The Orioles’ rebuild came to a definitive end with this year’s 101-win season, and general manager Mike Elias is already speaking accordingly as he enters his sixth offseason with the team. Elias tells Mark Feinsand of MLB.com that adding a starting pitcher who “projects for the front half of the rotation would be wonderful” and that he also hopes to add a late-inning reliever — ideally someone with closing experience.
The free-agent market isn’t short on either type of pitcher. Playoff-caliber starters in free agency include Blake Snell, Sonny Gray, Aaron Nola, Jordan Montgomery, Eduardo Rodriguez, Lucas Giolito and Marcus Stroman, to say nothing of incoming NPB stars like 25-year-old righty Yoshinobu Yamamoto and 30-year-old lefty Shota Imanaga.
Currently, the Orioles’ rotation is set to include Kyle Bradish, Grayson Rodriguez and Dean Kremer. Assuming he’s back to health after a lengthy recovery from Tommy John surgery, southpaw John Means should slot into the group. Other options include Tyler Wells, DL Hall, Cole Irvin, Bruce Zimmermann and prospect Cade Povich (who’s not yet on the 40-man roster but will surely be added by next week). Baltimore starters ranked 11th in the Majors with a 4.14 ERA this year — a mark that includes results from current free agents Kyle Gibson and Jack Flaherty.
As far as relievers go, former O’s prospect Josh Hader tops the class and could set a record for largest contract ever given to a reliever. Beyond him, former closing options on the market include David Robertson, Jordan Hicks, Aroldis Chapman, Hector Neris and Craig Kimbrel.
The trade market, of course, will feature prominent names in both regards, but the Orioles’ payroll is practically a blank slate, which gives them the opportunity to pursue just about any pitcher — assuming ownership is willing to commit to a long-term free agent for the first time in Elias’ tenure. Incredibly, James McCann and Felix Bautista — owed a combined $3.5MM in 2024 — are the only two players guaranteed any money this coming season.
Of course, the Orioles also have a deep and talented arbitration class. Each of Anthony Santander, John Means, Danny Coulombe, Cedric Mullins, Austin Hays, Ryan O’Hearn, Dillon Tate, Jorge Mateo, Ryan Mountcastle, Cionel Perez, Cole Irvin, Keegan Akin, Jacob Webb, Ramon Urias, Tyler Wells, Ryan McKenna and recent waiver claim Sam Hilliard is eligible for arbitration. That whopping group of 17 players projects to combine for $56.17MM in arbitration, per MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. Some from the bunch will be non-tendered or traded, but the most expensive names among the bunch (Santander, Mullins, Hays, Means, Mountcastle) seem likely to stay put.
Not long ago, a reliever with closing experience might not have seemed like a dire need for the O’s, but All-Star Felix Bautista underwent Tommy John surgery in October and is expected to miss the entire 2024 campaign as a result. The O’s have another All-Star, Yennier Cano, as a potential alternative option in the ninth inning, though he was far more successful in the season’s first three months (1.14 ERA) than in the second three (3.24 ERA). That’s not at all to suggest he can’t be an effective endgame option for the Birds, but rather to simply point out that as the year progressed, Cano didn’t quite look to be Bautista’s equal (as he did in the earlygoing).
The Orioles’ ability to add to the pitching staff (and payroll in general) is only buoyed by the fact that so much of the team’s excellent young core is not yet even into arbitration. Each of Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Bradish, Rodriguez and Cano will make league minimum or only slightly more in 2024. The same is true of prospects like Colton Cowser, Heston Kjerstad, Coby Mayo and Jackson Holliday, each of whom could play a significant role for the ’24 club.
It’ll likely become a rather expensive core at some point, but for the time being, their minimal financial commitments give the O’s considerable flexibility to creatively pursue just about any pitcher they like. High-profile arms seeking short-term rebound deals could fit into the payroll for a year or two without issue, and if the Orioles want to pursue a longer-term fit, they could always frontload the contract to pay out more of the guarantee in 2024-25, when the so much of the roster is still in its pre-arbitration years.
What about the bottom half of the rotation? That wasn’t anything to write home about, either
If they add top arms then the bottom automatically gets better right?
Hopefully. Dean Kremer and Grayson Rodriguez skip leg day
How far can you stretch a rubber band?
