Who begins the season as our "regular" 2B?

[TommyPickles]

@Tony-OH

I'm a big Urias fan, so there's some bias here.

But I think he still has a role on the 2024 team. He could be in the opening-day infield and later transition to a strong defensive bench player who can play three infield positions and hit righties above league average.

Even with the injuries, Fielding Bible rated him as our fourth-best defender last season. The only infielder with a higher DRS was Gunnar.

Urias has been worth 5.4 rWAR over the past two seasons. That's more than Mountcastle (3.4), Mateo (4.2), Hays (4.7), or Santander (5.1). 

Do I think he's more important than all of those guys? No. But I think he's a high-floor, versatile veteran that could benefit this young team. Plus Hyde likes shifting the lineups a lot and his platoon splits are the opposite of Westburg and Ortiz's. 

Edited January 4 by TommyPickles

[emmett16]

Holliday is gonna be a fixture at 2B and win the ROY.  

[Orange]

Ortiz was truly exceptional last year. He's the whole package and the only guy that I would slot in at SS ahead of Gunnar. And he's ready. I'd like to see Ortiz at SS, Gunnar at 3B, and Westburg at 2B to start the year with Holliday bumping him to Util once we are assured the extra year of team control.

This also means we begin the year with Urias in the Util slot and ship him away when Holliday is ready. It further means that we would likely have a disgruntled Norby in Norfolk (he had a franchise record 164 hits there last year - nothing more to prove in the minors) unless we can use him as a piece to get Luzardo/Cease.

Further furthermore, all of this also means that we give Jorge Mateo a full-time tryout as the part-time RH CF only. (I believe we'll bring in a couple more RH CFers to compete with Mateo and McKenna... We'll treat it like last year's part-time LH 1B, which worked out pretty well with O'Hearn. It'd be nice to replicate that at RH CF.) He's gonna make $2.7m this year so I'd say they want him to grab that role. If he doesn't grab it, we may have trouble unloading him during ST at that price even with the likely return to SS for his new team. (Something to watch.)

[Three Run Homer]

5 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Is Mayo underrated now?  All of this Holliday talk, which is warranted, but what about Mayo being the 3rd basemen and Westburg being at 2B?

With the makeup of our roster now, Holliday and Mayo are going to play a ton of ST games. Probably our starters for all of our road games.

I know we have a wall out there in LF, but Mayo is just about “ready” too. 

I would be happy if the O's used Mountcastle as the main chip to get a good starting pitcher.  Mayo could step in at 1B/DH and replace Mountcastle's production.  But I can see the argument for giving Mayo more time at Norfolk to work on his defense at 3B and/or RF (where his arm would be an asset).  

[RZNJ]

Some nice defensive highlights at all 3 spots but particularly at 3rd.