Can you fill out the O's roster for less than $10M?

[sportsfan8703]

To format your roster a bit:

C - ?

1B - Davis - $23M

2B - Schoop - $3.4M (arb)

SS - Hardy - $14M

3B - Machado - $11.2M (arb)

LF - Kim - $4.2M

CF - Jones - $16.3M

RF - ?

DH - ?

C - Joseph - $1M (arb)

IF - Flaherty - $1.7M (arb)

OF - ?

UTIL - ?

SP - Tillman - $10.6M (arb)

SP -Gausman - $3.9M (arb)

SP - Jimenez - $13.5M

SP - Bundy? - $2M

SP - Gallardo - $11M

CL - Britton - $11.4M (arb)

SU - O'Day - $7M

SU - Brach - $2.9M (arb)

MR - Givens - pre-arb

MR - ?

MR - ?

LR - Miley - $8.92M

------------------------

So that's 7 spots. 1 Catcher, 2 OF plus 2 other bats, and 2 MR.

C-Sisco, Pena min.

RF- Trade for Khris Davis -5M

OF- Bourn - league min

DH- Pedro Alvarez - 6m

RH 1B/DH - Mancini - min.

MR- Hart- min.

MR- Drake/Wilson - min.

Not sexy but would work. I'd try and free up some more money by non tendering Worley. Trading one of Ubaldo/Gallardo. Non tender Flaherty to save a million, if we need to.

[Aglets]

Worley was left off of the original roster intentionally. He's not a part of the original $140M. I can't see us willing to pay him whatever he'd get in arbitration.

[eddie83]

You don't sign Davis, make the playoffs and then turn around and trade Britton to save money.

Need to trade one of Ubaldo, Gallardo or Miley. My bet is Miley is dealt.

I could see overall payroll going up again but I don't see any long term deals.

Zero evidence that Cisco is ready.

[isestrex]

You don't sign Davis, make the playoffs and then turn around and trade Britton to save money.

Need to trade one of Ubaldo, Gallardo or Miley. My bet is Miley is dealt.

I could see overall payroll going up again but I don't see any long term deals.

Zero evidence that Cisco is ready.

You don't trade Britton to save money... you trade Britton because his price tag is the absolute highest it will ever be. You'd be selling from your strength to hopefully buying for your weaknesses.

Ubaldo, Gallardo and Miley will get us nothing in return and create a hole in one of our weakest points: SP depth.

[isestrex]

C-Sisco, Pena min.

RF- Trade for Khris Davis -5M

OF- Bourn - league min

DH- Pedro Alvarez - 6m

RH 1B/DH - Mancini - min.

MR- Hart- min.

MR- Drake/Wilson - min.

Not sexy but would work. I'd try and free up some more money by non tendering Worley. Trading one of Ubaldo/Gallardo. Non tender Flaherty to save a million, if we need to.

I this a lot... but it hinges on OAK being remotely willing to trade a cheap guy with great production. I guess Billy Beane has made some head scratchers before... If we can make this work, I agree with the pieces you put around him to finish it off.

[eddie83]

You don't trade Britton to save money... you trade Britton because his price tag is the absolute highest it will ever be. You'd be selling from your strength to hopefully buying for your weaknesses.

Ubaldo, Gallardo and Miley will get us nothing in return and create a hole in one of our weakest points: SP depth.

You want to pay someone $9M to pitch out of the pen? Not saying they would get anything of significance back in return.

Britton is the best in the business. He isn't going to be dealt unless they fall out of contention. Brach is the one I would look to deal if I did anything.

[Spy Fox]

Sure, I will try my best at every position and I am happy to play for the league minimum.

[weams]

I'm pretty sure these are the MLB Trade Rumors numbers. They've been reasonably good at these projections over the last few years.

They are almost never wrong. At all.

[Bahama O's Fan]

I am going with some of the same suggestions here:

Mancini, Hart, Drake, Rickard. That's four of the six or seven spots

I would really consider Cisco at backup catcher, that's five

Next, I am doing my best to get rid of Miley, Gallardo or Ubaldo for anything, just to get salary relief.

I would "listen" and "consider" trade options on Britton, but would be willing to keep him if the deal isn't right

If I can trade one guy, that give me a lot of money to spend on the OF spot. I think I then feel pretty good about the team.

