Baltimore Orioles: The Best News of Today

Aug 7, 2015; Detroit, MI, USA; Baseball on the pitchers mound before the game between the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

The Baltimore Orioles might still be interested in an additional bullpen arm, and one of the very best is very, very available.

Yes, indeed. How would these numbers look in the Baltimore Orioles bullpen?

His combined record over the past four seasons is 16-13. With an ERA of 2.38, this right-handed reliever also has a WHIP of 1.029. All of this has been done over 266 innings of pitching.

Comparing these numbers to Darren O’Day over the same period of time: The Orioles right-hander has a record of 23-8, ERA of 1.92, WHIP of 0.939 in 263 innings pitched.

So without doubt, O’Day has the better numbers and performance, but not by a terribly significant difference.

Another good thing about getting this pitcher is that the team from who he would come would also have to eat a lot of his salary. This is a team that the Orioles would actually take great pleasure is seeing have to pay for a player to be in Baltimore.

However, here is an issue that would prevent this from happening. This player has included the Baltimore Orioles on the list of teams to which he cannot be traded without consent.

But here is the good news:  This is a list on which any team would (or should) be honored to be included.

This (probably not) mystery player is of course the one and only Jonathan Papelbon. In a report today, the Orioles are among those he has listed as no-trade teams.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/12/details-on-jonathan-papelbons-current-no-trade-list.html

Those who have followed this blog know that I have written often of being a Baltimore Orioles fan for over 50 years. There is practically nothing that can shake that. But, if the Orioles were to somehow end up with pucker-face, that allegiance would be severely tested.

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So on a day when little else is happening or being reported of tremendous interest for the Orioles, this surely qualifies as very good news. I suspect I am far from alone in this opinion — one which I have held for many years. It has nothing to do with the Harper event. That silliness simply verified what was already known about this player’s character.

I did call him — up there in the first sentence — one of the very best. It unfortunately has been true. Quoting the final line of the MLBTR article, it says that Papelbon is able “to produce quality results and represents a fair value from a pure baseball perspective.”

That final phrase is what you would call a “qualifier” relative to the facts.