I’ve been trying to hold back my disapproval of the Orioles’ offseason thus far. I kept telling myself, “Wait until after the winter meetings are over. See if they make a move then before you scrutinize.” And then after the winter meetings I tried telling myself—for a day or so—to give them some more time; hell, it’s not even Christmas.
But enough is enough.
When I go over to MASN Sports, I should not be reading a blog post from Roch Kubatko asking how the pick of Michael Almanzar in the Rule 5 draft will impact Danny Valencia. I should not be reading a blog post from Steve Melewski inferring that the singles-hitting Henry Urrutia could be the man for the job in left field in 2014.
What I should be reading as we approach the New Year is how the Orioles have filled holes at second, left field, DH and the starting rotation with complementary players that put this team in position to make an October push.
Do I expect the team to shell out $153 million for Jacoby Ellsbury, or $240 million for Robinson Cano? Absolutely not. Those are deals that can, and almost certainly will, come back to bite their respective teams in the butt. And as the 2011 Red Sox, 2012 Angels and Red Sox, and 2013 Angels and Blue Jays can attest, spending the most money in the offseason guarantees absolutely nothing.
But what I do expect is the team to not balk at signing a proven closer like Grant Balfour simply because he wants a third year on his contract. This is a man with a career 3.27 ERA; an ERA that has not gone higher than 2.59 in any of the last four years.
This is a man with 62 saves in 67 opportunities over that last two seasons with an average of 9.8 K/9 IP in his career. Give him a third year and get the deal done. Do not let him sign elsewhere and then try to sell the fan-base on a warehouse discount pitcher like John Axford and his 4.00+ ERA in each of the last two seasons.
To be honest, the fact that team is even looking to fill a hole at closer is absurd. I personally feel that Balfour is an upgrade at the closer position, and for a cheaper price at that. But the team shouldn’t even be trying to fill that hole right now considering they still had a 50-save pitcher under team control for another season (some will disagree with me, but that’s why I write these pieces).
What I also expect is an offer to the likes of Shin-Soo Choo for roughly five years and $75-85 million. A guy who averages 20 home runs a year to go along with his .288 batting average and .389 OBP is certainly worth that money in today’s economy. So put an offer out there and get it done.
Buck Showalter is on record this offseason as basically saying that the Orioles were in the same spot this time of year as the previous two years. Well, in 2012 the Orioles had a magical season, but in 2013, the team’s biggest offseason move was resigning Nate McLouth on their way to losing eight more games than the year before and missing the playoffs. So forgive us, Buck, for not taking solace in that.
Look, as I said earlier, it’s not even Christmas yet. We could wake up tomorrow and see that O’s have signed Balfour to close, Choo to play left, traded for Brandon Phillips to play second, signed Nelson Cruz to DH and added a savvy veteran like A.J. Burnett to follow Tillman in the rotation and all would be right in Birdland. But that fact remains that none of those moves seem to be forthcoming and a fan base that is not too far removed from 14 straight losing seasons is growing more and more restless by the day.
So Dan Duquette and Peter Angelos, I implore you: Please open your wallet and do something. Don’t make a move just to make a move, but please make the obvious moves to make this team better. The Baltimore Orioles franchise deserves it, and more importantly, the fans deserve it.
7 Responses
You’re dumb if you think Choo is going to accept an $75-$85 million dollar deal,
he and Boras want at least $140 million. You’re right about everything else but way
off base when it comes to Choo’s price range.
I know how much Choo is asking for. He’s nuts if he thinks he’s going to get it. I’m hoping that he just lowers his demands. Either way, he’s not going to be playing in Baltimore this season unless it’s in a visitors uniform.
On behalf of all Orioles fans, WELL SAID!
This Orioles fan isn’t frustrated, everything shakes out eventually, have patience.
HAVE PATIENCE? We,ve been patient for the last 20 yrs and what have we got to show for it. The only fans that say have patience are the ones who became fans during 2012!! WAKE UP AND SMELL THE STENCH, the O’s are bargain basement shoppers who hope to catch lightning in a bottle and look like a genius. Get the blinders off and see reality, the O’s are going nowhere with PA as the owner.
Is this a joke?
yep, Choo, 7 years 130 million to Texas. That means we would’ve needed to significantly beat that offer for him to come here. We have some great armchair GM’s here, who know nothing about contracts and the market value of a player. Look on the bright side, you were only $55 million off.