Orioles trade catcher Michael Ohlman to the Cardinals for cash

The Orioles announced a small trade on Tuesday afternoon, sending minor league catcher Michael Ohlman to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for cash considerations. Ohlman was in DFA limbo after being designated for assignment when the O's acquired Travis Snider from Pittsburgh.

Ohlman, 24, was drafted by the O's in the 11th round of the 2009 draft from a Florida high school. He popped up on the radar a bit after several years in the system when he put together a .313/.410/.524 season in 100 games for High-A Frederick in 2013, but he followed that up with a .236/.310/.318 batting line in Bowie in 2014.

On the recently-unveiled MLB.com top Orioles prospects list, Ohlman was rated as the #10 prospect in the system, although that probably says more about MLB.com than it does about Ohlman or the fact that the Orioles casually tossed him aside. Even organizations with very strong farm systems are unlikely to ever get anything out of their 10th-best prospect anyway.

He's still young-ish, and the O's might have been happy to keep having him in the system if they hadn't had to put him on the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft before the Winter Meetings in 2013. As it is, there are older and more experienced catchers like Caleb Joseph and Steve Clevenger ahead of him and younger and potentially more exciting catchers like Chance Sisco behind him, so it makes sense that he was squeezed out in that move.

The cash amount in these moves is usually small, probably about enough to cover the repairs from that ticket window fire on Sunday night and not a whole lot more than that.

Good luck to Ohlman in St. Louis, or at least until the Cardinals play the Orioles in the World Series.