Orioles acquire Ryan O’Hearn

[Frobby]

Just now, Ripken said:

No.  No, he doesn't.  He's not even good enough to be the 26th player.  Meanwhile, this tight-ass organization isn't exactly known for spending $1.4M on Norfolkers.  

Like I said, they may not be paying the whole $1.4 mm.   They may have told KC they’d take O’Hearn off their hands if KC kicked in $500 k, or something like that. From KC’s standpoint, that’s better than being on the hook for the whole amount.  However, I’m confused whether either team would have to pay his whole salary if he was cut in spring training.  

[HakunaSakata]

Just now, sportsfan8703 said:

I really think we like the option. If we have an IF/OF/C get banged up for a few days we can option O’Hearn and called up a replacement for the injured player. 
 

Platoons and Flexibilty. 

T-shirt idea (on Oriole orange of course)

Platoons &
Flexibility &
Rule V Players & 
Cash Considerations &
Cheap Ownership.
 

[Orange]

8 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

And for a team like the O's it should be someone still making the ML minimum.

The point is that we’re not just filling out the roster with prospects and has-beens… guys like McCann and whomever wins the 26th roster spot raise the floor better than Chirinos and Odor. A little better anyway.  

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, Orange said:

The point is that we’re not just filling out the roster with prospects and has-beens… guys like McCann and whomever wins the 26th roster spot raise the floor better than Chirinos and Odor. A little better anyway.  

Yes, they are projected to be upgrades over last season.

But why build this deep farm system and then not promote them?

Elias said that he doesn't know what he has in the young players...play them.

[sportsfan8703]

Looking into the move a little deeper… The only FA LH 1B/DH types available were Mike Ford, Greg Bird, Belt, and Hosmer. Hosmer doesn’t want to come here it appears, and we don’t want to pay Belt. Ford and Bird are MILB FA possibilities. 
 

This is just simply get a 1B LH bat. He also has an option. He only costs 700k over the league min as well. 

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, sportsfan8703 said:

Looking into the move a little deeper… The only FA LH 1B/DH types available were Mike Ford, Greg Bird, Belt, and Hosmer. Hosmer doesn’t want to come here it appears, and we don’t want to pay Belt. Ford and Bird are MILB FA possibilities. 
 

This is just simply get a 1B LH bat. He also has an option. He only costs 700k over the league min as well. 

Belt might retire.

[sportsfan8703]

4 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Yes, they are projected to be upgrades over last season.

But why build this deep farm system and then not promote them?

Elias said that he doesn't know what he has in the young players...play them.

This is true. Westburg had 413 PA in AAA last year. It’s looking like to me that we want to go platoon style with our offense. We can start 7 lefties vs RHP, and 8 righties versus LHP. 

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, sportsfan8703 said:

This is true. Westburg had 413 PA in AAA last year. It’s looking like to me that we want to go platoon style with our offense. We can start 7 lefties vs RHP, and 8 righties versus LHP. 

Just get good hitters.

[eddie83]

38 minutes ago, HakunaSakata said:

I mean, just off the top of my head signing Dominic Smith (for just $600K more), making him our permanent DH / back-up first baseman, and then trading Santander for starting pitching would have been a infinitely better move. Smith was a great OBP player in 2019 and 2020 and gambling on a player with at least some glimmer of hope/past success seems like  a much better approach then overpaying an inherently awful player and expecting him to turn into Cinderella. The whole stat guru tag we give Elias doesn't hold much water with me when I see him make a move like this, because there is nothing Ryan O'Hearn's underlying numbers that suggest he should be on a MLB roster, let alone making $1.4M a year.  

I would not trade Santander just to open up a spot for Dom Smith. He can go to Washington and get more at bats there. They are offering what teams like the Orioles offered the last couple of years, an opportunity. Dom Smith is going there hoping to have a big year and make more money next year.  
 

The money concern is nothing. Is twice the league minimum. They aren’t going to be asking much of him. He is a role player.  

[sportsfan8703]

This move is similar to what we did with Benboom, and Jake Cave, and that other C, right when the season ended. We gave then 800K guaranteed salaries, much higher than AAA salaries, in the hopes that we could pass them through waivers because clubs wouldn’t want to pay guys in AAA 800k. It worked for 2/3 of the previous guys. It worked for Steve Pearce back in the day. Let’s see what happens a in ST, but O’Hearn could be optioned to AAA, or he could be DFA’d and clear waivers and be outrighted there. 

[eddie83]

52 minutes ago, emmett16 said:

I think they still acquire another player.  I think Vavra goes to AAA and is depth and woks on his defense.  

At this point I think Vavra is already starting at AAA unless their is an injury. 
 

Maybe they add another MiL deal but nothing of any consequence. 

[spiritof66]

2 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

You better watch out, the Optimists will come after you if you doubt their baseball King. 

Think about this for a bit. 

We left 2022 all exciting, being told we were going on a liftoff from here on out. 

Since then Elias has added one good reliever in Givens, replaced Lyles with Gibson, and now has added Frazier and O'Hearn for a combined $9.4 million. 

Can't make this offseason up.

You left out what may be the highlight of the Orioles' off-season, so far: signing James McCann. 

Does Elias think he's accomplishing something that we're all missing? Does he think the current rotation looks better than the rest of the world thinks? Is he limited by a budget that's tinier than we can imagine? Is he going to make a move in the next month that will help the 2023 Orioles?  

[wildcard]

My guess is that Westburg will out hit and play better defense  at more positions than O'Hearn.

 

[Jammer7]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

A key component in leading the league in pinch hits is not being good enough to start.

I don’t know what to think about this one, honestly. I did not know he existed before this trade. I will say that most guys in today’s game cannot sit for days at a time, and then be effective pinch hitters. 

[interloper]

2 hours ago, RZNJ said:

Well, we have the Sam Houston State connection between O'Hearn and Cowser and O'Hearn rated better sprint speed than Adam Frazier so there's that!   lol

Elias is attempting to get the majority of the Hangout to have a nervous breakdown and it's working.   

I've never seen so many people flip out about depth pieces as I have this off season. It's bizarre. These are pretty standard moves for any team. 

I understand the complaints about not spending on pitchers or a big bat. 

But the only reason people are complaining about this as far as I can tell is the money? Because otherwise this is no different than Diaz, who no one complained about.