow a run over the final three innings.

Sugano entered Thursday with a 4.44 earned run average, behind only Trevor Rogers in the Orioles’ current rotation and best among Baltimore starters with more than five starts. He’s stayed true to what most expected him to be coming over from Japan — just 57 strikeouts but only 19 walks in 93 1/3 innings. He instead aims for weak contact with a hard-hit rate that ranks among the best on the Orioles and in the American League.

Thursday differed from his recent outings and looked more similar to his early season output. Sugano held a 2.72 ERA through his first eight games but a 6.13 mark in the nine starts since. As Sugano starred in April and May, Charlie Morton sputtered and Rogers was in Triple-A. Now, they’re the team’s top two starters while Sugano searches for answers and Zach Eflin is on the injured list for the second time.

The unit has never rolled in unison. Any post-All-Star break comeback bid — the Orioles are six games back of a wild-card spot after the victory — must include just that.

“In the past month or so, we’ve been playing really well,” Sugano said through team interpreter Yuto Sakurai. Sugano’s parents traveled to Baltimore for the game. “I still believe strongly that this team has a shot.”

Postgame analysis

Thursday’s doubleheader was overshadowed by the move made before first pitch of the afternoon matinee. Elias is so far unprepared to fully embrace being a deadline seller, even though trading Baker might suggest otherwise. In the hours that followed, the players commandingly rejected that premise on the field and into microphones.

The Orioles have won 26 of their past 42 games. Playing to a .619 winning percentage the rest of the way would get Baltimore to 85 wins. Morton, Henderson, Sugano and Mansolino echoed Elias’ belief Thursday. Stacking more series like this will get them closer to making that longshot a reality.

“I don’t think they need motivation. I’ve said it from day one, since I’ve started doing this, I don’t feel we’ve lacked motivation,” Mansolino said. “I don’t read anything. I never have. I especially won’t now as I sit in this seat. As to what the players read, I have no idea. Maybe it does motivate them, maybe it doesn’t. But my read on those guys is they have shown up and they have wanted to win and they want to stay here and they don’t want to go anywhere.”

What they’re saying

Mansolino on Jackson and Jacob Stallings filling in at catcher this week:

“These are major league players,” the interim manager said. “We did get them off the street, in a sense. There’s a lot of major league players that don’t have jobs in the big leagues. You’ve got to find the right guys. It’s a credit to the pitching group for getting these guys ready. They’re not here to swing the bat, even though they did swing the bat pretty good today, both of them, helped us out offensively. They’re here to call a game. They’re here to handle our staff, and they did an incredible job today doing that.”

“Anytime you can contribute, it’s a great feeling,” Jackson added. “We’ve played together before. I’ve known Stallings for a while. He’s an awesome guy, and when I came in here, he helped me a lot, just getting to know the guys, explained to me what we’re trying to do, and it’s been a lot of fun. It’s really exciting to be able to play with him again.”

On deck

The Orioles host the Marlins (42-49) for a three-game series beginning Friday night. Miami will start Edward Cabrera, a right-hander with a 3.33 ERA, against Baltimore’s Dean Kremer. Rogers and Brandon Young will start Saturday and Sunday to close out the first half.

Around the horn

• Chayce McDermott, the Orioles’ No. 12 prospect according to Baseball America, was removed from today’s Triple-A Norfolk game with right elbow discomfort, the club announced. The right-hander missed time earlier this season with a right lat strain and has pitched in just 11 games across three levels this year.

• Right-hander Colin Selby, who’s made four appearances for Baltimore this season, was recalled from Norfolk before the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader. Catcher David Bañuelos was optioned.

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The Terps tabbed Utah State athletic director Diana Sabau as chief deputy athletic director, the school announced Wednesday, adding Smith’s top assistant as the pair look to guide the athletic department into the reshaped landscape of college athletics.

“Diana comes to Maryland with a history of building dynamic winning cultures in college athletics,” Smith said in a news release. “She has worked in all facets of intercollegiate athletics at the highest levels with some of the most successful programs in the country. She has extensive experience, knowledge, and relationships throughout the country, which will be a major benefit to Maryland. We are so excited to add her to our leadership team at Maryland and know she will have a major impact on the future success of all of our Terrapins.”

Sabau (pronounced say-bo) was Utah State’s athletic director for the previous two years. There, she oversaw the school’s move from the Mountain West to the Pac-12 and hired new football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball coaches. The Aggies produced a school-record four conference championships in her first year.

Before joining Utah State, she spent two years as the deputy commissioner and chief sports officer for the Big Ten after working in Ohio State’s athletic department for two decades, overlapping there with Smith before he transitioned to a career in professional sports.

In her new role in College Park, which she’ll begin July 28, Sabau will be responsible for “implementing new strategies and initiatives, including revenue-share management, contract negotiations, football scheduling, creating operating efficiencies, enhancing the overall student-athlete experience, and correspondence with the Big Ten Conference,” according to the release.

“Coming back to a conference that I know and love is important and special to me,” Sabau said in the release. “This is a dynamic time for all of college athletics, and I’m eager to help drive strategic growth, operational excellence, and a student-athlete-centered culture that reflects Maryland’s tradition of excellence.”

