Taylor

Ward

Despite going 2-for-4 with a walk and a home run on Tuesday, Montes will sit against a left-handed pitcher. It’s not a surprise, but is good confirmation that he is going to be in a strong-side platoon role. Taylor Ward will play right field and Dominic Canzone will DH with Cal Raleigh also getting a day off.

Montes should play a lot of right field against righties for the Mariners after hitting .249/.369/.558 with 38 homers between Double- and Triple-A. He’ll strike out a bunch, and he’s probably not going to be a quality mixed-league guy right away. Still, he should be an upgrade from this current version of Taylor Ward if the Mariners let that happen.

Ward is back following a lengthy five-game absence due to quad tightness. It seemed like he was going to require a trip to the injured list, but the Mariners decided to wait it out instead. He’s at DH and hitting eighth on Wednesday evening in Milwaukee.

Ward takes a seat for the fifth consecutive game with quad tightness. This would be an obvious injured list situation in most cases, but Mariners manager Dan Wilson told reporters that Ward is very close to returning to the lineup. It sounds like there’s a decent chance he’s back at some point in the next few days.

It’s the second consecutive game that the 32-year-old outfielder has missed due to tightness in his quad, though he is expected to be available off of the bench. Expect him to return to the lineup before the weekend is through.

He’s reportedly available to play off the bench, but he won’t start against LHP Max Fried. With Cal Raleigh taking over at DH, Jhonny Pereda will get the start in Ward’s absence.

Ward has gone from a power hitter to a walk merchant in one season. After hitting 36 home runs in 2025 and posting a .317 on-base percentage and 11 percent walk rate, he has now hit seven home runs in 111 games with the Orioles, with a .383 on-base percentage and over a 17 percent walk rate. You wonder if the Mariners will try to turn him loose a little bit more, but this is a team that needed right-handed pop. This likely pushes Victor Robles back to the bench.

The Orioles will receive Alex Hoppe, Brock Moore and Harrison Kreiling in return, according to the Baltimore Sun’s Matt Weyrich. Ward’s offensive profile has radically changed this year, but he’s remained quite valuable in the process. The Mariners will likely play him in right and bat him somewhere near the top of the order. The ballpark change could bring down his fantasy value a bit.

Mayo gets the nod to face Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez with Taylor Ward hitting second. It’s a bit of a different look for Baltimore, but one of their former top prospects has earned the opportunity by hitting .267 (8-for-30) with two homers in 11 games since last month’s All-Star break.

The Orioles are unclear about whether they truly want to trade away players at the deadline because, despite being three games under .500, they are just 2.5 games out of a playoff spot. The expiring contracts include Taylor Ward, Trevor Rogers and Andrew Kittredge, but the Orioles are also listening to offers for Adley Rutschman, who is under team control for one more season. While it remains unclear what the Orioles will do, Rosenthal believes that “Ward and Rogers, even as rentals, could fetch sizable returns,” so they remain the two most likely to be moved. If anybody moves at all.