There is only so much pitching to be had, No one will be satisfied
Did you watch any games – seriously they won 101 games – starting pitchers ranked 11th of 32 and that include a rough beginning for Kremer. So tired of this narrative. One addition and they are a top 10 and possibly top 5 rotation. Every rotation comes down to health but they have 4 guys that should only get better plus Means.
So we know Gibson is gone, he did a great job for us all year, stayed in a few starts after getting hit hard early to save the bullpen for the rest of the series/week. Tyler Wells, second straight season he was our best starting pitcher before the break. Easily should have been an all star with a WHIP below 1.00, and a batting average against under .200. Always a low pitch count, but gives up way too many Home runs. Wells after the break had 2 straight really bad starts, and the front office yanked him SO quick, and it felt like he was in Witness Protection! He came back with a little over 2 weeks in the regular season, and made 5 appearances out of the pen, and didn’t miss a beat! Finished the year with a WHIP under 1.00 and a BA against under .200. He definitely should go into the spring as a starter with a job to lose. If we began next season with Bradish, Rodriguez, Means, Kremer and Wells healthy as our starting 5, we’d be lucky. O’s in 24!
Maybe they can swing a trade for Bieber? He seems like a good candidate. His stuff isn’t what it used to be, but he still has the ability to get outs. Would be a great compliment to any staff and Cleveland needs power bats.
I could definitely see this trade happening. Baseball trade values has Santander and Bieber at almost equal values (with Bieber slightly ahead). Something like Santander + a prospect somewhere in the O’s top 15-30 could probably get it done .
Really could be a good trade match. The O’s get an established starter who’ll be motivated to pitch well ahead of free agency on a team where it will likely matter more. The Guardian’s get a big bat to pair up with Ramirez in the heart of the order.
Might not be the most popular trade with the fans as both teams lose established names but ultimately they’d be dealing from excess/freeing up opportunities for younger guys.
As an O’s fan I’d be fine. I think Bieber is the guy he was last year moving forward though. I think he’s more of a mid rotation starter at this point.
Players with Santander’s control get traded away by the Guardians, not traded for.
The Orioles are in on Bieber. Rumor has Adley Rutschman going to Cleveland for Bo Naylor and Bieber.
There’s a zero percent chance the O’s trade Adley.
Zero percent. I think Bo will be a great Catcher. Adley seems to be the better of the two. At least for now. Buy boy did Naylors bat come alive towards the end of the season.
Bo might be a good player but there’s about a .0001 chance he’s Adley Rutschman.
So you’re saying there’s a chance!
Lol . He’s the complete package and I believe he’ll get the largest catching deal in history when he inks his next contract. Hoping the O’s lock him up before then but that’ll be tough.
He’s the real deal without a doubt. Two great seasons, the leader of the team, he’s 25 and probably the best Catcher in the game right now.
Out of all those prospects/young players, he should be locked up long term. Trading Adley would be like the Twins trading away Mauer.
OIC
Another crayon eater
There are lot more teams looking for top half of the rotation pitching than there are top half of the rotation pitchers available. At least the Orioles have the prospects to trade for a top pitcher.
Except they don’t want to trade any of them.
Simm- It’s getting ridiculous at this point. Any sane GM would understand that they’re in a GREAT position to cash in some chips and get an ace or two. No clue what Elias is waiting for. They’ve literally got so much minor league talent that they could get anyone from any team, and it wouldn’t hurt their depth in the slightest.
Last year was the first year of a wide open window. The core is young and controllable. Nothing came together at the deadline. I doubt Elias really wanted to deal serious prospect capital last year for a rental starter.
We needed more than 1 to have a chance in October. We had a rotation full of guys who had blown past their single season innings totals.
I think they would do a deal for a young controllable starter. They just don’t grow on trees.
They may go all in at some point but prob not for at least 2-3 more years. They should be right now because that team will get very expensive sooner then they think. Once the players start to cost huge money then things could fall apart quickly.
I’m thinking the same thing about their window. Their two top prospects are ready now. They need to trade the rest for controllable starters.
You get a 6 year window if you can’t afford a $250 million payroll. The clock is already ticking. Even 4 years from now arbitration is going to increase payroll perhaps more than the Orioles are comfortable with.
By the O’s recent standards, a “front half” starter probably means a #4/#5 type who they’ll argue is actually a #3 starter and part of the “front half”.
I wasn’t talking about the players they’ve developed. I was referring to how the Orioles don’t have a strong recent history of spending money on free agents, even if/when they should.
