When the Orioles looked to bolster their starting pitching ahead of last year’s trade deadline, they dipped into their depth and sent a pair of young position players to Miami for Trevor Rogers.
In the return to Baltimore for Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers, the latter tormented his old club.
Stowers went 2-for-5 with a run scored in the first two games of the series. Then, he got revenge with a three-homer day in the series finale. While the youngsters the Orioles kept were silenced, Stowers showed Baltimore he might’ve been the one they let get away. It came right before he appeared in Atlanta as an All-Star less than a year after the trade.
“Couldn’t have dreamt it up any better,” Stowers said.
Stowers was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk 10 days prior to the trade a year ago. There wasn’t a spot for him on the roster as the Orioles had Colton Cowser, Cedric Mullins and Anthony Santander as regular outfielders and Ryan O’Hearn as a left-handed designated hitter.
Even though Santander was a pending free agent, the Orioles’ front office still felt comfortable trading away Stowers given the outfield depth in the organization.
Stowers posted a .229/.274/.369 slash line in 67 games across three seasons as an Oriole, but he showed signs of improvement with a .797 OPS in 37 plate appearances in 2024. He did have some initial struggles with Miami, hitting under the Mendoza Line in 172 plate appearances with the Marlins last year with only two home runs.
“It hasn’t been easy for Kyle,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “He’s had to make a lot of adjustments.”
With Stowers gone, fellow left-handed-hitting outfielder Heston Kjerstad received an extended opportunity in the major leagues earlier this season. Kjerstad notched a .566 OPS with -1.2 fWAR in 54 games before a demotion to Norfolk.
Stowers has gone in the opposite direction. The 27-year-old is slashing .293/.368/.543 with 19 home runs. His hard-hit percentage is in the top 6 percent in all of baseball. His .911 OPS is ninth-best.
Stowers didn’t even settle for the three homers against his former club. He added two more singles before his day was done, including a bases-loaded knock, for the first five-hit day of his career. McCullough mentioned the irony in the performance coming against the organization that drafted him in the second round of the 2019 draft.
“What a day, and for it to be here, that’s a career-type day,” McCullough said. “On the eve of heading to his first All-Star Game, to have that kind of performance to end the half … it was special.”
“I’ve got a lot of love for the Orioles organization, but it definitely felt really good to have a game like that against them,” Stowers said.
The Orioles would love to have Stowers’ bat in their lineup in 2025. He has played in all three outfield positions for the Marlins this year, getting most of his work in left. Baltimore’s left fielders have combined for a .679 OPS.
But given Cowser’s strong defense in left field — he has posted six defensive runs saved in 231 innings at the position this year — most of Stowers’ hypothetical playing time for the Orioles this season likely would’ve come in right.
While Baltimore’s OPS in that spot is more than 100 points higher than left, it still trails Stowers’ mark. The biggest free-agent bat the Orioles acquired, right fielder Tyler O’Neill, has fewer hits than Stowers has homers this season.
O’Neill was inked to a three-year, $49.5 million deal this past offseason. In that same window (2025-2027), Stowers will have two pre-arbitration years and then be eligible for arbitration for the first time.
Not only is Baltimore missing Stowers’ presence this year, but it’ll miss him for the foreseeable future as well. He won’t be an unrestricted free agent until 2030, when he’ll be 32 years old. Stowers’ potential is only growing — it only took one season in Miami for him to be an All-Star.
“Really cool, really special to get nominated,” he said. “Something I definitely wanted to happen.”
The Orioles can only wonder not just how different their season could be this season with Stowers still on their roster but also what their lineup will be without for years to come. The team received a firsthand glimpse of what it missed out on.
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