DrinkinWithFermi

Nope, all of the starters that would have been upgrades are gone and we came away empty-handed. That said, I am fully expecting us to sign Chris Archer. He really feels like an Orioles type of signing.

LOL @ that Kremer projection

I didn't, I simply expected them to bring in a couple of guys that actually qualified as clear improvements over what we already had, which did not happen. My expectations were modest and measured, and wholly unreasonable apparently.

I don't think it is going to be significantly worse than ours.

It was a minor league signing of a guy who has been worth a whopping 1.2 bWAR in almost 700 MLB games since 2016. He didn't have to run to reporters to tell them how he thinks he could fit into our 2023 plans. But he did.

Meant for

He didn't have to tell the whole world that he sees Nomar Mazara as a platoon option for the 2023 team. But he did.

Coulda, woulda, shoulda. Bottom line is that no meaningful improvements have been made. The problem with this excuse is that the pitching has to come from somewhere and he refuses to draft high ceiling pitchers.

I agree that it could be any of those guys (or O'Hearn), my point was simply that there is no real reason to think that a significant position player acquisition like Kepler is going to occur at this this point because he has already acquired guys that apparently are good enough in his mind (they aren't, obviously).

The people reassuring themselves with "at least we're better than Boston" will have a much harder time convincing themselves that's the case if they acquire Lopez. Sale, Lopez, Kluber, Pivetta, Houck/Whitlock/Bello looks a hell of a lot better than Gibson, Kremer, Bradish, Rodriguez, Wells/Voth/Watkins.

"2024- It'll Be Here Before You Know It!" (Legal Disclaimer: This slogan does not imply or guarantee that any significant roster upgrades or expenditures will be made to the 2024 Baltimore Orioles)

My money is on Chris Archer, with Michael Pineda and Chad Kuhl as dark horses.

Likewise, but unfortunately Trey probably won't accept a minor league deal, so I think that eliminates us from the running.

He already did. Nomar Mazara, who he made a specific point of calling a platoon option for next year after we signed him to a minor league deal.

He only got 98 PAs in 2022 and lost playing time to Aguilar and Phillips. He was not an obstacle to signing an impact bat.

I think the O'Hearn blockbuster takes us out of the running to win the Hosmer Bowl.

Good thing we scooped up Ryan O'Hearn then

Not really, the Givens and McCann deals received overwhelmingly positive responses.

We don't need Trey, we have Franchy Cordero, Nomar Mazara, and Ryan O'Hearn

I expect that you'll get the oft-repeated "Aguilar didn't play much" response to this, but I just checked and Aguilar and Phillips got a combined 14 starts at DH/COF for the Orioles, where Stowers could have played instead, which amounts to 55-60 PAs taken away from him. Stowers only got 98 total PAs in 2022, so that would have been a playing time increase of over 50%.

1) Depth type moves are pretty much the only moves the team has made this offseason. 2) I think O'Hearn has a much better chance of making the team as the DH vs. RHPs/backup 1B than you realize. Yes, easily. Getting Stowers ABs clearly wasn't much of a priority last year and he didn't exactly hit the cover off the ball in the limited playing time he was able to eke out when Aguilar and Phillips weren't starting over him. I would not be the least bit shocked if he starts 2023 in Norfolk, even with the complete lack of meaningful additions to the team thus far. So saying that a legitimate upgrade like Josh Bell or JD Martinez or Justin Turner would have been taking ABs away from Stowers is pretty silly.

As others have already pointed out, Hays is the everyday LF and should be included with the other "locks." Anyway, I guess I'd go with McKenna, Stowers, and Vavra for the 3 remaining spots because I'd rather not start Westburg's clock for a bench job and Profar is likely looking for an everyday gig and is probably going to get paid more than he's worth.

You can "make the point" as many times as you want, but it won't make it true. We could have easily found 500 ABs for a meaningful lineup upgrade like Josh Bell, Justin Turner, or JD Martinez (as just a couple of off-hand examples). Because the team hasn't been upgraded in any meaningful way despite allegedly intending to compete for a playoff spot and now all of the free agents who would have been meaningful upgrades are gone.

Okay, now I feel better about missing out on all of the good free agents. There was a plan all along!