In an historic move, the Orioles traded reliever Kyle Nicolas to the Nationals for minor league infielder Randal Diaz. Washington optioned Nicolas to Triple-A Rochester and opened a 40-man roster spot by moving Mitchell Parker (who is expected to undergo Tommy John surgery) to the 60-day injured list. It’s the first trade between the two teams since the franchise relocated from Montreal to Washington in 2005.
While it’s certainly not a blockbuster, it does mark a symbolic moment in the history of the two franchises. They’ve had animosity dating back to the relocation. They battled for the better part of two decades over rights fees related to their awkward broadcast setup on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network — an arrangement that finally ended in January when the Nats cut ties with MASN and turned their in-market broadcasts to the league. There has been a thawing of tensions since the Angelos family sold the Orioles to David Rubenstein in 2024.
It makes sense to break the ice with a depth player. Nicolas has never appeared in an MLB game as an Oriole. Acquired from the Reds last month, he has allowed three runs across 4 1/3 frames with Triple-A Norfolk. This is his third time changing organizations this year. He was traded from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati for bat-first utility player Tyler Callihan in Spring Training.
Nicolas has a 4.96 earned run average over 105 1/3 innings spanning parts of four MLB seasons. The 27-year-old righty has a big arm and a pair of potential swing-and-miss breaking balls, but he has yet to consistently find the strike zone. Nicolas has walked nearly 14% of opponents in his big league career and issued a staggering 13 free passes in 7 1/3 innings with Cincinnati this year. He has walked nearly a quarter of opponents over 20 Triple-A frames on the season as well.
There’s no way to be successful with that many free runners, but teams continued to be intrigued by the stuff and the extension he gets from a 6’3″ frame. The Nationals become the latest organization to roll the dice and see if they can make some mechanical tweaks that gets him around the zone more consistently. Nicolas is in his final minor league option year and will stay in Triple-A for the time being.
Diaz, 23, was Washington’s fifth-round pick out of Indiana State two years ago. A righty-hitting infielder from Puerto Rico, he has a league average .253/.360/.406 batting line in High-A this season. Diaz has walked at an 11% clip against a 23% strikeout rate while going 13-16 in stolen base tries. He has never gotten much prospect attention but has some infield flexibility. Diaz has played mostly third base this year and has experience at all four positions on the dirt. Baltimore sent cash to the Reds for Nicolas, so getting a minor league player for him less than a month later counts as a small victory for the front office.
