Objectively, the Baltimore Orioles are one of the best teams in baseball. They have won 101 games in 2023 and 91 games in 2024, and their combined 192 wins from 2023 to 2024 place them third in baseball behind the Dodgers (198) and Braves (193). FanGraphs Projections Rank the O’s Among the Five Best Teams in Baseballessentially on par with Steve Cohen’s big-spending Mets.
So why do they feel so disappointed?
Early Saturday morning, the Orioles lost ace Corbin Burnes to free agency. To the Diamondbacks, in particular. Arizona gave Burnes a six-year, $210 million contract with an option to opt out after the second year.. The O’s would be wise to keep Burnes, who pitched 194 1/3 innings with a 2.92 ERA and finished fifth in Cy Young voting in his lone season in Baltimore, but that obviously didn’t pan out. product.
With Burnes now a D-back, Baltimore’s rotation depth chart currently looks like this:
- RHP Zach Eflin
- RHP Grayson Rodriguez
RHP Kyle Bradish(he will miss most or all of 2025 with Tommy John surgery)- RHP Dean Kremer
- RHP Tomoyuki Sugano
- LHP Trevor Rogers
- RHP Albert Suárez
Once again, disappointing. I would go even further and say that you need to do better than that if your goal is to win the World Series. General manager Mike Elias must do better in creating a rotation capable of supporting a roster full of young talent. The new owner, David Rubenstein, needs to invest better in his team. Baltimore’s estimated payroll for 2025 ranks 18th in baseball. Why so low?
Earlier this month, Ben Palmer of Pitcher List reported that Rubenstein gave Elias the green light to spendbut Elias does not want to. From what I’ve read, the general manager is falling to the sword of an owner who doesn’t really want to spend. The alternative is that Rubenstein is beyond reproach and unwilling to take charge of the team he owns. The owner wants to spend but the big bad general manager won’t let him 😕.
To be fair to the Orioles, they only made the Burnes trade on February 1st last offseason, so there’s plenty of time between now and spring training to do something that really shakes things up. things. This is, however, a very passive approach to team building. The O’s went through an ugly rebuild and came out the other side with a boatload of young position players, but are shy in the pitching market.
I get it: Pitchers break, and modern pitch design and analysis allows teams to find quality weapons almost anywhere. On waivers, in minor league free agency, in the late rounds of the draft, etc. Why invest $210 million in Burnes’ 30-35 seasons and take on all that risk when you can dig up a Suárez or trade for a lower price. Employee Eflin and coach them?
The reason is that good players win games and championships, not good value. There is also a social contract here. Fans remain loyal to the team throughout the rebuild because the promise is that the team will do its best to win a championship down the road. Are Elias, Rubenstein and O’s going all out to win a title? They don’t have an 18th-ranked payroll and that turnover.
The Orioles have been one of the best teams in baseball over the past two years and I expect them to be one of the best teams in baseball again next year. But as good as they could be? No, probably not, barring a surprise addition to the rotation. I mean, forget Burnes. Why didn’t the O’s know about Juan Soto? It fits perfectly within their contention window, but there apparently hasn’t been any interest.
At some point, the Orioles need to put their foot on the gas. The AL is the leanest it’s been in a long time – Burnes is just the latest high-end player to leave the AL for the NL – and that should be an invitation to go for it, not hold back and capitalize on things that happen. your way. The O’s are very good, but a disappointing winter so far doesn’t make them as good as they could be.
