oriole

Considering the alternatives, I wouldn’t have any issues whatsoever with Joseph playing the veteran catcher mentor role next year.

It’s clearly going to be Correa at SS and Bryant at 3B

My guess is hope that at least two of the upcoming prospects are major league caliber pitchers, two decent free agents, and an open fifth spot for a mixture of less talented but high floor type of low level free agents or prospects. Unless Means sticks around then Means would be that fifth guy…but if we’re not looking to be competitive until 2024 or 2025 then there’s no point in keeping Means around anyways so I think he’s traded.

Winning team? He probably owns a house in the area and wouldn’t want to uproot everything to move if he has a choice? The Orioles don’t actually want him, they want whatever prospect tags along with him? I dunno, it’s all speculation of course but there seem to be plenty of reasons why Hosmer wouldn’t want to come to a team like the O’s.

First thing I thought too. No way would he allow a trade to a bottom dweller team. And if he did, why would we want a veteran riding out the end of a big contract just so he can collect his check? No thanks and I’m sure Hosmer feels the same

I’d be okay with that, but I doubt Greinke would.

My hope is he can stay healthy, hit north of an .800 OPS and play good defense in right field. My expectation is that he will be injured for a good portion of the season, hardly get on base, hit a few homers, and play good defense when he’s out there.

I expect Lyles to be around a 6-7 ERA by the end of the year, maybe eat some innings but he hasn’t really done that much in his career so it’s not something I’m going to count on. They could’ve paid a lot less looking for players who want the opportunity to prove themselves and gotten very similar results. I understand the notion that Baltimore has to pay more for free agents, especially right now. But that doesn’t mean you give $7m to Jordan F’ing Lyles. Elias has done wrong here, IMO.

Also, it’s just occurred to me that part of this lock out will be discussions about tanking and teams that refuse to add anything to payroll. It’s a curious move to make just moments before a lockout…but it could be an attempt to save face and have the ability to point and say “look, we spend money!” while also reserving the right to be as bad a team as possible.

First off…this looks like an absolutely baffling move. The longer Elias is the GM, the less faith I have that he is capable of the job. He just makes so many questionable and mind boggling moves. The unsettling reality is that it seems we’re seeing pretty clearly what the “tax” for coming to Baltimore is for signing free agents right now. No one else in baseball would be paying Lyles this much and I have my doubts Lyles would have signed for anything less to come to a bad team, in a stacked division, in a hitters ball park.

I’ve got a feeling we’re all going to be frustrated having to watch Odor get 500 at bats while intriguing guys play at Bowie and Norfolk all year. Gotta get that number one pick in 2023 too!

Great…one (maybe two if you count Santander, I don’t) rule 5 pick out of the dozen or so in the last 5 years has been a success…and it’s still too early to even consider Wells a success. The rule 5 will make roster management difficult while also extremely unlikely to work out in the long run. I’d rather the player that can be sent down if need be.

I’d rather have Fox than whatever rule 5 player they’re making room for

If Santander is a potential DFA candidate then maybe a trade could be made? Santander seems to have more value but honestly, it’s not exactly a position of need and he kinda sucks. Maybe the Marlins kick in a low level prospect to make it happen, I dunno. Probably not

I dunno, seems like a team putting that much effort into competing will want a player they can play almost anywhere when needed. I doubt he’s available. Also, there’s absolutely no reason why a rebuilding club would want to trade from future assets for a super utility player to play while they lose 100 games the next couple years.

I hate to say it but I hope it happens assuming it’s a good deal. If they’re not even thinking about being competitive til 2024 or so then what’s the point in holding onto Mullins considering this could’ve been an outlier year for him and by the time Elias actually tries to field a major league team then Mullins will be a lot closer to free agency. Also, outside of Rodriguez, I’m realizing there’s no pitching on the way and that is needed badly. I don’t count Hall til he can stay healthy for an extended period of time. Trading Mullins could fix that.

I gotta agree with you on this one. This teams doing more harm than good with this whole “be as bad as possible for as long as possible” approach.

If he wants to trade Means, then Mullins has to go too. What is frustrating is that even just a little effort to actually bolster the MLB club and some money spent to get us back around where we were during the Buck era then this team could be competitive. Sign a decent SS and SP and let the young guys start their career in a competitive atmosphere and hopefully by 2023 with some experience by the prospects then we could really see a good team. instead it’s a minimum of two more years of obscurity while wasting the early years of hopefully great players like Rodriguez and Rutschman. Half of Mountcastles time with the O’s will already be a complete waste. I really hate the way Elias is elongating the rebuild at every turn. Will it eventually be effective? Yeah, I think so. But it could be equally effective while also not being so dismal with just a tiny bit of effort put into the ML roster. I guess he really wants those high draft picks where he won’t pick the best player available anyways?

Hard to argue this point. Maybe a cheap veteran and a rule 5 C and just play it by ear. Manea looks pretty good from the OP post i think.

A catcher doesn’t seem like a bad idea. By the time AR is deemed “ready” then there will be an idea of what a rule 5 guy can bring and if he’s worth keeping.

I went with Mullins then so I guess I’ll say Mullins now too. Though I can’t help but feel like Hays will be more consistent when healthy and Mullins will not be the same caliber player he was this year and have years where he’ll not be any good at all…but I’m literally guessing so there’s that…

I like where your heads at and I’m begrudgingly on board the trade Mullins train…but I’ve got to point out that option B could easily be a 100 loss team.

I’m curious if your later rankings so far are a subtle knock on some of the players we all expected to be higher. The Hernandez write up specifically isn’t exactly glowing but he is ranked higher than guys like Baumann and Bradish who some of us were picking in the top ten.

I’m not trying to be rude but if you think that’s the type of package it would take to get Castillo then why entertain the notion at all? For two years of an okay to decent starter at the tail end of a rebuild it would be crazy to trade a package of some of your best prospects.

With so much room on the roster I’m still blown away by the Harvey decision.