Everybody knows this team cannot contend in 2018. No matter what rosy picture you want to paint about players turning around bad seasons, guys coming back from injuries, or any other fantasies, it won’t happen. And as much as we like to think people in the organization are stupid, they all know it too. Even PGA.
Tomorrow is the draft. There will be interactions with the press where Duquette, or somebody, talks about the new players we got. It is time for whoever is actually running things to set the tone for moving forward. Talking about the drafted players as being part of the future of the Orioles, but also talking about how the rest of this season will be about positioning the Orioles for the future and getting back to contention as soon as possible.
Every move made from here on should be made with that in mind. That means there should be no reoccurence of yesterday, when Dan Duquette confirmed to a reporter that we are interested in Hanley Ramirez. This team has been in a win-now mode for the past 7 years, and some good teams were produced. But the rudder has to be turned, the ship has to be maneuvered towards building for the future and not this year.
Buck has to buy into it too. He has to start talking about the future in his postgame press conferences, about building a group of young players who can learn how to win together. No more talk about how some guys are “struggling”, with the implication being that they will break out of their slumps. Man up, admit that we will not be playing for the postseason this year. That is the first step in giving the players something to play for, an organizational vision that they can work to achieve their place in.
I know people talk about how it’s hard for players to play, and play hard, on a losing team that isn’t going anywhere. And it is. But you know what I think is HARDER? Playing for a losing team that isn’t going anywhere but that is still talking about this season, pretending and acting like they are still contenders. When in their hearts they know it’s all BS. Letting go of that pretension can actually be freeing. Instead of grinding through meaningless loss after meaningless loss, if the organization suddenly is talking about the future, the players who aren’t free agents now can play with a mindset that they need to do what they can to assure they are part of that future. That kind of attitude may make them more willing to listen to coaches, to make major adjustments that they would normally not try in the middle of a season for fear that they would hurt the team if it didn’t work. Right now, they are trudging out there every night trying to climb the impossible mountain, trying to turn around something that is un-turn-aroundable. Pushing a rock up a hill and seeing it fall further back than it was yesterday. Start talking about a vision for the future, and each game is no longer the painful slog that has to be repeated night after night. It is the start of something, something that won’t happen this year, likely won’t happen next year, or even the year after. But there is a goal and the goal is no longer an impossible dream of this team achieving anything. It is a goal that sometime down the line, we will be a winner again, and your only job now is to do what you need to do to be a part of that winner. Who knows, maybe it would even convince Chris Davis to take a few weeks in the minors. (I doubt this, but making him think more about the next 4.5 years instead of just trying to go out there each night and magically turn it around could lead to a willingness to try something different).
And of course the talk has to be backed up with action. Every move from here on should be based on the future of the team. I’m not saying they need to immediately make wholesale cuts of dead wood such as Gentry, Alvarez, Wright, etc (not that I would mind one bit if they did). But when an opportunity to make a move arises, it better be a move that looks to the future. Say no to Hanley Ramirez, say yes to Cedric Mullins.
I actually believe even this year’s team might win more games if the organization sent that message now and lived up to it, instead of trying to act like we just need to get some guys going or add a Hanley Ramirez to “turn this around”. Sometimes you have to let go of the dream before you can start the hard work for the next dream.
