The Orioles Aren’t Good… But They Are Interesting

“Throwing another average pitcher into the mix deepens a rotation that still needs significant help. Add Rodriguez and Kremer to a hopefully recovering John Means, Drew Rom, and with a little luck in DL Hall’s development, Baltimore suddenly has a usable rotation, one close enough to supporting a wild card contender that it suddenly becomes a good time to look seriously at free-agent pitchers to fill it out.

Of the top 15 O’s prospects in our preseason rankings, only a single player, Kyle Bradish, has seen his career WAR projection go down in ZiPS. That’s progress.

A lot of things can happen between now and contention. You don’t have to travel far from Baltimore to see cautionary tales in the 2010s Phillies and Pirates. The former did a lot well during the rebuild, but a lot of the team’s prospects just didn’t work out, leaving it with a performance gap to fill in free agency that it has never quite closed. The latter rebuilt well, but when it came time for ownership to make good on their promises and invest in the team at the top of the success cycle, the wallet stayed shut. As for the O’s, the franchise is currently embroiled in a vicious custody battle between Peter Angelos’ sons John and Louis, and the long-running dispute between the Orioles and Nats over MASN profits is still not resolved. There are a lot of things that can prevent Baltimore from making the division a five-team race again. But for now, the Orioles are worth watching, and hope is not merely an ironic joke.