Alongside Smith, the top of Maryland’s athletic department now features Sabau and Joe LaBue. LaBue, a Maryland alumnus, was named deputy athletic director/chief revenue officer last month. LaBue previously served as president of the Major League Soccer club Charlotte FC and was discussed as a candidate for Maryland’s athletic director opening, The Baltimore Sun reported in April.

Together, the trio will be tasked with stabilizing Maryland in the revenue-sharing era. Starting July 1, all Division I schools can pay their student-athletes directly as a result of the settlement of three antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA. Former athletic director Damon Evans announced in January — and associate athletic director Kirby Mills reaffirmed in June — that the Terps plan to commit the full $20.5 million limit to revenue sharing and that most of it would go to football and men’s and women’s basketball, a strategy that coincides with most other schools that have made their plans public.

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Stallings’ career could have ended last month when a poor April and May led to his release from the MLB-worst Colorado Rockies. Jackson’s nomadic time in baseball has included being traded or released eight times in nine years, with him having spent most of that tenure floating throughout the minor leagues.

The Orioles’ unique situation — four catchers on the injured list for varying lengths of time — gives both catchers the opportunity to extend their careers. But it’s unclear how long that chance will last, a realization they’re trying to push away.

“I had a great year offensively last year. Felt really good, just could never get it going in Colorado this year,” Stallings said. “I still feel good. I still love being in the clubhouse, being on a team, going out there and competing with the guys, helping guys get better. I’m really grateful that the Orioles believed in me and called when I was at home.”

It’s that mindset that still has the 35-year-old energized to contribute somewhere. An opportunity arose in Baltimore after a chain of events that started when Adley Rutschman landed on the injured list for the first time in his career on June 21 with an oblique strain. Interim manager Tony Mansolino said then that the team expected Rutschman to be out until at least the All-Star break. Then, Maverick Handley joined Rustchman on the IL two days later after he collided with Jazz Chisholm Jr. as the Yankees’ infielder sprinted home on a play at the plate.

Chadwick Tromp landed on the injured list a week later. And on Sunday, Gary Sánchez made it four catchers on Baltimore’s IL with a ligament strain in his right knee. Sánchez will miss eight to 10 weeks, Mansolino said Tuesday. Neither Handley nor Tromp have resumed baseball activities, the interim manager said this past weekend in Atlanta.

Those derailments brought Stallings and Jackson to the Orioles.

“There’s so many aspects of the game you gotta learn,” Jackson said. “The first couple days are a crash course, like, let’s see how much we can pile on and figure it out.”

Stallings, who said he hasn’t been told exactly what his role will be but expects to play regularly, signed with Baltimore on June 24, two weeks after being released by the Rockies, and was promptly sent to Triple-A Norfolk. He played three games there before being selected following Tromp’s injury on July 1.

There, he briefly shared a dugout with Samuel Basallo. Mansolino has said that the Orioles will value patience over necessity with their top prospect and keep him in the minors until he’s deemed ready. They’ll instead rely on players who have spent just days in the organization to fill key roles at a critical point.

The Orioles acquired Jackson from the Yankees for international bonus pool money and a player to be named later or cash on July 6 and placed Sánchez on the IL the same morning.

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For catchers learning a new pitching staff, intricacies that become routine in time are anything but to start. PitchCom controls vary by team, Stallings said. The button to call for a fastball in Colorado could be for a curveball in Baltimore. It was a learning curve for the Orioles’ new veteran backstop in his first appearance against the Texas Rangers. Stallings said he didn’t hold down the button long enough, leading to brief delays, but “it wasn’t anything catastrophic,” he quipped.

“Trying to hit, but also learning a whole new staff is difficult, to say the least,” Stallings said. “It’s a lot to take in. But I have to give the staff and the guys here a lot of credit. Everyone’s been great and made the transition a lot easier.”

Stallings and Jackson took divergent paths to get to this opportunity. The former won a Gold Glove Award with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2021 and spent much of his career as his teams’ primary starting catcher. He knows his career has reached a different stage but is confident he still has more to give.

“He has a built-in Rolodex of major league hitters already,” Mansolino said. “He knows a lot of the weaknesses on hitters throughout the league. And now he’s got to learn how to match that with our pitchers’ strengths. His general intelligence and his understanding of the position is going to probably expedite that.”

Jackson, though, has yet to cling on anywhere. He’s a former first-round draft pick — No. 6 overall by the Seattle Mariners in 2014 — who’s been moved in just about every way a baseball player can. He was twice traded for an All-Star but has also been dealt for pennies or been discarded for nothing.

The 29-year-old is a career .132 hitter with a minus-1.4 wins above replacement by Baseball-Reference’s measurement across 124 career games. He had a .772 on-base-plus-slugging percentage with New York’s Triple-A affiliate before the move. The Orioles are Jackson’s seventh organization.

When he entered Tuesday’s game in the 10th inning, he became the 50th player used by the Orioles this season and sixth catcher, a franchise record. In only 90 games, the club has deployed as many players as it did in all of 2023.

Stallings, once one of the top players in the sport at his position, and Jackson, the journeyman former top pick who hasn’t latched on anywhere, are converging in Baltimore now. Their time with the Orioles could be short-lived. “Taking it day-by-day,” Stallings said, dropping the cliché fixture in every baseball player’s vocabulary, is truly all they can do.

“Nothing I haven’t done before,” Jackson said. “A little crazy, but it’s what we do.”

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