So the winter meetings have come to a close, and the Orioles were said to have a lot of interest in a lot of players and moves were going to be made. So let’s take a look at what they did.
At the start of the week, Dan Duquette sat down with the Baltimore media and said the following:
“We’re going to continue working on our ballclub and build our team. We’ll be looking to add additional players to our roster – hopefully a left-handed hitter – this week. We have an opening in left field and also a DH that we’d like to address. And we’d also like to add to our pitching depth and if we could get a quality pitcher or two, that would be terrific.”
Did you catch that? At the start of the Baseball Winter Meetings, Duquette said the Orioles “should be adding more players by the end of the week.”
So they wanted to add players, but did they have the money to do so? Remember, when they traded Jim Johnson, it allowed the O’s to “reallocate their resources.” Duquette said, “We’re going to use it to hire players, and if we were to trade for a player who had a significant salary, some of that resource could go to that. Specifically, we’re going to utilize it to add some depth to our pitching staff. It’s really easy to think about it that way. You take that money and redeploy it to other pitchers.”
So, they wanted to add a number of players and they have the money to do so. Okay… so let’s get going!
*silence*
Oh wait… here we go. The Orioles have interest in Rajai Davis. Oh, okay. He signed with the Tigers. The Orioles like Bartolo Colon… now we are talking. Oh, he signed with the Mets. Okay, we are going to help our bullpen… here we go, we are going to sign Edward Mujica. No? He signed with the Red Sox? Wait, don’t they already have a killer bullpen?
Oh, finally news that the Orioles signed someone! Awesome!! Wait, who? What’s his name? Ryan Webb? Isn’t that the guy that tripped coming off the mound pumping his fist? Oh. Okay, well that’s at least something. Two years, $4.5 million for the 64th best free agent pitcher. Well, he at least has upside… and can make a fall look graceful. And after his twitter Q&A, I have come to like him. Let’s hope he pitches well.
So the Orioles made one move at the Winter Meetings… anything else? Word is they have checked in on Axford, Benoit, Cruz, Choo, Garza, Hammel, Jimenez, Ayala, Burnett, Rodney, and a few others.
But then the discouragement came. Buster Olney of ESPN tweeted “There is a not a lot of expectation here the O’s are going to be a serious option for any pricey player. To repeat, not much money flexibility.”
Say what? Is it just me, or do the Orioles think they are in the NFL and have a salary cap? They traded away Johnson so they would have some money flexibility. Now they don’t have any money? Don’t they know they can spend all of Peter Angelos’ money? There is no salary cap!
The Orioles then made a two-year offer to Grant Balfour, who would be a nice addition to the bullpen. But he has a two-year offer from two other teams and one of those teams is offering a 3rd-year vesting option, which he wants.
So the Winter Meetings are over, and the Orioles got Ryan Webb, and selected 3rd baseman Michael Almanzar in the Rule 5 draft, meaning if they want to keep him, he must stay on the Orioles major league roster the entire season. Oh yea, and they finalized their Jim Johnson trade, as they got a minor league catcher as their PTBNL.
So I guess Duquette technically didn’t “lie” when he said the Orioles would be adding more players by the end of the week… because they did. Just not any of the ones Orioles fans wanted.
Word on the street is that the Orioles were aggressive at the Winter Meetings. But that may indicate a sadder state of affairs. They were aggressive and still got no one. I thought having the last two seasons of quality baseball in Baltimore might change how free agents view Charm City, but evidently it hasn’t. Sources are saying the Orioles are still in discussions with Joaquin Benoit and John Axford. Apparently they have made a few offers to pitchers and position players and are waiting to hear back. Plus, they still have interest in Gavin Floyd and Johan Santana. They have put our feelers to Maryland native AJ Burnett, who is considering retirement.
But the Orioles have lost Jim Johnson, Nate McClouth, Jason Hammel, Francisco Rodriquez, Brian Roberts, and Michael Morse. Buck Showalter wants Brian Roberts back, but Duquette has made no indications that he’ll bring the veteran back.
So Dan Duquette what do you have to say after a poor showing at the Winter Meetings?
“The meetings have been helpful for us to staff our team. We’re going to come out of here with the addition of a pitcher (Webb) and two players we added (in the Rule 5 draft), and then we’re going to continue to work on some of the groundwork we laid on trades. Hopefully, that will bear some fruit with players to bring back to Baltimore… we’ll be able to add a couple more players based on the work we did here in the next week or so.”
Duquette saying “we’ll add a player” is becoming the same thing as when Nick Saban says “I’m not leaving here”. Saban leaves, and Orioles don’t sign a player.
Baltimore loves their Orioles! For the last two seasons, this team has made significant progress. The team sends away the guy with the most saves in baseball over the last two seasons so that they can have the money to spend… SPEND IT. Fans want to see some positive moves to make this team better, because right now, the current roster is worse than the one that took the field in 2013 and missed the playoffs.
So the Winter Meetings were a complete bust for the Orioles. But the off-season is far from over, so let’s hope the Birds can find some diamonds in the rough… because they are going to need to in order to make fans happy and make this team a playoff team once again.
