Jake Rogers moved to the Baltimore Orioles on July 31, and Bo Naylor is not part of the verified facts for this move. The Orioles needed catching depth while Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo recover from injuries, so Rogers is set for a larger immediate role.
Rogers and Baltimore
Mike Elias said Rogers is going to be catching a lot here in the next few days. That is the practical point for Baltimore: the Orioles did not add him for depth in the abstract, but to cover innings behind the plate while two catchers recuperate.
Rogers arrived after the Detroit Tigers designated him for assignment on July 28. He had been squeezed by Dillon Dingler’s emergence, and his move gave Baltimore a catcher with a career-high 21-homer season on his record.
2020 and Tarik Skubal
Rogers also brings a relationship that reaches back to 2020, when he met Tarik Skubal at the alternate site during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I love Skoob to death,” Rogers said Friday at Camden Yards, adding, “I feel like I’ve grown up with him.”
He was even more direct about the break between them: “He made it known that he was going to miss me, and I made it known I was going to miss him.” Rogers said, “Met him for the first time at the alternate site.” He added, “We just had such a good relationship since then.”
Tigers, trade deadline, and 2024
Rogers’ exit also lands in the middle of a Tigers selloff that looks different because of what happened a year ago. The Tigers sold at the trade deadline in 2024 and later finished 34-19, then upset the Houston Astros in the AL wild card series. That run sits in the background as the club again moved on July 28.
Rogers put it bluntly: “Hey look, that team has been in that situation before,” and, “In ’24, we sold everybody and all of a sudden made an incredible run.” He also pointed to the present with, “Their expectations for this year – obviously the month of May they had was tough and put them in a hole they are now.”
For Baltimore, the move reads as immediate roster management: Rogers should get the catching work while the Orioles wait for Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo to return. For Detroit, the decision fits a trade-deadline teardown that already pushed Rogers out once Javier Baez came back from the injured list, and the only real open question is whether Baltimore treats him as a short-term patch or a longer stop behind the plate.
