MLB trade rumors: Rockies have reached out to Orioles about Kevin Gausman, Dylan Bundy

If the Orioles end up being sellers at the trade deadline, there are going to be a whole lot of stories about teams having interest in some of their players. Sometimes these rumors will even involve players that the O's aren't expected to trade, which is how you get Yahoo's Jeff Passan reporting that the Rockies have "reached out" to the O's about Kevin Gausman and Dylan Bundy.

The Rockies have seemed to covet Gausman almost since the Orioles drafted him. Gausman is a product of the state of Colorado, where he attended Grandview High School in Aurora before going on to attend LSU.

You can go back at least to the trade deadline three years ago to find the Rockies trying to unload lefty starter Jorge de la Rosa on the Orioles, asking for Gausman. They also sought Gausman when they were dangling outfielder Carlos Gonzalez prior to the 2016 season.

At neither previous point would it have made a whole lot of sense for the Orioles to trade Gausman, who figured to be part of their starting rotation of the near future, for either one of these guys. Gausman was part of their immediate plans, so why would they create one hole while attempting to fill another?

Although Gausman has struggled seriously in the 2017 season, he still seems like a guy who's going to be part of the O's plan to maybe compete again next season and beyond. Part of that plan would, of course, be contingent on Gausman improving at least back to the track record he's shown before.

Gausman has three years of control remaining beyond this one. Bundy has four more seasons where the Orioles hold his rights. That would be taking the idea of the Orioles being sellers way beyond just trading relievers Brad Brach or Zach Britton or position players like Seth Smith. Seems like another case of the Rockies just unrealistically coveting the Colorado native, Gausman.

Passan notes that the Rockies have a strong farm system. Although they have only two players in the current edition of MLB Pipeline's top 100, the system was ranked in the top ten in MLB prior to the season, eighth by Pipeline and ninth by Keith Law. Three of their preseason top prospects have graduated to MLB this season.

While it's nice to think about the O's getting some of those young players, I can't imagine that whatever Gausman or even Bundy would fetch them would include the most exciting talents like 2015's #3 overall pick Brendan Rogers or 2016's #4 overall pick Riley Pint.

Who would the Rockies even be offering? This one doesn't make a whole lot of sense. My rule of thumb about baseball rumors is that probably nothing will happen. I expect it to be proven true in this case as well.