The Winter Meetings begin on Monday, and the Orioles have plenty to do. After they failed to sign Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis, along with the pending departure of Andrew Miller, three huge contributors to the success of their 2014 season are now gone. Dan Duquette, Buck Showalter and company will have a lot of work to do this upcoming week. However, many people are forgetting the fact that the O’s did lock up shortstop J.J. Hardy, a player many feared would jump ship and sign with the New York Yankees to replace Derek Jeter. When prioritizing the free agent list, Hardy was number one and the Orioles were able to come to a long-term agreement with the shortstop.
It is also nice that, for the first time in I don’t know how many years, the Orioles will not be connected to every starting pitching rumor and in the end, fail to sign any of them. I can’t believe I am about to say this, but the O’s have a surplus of starters and that is why there have already been rumors about trying to trade Ubaldo Jimenez and Bud Norris.
Here are some of the big issues Duquette will be looking at this week when the Orioles brass is in beautiful San Diego.
Outfield Depth
What they have:
Duquette tendered a contract to Alejandro De Aza and the late-season addition will more than likely be starting alongside Adam Jones in 2015. De Aza surprised a lot of fans with how well he played when he was traded over from the Chicago White Sox. One of Duquette’s justifications for letting Markakis walk is De Aza’s skill sets are similar to Markakis. Not sure if I fully agree with that, but De Aza does provide much needed speed on the base paths.
David Lough will continue to be a solid 4th outfielder for the O’s and the last couple of months of the season he showed what kind of player the Orioles thought they were getting when they traded for him last offseason. The Orioles have to expect Steve Pearce to regress more to the player he has always been, but he still remains a solid option in the outfield, but should see the majority of his playing time as the designated hitter.
The moves they could make:
The Orioles have been linked to Atlanta Braves outfielder Justin Upton and Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp. Kemp is more long-term with a lot of money attached to him and has been injured in recent seasons, but did stay healthy in 2014. The Orioles would only be committed to Upton for this upcoming season. It appears both teams would like to unload these guys so the Orioles would probably be able to hold on to their top prospects.
Also, the O’s are very high on minor leaguers Dariel Alvarez and Mike Yastrzemski, so they would look to avoid acquiring a player for many years. The success of Alvarez and Yastrzemski in the minors along with their ages (Alvarez – 26, Yastrzemski – 24) makes their likely arrivals in Baltimore sooner than later. I would lean towards Upton if I had to choose, due to his age, length of contract, money owed, and durability. Melky Cabrera is an option as well, but I’m not sure how serious the O’s are about acquiring the outfielder.
Other options include re-signing Delmon Young or giving Michael Morse another look after he failed to make an impact in his first stint in Baltimore. This limits Showalter’s roster flexibility as both guys are tough to watch play in the field – to put it nicely – and I would much rather have Pearce be the guy who can DH, roam the OF, and fill in at first base.
Relief Pitching
Duquette has said that he would like add more relief pitching, particularly a left-hander for the backend. One would argue that they had a guy just like that and he was a huge reason the Orioles made it to the ALCS. However, as we saw with Jim Johnson last year and now with Andrew Miller, Duquette won’t use a lot of their budget on relievers. I am a big proponent of not spending money on a bullpen and instead, using former failed starters to form the core of a bullpen. The O’s have that with Zach Britton, Tommy Hunter, and Brian Matusz. We saw it this postseason with the Kansas City Royals as Wade Davis dominated as a set-up guy, but was an average starting pitcher when he was with the Tampa Bay Rays.
If the O’s make any deal this week, I would say it will be acquiring a couple of pitchers for the bullpen.
Backup Catcher
This is a head-scratcher and the only reason I have it listed is because Duquette specifically mentioned this at his Q&A session at the Babe Ruth Museum benefit on Thursday. Nick Hundley is a free agent and looking to start which I have no problem with, but is Duquette forgetting about Caleb Joseph? You want your backup catcher to be a guy who plays great defense, calls a great game, and has pop. Joseph checks off on every one of them. Not sure what it accomplishes for him to go back to Triple-A. Joseph proved last year he probably shouldn’t be an everyday catcher, but guess what, Matt Wieters is on the team and all signs point to him being ready by spring training.
We will see how serious the O’s are about this in the coming weeks.
