The Baltimore Orioles and Dan Duquette’s Failed Offseason
By Nate Wardle
Jun 15, 2015; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles left fielder Travis Snider (23) doubles during the fifth inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
The Baltimore Orioles made a somewhat surprising move on Friday afternoon, designating Travis Snider for assignment and promoting newly acquired Junior Lake from AAA Norfolk.
It is unfortunate it ended this way. Snider was acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates for Stephen Tarpley and Steven Brault, two minor league pitchers.
Snider was under team control for another year, but he never made it there. That means that both of the team’s starting corner outfielders are now gone.
But, what is more shocking is the number of offseason acquisitions that Dan Duquette made that are still with the major league team.
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First, the players not re-signed…Nelson Cruz is enjoying a fantastic season in Seattle, Andrew Miller is one of the best closers in the game, and Nick Markakis is hitting around .300, as he has for much of the year. An outfield of he and Cruz would look awfully good right now.
Jason Garcia was chosen in the Rule 5 draft, he is still in the majors, as discussed here. Logan Verrett was also chosen; he is back with the New York Mets.
Chaz Roe was signed on December 12, a move that made little noise at the time, but has turned out to be a very good move for the Orioles.
Wesley Wright was signed to be another left-handed reliever on December 19. He struggled a little, got injured and is now no longer with the team.
Ryan Lavarnway was signed off waivers; he was pretty bad with the Birds and is now the backup catcher in Atlanta.
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J.P. Arencibia was also brought in for catching depth; he didn’t make it out of Spring Training with the club, and never played in an Orioles uniform.
On January 9, the team re-signed Delmon Young. Delmon is no longer with the team and is a free agent, after struggling a little bit and not having a spot on the team with Jimmy Paredes as the semi-regular DH.
Chris Parmelee was signed on January 26. He was in the majors for an extended period and looked great defensively, but couldn’t hit the ball. He is gone.
Nolan Reimold was re-signed to start February. Reimold is in the majors, but not exactly hitting the cover off the ball.
February 25, the team signed Everth Cabrera, which ended up being a good move with J.J. Hardy not healthy to start the year. But he struggled at the plate as well, and he is now in San Francisco’s farm system.
As you can see, it wasn’t a very good offseason. In losing two corner outfielders, the O’s tried several pieces to replace them, and it didn’t work.
The only players signed in the offseason currently on the 25-man roster are Roe, Garcia and Reimold.
It is a testament to the ability of the rest of the O’s that this team is still in playoff contention despite all these swings and misses. However, it also hopefully shows why re-signing Chris Davis is a very important task for Dan Duquette.