The O’s absolutely have some studs they’ve developed. I’m just skeptical on them spending money on a true “front half of the rotation” free agent starter.
Burnes and Williams from the Crew. Done.
O’s have a lot of OF and OF prospects which the Crew don’t need. Jackson Holliday won’t go anywhere.
Could happen though. Coby Mayo, Basallo, Ortiz, Westburg, and Norby could be of use to the crew.
Could Kremer, Mullins, Westburg and Baker or Bauman get it done?
Ellias is one of the worst GMs in the game. He had all these prospects and decided not to go all in last year. Most of these prospects came because the Orioles finished so poorly these past 5-6 years. You aren’t beating anyone with Kyle Bradish and Dean Kremer in the playoffs, anyone with eyes could see that
Stop eating crayons
What about John Means and Grayson Rodriguez, think we beat anybody with them?
@thecolonel351 Rodriguez wasn’t that good this year. Means was hurt 95% of the season which they knew was going to be the case
At the same time, the rest of baseball was so frustrated with the lack of moves with Baltimore they voted Elias to be the best executive in the game last season. Go figure.
@misterb71 Buck Showalter got voted manager of the year for the 2022 and got fired the season after. Same with Don Mattingly. Ellias never goes for it. In 2022 he was a seller when the Orioles were in the wild card race. 2023 his moves to strengthen the team were pulling off trades for Fujinami and Jack Flaherty. There are guys that did not get traded but since the Orioles had all these top prospects, they could have had a team bite like the Mets (Pete Alonso), Padres (Soto), Angels (Ohtani (before he got hurt)). He decided to do nothing
You’re actually a buffoon. Elias has built a sustainable pipeline of talent and put a 101 game winner on the field.
The only risk involved with him is if he goes to another large market team when his contract is up. That guy isn’t going anywhere for a long time.
@BrianStrowman9 thats all fine and dandy if you don’t care about actually winning a World Series. They acumulated all this talent by being losers the past 5-6 years. Nothing special about that. Teams like the Yankees, Rays, Dodgers, Astros etc. every year make the playoffs and have sustainable success without the need to rebuild
I think you’re extremely uneducated. The Astros current dynasty was built by initially tanking. Mike Elias and Sig Mejdal worked in that FO. The Rays trade guys away and acquire cheaper talent to keep the team competitive. They were also the laughing stock of the MLB 15 years ago.
The Yankees don’t do anything well anymore. They just spend a ton of money. Nothing special at all about that organization and it hasn’t been for awhile now. Furthermore, there’s a handful of teams that have the spending capacity of the Dodgers or Yankees.
@Mets, you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.
Elias went the opposite direction from your suggestion of buying at the deadline in ’22 and came back from the Twins swap meet with an All Star this year (Cano) who will be essential to the late inning pen next year, and a lefty starter (Povich #11 Orioles overall prospect). Trey Mancini netted 2 more arms coming in at #10 & #15).
Collectively those 3 prospects are the best 3 prospects on the farm of the #1 farm in MLB. Although, admittedly — the strength of the #1 ranking are the position players).
And for those 4 arms (including Cano), the O’s traded away (no offense to them), 2 players that do not currently have a major league home.
The team wasn’t quite ready, and keeping Mancini and Lopez would actually have been a worse GM move for the franchise as a whole and for the winning window.
Recognizing when to pivot and trade up is vital. Esp for a team that doesn’t have limitless resources.
Whether this Winter will show John Angelos’ forward vision or innate myopic arrogance… we have yet to see. But I think maybe you are transferring your anger over the trainwreck that has been the Mets front office to the Orioles.
I think likely both clubs will be okay… no thanks to your peanut gallery blathering.
Dude just won GM of the year. It’s not his fault the owner won’t spend!
@manrock trading prospects doesn’t equate to higher spending. Teams like the Mets were willing to eat millions in return for higher tier prospects. If the Rangers and Astros could do it, why couldn’t the Orioles?
Kyle Bradish had the 4th best ERA in the league this past season.
@niched I’ve watched Bradish, he ok if hes your third guy, hes not an ace. His stuff just isn’t playoff material if you have a big game. Would you rather risk your season on Kyle Bradish or guys who had a worse season than him in terms or ERA like Spencer Strider, Eovaldi, Wheeler, Nola, etc. You need a true ace to win a World Series, Bradish just isn’t it
@LFGMets
Lies. Pretty sure the Texas Rangers just won the World Series without a “true ace” at their disposal all season.
