REALITY: After just finishing their second three-game series in a week, the Blue Jays and Yankees play seven more games against each other.
PERCEPTION: Toronto and New York have played six of their last nine games against each other, with Toronto winning four of the six. They will play each other seven more times in September.
That is good news for the Orioles. The Blue Jays and Yankees just keep beating up on each other, and as the Orioles continue to win, it’s giving the O’s a chance to creep closer to the two teams ahead of them in the AL East.
The Yankees hold a ½ game lead on the Blue Jays, and the Orioles have closed to within four games in the division.
The Orioles face the Blue Jays seven more times this season and the Yankees six more times. That includes closing out the season with seven at home against those two teams.
So anyone saying the Orioles are only fighting for the WildCard is wrong. Yes, the Orioles currently hold the 2nd WildCard spot, but with so many games remaining between the O’s, Yanks, and Jays, the division is wide open. But that also means the Orioles have to take care of business against the Mets, Twins, Rangers, and Rays to close out the month of August.
REALITY: Matt Wieters is a pending free-agent and it’s widely speculated that he will take more money from another team after this season.
PERCEPTION: Caleb Joseph might become a big reason the Birds don’t throw a lot of money at Wieters. Joseph is just as good in some respects as Wieters is, if not a little better.
Since the All-Star break, Joseph is hitting .302 with five HRs, 16 RBIs, and five doubles. The guy keeps making the most of his at-bats as he splits time with Wieters.
The O’s will need to save some money in certain areas this offseason and this is clearly one of those spots. By letting Wieters walk, they will get a draft pick (assuming they extend, and he declines, the qualifying offer) and have Joseph under contract for a lot less money. Plus, Steve Clevenger might prove to be a valuable back-up.
REALITY: Since the All-Star Break, Chris Davis leads all of baseball in Home Runs, RBIs, and Slugging Percentage.
PERCEPTION: Since the break, Davis is hitting .336 with a .796 slugging percentage. Plus, he has 15 HRs, 37 RBIs.
If there is one person the Orioles need to re-sign this offseason, it is Chris Davis. Save money by not re-signing Wieters and spend it all on Davis. If you want to put Clevenger, Paredes, Pearce, Christian Walker, or anyone else at 1B next year, then you can put Davis in the outfield. But you HAVE to sign him. After letting Cruz walk last year, the Orioles cannot afford to let the two guys leading the league in hitting go, two years in a row.
REALITY: Dan Duquette told Season Ticket Holders before Saturday’s game, “We do want to sign some of our key players for the future and Chris Davis is one of them.”
However, Duquette said something very similar last year.
In November 2014, Duquette remained hopeful the O’s could re-sign Nelson Cruz, Nick Markakis and even Andrew Miller. It wasn’t long after that each of those players signed with other teams.
Now, we can say that DD made a real effort to re-sign Markakis, but would not go as long on the length of the contract that Nick wanted, but the Braves did, so he signed away. I think we will see in a couple years that Duquette was correct in not adding that extra year on the contract offer. It may not have felt like it worked this year, but it will work out in the long term.
Miller and Cruz never had a chance to stay in Baltimore, no matter what Duquette may have said or how he felt.
The same could be said for this upcoming offseason. Chen is gone. I see 0% chance he returns to Baltimore. I would also put the chances of Wieters returning at under 15%. Frankly, the chances that Davis returns is probably under 30%, but my hope (as well as that of most of Baltimore) is that Peter Angelos and DD open up the check book and sign him to the richest contract in club history (Adam Jones currently holds that title).
Duquette can say a lot of things… practically anything he wants, but that doesn’t mean those things will happen. The Orioles will have to pay out a ton of money to keep Davis, but he deserves the money. I’m not sure I will believe Crush is back in Baltimore until I actually see him at the press conference announcing the new contract.
