The Orioles are among the clubs in conversations with the Marlins about hard-throwing starter Edward Cabrera, report Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic. There’s been a decent amount of smoke regarding a potential Cabrera trade over the past week, and The Athletic writes that Miami’s talks with other clubs have picked up.
Cabrera is one of the higher-upside arms in the sport. He got out to a slow start but turned in a 2.95 earned run average while striking out 26.5% of opponents in 20 appearances between the beginning of May and the end of August. Cabrera has always had power stuff, but he dialed in his control and walked fewer than 7% of batters faced over that four-month stretch. The 27-year-old righty was one of the more intriguing deadline trade candidates, but Miami never received an offer they found compelling.
Holding Cabrera was defensible given his talent and extended window of affordable team control. It wasn’t without risk, though, particularly from a health perspective. Cabrera has battled shoulder issues in the past, and he’d never topped 100 MLB innings in a season before this year. While the shoulder wasn’t an issue in 2025, he was diagnosed with an elbow sprain at the beginning of September. It briefly raised fears about a possible Tommy John surgery. He instead wound up missing only three weeks and returned to make two starts to finish the season.
The Marlins wouldn’t have brought Cabrera back for two largely meaningless games if they felt he were at a serious risk of re-injury. (Miami was still mathematically alive in the Wild Card race into the season’s final week but never had a real chance of getting to the playoffs.) Cabrera didn’t look any worse for wear. His fastball was back up around 98 MPH on average, and he punched out seven Mets hitters across five scoreless innings in the season’s final game.
Miami has nevertheless remained open to offers that would swap a starter for much needed offensive help. They’ve taken Eury Pérez off the table but are willing to discuss the rest of their rotation. Cabrera has the highest trade value of that group. He’s under club control for three seasons and projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $3.7MM salary.
The Fish could swap Cabrera for hitting while opening the season with a rotation comprising Pérez, Sandy Alcantara, Ryan Weathers, Braxton Garrett and Max Meyer. They have Janson Junk and Ryan Gusto as depth options and top prospects Robby Snelling and Thomas White looming in the high minors. They’d probably look to add a more stable source of innings at the back end, but it’d still be a high-ceiling group.
Baltimore and Miami have already lined up on one huge pitching for offense swap in recent years. The Marlins sent Trevor Rogers to the Orioles for Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby at the 2024 deadline. It initially looked lopsided in Miami’s favor with Stowers’ emergence as an impact bat. Rogers’ late-season dominance this year is potentially rebalancing the scales. The Orioles still need to raise the ceiling of the rotation alongside Rogers and Kyle Bradish, while their controllable infield talent (e.g. Jordan Westburg, Coby Mayo) aligns nicely with Miami’s needs.