by Tony Pente
You have every right to be a “glass is half empty” guy right now.
Although I do think the system has some interesting prospects, there is no impact player or pitcher right now. Is DL Hall or Grayson Rodriguez potential impact pitchers, sure, but the Orioles don’t exactly have a good record in developing TORs, or #2s, or #3s really.
Diaz, Mountcastle, Hays are guys you can wish upon but outside of that, there are not too many impact-potential prospects. Now that the dust has settled, it appears the Orioles missed an opportunity to get an impact guy for Gausman because they were more concerned about salary relief. While I understand the desire to drop salary while rebuilding, it’s a tough pill to swallow that you couldn’t get any of the top prospects from a deep Atlanta system for two and half years of Gausman?
Diaz and Kremer can make the Machado trade still look good and Villar/Ortiz is an excellent return for a year and half of Schoop.
I’d feel better if the Orioles just ate the contract of Davis (not going to happen), trade Cobb, and non-tendered Beckam (which I think is going to happen) before next year.
The future?
The Orioles need new blood in the leadership chain and that includes a new, young, hungry manager and that will look outside the box similar to what Tampa did.
These are the players that could be part of an interesting team in 2020 or 2021..
1B: Mancini/Mountcastle
2B: Bannon/Wilkerson/Villar could be an option here as he’ll be just 30 in 2020.
SS: Need to acquire unless Grenier can take a big step forward offensively
3B: Need in my book. Nunez has been ok, but he’s a low-end 3B starter in my book and not a guy that should be your everyday 3B on a contending team. Encarnacion is the best prospect here but a long way off and raw.
C- Need. I don’t see an everyday starter in the system right now.
LF: Mullins (I’m moving him here because I’m going to put VVM in CF)/Diaz/Mountcastle/
CF: VVM (If signed)/Mullins
RF: Hays/Diaz
DH: Mountcastle/Mancini
SP: Keegan Akin
SP: Dean Kremer
SP: Dylan Bundy?? Or will he be traded by then?
SP: Zac Lowther/Wells/Ortiz
SP: DL Hall/Grayson/Hanifee/Zimmerman
RP: Tate, Ortiz, Scott, Popp, Carroll, Castro. Baumann, Dietz,
I may have missed a couple guys, and of course a big part of this would be signing VVM.
Is that enough? Obviously the Orioles will get either the overall #1 pick or #2 pick so they should be able to draft an impact player there.
2019 will most likely be a disaster unless new blood finds a way to get a why not type year from a lot of guys. 2020 doesn’t look great, but 2021 could start to get interesting is some of the above guys really pan out.
