Position Player Depth Chart for 2024 (Updated post Burnes trade)

[RZNJ]

8 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Impressing the guys at On the Verge isn’t difficult.   

1 

Orioles

SS Joey Ortiz: Ortiz recently made his big-league debut with the Orioles, though he was returned to the minors after only three games. No matter, he earns a spot here because he's posted an average exit velocity of 94.5 mph this season in Triple-A. Ortiz has hit .337/.367/.528 in the minors this season, and he's a well-regarded defender to boot. It's just a matter of time before he finds a full-time spot in the majors.

[Tony-OH]

On 1/14/2024 at 4:54 PM, emmett16 said:

Wow.  Stowers was really slow last year.  Guess I didn’t realize that. 25.8 sprint speed vs. 27.9 (Reimold).  Interestingly he was 27.0 in 2022.  1.2 ft/sec seems like a pretty big drop in one year.  

I wonder if there was something physically wrong with Stowers to start the year last year. He was never that slow in the minors and that initial 27 ish spring speed seemed much more on par than the 25.8 he put up last year. 

The fact that he couldn't hit at all, went back down to the minors, didn't hit much then went on the IL, came back and started hitting together makes it all suspect.

I would not be surprised if he's not one of the guys moved in the Cease deal if it happens. 

I'm hopeful both he and Kjerstad were working on their 1B skills this offseason. 

 

[RZNJ]

1 minute ago, RZNJ said:

1 

Orioles

SS Joey Ortiz: Ortiz recently made his big-league debut with the Orioles, though he was returned to the minors after only three games. No matter, he earns a spot here because he's posted an average exit velocity of 94.5 mph this season in Triple-A. Ortiz has hit .337/.367/.528 in the minors this season, and he's a well-regarded defender to boot. It's just a matter of time before he finds a full-time spot in the majors.

To put that into context, a ML avg exit velocity of 94.5 would have placed him 3rd just ahead of Ohtani and behind Acuña and Judge.

[emmett16]

8 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

I wonder if there was something physically wrong with Stowers to start the year last year. He was never that slow in the minors and that initial 27 ish spring speed seemed much more on par than the 25.8 he put up last year. 

The fact that he couldn't hit at all, went back down to the minors, didn't hit much then went on the IL, came back and started hitting together makes it all suspect.

I would not be surprised if he's not one of the guys moved in the Cease deal if it happens. 

I'm hopeful both he and Kjerstad were working on their 1B skills this offseason. 

 

I wondered the same thing.  He went down with “shoulder inflammation” for a little over a month.  Shoulder injuries can linger and really hamper your swing and zap your power.  He missed ~6weeks.  I think a change of scenery will do him a world of good.  

[Greg Pappas]

Hadn't seen this before, but Fangraphs projects Holliday at SS.  The full projected Depth Chart is listed a bit below the top of the page. Interesting.

[Greg Pappas]

Also, I hadn't noticed this piece by Roch regarding the O's having every intention of  getting Kjerstad playing time in RF, as much as possible. 

Edited January 31 by Greg Pappas

[Greg Pappas]

Updated with the Burnes trade.