Ever since mid-October, when MLB Trade Rumors released projected arbitration salaries for 2020, it's been assumed that the Orioles would not want to pay infielder Jonathan Villar. That's because, after hitting a career-high 24 home runs, stealing 40 bases and posting a 4.0 WAR season, his projected salary in his final year of arbitration surged north of $10 million.
General manager Mike Elias tried to trade Villar (and several others) before last season's trade deadline with no success. Andrew Cashner was the only player the O's dealt away; the club traded Cashner to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for two low-level prospects well before the deadline.
Unable to find a match for Villar, Elias decided to regroup in the offseason. Elias has made it clear multiple times that anyone on the O's roster could be traded for the right price, and he seemed focused on moving some of the team's arbitration-eligible players: Villar, Mychal Givens and Dylan Bundy, in particular.
