Orioles reliever Bryan Baker has been traded to the Tampa Bay Rays.

Baker, who said he was shocked to be traded, found out two hours prior to the first pitch of the Orioles’ doubleheader against the Mets. He received hugs and emotional goodbyes from his teammates in the clubhouse before departing for his new team.

“It’s been everything,” Baker said of his time with the Orioles. “They gave me my opportunity to get established in the big leagues. Obviously getting close to everybody in this room and developing on the field and off the field, so it’s been the best years of my life.”

In return, the Orioles are receiving a competitive balance pick from the Rays, the 37th overall selection, in Sunday’s MLB draft. The Orioles will now have four picks in the top 40.

By trading away their most-used and reliable reliever this season, general manager Mike Elias could be indicating that he is planning to sell at the trade deadline. Baker had a 3.52 ERA in 38 1/3 innings pitched. He has not yet reached arbitration and has three more years of team control.

A waiver claim in 2021, Baker has spent the last four seasons with Baltimore, appearing in 173 games and recording a 3.73 ERA in 176 1/3 innings pitched.

Until this point, Elias hadn’t revealed which direction he was leaning. At 40-50, the Orioles are 12 1/2 games behind in the American League East and seven out of a wild-card spot. But they have a 25-22 record under interim manager Tony Mansolino and posted a 16-11 mark in June.

This move, in what could be the start of a very busy few weeks before the July 31 trade deadline, seems to showcase the Orioles’ intentions very clearly.

The Orioles, who made the playoffs in back-to-back seasons after five years of rebuilding, have taken a step back this season, partly due to injuries but also because of what some detractors see as an uninspired offseason from the front office.

“It’s been brutal,” Elias said of the season so far. “I mean the start to the year was really painful for everyone and just a lot of negative fallout from that around the organization. ... Are we making a trade like this if our record the reverse of what it is right now? Probably not. So there’s no hiding from that.”

The timing of the move was earlier than Elias was comfortable with, but he said it had to be done with the draft only a few days away. He added that he was not shopping Baker and that Tampa made a “very direct and aggressive offer.”

“We’re not relenting or taking our foot off the gas pedal,” Elias said. “I think this team’s moving in a good direction out on the field, and we’re gonna have guys getting healthy and coming up to help the team. But right now, this is the trade that we wanted to make, and sometimes this job, it’s a balancing act and you’ve got to do things that aren’t perfectly in one direction or another.”

Elias said Thursday that he intends for the team to compete next season and not undergo another rebuild. But unless the player eventually taken with 37th pick is traded this winter, this is a move that won’t impact the team in the immediate future. Even if the pick is a seasoned player, it will still likely take at least two years before he is on the major league roster.

Elias believes there are ways the selection could become valuable before then.

“The draft picks are opportunities to bring really good players into the organization, and yeah, you may keep them and draft them and develop them and that may take two or three years,” Elias said. “We’ll bring a really good player into the organization that we wouldn’t have otherwise had, and there’s a number of ways to monetize, to extract value from a really good minor league player.”

If the Orioles continue in a direction of selling, other relievers like Andrew Kittredge (who has a $9 million club option for 2026 or a $1 million buyout clause), Seranthony Domínguez and Gregory Soto could also be on the trading block soon. So could center fielder Cedric Mullins and All-Star first baseman/designated hitter Ryan O’Hearn, or starting pitchers Charlie Morton and Tomoyuki Sugano, all impending free agents.

“I don’t know,” Kittredge said when asked what he thinks this move means for the rest of the clubhouse. “That’s not my decision or anything like that. I’m as shocked as anyone to see that happen today. Who knows.”

It is possible the Orioles sell off some assets and still bring in players who can help the team this season. Some players have stated their desire to see the team be buyers.

Mansolino said earlier this week that he has had individual conversations with players about the deadline and he was seen talking with relievers like Kittredge prior to Thursday’s doubleheader. He plans to address the group as a whole after the All-Star break.

“As I look through that roster and look at that lineup, regardless of who kind of gets traded or who doesn’t, or who comes in possibly, which is still a possibility, it’s still a pretty good lineup,” Mansolino said. “It’s a really good lineup. As I look at that bullpen right now and see some of the names down there, still a pretty good bullpen, and I still have a lot of confidence in the fact that we can win games with what we have.”