Will the Orioles Win the Free-Agent Bidding War for the Market’s Best Pitcher?

The Orioles’ pursuit of Framber Valdez has become one of the defining storylines of this offseason, signaling just how aggressively Baltimore is trying to reshape its identity. Valdez, who is coming off several years as one of the sport’s most durable and effective left-handed starters, sits near the top of the 2025-26 free-agent pitching market and is expected to command a four to six-year deal as he enters his age-32 season. For a club that finished in last place in the AL East in 2025 after back-to-back postseason appearances, the Orioles’ need for a true frontline starter is as clear as ever. Their repeated interest in Valdez reflects not just a desire to add innings and stability, but a belief that a legitimate ace-type arm can help close the gap on both divisional foes and the league’s big-spending powers.

What makes the Orioles’ chase of Valdez especially intriguing is the caliber of teams they are competing against, with the Mets emerging as the other primary suitor. Reports throughout the winter have consistently framed Baltimore and New York as the two clubs most closely linked to Valdez, with several insiders characterizing the race as a head-to-head battle between them. Traditional heavyweights such as the Yankees and other deep-pocketed contenders are still monitoring the situation, but the Orioles and Mets have done the most substantive work in terms of offers and engagement with Valdez’s camp. Valdez’s consistent workload and track record of run prevention give him a robust market even as clubs weigh his age and some late-2025 struggles. For Baltimore, being mentioned in the same breath as Steve Cohen’s Mets in a bidding war for the market’s best remaining pitcher underscores just how far the franchise has come from its cost-conscious reputation of only a few years ago.

The clearest indicator of Baltimore’s new financial posture came earlier this offseason with the franchise-altering signing of slugger Pete Alonso. The Orioles finalized a five-year, $155 million contract with Alonso, the largest free-agent deal in club history by average annual value and a massive departure from the franchise’s traditionally conservative spending habits. Alonso is coming off a rebound 2025 season in which he hit .272 with 38 home runs, 126 RBIs, and an .871 OPS, reestablishing himself as one of the game’s premier power bats. Committing that level of money and term to a win-now middle-of-the-order force sent a loud message about where the Orioles see themselves in the competitive cycle. In that context, pushing similarly hard for Valdez aligns perfectly with a broader shift toward behaving like an aggressive big-market contender rather than a patient rebuilder.

On the mound, Valdez would do far more than simply eat innings; he would fundamentally change the shape of Baltimore’s rotation. The Orioles have already made impactful additions, trading for high-upside right-hander Shane Baz and retaining veteran righty Zach Eflin to stabilize the middle of the staff. In-house, Kyle Bradish has emerged as a frontline-caliber arm when healthy, while left-hander Trevor Rogers provides a second potential mid-rotation stalwart after a strong 2025. Dean Kremer remains a perfectly serviceable innings-eater, giving the club valuable depth at the back end. Adding Valdez atop that group would give the Orioles a formidable top four of Valdez, Bradish, Baz, and Rogers, with either Eflin or Kremer rounding out a rotation that suddenly looks capable of matching up with nearly any staff in the American League over a seven-game series.

The question now is whether Baltimore is willing to push fully into the financial waters usually reserved for the sport’s traditional juggernauts, especially with the Mets standing as their most direct competition for Valdez. Multiple national reports have indicated that the left-hander’s market has effectively narrowed to those two clubs, setting up a binary outcome in which either the Orioles or Mets walk away with a true rotation anchor. For the Orioles, winning that bidding war may require setting a new franchise standard for pitching contracts, something that would have seemed far-fetched just a few years ago. Yet after already landing Alonso and dramatically increasing their offseason outlay compared with previous winters, Baltimore has never been better positioned to go toe-to-toe with one of baseball’s most aggressive spenders and still come out on top. If the organization follows through and brings Valdez to Camden Yards, the move would not only round out one of the most balanced rotations in the league, but it would also confirm that the Orioles’ shift into a true big-spending contender is real enough to beat the Mets in a straight-up fight for the market’s best pitcher.