oriole

Good summary. But it’s also worth considering that Elias could be stretching the truth. I could still see him trading a major league piece. Almost every position has multiple internal options except for 1B and CF, and even those positions aren’t impossible to fill in-house. It’s probably a good idea to talk down on the possibility of trading them to make them seem harder to get. Not sure that has any actual impact on their trade value but then again, maybe it does?

Is it though?

This has been quite a deflating week in Orioles baseball. Elias majorly messed up talking about liftoff. Obviously, he meant liftoff like one of those foam rockets that you stomp the plastic button and it just gets stuck in a tree and the kids cry about it and you say to yourself ‘I’m not climbing that tree’ but you know damn well you’re climbing that tree.

So uhhh…are there fist fights at hangout nights? Lol Anyways, thanks justD for the transcription. I could literally hear Harold Reynolds voice in my head while reading it

I wonder what changed last year to make him so much more effective vs lefties?

Let’s press down on the gas as hard we can and sign all three. Highest payroll I see on Cots is in 2017 when it was around $165 million. If they can match that number in 2023, could they sign Judge, Rodon, and Correa? If they did, would they win the division?

Keep Mullins AND trade for Reynolds and put Mullins in left and Hays in right. Do not trade Mullins for Lopez. Seems like a bad idea to me

Loading up on lefties, don’t hate it.

Anything other than a full fledged effort is wasting the years with Rutschman, Rodriguez, and Henderson. No half ass “innings eaters” or “crusty veteran” signings as the main addition will make me believe otherwise. Not saying I can’t be positive when we go into 23 with Gibson on opening day. I’m trying to be optimistic no matter what but it’s disingenuous to allude to any real attempt to win the division with players added whose ceiling is like 2 WAR. Gotta get a couple proven stars in here and it’s ridiculous we’re now being told to limit expectations. This team could be real good but I’m afraid we’ll be leaning hard on bounce backs from guys Mountcastle and Hays instead of actually investing in the payroll. Rutschman can’t win the division on his own. Liftoff was a dumb thing to say.

Exactly. It could be Elias is just nipping the idea of Santander for a proven SP in the bud. Talk his guy up like, “nah, it’s not that no one else wants him. I just like him too much to let go!” I still think he’s a good player to have on the team btw. Preferably not at 3 in the lineup but maybe 6 or 7

I think some of you are overvaluing Mateo. Great defense, no bat. Not a useless player but no one is going to give anything up for him that would improve the Orioles organization in any meaningful way. I don’t think the Angels are a good trade partner at this point. I’d be targeting controllable pitching mostly and the Angels aren’t in a position to be giving any of that up. Maybe once the infield logjam manifests then we could talk about trading our major league players for guys in the lower levels but we’re not there yet

Is it possible that Santander isn’t valued highly around the league? There’s been plenty of opportunities to move him. He is not anything close to an untouchable type of player. Even when Elias is basically giving players away for teenagers he has kept Santander. Maybe Elias expects to keep him because no one else is willing to give up what Elias wants in return? Im good one way or the other. A switch hitting DH with some power and ability to play COF is a good guy to have around. But if Santander can be packaged to get a mid-rotation starter with a couple years of control left then that is more of a pressing need on this team.

Agree to disagree I guess. He can eat innings and that’s it. And by eat innings we’re talking 5.1 IP/start last year. Not exactly my idea of making a competitive move. This is the type of move I’d have expected if they were kicking the can down the road a bit. The offseason is not done though so I’m withholding judgement. I’m sure it’ll be fine. Right? Right?!?!

They’ve got the room in the payroll and the need for it in the rotation. It isn’t an unreasonable hope. I’m not talking top tier but Gibson is bottle of the barrel.

Hmm funny, yes, but not funny haha. Funny, weird I’m kidding, this is a Lyles type of move and not a big deal assuming there’s more. If there’s not more than it’s an admission of defeat and a waste of having decent young players. But it’s too soon to think like that. I’d probably have just preferred to re-sign Lyles

I agree 100%, when I say he should DH I am referring to his abysmal defensive reputation (as I understand it)

It seems like depth to me. Both Diaz and Cordero are obviously not the type of players you guarantee any time to after proclaiming “lift off”…but at the same time, if Mountcastle has an injury then it causes a pretty big problem. We’d end up seeing Nevin or Vavra at 1B. Good to know there’s options, though it’s hard to see Cordero as anything but a DH.

Hmmm well since it’s a minor league signing it makes more sense to me. There wasn’t much depth there and if Mountcastle gets injured then the options dry up real quick.

How does a split contract work? Does that mean he is optionable throughout the year? The Diaz claim made a little bit of sense, low risk and the guy can play a solid 1B. Cordero isn’t making sense to me right now

I don’t hate it. He’d at least be an upgrade defensively over Mountcastle. If he still looks lost offensively in ST then you can keep Mountcastle at 1B and call it a day. But the truth is that Mountcastle is trending downward every year, he can’t field very well, and 1B depth is non-existent right now. Not nearly as much of a head scratcher as having Cave and Cameron on the 40 man roster.

They’ve got the pay roll room for it. They can’t be cheap forever and if SP is worth that much in FA then it’ll also increase the trade value and I can’t see Elias overpaying in prospects. Not yet at least

True, but it takes more than velocity to be effective and that is especially true in MLB. I’m not saying he won’t succeed, I’m just saying his role would be redundant and cost too much.

The O’s are pretty flush with back of the rotation/spot starters. I think I’d rather have Voth or Baumann fill that role than spend a bunch of money on someone with that skill set. On top of those two there is Hall, Zimmermann, Watkins, Rom, and Vallimont on the roster who could do the spot starter thing. All differing levels of success and some with absolutely no major league experience, but I don’t know if it’s worth the contract Fujinami would demand to see exactly how much better he’d be than those guys. I really think one or two solid and proven guys should he the focus.

Bassitt and Lopez might help push the team into a competitive direction but a Bellinger/McKenna platoon would negate that. I truly don’t understand why I keep reading about Mullins being traded. There’s no one to take his place, we can get a Lopez-level SP on the market, plus there’s a lot of unknown as to how the larger bases will effect the game and keeping speedy guys seems like a good idea in case it has a significant impact on the game.

I’ve warmed to the idea of Benintendi in LF. Move Hays to RF, Santander at DH and that’s a good outfield defense. Brantley would be good too but then you’ve got to depend on Santander in RF which isn’t ideal, but not a deal breaker. I don’t see much value in going after other mid level position players really. I know the offense could use a boost but if they’re not shopping at the top of the list (they’re not) then is it really even an upgrade over what they’ve got? Of course, Correa would be cool too. Mateo would be a really good option at 2B IMO. But I have absolutely no confidence in that happening. SP is harder to predict. I really think a couple of above average lefties would be a good approach. Means is a good ways off and Hall is far from a guarantee. That leaves the rest of the rotation options from the right side. Do I expect them to land Rodon? Absolutely not. Do I really want to give Quintana a big contract after having an outlier year? Also absolutely not. So, that’s not an easy spot to fill. I’m sure we’ll see a mid tier guy like Taillon or Walker signed. Plus, for as much as I’ve heard Hyde rave about Lyles, I think we may see him back.