This is a project where 30 people got together to act as the GMs of the 30 MLB teams with the idea of conducting the offseason in one week. This is what happened in this simulation, not a prediction of what will happen in real life.
By Greg Jarvis
Losses:
J.J. Hardy – FA
Chris Tillman – FA
Seth Smith – FA
Hyun-soo Kim – FA
Ryan Flaherty – FA
Ubaldo Jimenez – FA
Additions:
Yu Darvish – FA
It was a fairly quiet offseason for the Orioles as they focused on shoring up their existing players and strengthening their starting pitching for the 2018 season. It saw them cut ties with long time Orioles J.J. Hardy and Chris Tillman to make way for the youth.
The Orioles had a strong core of young players making contributions in 2017 with Trey Mancini and Jonathan Schoop cementing themselves into the lineup. Zach Britton and Darren O’Day return to secure late innings for the Orioles. A young pitching staff moves up to join the only free agent acquired in staring pitcher Yu Darvish. The cap numbers on the Orioles only allowed them to get one front line starter for 2018 and will have to rely on the young guns pulling their weight enough to keep up with the Orioles potent offense.
The 2019 Orioles are likely to look much different with many players hitting the free agent market and only $43 million dollars committed.
| Pos’n | 2018 | |
|---|---|---|
| Davis, Chris | 1b | $21.119 |
| Jones, Adam | cf | $17.333 |
| Beckham, Tim | if | $3.100 |
| Trumbo, Mark | dh-rf | $12.500 |
| Machado, Manny | 3b | $17.300 |
| Britton, Zach | lhp-c | $12.200 |
| O’Day, Darren | rhp | $9.000 |
| Castillo, Welington | c | $7.000 |
| Schoop, Jonathan | 2b-3b | $9.100 |
| Gausman, Kevin | rhp-s | $6.800 |
| Brach, Brad | rhp | $5.200 |
| Bundy, Dylan | rhp-s | $1.800 |
| Nuno, Vidal | lhp | $1.300 |
| Joseph, Caleb | c | $1.400 |
| Givens, Mychal | rhp | $0.800 |
| Wilson, Tyler | rhp | $0.800 |
| Rickard, Joey | of | $0.800 |
| Hart, Donnie | lhp | $0.800 |
| Drake, Oliver | lhp | $0.800 |
| Mancini, Trey | 1b | $0.900 |
| Santander, Anthony | of | $0.800 |
| Darvish, Yu | rhp | $26.200 |
| Alvarez, Dariel | of | $0.555 |
| Asher, Alec | rhp-s | $0.555 |
| Wright, Mike | rhp | $0.555 |
| TOTAL – BAL | $158.717 | |
| $160.000 |
They didn’t do a lot but I liked the Yu Darvish signing and felt that they got him at the right price. I think the failure of this plan is it only accounts for 2018 and ignores the implications of 2019 and beyond. The Orioles will still have issues catching the Yankees and after 2018 I think it only gets worse.
I wonder if more should have been done to ensure 2018 was a success in advance of the expected departures.
I feel like the Orioles right now are in an almost impossible situation – unlikely to seriously compete for a World Series and too good to just dismantle.
Did you give any thought to trying to sell Britton, Jones or Machado?
Yes, they are squeezed in that area of do we blow the team up or add pieces. I think its worth going with the same crew for one more year. I didn’t give a lot of thought of trying to sell them right now. If no hopes to resign for next year, will definitely try and sell off once out of 2018 playoff contention.