Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Monday, December 26, 2022
I like the moves the Orioles have made. They aren’t big moves but they’re complementary and fit well in their timeline.
With smart management in place in Baltimore, I’d say the Red Sox have the fifth smartest management team in the AL East. That’s not a good situation if you are a Red Sox fan.
jimfurtado
Posted: December 26, 2022 at 11:47 AM | 8 comment(s)
Login to Bookmark
Tags:
orioles
|
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. Walt Davis Posted: December 26, 2022 at 09:46 PM (#6110933)What surprises me is that the Orioles are not trading players away like they were headed by Jerry Dipoto. Objectively, they have / will have a surfeit of talent at certain positions.
Or maybe you mean 1-3 years from now, the O's will have some more hitters developed. Great. The 2023 lineup could really use a big bat in the middle of the lineup not that any are left. I think Voit is still out there, he might be the best option at this point and not very expensive.
Voit isn't the future, he's a 124 career OPS+ bat for 400-500 PAs in 2023. He will make about $7-8 M tops. If you don't want him back for 2024, you non-tender him.
The O's DH is currently non-existent. That's OK, that's true for lots of teams.
The O's starting 1B is Ryan Mountcastle. He had 1.3 WAR in 600 PA last year and 0.9 WAR in 600 PA the year before.
The O's starting LF is Austin Hays, career OPS+ of 104 -- plenty of defense so leave him in LF when he plays
The O's starting RF is Anthony Santander, career OPS+ of 104 -- mediocre defense, he comes out average.
One young corner OF is Kyle Stowers with 98 career PA but a 113 wRC+ projection at fg
Another is Coton Cowser with 124 not very good AAA PA but somehow a 113 wRC+ projection at fg (previous minors numbers solid)
I assume most of the IF time is Frazier, Mateo and Gunnar, leaving Urias and his 109 OPS+ as the backup and possible DH
Of course fg only projects Voit to a 106 wRC+ so it is of course possible he's nearly done and no better a bat than the rest of these guys. So good thing you only want him as a stopgap. He'd be a better fit if he was LHB so he could steal some PAs from Mountcastle and if I could think of a LHB Voit currently available, I'd suggest him. Josh Bell would have been a better fit, Abreu would have been a better fit but I can see why they didn't got that high for Abreu. A healthy Conforto or Brantley obviously would be very nice. They sat on the sideline for those. If Nelson Cruz hadn't flatlined, he'd be perfect.
There's absolutely no reason the O's can't contend in 2023. Winnning fewer games in 2023 doesn't help the 2024-26 O's at all so stop spinning the wheels. To have a serious shot at it, an upgraded offense would help. They should be a bit better from having Gunnar there all year and Frazier almost has to out-hit Odor.** It wasn't a great offseason for cheap, short-term upgrades to offense but it's not like the O's don't have tons of payroll room for some short-term overspends.
**Adley was there for a big chunk, a full year from him likely only helps a small amount.
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main