[weams]

Opening day payroll for this team in 2016 was right around $150M. Probably ended up going a bit higher with the later season acquisitions.

Duquette has been fairly open already that we're not going to be able to take on much more salary next year via free agency.

Here's where we stack up for 2017 right now based on current contracts and arbitration estimates (thanks to Roch for posting the 3rd party numbers).

Offense:

Davis - $17M

Jones - $16.3M

Hardy - $14M

Machado - $11.2M (arb)

Kim - $4.2M

Schoop - $3.4M (arb)

Flaherty - $1.7M (arb)

Joseph - $1M (arb)

Rickard - pre-arb

Pitching:

Jimenez - $13.5M

Britton - $11.4M (arb)

Gallardo - $11M

Tillman - $10.6M (arb)

Miley - $8.92M

O'Day - $7M

Gausman - $3.9M (arb)

Brach - $2.9M (arb)

Bundy? - $2M? (not sure how his contract works right now actually, but I assume he will not be receiving a pay cut....so i think this is best-case)

Givens - pre-arb

So for 19 roster spots that works out to about $140M.

We need to add at least a starting catcher, and another OF (or two....), a DH.....plus some bullpen arms. I assume we only have about $10M left at most to work with. Can you do it?

Some savings is possible by non-tendering some folks or by working out extensions (please please extend Manny).....however I don't think the folks that are most likely to be non-tendered will really save us anything meaningful.

Am I missing anything?

/EDITED to reflect actual terms of Davis contract..........not annual averages.......added Rickard

No. I can't. I expect that some change is gonna come.

[Going Underground]

Well, the optimal scenario is to trade a player like Hardy so you can free up some payroll space to have more money to improve the roster. They also might be able to convince a team to trade for Ubaldo by pointing to his numbers in the second half. But if the Orioles aren't able to unload some of the high salary players, they really don't have much of a choice except to make trades for cheap players like they did for Travis Snider and David Lough a few years ago.

Wouldn't the Orioles have to pick up some of Hardy's salary? He has hit less then 10 homers the last three years. Never works and is slow.Also has some injury issues

[pastorfan]

You don't trade Britton to save money... you trade Britton because his price tag is the absolute highest it will ever be. You'd be selling from your strength to hopefully buying for your weaknesses.

Ubaldo, Gallardo and Miley will get us nothing in return and create a hole in one of our weakest points: SP depth.

I have not been favor of trading Britton, but seeing the Giants bullpen implode it does make me wonder what we could get for him. The Dodgers might also give up a ton for him.

[Aristotelian]

Cisco at C, with Joseph getting most of the ABs initially.

Trade Miley in a salary dump. That gives you more like 18M to work with.

Spend that on a RF, maybe Saunders or Reddick.

Mancini and Kim at DH. Rickard in LF.

Look for another cheap Vance Worley type to take Miley's spot.

[CaptainRedbeard]

Pretty sad state of affairs. Going just based on free agents and internal options:

C- Saltalamacchia (0.5MM)

RF- Austin Jackson (4.5MM)

DH- Pearce (5MM)

BN- Bourn (1.5MM)

BN- Mancini (0.5MM)

RP- Hart (0.5MM)

RP- Drake (0.5MM)

Even that puts us a little bit over budget. In this scenario, we'd be running vs RHP either Kim in LF/DH and Pearce at DH/LF or Bourn in LF and Kim at DH. Against LHP, Pearce in LF and Mancini at DH. Offense would be a lot worse, but our OF defense would also be a lot better.

If we had money to burn, I'd be targeting Josh Reddick, Matt Holliday, Jason Castro, and Brett Cecil. Would also love to bring back Tommy Hunter. For other cheap options, Chris Coghlan and Gregor Blanco are coming off horrific seasons, but are not that old and were consistently quality players before 2016.

And no, I don't think we make the playoffs again with this roster. Just the best we may be able to do with our financial situation.

[CaptainRedbeard]

Cisco at C, with Joseph getting most of the ABs initially.

Trade Miley in a salary dump. That gives you more like 18M to work with.

Spend that on a RF, maybe Saunders or Reddick.

Mancini and Kim at DH. Rickard in LF.

Look for another cheap Vance Worley type to take Miley's spot.

Rickard should be nowhere near our 25 man roster next year. He had a wRC+ of 86 and -0.7 WAR. I think he can be a major league player but he needs to be playing every day in the minors next season.