It has been, at times, a rocky path for Shane Baz, a former first-round pick who had a solid but unspectacular season last year for the Tampa Bay Rays.

But, in acquiring the hard-throwing right-hander, the Orioles believe the best of Baz is yet to come — and it will happen in an Orioles uniform.

President of baseball operations Mike Elias spoke to the media a day after making the trade, which sent four prospects and a draft pick to Tampa for the 26-year-old from Texas. Elias goes way back with Baz, whom he scouted as a hot shot high schooler when he worked for the Astros.

Aside from Baz’s electric arm, which Elias said gives him the ceiling to be “a top-of-the-rotation starter,” the Orioles believe that, two years removed from elbow reconstruction surgery, he has a chance to recapture the potential scouts saw as a teenager.

“We know what kind of athlete he is and the ceiling he’s got,” Elias said. “And he’s at a really good juncture … platforming into 2026. We kind of think he’s ready to go, and [we’re] kind of expecting we’re gonna get the best chunk of his career here coming up.”

With a five-pitch mix, Baz had a high-tier fastball velocity last season (88th percentile, according to Baseball Savant) but struggled in his home ballpark. Offseason storm damage to Tropicana Park forced the team to relocate to Steinbrenner Field, a minor league ballpark, for the 2025 season. In 82 1/3 innings, Baz posted a 5.90 ERA there, compared to a 3.86 ERA on the road.

But Baz is coming off the biggest workload (166 1/3 innings) of his career, which was interrupted in 2023 by Tommy John surgery. Elias pointed to his “bad luck” at the Rays’ home field as one of the factors that overshadowed “one of the best starting pitcher arms in the major leagues.”

Elias emphasized that the Orioles don’t necessarily view him as a front-end starter for the coming year, leaving open the possibility that the team is not done in its pursuit of an ace pitcher.

“I don’t think the roster is a finished product,” he said. “We’re gonna keep working for opportunities to keep improving the roster.”

Although the haul the Orioles gave up for Baz is significant, one of the biggest factors Elias said led them to doing business with the Rays was it didn’t cost them any players who might help them in the near term.

Although players including Coby Mayo, Dylan Beavers and Enrique Bradfield have been circled by baseball observers as trade candidates at logjam positions for the Orioles, Elias didn’t have to give any of them up for the Rays to relinquish Baz, who has three years of team control left.

“We expressed a desire to try to avoid the players on our major league roster right now in this trade, and they [the Rays] had other opportunities with Shane where they were getting players either in the big leagues or close to the big leagues,” Elias said. “We were steering more towards guys we had just drafted or a draft pick itself. So this is very much a move about the next few years with this major league team.”

The Orioles have recent experience with lifting a once-touted young starter back to an elite level. After acquiring Trevor Rogers during the 2024 season, the Orioles reworked his strength and pitching routines and developed the lefty into their best starter during the 2025 season.

Pitching coaches including Drew French were consulted on the trade for Baz, and Elias said the staff is excited to work with him.

“He checks a lot of scouting boxes that we look for,” he said. “I think he’s really gonna work well with our program and our pitching coaches.”