The Orioles will have a pair of fresh faces up the middle this season with free agent additions Freddy Galvis and Yolmer Sánchez. Sánchez is a Gold Glove winner at second, but he’ll be pushed for playing time by the newly-acquired Jahmai Jones. Jones will work out in the outfield as well, but the Orioles view him as a second baseman, per Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. It was a bit surprising to see the Orioles net the former second round pick in exchange for Alex Cobb, as the former Angels farmhand was the top prospect in LA’s system as recently as 2017, per Baseball America. He was the 89th ranked prospect in all of baseball before the 2018 season.
On the pitching side, Baltimore made positive strides in 2020, finishing in the upper half of the league by fWAR and around the middle of the pack by measure of ERA (16th) and xFIP (18th). The struggle to allot rotation minutes remains a focal point, however. Bruce Zimmermann, for instance, hopes to make the rotation after seven debut innings in 2020. If Zimmerman doesn’t make the rotation, he could wind up in the pen as a bulk innings relievers, tweets Kubatko.
The same goes for César Valdez, notes Kukatko. Manager Brandon Hyde suggested that Valdez would be used in a number of different roles, but they will work to stretch him out in the spring in preparation for multi-inning stints and potentially turns in the rotation. The 35-year-old Valdez made nine appearances for the O’s in 2020 with a 1.26 ERA/2.14 FIP across 14 1/3 innings. It was Valdez’s first appearance in the bigs since 2017 and only his third stint since initially debuting with the Diamondbacks in 2010.
Same number of comments here as this team’s playoff odds according to FanGraphs until now
I see four comments, not ZERO!
THERE! ARE! FOUR! COMMENTS!
Well done Picard.
Does that mean if more people respond on this article, the chances of the Orioles making the playoffs keep going up?
It couldn’t hurt their chances.
alex cobb? why? what did perry minasian see in him?
i don’t know but i don’t care i’d gladly take Jahmai over Cobb
He saw that the Orioles would pay the majority of his salary
Cobb is a serviceable 4th or 5th starter on a lot of staffs. As long as you’re not expecting him to be a TOR arm, he’s fine.
Now I’m not exactly sure he’s what the LAA need? I don’t watch any of them, but it just seems like they could use more of a frontline guy. I guess they didn’t see one to be had?
The Angels need a clue. They are… clueless.
he is at best 5 in 6 men rotation. if he is a 6 in angels rotation they may lose some pitchers without options. and they are more likely better than cobb though with less experience.
Vizionaire, it isn’t just Jones. It means the Angels didn’t get a better starter or the Angels didn’t allow Barria to take that lost spot which frees up a spot in the bullpen which would allow the Angels to get a more reliable reliever.
I was hoping Perry would turn into Agent P, but he turned into Perry the Platypus.
Because he doesn’t do much?
Brook Fordyce rookie?
If the O’s hit on one or two of the vets brought in to camp to help the pitching they may not be that bad. We know they can score runs. The question is will we Rutschman in ’21 or ’22?
The King will anchor the Orioles rotation…
Who wants to talk Shane Bieber and COVID on this thread
No one.
what would there be to talk that’s actually constructive.
Darkside. Information. Two people down the street caught COVID last week. They are both in their 70s. We will see how that goes.
Right now with the press being what it is, it’s like we are getting our beach safety news by watching shark week. This helps us get news to each other, but it turns political and then we talk at each other instead of to each other.
Well done!
I do!!! Sounds like Bieber lucked out by catching COVID. He’s lucky. It could’ve been a full-blown cold.
Super edgy response kidd
Predicting back to back years of Minor League signings starting on Opening Day. Last year was Milone. This year is the King. Hoping the best for health and that this isn’t a story but you never know if pitchers get “slowed” in spring training with little nagging soreness etc. Hoping this season is the last year of musical chairs in the rotation and some of these youngsters carve out a spot. They’re in great position from a salary stand point for when the kids start getting promoted from the minors. Looking at the Manny trade a little differently this season if Kremer continues to produce and we see Bannon and Diaz this year. Either way looks to be a fun season for the Orioles. Has a lot of the 2010-2011 feel to it prior to there run of winning years.
The O’s rebuild is further along after two years than the Tigers’ rebuild after four. Does anyone else think the Tigers aren’t trying to build a team?
I don’t know how many parts of the Tigers rebuild are on their 40 man or have debuted already, but having 5 of the top 25 overall prospects is pretty unprecedented.
The O’s have 5 in the top 75, but have debuted a few nice pieces in Hays, Mountcastle, Kremer, Akin. I’m looking forward to seeing the debuts of a group of pitchers this year #9 Baumann, #11 Lowther, #12 Smith & #19 Wells. They have all pitched well at AA ball already.
Amazing LAA go years at a time with no clue. Should be a much better story
What the hell is a “rotation minute”?
I’m with you. I have gotten busy with life for the past 20 years and the stats of the game have passed me by.
As a stathead, I have no clue what a rotation minute is either. I think they just made that up.
Until a couple weeks ago the Orioles had 6 2015 first round picks on their squad. Dillon Tate, Richie Martin, DJ Stewart, Chris Shaw, Ryan Mountcastle and Tyler Nevin. And now a second rounder in Jahmai Jones, who they DFA’d Shaw to make room for.
I hate looking at those lists and seeing that we could have had Walker Burhler, Mike Soroka or Ke’Bryan Hayes instead.
To be fair though, Tate and Nevin came in trades after they had already lost their value, Martin was a Rule 5, and Shaw was a waiver claim. Mountcastle was absolutely worth the 1st round pick as well (especially since it was a mid-30s pick). DJ is the only one there where your argument makes sense.