Wieters is staying with the Orioles for 2016

[Tony-OH]

What's Joseph's career high in games caught? I think it's 94. And a couple years ago when he ramped up after Wieters was hurt he went something like 3-for September. And maybe I'm wrong but I just don't see Clevenger getting 40-50 starts behind the plate.

Even if hate Clevenger, they could have signed Saltalamacchia to split some time with Jospeh and they still would have come out way on top. No way Wieters is worth close to $15 million a season. I'm shocked you are even arguing this.

[gmelson26]

I'm hearing a lot of Glad this upstanding gentlemen is coming back! Another year wahoo!

So we have 2 holes in the outfield, a hole at 1B, multiple holes in the starting rotation if we're honest, no real viable DH slotted in, a few small holes in the bullpen.. am I missing something. Yeah we all agree now's the time to try and extend Manny (so you could view 3B as a hole that needs addressing. That's 7-9 question marks (opinions varying, sure).

Our mid-market (thanks Expos) budget was going to be like "butter spread over too much toast" as it was. Our catching platoon was at least passable, if not a bit above league average for like what a cool mil?! So we

re spending about 40% of our excess budget on one of the few spots that didn't really need to address?! What's to cheer about?

I cannot help but think of those dream scenario threads out there where people try to fill the gaps with 40 million or so (with Joseph as catcher). Go back with the exact same holes except with 25 million.

I get Wieters is a nice guy and has played here for years, but big picture here folks.. big picture.

Sure it's a one year deal and those are never terrible. Well in a vacuum that's true, but this off-season is one where a one year nearly 16 million catcher contract was not what we needed.

[Babypowder]

Oh I understand that. At this point your stuck with the 15+ million. You have to find some way to use him.

If we lose CD, is there another guy on the market that you would look at as being a vastly superior option to spend on at 1B? Maybe at that point you bring in a guy who can platoon with MW at 1B give MW some time behind the plate at and at DH. Using him this way could allow you to go a little cheap on 1B and use that savings to then upgrade your rotation. Then just hope that MW and whomever your bring in to rotate with him at DH and 1B can produce enough with your upgraded pitching? Reaching at straws here bro. Reality is your spending 15 million now on a resource you already had, not much good news there, just trying to make lemonade out of lemons.

Right, but what I am saying is that doesn't even work. I'd rather bring back Steve Pearce and play him every day at first base instead of playing Wieters there. He offers the team no value playing first base, 15 million or not. There are guys available off the scrap heap that are much better options at first base then playing a catcher there who doesn't have the bat for it. He either catches, or he shouldn't be playing.

[SteveO]

What's Joseph's career high in games caught? I think it's 94. And a couple years ago when he ramped up after Wieters was hurt he went something like 3-for September. And maybe I'm wrong but I just don't see Clevenger getting 40-50 starts behind the plate.

I think at this point we can argue till we are blue in the face and its all for naught. MW will be on this team, now the focus should be how to best utilize him while saving as much of our resources to address our other needs as possible. That solution likely means one of the following, MW starts, CJ backs up or MW playing some C and DH/1B OR the Orioles including CJ in a deal that addresses another position. Obviously all those approaches have serious downsides, it is what it is though, gotta make the best of it.

[DrungoHazewood]

It's not about Wieters' deal, it's about how other potential multi-year deals with other players who might fill an actual need will now no longer be considered. I'm not an end of the world guy either. The Orioles will just do a great deal more of their shopping at the flea market this year than at Macy's. You can sometimes find neat stuff at flea markets.

I think I'd rather find a Hyun-soo Kim in that old steamer trunk and roll with that instead of going to Harrods to pick out a BJ Upton.

[Going Underground]

It's not about Wieters' deal, it's about how other potential multi-year deals with other players who might fill an actual need will now no longer be considered. I'm not an end of the world guy either. The Orioles will just do a great deal more of their shopping at the flea market this year than at Macy's. You can sometimes find neat stuff at flea markets.

Hopefully,the Orioles management have a plan if Wieters did accept the offer. If not could as you say be a bad year. i won't use the word crippling.

[DrungoHazewood]

Even if hate Clevenger, they could have signed Saltalamacchia to split some time with Jospeh and they still would have come out way on top. No way Wieters is worth close to $15 million a season. I'm shocked you are even arguing this.

Wieters could well be worth $15M in free agent money. Yes, they could have gotten similar production for less. If given the choice I'd rather he'd turned down the QO. But I still offer it every time, because you're going to get a draft pick many more times than not. This isn't a catastrophe, it's not optimal either. Roll with it and hope for the best.

