Baltimore Orioles: A New Year with Healthy Players?
After multiple years of dealing with multiple injuries, could the Baltimore Orioles be entering a new time of a healthy roster of players?
It has not been quite as bad as the Baltimore Ravens in terms of injuries, but the O’s have had an unusual number of personnel dealing with myriad problems over the past several years.
The list is quite impressive and long, and we are sure to leave out many. Consider the issues dating back even to Brian Roberts, who never really did overcome a variety of problems, some self-induced.
It even extended to the modern ironman Nick Markakis. Not only did the chubby blob from the Yanks “accidentally” hit him and fracture a thumb in September of 2012, Nick earlier missed time on the DL after surgery to remove part of a hamate bone in his wrist. Problems related to this followed him into the 2013 season, and Markakis was not really himself again until 2014.
Nolan Reimold is often seen by Orioles fans as the poster child for injuries. Though unfairly criticized in my estimation (as several injuries happened while trying to make plays), indeed, the list of issues are too numerous to go into at this point.
Something else that is unfair is the disregard given the Orioles’ minor league system by baseball analysts near and far. Of course, contributing to this is that Dylan Bundy has pitched but a total of 63 innings since the 2013 season, having had Tommy John surgery. Beyond that, Hunter Harvey has been on the suffering list several times and has not pitched in a professional game since July of 2014.
Knocking out a full one-half of two separate seasons were the unfortunate knee injuries and surgeries for Manny Machado. After a 162-game season by the Orioles’ third baseman, that now feels like a long time ago. However, it was only just this time in 2015 that endless questioning was directed toward him about his viability for opening the season in Baltimore.
Ligament reconstruction surgery is for pitchers, right? Well, for the Orioles it was Matt Wieters on the receiving end of this. It eliminated about 80% of the 2014 season, and 2015 was entirely still a year in recovery mode.
Jonathan Schoop has dealt with a couple of besetting issues. J.J. Hardy often limped around over the past two seasons with the look of a man 20 years older. Even Adam Jones was afflicted with bangs and bruises that sat him on the pine for an unprecedented number of games.
The list goes on and on. Chris Tillman and Miguel Gonzalez were well short of 100% in 2015, as was Steve Pearce at times. The same was true of Kevin Gausman and Jason Garcia. Sickness wiped out Bud Norris. You get the picture, and we could name more.
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The Orioles and their manager don’t like to talk much about injuries, feeling it comes off as sounding like an excuse. I get that. As Buck says, it is not like other teams don’t have seasons of the same thing happening to them. The Yankees and Rays could put together a similar litany of medical conditions within their rosters.
So, yes, it is part of the sport. Injuries are going to happen. But even as the percentages and numbers of such were honestly well above average for the Orioles over the past handful of years, right now the overall health report for the team involves a truly remarkably empty list of problems.
The only name actually on the list at this point is non-roster invitee and left-hander Jeff Beliveau. He is still working his way back to from labrum surgery last April. The pace will be slow at the beginning. But really, the O’s were not counting on him to be a difference-maker toward reclaiming the AL East title.
The same measured process will also accompany Bundy, who has to be on the team, but whose innings are likely to be spent sparingly like someone given a $20 gift certificate for an expensive restaurant. It might be good for an appetizer and dessert — some relief innings, but not as a main course starter.
But everyone else destined for the 25-man opening day roster is a full-go at this point. That has not been true of any opening of spring training in recent memory. This could be a difference-maker for the Orioles.
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There will be injuries; there will be players who go to the Disabled List for a time. But it is going to take quite an outbreak of health performance issues to equal anything from the past five years. Could this finally give the Orioles an edge in the crowded AL East field of 2016?