Competitive window vs perennial contender

[Ohfan67]

7 hours ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

I think part of being a perennial contender for a team with limited revenue like the O's is trading players like Mullins before they become free agents.  It will definitely cause some short term pain/unhappiness, but I think most of us would prefer that approach to having to go through another 2018-2021 stretch.

Tampa, Oakland and the like often trade players even better than Mullins. The Orioles will need to be ready to deal someone like Adley when he still has team control left if they can't or won't sign him to a long term deal. I think that's the biggest difference between perennial and and fire sales after a team "goes for it". The perennial teams look further ahead, make painful trades even when the team is still playing well, etc. I don't think the payrolls of the perennial teams fluctuate as wildly as the payrolls of the "competitive window" teams.