[Tony-OH]

I'm hearing a lot of Glad this upstanding gentlemen is coming back! Another year wahoo!

So we have 2 holes in the outfield, a hole at 1B, multiple holes in the starting rotation if we're honest, no real viable DH slotted in, a few small holes in the bullpen.. am I missing something. Yeah we all agree now's the time to try and extend Manny (so you could view 3B as a hole that needs addressing. That's 7-9 question marks (opinions varying, sure).

Our mid-market (thanks Expos) budget was going to be like "butter spread over too much toast" as it was. Our catching platoon was at least passable, if not a bit above league average for like what a cool mil?! So we

re spending about 40% of our excess budget on one of the few spots that didn't really need to address?! What's to cheer about?

I cannot help but think of those dream scenario threads out there where people try to fill the gaps with 40 million or so (with Joseph as catcher). Go back with the exact same holes except with 25 million.

Got a lot of fans who are thinking with their hearts and not with their brains. You are absolutely right. The Orioles had a value at catcher going into the year and now have albatross. But that's ok, as long as he likes here in Baltimore and he's excited about spring training it's ok. lol

[Ripken]

This is not good news for the Orioles in any shape or form. Take off your fan glasses and if you look at what just happened, you'll see the Orioles just took a huge payroll hit in a place where they didn't necessarily expect it. This will cause ramifications elsewhere this offseason. We just signed a 2 win (at best) catcher for $15 million dollars when we probably could have had those two wins from Joseph and Clevinger for about $13 million less.

The only thing I'm surprised about is that the Orioles didn't have an agreement in place with Wieters to not accept. From the outside looking in, it appears Duquette gambled and lost on this one.

This very obviously the case.

[Can_of_corn]

Even if hate Clevenger, they could have signed Saltalamacchia to split some time with Jospeh and they still would have come out way on top. No way Wieters is worth close to $15 million a season. I'm shocked you are even arguing this.

The free agent cost of a win is what 7 million? I don't think it is a foregone conclusion that Wieters is incapable of putting up 2.3 win season.

[VeveJones007]

This is not good news for the Orioles in any shape or form. Take off your fan glasses and if you look at what just happened, you'll see the Orioles just took a huge payroll hit in a place where they didn't necessarily expect it. This will cause ramifications elsewhere this offseason. We just signed a 2 win (at best) catcher for $15 million dollars when we probably could have had those two wins from Joseph and Clevinger for about $13 million less.

The only thing I'm surprised about is that the Orioles didn't have an agreement in place with Wieters to not accept. From the outside looking in, it appears Duquette gambled and lost on this one.

I didn't expect you to believe that they had a strong shot to compete in 2016.

[UMDTerrapins]

I don't like what this does to the payroll obviously, and I agree the FO isn't probably too happy about this. But Buck loves him, he's a team leader, his bat seemed to be improving when the injury hit, it's a one year contract, and it's good for morale of the players who aren't FAs for a number of years. I'm just not going to melt down over this and declare our offseason a failure when it's just started.

[Larry18]

Can't the Orioles just backdate two contracts for the 15 million? The Nats did it with Scherzer.Also so Angelos has to take some money out of the MASN profits,no biggie.

Cut Lou out of the will.Leave the profits alone.

[SteveO]

Right, but what I am saying is that doesn't even work. I'd rather bring back Steve Pearce and play him every day at first base instead of playing Wieters there. He offers the team no value playing first base, 15 million or not. There are guys available off the scrap heap that are much better options at first base then playing a catcher there who doesn't have the bat for it. He either catches, or he shouldn't be playing.

Yea but any other guy you bring in who is credible at all is gonna cost something. Something that now we are paying MW 15+ million we cannot afford to pay IMO.

Honestly if CD walks, I would rather just bring in Walker or Mancini and have MW get AB's at 1B then spend another 5-7 million on Pearce. No scrapheap guy or Pearce is gonna produce that much more than Walker/Mancini/MW mix that it makes it worth diverting money from improving your pitching to sign them.

Obviously it would have been better to sign Pearce and have Pearce/Mancini/Walker cheaper but it is what it is.

[VeveJones007]

Yep, I'm surprised and even a little disappointed in the amount of people who actually like that Wieters is returning for $15 million. Joseph was a 2.2 win player and Clevenger was a 0.4. Even if you double Wieters WAR from last season, he hasn't had a season with a WAR above 1.6 since 2012 when he was 26 years old.

He'll be 30 years old next year. History is not kind to 6-5 catchers in their 30s. Unless Angelos is willing to significantly up our payroll, this just changed our offseason plans considerably.

I'm not "happy" about it, but you're being myopic about 2016, making it into a far bigger issue than it actually is.