Baltimore Orioles Roster Reveals It’s A New Day
Mar 31, 2014; Baltimore, MD, USA; General view of Opening Day logo on the field before an opening day game between the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports
The roster of the Baltimore Orioles and the way that it has been put together over the past several years reveals a new day and era for the organization.
Some may call this the “win now window,” and it certainly involves that. But the roster is being built for more than simply that. If it was the singular in focus of merely winning right now, the Orioles could spend now on critical big-ticket free agents and then save money in next two to four years – by letting all pending free agents walk away and rebuild from within.
The better way to see this is as a fashioning of a plan to sustain winning, having done so over the past three seasons. It is a matter of wisely, judiciously and cost-effectively building a sufficient roster to compete, with a view toward perhaps supplementing the roster late in the season when a go-for-it-all opportunity is clearly present (as in adding Andrew Miller in 2014).
Nothing helps an organization have the resources to sustain winning quite like possessing a quality farm system with valuable assets that can be used to bring returns of a critical nature. The Baltimore Orioles have not been known for such over the past decade plus … until recently again.
As others have noted, it was the trade of prospects Josh Hader and L.J. Hoes that brought Bud Norris into the black and orange uniforms, while the trade of Eduardo Rodriguez secured Andrew Miller, and now Stephen Tarpley has returned Travis Snider. Winning organizations do this sort of thing. It’s a new day – both to have prospects, and to trade them away for value.
The value versus cost of these trades are not often known until some years have passed. Illustration “A” of this – where the Orioles were working from the opposite end of the win/lose spectrum – is the trade of Eric Bedard that returned Adam Jones and Chris Tillman (and others). Losing teams make these trades in full-out rebuilding mode and hope they pay off.
Another evidence of the times having changed is the nature of the Orioles 40-man roster and the difficulties and complications it presents in keeping top talent and backup resources in the organization. Varied mechanisms are in place in MLB to assure that no single franchise is able to hoard talent indefinitely by stockpiling high-level players who are perpetually blocked by the unusual depth of one team. Hence there are mechanisms like declining periods of options, passing players through waivers, Rule 5 Drafts and these sorts of systems.
So now, when looking at the Orioles and considering who will comprise the 25-man roster as a new season approaches, it is no longer a matter of viewing a snacks cupboard with empty shelves. Rather, it is a cupboard where the contents come falling out upon you when you open the door. Do you want a salty snack, sweets, something to heat up or mix with some ingredients in the fridge? There are lots of options.
To tease out the illustration, I understand that some folks would critically look at the O’s cupboard and say, “Sure, there’s lots of stuff in there… stuff that DD bought on clearance at the local Bent and Dent Discount Store … but nothing of real value or interest as are in the snack cupboards in places like Toronto, New York and Boston … where they go shopping at a legit supermarket.” And another chimes in, “Not only that, several of my favorite treats are gone, especially some ‘kakes’ I particularly loved.”
And I get that. I think the losses are overblown, as I’ve written about extensively over this entire offseason. And to paraphrase Buck Showalter, “I like the snacks in our closet; I’m not looking in other peoples’ cupboards and desiring their snacks.”
I suppose we could see some sort of trades or signings yet to come before spring training. Perhaps Brian Matusz or something of that sort. But probably the shelves of the cupboard are pretty much loaded with what will be comprising the roster for the start of the season. And our remaining time will be speculating and commenting upon how the Orioles are going to fit only 25 names into it by opening day. At this point that appears to be quite a conundrum.