Which Oriole is your pick to break out in 2022?

[Frobby]

If you had Cedric Mullins in 2021, you won.  Can’t say I saw that coming.   So who’ve you got in 2022?

I’m going to take a flyer on Zac Lowther.   He got shuffled around a lot in 2021, and struggled mightily at times.   I went to the Blue Jays game where he allowed 7 runs in 2 innings.   But he also had 3 pretty good starts in September.   He managed to keep his K rate just north of 9 K/9, which was encouraging.  I’m not saying he’ll be a TOR pitcher or anything, but I’ll say he settles in as a rotation piece with a 4.5ish ERA.

If not Lowther, then Akin.  
 

 

[Aristotelian]

Other than Rutschman? What do you mean by "breakout player"?

I will go with Urias. If he can just improve incrementally offensively and defensively and maintain over a full season, that's a 5 WAR player. 

[wildcard]

I don't know about breakout but I think we will see big improvement from  Adley, Grayson, Stowers, Bradish and Baumann.   Not that they will have the best years of their career but big improvement over what we have seen from the O's.

I am very interested in Mateo and what he can bring to the table.

I think when Stowers arrives he may allow Hays and Santander to play less hurt.  That could help their productions.  I think both players tried to play hurt last year and it hurt their overall stats.

I am hoping for a big year from Tyler Wells in what ever role he pitches.  

I think Mancini can put up an 860 OPS. That would kind of be a re-breakout for him.

[Frobby]

7 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Other than Rutschman? What do you mean by "breakout player"?

I will go with Urias. If he can just improve incrementally offensively and defensively and maintain over a full season, that's a 5 WAR player. 

Someone who does much better than he’s done previously at the major league level.   So, Rutschman and any other minor leaguers don’t count.   But it could be a bad player suddenly being average, or an average player suddenly being very good.   

Let’s say Mountcastle or Hays has a .900ish OPS season.   That would be a breakout season even though each hit solidly last year.   But on the other hand, let’s say Gutierrez holds down 3B all year and posts a .740ish OPS.   I’d also consider that a breakout.   
 

[waroriole]

I could see Mountcastle avoiding prolonged cold spells, being a little more selective at the pate to get his BB rate up to 9%, and putting up a .900 season. 
 

I expect Adley and Grayson to have strong debuts, so it would be a tough bar to clear for them to have a breakout season. Maybe Stowers comes up and is instantly an .800-.850 hitter. 

[Sports Guy]

I’m not considering the top prospects here.

Im considering MLers that stand to improve.  I like the guys that Frobby picked but I’m going to go with Lopez. I think he shows to be a very solid late inning reliever.

[joelala]

I’ll go Dillon Tate or Urias. 

[CharmCityHokie]

I want to pick Austin Hays, because I think he has the talent to put up big overall numbers, but he plays so hyper that he keeps getting himself hurt. His energy level is just turned up to 11 at all times it seems, someone might want to go through some breathing exercises with him or something.

I think Urias can hit, even if he's run really high BABIP in his short MLB time. Not sure he can play adequately fulltime anywhere but 2B but I could see him having a really strong AVG/OBP year.

I'll go way out on a limb and say that Jacob Nottingham is serviceable with regular at-bats, and anything less than awful would count as a breakout for him. 

[AnythingO's]

I'm asking for a delayed Christmas present and both Mountcastle and Mancini go all Mancini 2019.

[emmett16]

I’m going to go with Keegan Akin.  I think he can go from pretty awful to serviceable.  

[RZNJ]

I'll go with Ryan McKenna.  I don't have much faith it will happen but he did OPS over .900 in Norfolk and no one expects it.

[waynebug]

I think the "real" Santander plays like 2020.  If he can stay healthy.

[wildcard]

8 minutes ago, waynebug said:

I think the "real" Santander plays like 2020.  If he can stay healthy.

I think Santander can be healthy for at least half a season.  At least that is his history.

[connja]

Dean Kramer.  Not sure if this is more think or hope, but he's got the arietta profile to me.

[HowAboutThat]

When I first saw the subject heading I said to myself, “oh brother, another bit of fluff.” But I think it’s an interesting question, I’ve heard some interesting names, but my first impulse was to go with Zimmerman, and I’m gonna stick with Zimmerman.

Urias Would have been my second choice, and I completely agree that he may be the first and only real keeper Mike has gotten so far.