The Orioles announced on Friday that they have dealt outfielder Austin Hays to the Phillies in exchange for right-hander Seranthony Dominguez and outfielder Cristian Pache. Baltimore has designated righty Levi Stoudt for assignment to free up a 40-man roster spot, the team stated.
It’s an uncommon major league trade between two World Series contenders. Hays will provide the Phillies with a more potent right-handed bat in their outfield mix than Pache’s glove-first approach. Hays isn’t enjoying his best season, but he was a 2023 All-Star and has dominated left-handed pitching both in 2024 and throughout his career. Dominguez, likewise, is having a bad season but has a much better track record. He’s still a hard-throwing reliever with high-leverage experience and has occasionally operated.
Hays, 29, has made 175 plate appearances this season and is hitting.255/.316/.395. After missing nearly a month of play due to a calf strain earlier in the season, Hays returned to the field with an amazing slash of.313/.363/.509 in 125 plate appearances, but it’s plausible that his injury affected his output. Prior to that IL stay, Hays hit just.111/.200/.111 in 50 at-bats.
The fact that Hays has been platooned more frequently than in previous seasons due to the rise of left-handed hitters Colton Cowser and Heston Kjerstad in Baltimore may be partly to blame for that cut.
The O’s are selling from a wealth of corner depth in this trade between those two, right fielder Anthony Santander, center fielder Cedric Mullins, and first basemen/designated hitters Ryan O’Hearn and Ryan Mountcastle. Hays hasn’t regularly played center field since 2020 and has only been a corner outfielder this season.
Before the unsettling beginning of this season (and the rise of those young, elite prospects), Hays was a mainstay in the Baltimore outfield. Formerly a top-100 talent, the third-round selection finished with 1886 plate appearances and a solid batting line of.264/.317/.441 (109 wRC+) from 2019 to 23. Hays’ career walk rate is 5.9%, but he strikes out at a somewhat below-average rate of 21.5%.
In left field, he usually receives average or better grades; but, this season, his grades are worse overall. Again, though, for an outfield player who has struggled with a lower-leg injury that has limited his speed and agility, that shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.
With Hays, the Phillies will have a productive platoon mate in left field to go with Brandon Marsh, a lefty hitter. Marsh and Hays can also play center field (in a pinch), but Johan Rojas, a defensive star, will probably continue to patrol that position on a regular basis unless president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski makes another outfield acquisition. In 72 plate appearances this season, Hays has bludgeoned lefties at a.328/.394/.500 rate, and he boasts a lifetime.272/.328/.463 production against southpaws.
Hays is under the Phillies’ control until the 2025 season, if they so desire. However, if they intend to platoon him for the entire 2025 season, he will be a costly part-time player. He is now making $6.3MM in his second season of arbitration. Before becoming eligible to become a free agent in the 2025–2026 offseason, he is due one last raise this winter, most likely to a sum exceeding $8MM.
Now for the Orioles’ half of the bargain: Dominguez, 29, is a veteran reliever that they will add first and foremost. Despite entering the 2024 campaign with a lifetime 3.31 earned run average, 27 saves, and 52 holds, he has been pegged for a 4.75 ERA in 36 innings this year.
Dominguez has been uncharacteristically homer-prone this year and thus struggled to strand runners, but his velocity (97.5 mph average fastball), strikeout rate (25.5%) and walk rate (7.6%) all remain strong. This year’s walk rate is actually a career-low, and Dominguez’s 25.5% strikeout rate isn’t terribly far off the 27.5% mark he carried into the season.
As is often the case with relievers, Dominguez’s pedestrian ERA is skewed by a small number of meltdowns. He’s been tagged for four earned runs on two occasions this season, accounting for 42% of his earned runs in those two outings (just 5.2% of his total appearances).
Although Dominguez has struggled to strand bases this year due to an abnormally high home run percentage, his velocity (97.5 mph average fastball), strikeout rate (25.5%), and walk rate (7.6%) are all still high. The walk rate this year is really a career low, and Dominguez’s strikeout percentage of 25.5% isn’t all that different from the 27.5% he had going into the season.
Like relievers frequently do, Dominguez’s mediocre ERA is distorted by a few big outbursts. This season, he has been tagged for four earned runs on just two times, which accounts for 42% of his total earned runs (just 5.2% of his appearances).
It’s obvious that this doesn’t improve the bottom line, but having a reliever who has had a few bad outings is better than one who tends to give up a run or two every other outing. Given that Danny Coulombe is on the 60-day injured list and Craig Kimbrel is going through a difficult moment right now, Dominguez may find himself in some advantageous circumstances.
Similar to Hays, Dominguez is under team control through the 2025 campaign, however the squad has final say over who gets to play.
He’s in the second year of a two-year, $7.25MM contract that covered his final two arbitration seasons and included a club option for his first free-agent year. The Orioles will hold a $8MM club option on Dominguez with a $500K buyout, resulting in a net $7.5MM decision. If he can regain his previous form following the trade, it could be a reasonable price for what has traditionally been a cheap Orioles team (although under their now-former ownership).
