This turned out to be a great time to go cheap

[25 Nuggets]

CBS Sports - Ranking 30 clubs by 2021 payroll situation

This appears to be a subjective list, just Mike Axisa's opinion, but he does explain himself pretty well for each team.  He has the Orioles 11th best out of 30 teams and the Blue Jays #1.

That said, you look over all those payrolls and future obligations, and you see what he sees - teams are going to be slashing payroll all over the major leagues.  The Orioles have already done so to the best of their ability.

This is going to be a great opportunity for Baltimore.  They can do one of two things during a supremely suppressed market:

1. Sign a bunch of value contracts in the off season and trade them later for prospects.  The top players are still going to command top money... perhaps not quite as much, but still substantial.  The tier 2-3 free agents project to have their contracts drop substantially.
2. Take on bad contracts attached with good prospects from teams looking to slash payroll.  This is mentioned in the article and is something that rebuilding teams are starting to do more often.

Since the Orioles are going all in on this rebuild, they HAVE to get to a point where they're a top 5-10 farm system in MLB or you may consider the rebuild a failure.  So, after this abbreviated season, or perhaps even during the season, I would hope the team is proactive when so many others can't be.

[Enjoy Terror]

I feel like we always talk about signing value contracts to trade later for prospects and taking on bad contracts plus prospects, but I’m struggling to think of instances where the Orioles have done this in the last 20 years. 
 

If anything, the trade that pissed everyone off— Jonathan Villar— was exactly this and everyone hated it. People always want to trade the underperforming players and hang onto the good ones; funny thing about that.

[Philip]

I hope this situation actually benefits the Orioles. I can see it helping the younger guys, if they are able to get training and coaching, and of course with guys like Adam Hall, it gets them closer to the Show.

[Philip]

1 hour ago, Enjoy Terror said:

I feel like we always talk about signing value contracts to trade later for prospects and taking on bad contracts plus prospects, but I’m struggling to think of instances where the Orioles have done this in the last 20 years.

The “value” contracts we sign don’t have any.

[Mr. Chewbacca Jr.]

23 minutes ago, Philip said:

I hope this situation actually benefits the Orioles. I can see it helping the younger guys, if they are able to get training and coaching, and of course with guys like Adam Hall, it gets them closer to the Show.

I think this weird, shortened season will help the O's deal with fan fatigue from consecutive 100+ loss seasons. Everyone is just happy to have baseball and has forgotten about how bad this team really would have been if the season kicked off as normal.

[BohKnowsBmore]

16 minutes ago, Mr. Chewbacca Jr. said:

I think this weird, shortened season will help the O's deal with fan fatigue from consecutive 100+ loss seasons. Everyone is just happy to have baseball and has forgotten about how bad this team really would have been if the season kicked off as normal.

This is a great point. From a business/PR perspective, they definitely avoid some of the "ugh, not again" factor among the fanbase that accompanies the tear-it-down-to-build-back-up strategy they're pursuing.

[Philip]

The passing of time is neither positive nor negative( aside from the whole ‘getting older’ problem.) What matters is what we do with it. I wonder if anyone is prepared to offer an in-depth evaluation of whether this will benefit the Orioles and how?

[TommyPickles]

Imagine being the Dodgers...

All that money and all those prospects for a year of Mookie Betts and some expensive years of David Price.  Season gets delayed, shortened, and jeopordized by Covid, then Price opts out of playing.

I mean, I don't feel bad for them, they've won their division like 7 years in a row, but they seem like the team that was most "all in" on this season.

[Aristotelian]

25 minutes ago, TommyPickles said:

Imagine being the Dodgers...

All that money and all those prospects for a year of Mookie Betts and some expensive years of David Price.  Season gets delayed, shortened, and jeopordized by Covid, then Price opts out of playing.

I mean, I don't feel bad for them, they've won their division like 7 years in a row, but they seem like the team that was most "all in" on this season.

I don't think Price costs them anything although losing him may hurt their chances. Arguably Betts is still worth it if you believe that a WS this year is just as meaningful as any other year. 

[atomic]

LOL the Orioles are going to be trying to save money.  They are going to have very low revenue this year.  More likely the big market teams with their big television contracts are the ones that get teams to trade them great players while only taking on part of the players salaries and give nothing much in return. 

[Redskins Rick]

I dislike the thread title.

This team was in the process of a major rebuild, there was no need to high dollar payroll.

This was long before COVID hit.

[Sports Guy]

This all plays right into the hands of the Angelos family.

 

[interloper]

21 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

This all plays right into the hands of the Angelos family.

 

I think you have a wildly inaccurate/misguided view of the Angelos brothers so far. Just my opinion. 

[Morgan423]

4 hours ago, Aristotelian said:

Arguably Betts is still worth it if you believe that a WS this year is just as meaningful as any other year. 

I do not believe that, though I'm probably in the minority there.  For me, chopping the season to this extent pretty much takes the legitimacy out of the process.  I'd rather they hadn't played at all this year.

[atomic]

Just now, Morgan423 said:

I do not believe that, though I'm probably in the minority there.  For me, chopping the season to this extent pretty much takes the legitimacy out of the process.  I'd rather they hadn't played at all this year.

I would gladly take a World Series win this year.  If the Orioles were by some miracle to win it I am sure you would celebrate it along with the rest of us.