The Baltimore Orioles hardly made any big offseason transactions, after losing Nick Markakis and Nelson Cruz in free agency, so that raises the question of why no big acquisitions to fill those two holes. The Orioles are middle of the road in MLB payrolls, so one would think that they could offer a big contract to a player to replace two stars, but the O’s have never been the type of team to spend money like the Yankees or Dodgers would. Baltimore, especially the last 4 years or so, have not had a reason to spend big, due to having a brilliant manager in Buck Showalter, who can win with any roster. So, with that in mind, the O’s GM must have believed that Showalter can be a magician again with a less talented roster, along with having faith in their best players staying healthy.
Without Matt Wieters, Manny Machado, and Chris Davis in the lineup, the O’s are not very deep. They may have a 25-man roster, but the guys on the bench are a bunch of no bodies. In 2014, despite Showalter performing his magical roster shuffle on the way to 96 wins, the AL East wasn’t that competitive, as the Yankees along with the Sox also had many injuries, while Tampa and Toronto lacked either pitching or offense, so it wasn’t a surprise that the best manager in the division was able to capture first place. 2015 will be a whole lot tougher though for the Orioles, as the Red Sox as well as the Blue Jays have revamped, and the Yankees are getting a lot healthier. Borrowing the risk of replay of injuries, the Jays, Yanks, and Sox all present staggering lineups, so if the O’s same top three players go down again, then a playoff race will not be likely for them.
Matt Wieters is a former #1 prospect with 2 gold gloves so far in his short career. Despite O’s pitching being near the top of the AL last season, with Matt behind the plate, the pitching would just be lethal, as Wieters is a defensive phoneme. Across from him at the hot corner is Manny Machado.
He is basically the spitting image of Brooks Robinson, as well with his bat. Brooks pretty much batted .272 with 10-20 homers, 80-90 RBI’s, and 165-180 hits a season, which is close to what the numbers Machado put up in his first full season in 2013. The man that Manny throws to across the diamond is a player that ruined Miguel Cabrera’s run at two straight triple crowns in 2013. Despite being caught with performing enhancing drugs, Chris Davis is still a player to hit 30+ bombs and over 100 RBI’s, along with a decent glove that produces a range factor (how well the player moves to get to the ball) above league average. So, without these 3 stars, shortstop, JJ Hardy, and five-tool centerfielder, Adam Jones, would have to carry the team all by themselves with Buck Showalter at the helm. Their brilliant manager might have been able to navigate his way through a somewhat interesting group of backups in 2014 to a division crown, but 2015 will feature some loaded teams that will give the O’s hell without the three headed monster covering the infield. And so far this Spring Training, Davis is hitting well, along with Machado, but Wieters is still having trouble with his arm, so Orioles fans need to cross their fingers.
