oriole

I’d be interested in trading Mountcastle for a decent SP and then signing Mancini to play first. But otherwise there’s no room for him

Roch isn’t an independent journalist, the man has bills like the rest of us. People have got to give him a break and get their hot takes elsewhere.

Should’ve just kept Lewin Diaz. At least he can play a solid 1B

I said defense because it’ll effect both run prevention and pitchers confidence to throw strikes. Is that provable or quantifiable? Probably not. But makes sense in my head.

Depends on what Santander is bringing back. I don’t think he has enough value to really get anything more than a lottery ticket type prospect or maybe back end SP with a year left. So the only real benefit would be some positional flexibility but there’s already a lot of that on the roster. I think I’d prefer to just keep Santander unless they’re moving him to make room for a real difference maker, which Profar is not.

Optimist, yes. But not unrealistic either. I think everything really has to click and go right for this to happen though and that’s what is most worrisome. What if Rodriguez has another lat injury? There goes the only SP with upside higher than #3 at best. What if all the strides in the bullpen construction were a 2022 mirage? Bullpens, especially young bullpens, are not going to be consistent from year to year. I think the part about this offseason that has been the most aggravating is that this is a very good core of players. You look through the roster and there’s great defense at multiple positions, guys who can get on base, guys who can hit home runs, guys who can steal bases….it’s really time to spend money. If they’re not spending money now then they never will and that’s a hard pill to swallow for me. One or two proven and consistent veteran free agents and this could be a great team. Instead we’ve got to completely depend on unproven guys with lots of potential but no track record. As fans, we’re being played and I hate that. Once the season starts then I’ll be able to get over it quickly but man, if only ownership could commit to putting forth a reasonable pay roll and it’d be looking real good in Baltimore.

As much as I disagree with the direction of the offseason, once baseball is being played again I will let myself get excited and hopeful again. There’s a lot to be happy about in the farm system and I’m grateful for Elias’ work in that regard. I’m excited to see which of the infield crop comes into fruition.

Gentle reminder that things can always get worse

I think it’s fair to say that the O’s are not a supposed contender anymore. We’ve graduated from tank mode but it’s still high unlikely we are actually a contender after this offseason. With that being said, I think they should claim Diaz again if they can. If he has a bad spring then he may be able to clear waivers around that time and if he looks good then we can move Mountcastle to DH and possibly move on from him if he continues his trend of getting worse every year.

Past couple years it’s been right handers that Bundy has had issues with. Nothing a giant wall moved back can’t fix, right?

Pure speculation but I bet ownership thought the rebuild would take longer and never actually intended on spending money. They probably figured by the time the team seemed potentially competitive then they’d have been sold by then. I can’t imagine Elias would have taken the job if he’d have been under the impression that he had to continue playing a team with a bottom 5 pay roll even when the core was ready. I expect Elias to be out as soon as he is able. This is a very calculated person we’re talking about and I just can’t see any real reason he’d have to use the language he did (“lift off”) if he didn’t expect to back it up. He seems like a professional so I doubt we’ll ever know. But this off season has made him look like a cheap lying scaredy cat.

I went with Hays because of his defensive value and Mountcastle seems to get worse every year and doesn’t play 1B all that well. There also seems to be a concerted effort to have a left handed counterpart at 1B or a plan B in case the Mountcastle trend of getting worse every year continues. That sounds like a short leash to me

Anyone know if they will be allowed to move players between positions? Mateo could move to the first base side of 2B for lefty pull hitters or whenever more range is needed and put whoever is at 2B to the SS position.

He’s already getting his money. That’s gotta give him some leverage I think.

Hosmer probably wants to be promised every day playing time. That’s hard to envision on this team. Mountcastle has a pretty firm grasp on the 1B job and between Rutschman (the type of catcher who will DH a lot) and Santander (the type of outfielder that will DH a lot) there isn’t much room at DH either.

I’d have rather kept Lewin Diaz on the roster.

I’d bet that Lopez and Givens 2023 will be similarly effective. Lopez was never going to continue being as good as he was in the first half of 22. Also, Frazier is likely the LH corner outfield bat and, if this offseason has taught us anything, the starter that Elias publicly stated he wanted us more likely to be a #5 with upside that anything close to an actual #1-3. This offseason sucks, have I mentioned that?

You know, it really makes me wonder whether it’d have been more impactful to go after one good player rather than 3-4 not so great ones. For example, they could’ve signed Walker instead of Frazier/Gibson ($18m each option) but Walker would have been a significant improvement while Frazier and Gibson won’t move the needle enough to even really be considered additions. To answer the OP question, it doesn’t matter. Apathy has set in full force with me and 4th place is the ceiling in 2023 with or without Eovaldi.

I’d say they’re a slightly better team but definitely wouldn’t use the word “considerably”. When you lay it out like that, it does seem like a lot of money for such an incremental improvement. Though, I don’t see the additions quite as negatively as some here.

It’d have been more exciting for them to have received a good prospect or two in exchange for the whole contract. But this is fine too I guess. James McCann is the backup C. Who’d have thought?

This is just depressing. If they didn’t spend this offseason then they never will. Payroll will still go up because of arbitration salaries and that will be the reasoning behind not going after supplemental talent. Unless we’re talking about back-end SP and utility guys.

I went with yes. He plays a role and will be able to keep the lineup balanced while also giving guys all over the field days off. The grand scheme of the off season is pretty bad so far (and I can’t imagine that changes at this point) but this signing in a vacuum makes sense to me.

I’m afraid Frazier was the “hitter you can put in the lineup every day” that Elias spoke of and Gibson is the #3 that was promised.

Let’s make it more interesting, because Bemboom and cash is boring. Make the pretend deal McCann, Carassco, and Baty for Urias and Vavra. It’s just way more fun to fill in all the blanks in one move.

How could I forget?! He tore it up at Norfolk when he was sent down so he’ll undoubtedly carry that momentum!