The Orioles made five trades in one day leading up to MLB’s deadline, and even Austin Slater admits his move to Baltimore was an “afterthought.”

“I understand it felt that way for a lot of the fans here,” he said. “In my mind, it felt that way, too.”

Slater was in the middle of the worst season of his career. He was hitting only .185 with a .531 OPS, and the trade to Baltimore was his second time being dealt in July.

“Mentally, I was down in the dumps with how the season was going,” Slater said.

When he joined the Orioles in Cleveland at the beginning of August, the ballclub’s hitting coaches gave him a couple of days to get acclimated. They then approached Slater about ideas to get him back on track, asking the 31-year-old veteran outfielder if he’d be open to change.

“Absolutely,” Slater replied.

Slater walked into the meeting, and the Orioles’ hitting coaches had a PowerPoint presentation prepared. Throughout the discussion, Slater could feel some of his confidence coming back. One of baseball’s best teams sought him out amid the busiest day of the year to fill a specific platoon role. Then that club’s hitting coaches had a plan to get him back to his days when he was a valuable right-handed bat for the San Francisco Giants.

Since that meeting, Slater has revived his season thanks in part to what came from it, providing the Orioles a boost against left-handed pitchers and in the outfield. In 22 games with the Orioles, Slater is slashing .271/.386/.396 — good for a solid .782 OPS.

“Mentally I was not in a great place with the season going the way it was,” Slater said. “But once I got here, I realized I had an incredibly long track record of high performance, especially in a very specific and peculiar role.

“To know there was intention behind the move that they made, that was super reassuring for me and gave me a ton of confidence.”

Slater said the PowerPoint compared his swing during his short stint with the Cincinnati Reds to his one in previous years when he was a productive player. From 2017 to 2023 with the Giants, Slater played all three outfield spots while hitting .258 with a .747 OPS. Most of his at-bats came against left-handed pitchers, against whom his OPS has been 17% better than his overall mark.

Meetings like these are common for new players to the organization, co-hitting coach Matt Borgschulte said, and they’re all “unique” for that specific player. Borgschulte and the rest of Baltimore’s hitting coaches eyed changes to Slater’s swing to keep his bat in the zone longer, allowing him to tap into his gap-to-gap power rather than pulling off the ball. They liked the recent change he made with the Reds to lower his bat angle in his stance. They also recommended he keep his front hip closed longer and shorten his load, allowing him to stay on his back side longer and avoid lunging forward.

“He’s been very receptive and really, really good at making adjustments, which is obviously how you stick around in this game,” Borgschulte said. “I think some of those minor changes have just allowed him to keep the bat in the zone a little bit longer and use his strengths the best we can.”

Slater did the drills suggested to implement these changes, and the results came almost immediately. He went 2-for-3 with a double in both his first and third starts with the Orioles. Last Monday, he reached in five of his six plate appearances, smacking three hits and driving in three runs. It was his first time reaching base five times in a game since September 2020.

“It might look simplified,” he said of his swing changes. “And to me it does feel that way. But the main thought for me was more about holding my weight on my back side a little bit better and trying to be a little more conscious of not letting my hands drift forward in my swing.”

Slater played all last season with a nerve issue in his elbow. In the offseason, he underwent ulnar nerve transposition surgery and had bone spurs removed from his elbow. He spent most of the winter rehabilitating, beginning spring training behind and only totaling 18 at-bats during camp. Slater began the season 3-for-30, and his playing time in San Francisco was reduced from there before he was involved in minor trades to Cincinnati and Baltimore, the latter for cash.

“I was never able to get in a groove and get my swing right,” he said.

Slater’s role can be difficult to manage. It requires him to play infrequently, starting only a couple of games a week, but he’s then asked to come off the bench and pinch hit in crucial moments against lefty relievers. He essentially replaced Austin Hays, also a right-handed hitting outfielder, after Baltimore sent him to Philadelphia for reliever Seranthony Domínguez.

“I really like [Slater]. I like his game,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “He’s a very, very mature player. He knows the strike zone extremely well, takes a good pass at the baseball when it is in the strike zone, is a really smart base runner, he can play three spots in the outfield extremely well. There’s a lot to like when he’s out there. You can trust him.”

There’s also a larger factor working at play for a player like Slater. Sometimes, inexplicably, an underperforming player on one team can go elsewhere and turn his season around. While different players, Slater’s success in Baltimore is mirroring that of Aaron Hicks last year after the Yankees jettisoned him from New York and the Orioles picked him up to great success.

“A season can really snowball on you if you’re not in a good spot mentally,” Slater said. “There can be a lot of anxiety that comes out of baseball, especially when you’re not performing. It can just pile up, especially when you see no end in sight or a way out of it.

“A lot of that weight was kind of lifted when I got here.”

What’s to come?

Six games against .500 teams — but perhaps that’s how Orioles opponents view them, too.

The Orioles ship up to Boston on Monday for a three-game series against the Red Sox (72-71). After a day off Thursday, Baltimore will head to Detroit for a three-game set against the Tigers (73-71) and a small chance to clinch a playoff spot over the weekend. The Red Sox and Tigers are both fighting for a wild-card spot but are on the outside looking in.

If not for the Orioles’ excellent start, they could have been in that same position, too. Baltimore (82-62) began the season 42-22 but has been a .500 team since. With inconsistent offense and an injury-plagued pitching staff, the Orioles are 25-29 since July 9 and 17-18 since Aug. 1.

So, what’s to come? Maybe another 3-3 road trip.

What was good?

In early June, Cedric Mullins was trapped in the worst slump of his career. Since, he’s been one of the Orioles’ best players and among the American League’s best outfielders.

Mullins was hitting .171 with a .522 OPS on June 8. In 74 games since, the center fielder is hitting .288 with an .865 OPS — numbers that are nearly equal to those he posted in his 30-homer, 30-stolen base 2021 campaign. Over that span, his OPS ranks eighth among AL outfielders, while his 2.3 wins above replacement by FanGraphs’ estimation is second on the Orioles behind only Gunnar Henderson (3.5).

As Baltimore’s bats scuffled last week, Mullins went 9-for-20 with two homers. With the offense’s inconsistency and Hyde searching for solutions, it’s possible Mullins continues moving up in the order — perhaps back to the leadoff hole he occupied for most of 2021 through 2023.

What wasn’t?

You already know.

Aside from Mullins, Henderson and Slater — a trio that combined to slash .407/.492/.741 for a 1.233 OPS — the rest of Baltimore’s offense posted some paltry numbers: .177/.272/.218 for a .490 OPS.

Catcher Adley Rutschman is engrossed in the worst slump of his career and went 4-for-23 with no extra-base hits last week. Rookie Jackson Holliday went 3-for-20. Trade acquisition Eloy Jiménez, who has fallen back to Earth after his hot start with Baltimore, went 1-for-9. Prospect Coby Mayo, who is rarely playing, went 0-for-6 with four strikeouts.

On the season, the Orioles still have one of baseball’s best offenses, but it hasn’t been recently. The Orioles scored only four runs in their final four games last week. Since Aug. 21, the Orioles have scored three or fewer runs in 10 of 18 games.

The absences of Jordan Westburg, Ramón Urías and Ryan Mountcastle are being felt.

On the farm

On the final day of their season, the High-A Aberdeen IronBirds stole three bases to set the all-time minor league record for most in a single season.

The IronBirds stole 363 bases in 132 games — an average of 2.75 per game — to break the Osceola Astros’ record of 360 from 1988. Enrique Bradfield Jr., now in Double-A, led the way with 59, while seven players stole more than 20 bags.