Eovaldi has never been an ace. He’s now had 2 great postseason runs. When the RS acquired him it was the equivalent of a Jack Flaherty type acquisition.
@skinsfansfw Sorry to break it to you but Eovaldi is an ace…
Nathan Eovaldi has never thrown 200 innings in a season or had an ERA below the mid 3’s for a full season.
His career ERA is 4.10. Dude has never been an ace. He’s had 2 very good postseasons.
Bradish had 9 Ks in Game 1. He didn’t make it deep into that game but against the Rangers’ red hot offense, I’d consider that pretty impressive for his first postseason appearance. He was consistently good all year. It’s fair to knock the Orioles rotation as a whole but Bradish isn’t a weak spot
@WhiteSharkBite not saying hes a weak spot, hes just not an ace. Brandon Pfaat was the DBack’s weakspot and he pitched well in the post season as a third starter. Bradish is 3x the pitcher Pfaat is. Doesn’t mean hes bad, hes just like I said, not an ace
@LFG
Others have commented since, but while Eovaldi is a nice pitcher, he’s far from an ace.
Just look at the contract he signed with Texas. VERY cheap at $17 mil a season. Also not anywhere near on par for what a “true ace” gets paid. As a matter of fact, a lot of people thought Texas overpaid for him.
He’s got a 103 ERA+, nearly a .500 career record, and accumulated 18.7 bWAR in 12 seasons. Again, solid-average, but nowhere near an ace.
@LFGMets I’d say Bradish pitched like an ace this year. I still agree an elite pitcher with postseason experience would go a long way though. It’s not because you don’t trust Bradish to pitch 2x in a series but rather so you can avoid deciding between Dean Kremer and Kyle Gibson in an elimination game.
@skinsfandfw honestly I’ve always thought Eovaldi was underated so I’m a bit biased. I see him as an ace. Boston and Texad both don’t win any World Series without him. He was the ace (If you dont count oft-injured Chris Sale) for both of those World Series
Not an ace, yet.
There. Fixed it for you.
I’d take Bradish over Framber Valdez any day of the week
You’re talking about a kid that has a little over a season and a half in the show, and got more confident and stronger as the year went on. We went with a 6 man rotation for the benefit of our young guys for most of the 2nd half, and got stronger as a staff, even after losing Bautista. Bradish is definitely a top of a rotation arm, as is Grayson. Put a top defense behind a healthy Means, with our freak show of a wall in left center, he has what it takes. We were SO lucky to get through the year with our rotation pretty much intact, which is rare. We’re in great shape heading into the winter, now it’s up to Elias to choose who to move from the farm, With that said, Holliday and Mayo shouldn’t enter any discussion.
Exactly, after Gray Rod was recalled, he was one of the top 5-10 pitchers in the AL in the 2nd half.
This is the dumbest comment I may have ever read. Elias has done nothing but change Baltimore’s philosophy on all fronts and in five years took them from being a losing organization with zero farm system and zero international outreach to a playoff contender with one of the top farm systems in all of baseball. Add the fact they have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball. Can you imagine the damage he could do if he was able to spend like other teams?
@dm867 thats not hard to do if you finish in last place every year
Man where is a laugh emoji when you need it. Get a clue. Last year the O’s weren’t going to make a deep run even if they did snag a wildcard spot. This year the window officially opened. Stop taking about Elias “never” does whatever when he’s only been the GM since 2019 and in that short window of time he’s built a franchise from the ground up, even with essentially losing a year due to the pandemic – he’s built the best minor league system in baseball, produced a 101 win team and will continue to graduate top prospects for years to come. The Orioles are only going to get better and that’s without any acquisitions from outside of the organization. The Mets wish they were in such a position.
@ba$eba | | F@n21 You do realize the AZ Diamondbacks made it to the World Series this year meanwhile no one thought they’d make it
@LFG
Yeah the D’Backs did make the WS. They started a rookie who had barely pitched in the reg season(and got blasted when he did)
They didn’t go out and get a starter at all and still wound up making it. You don’t know how it’s gonna shake out but they certainly didn’t push their chips in.
Because so many teams pay top dollar for average pitchers who had career years, that does not mean the Orioles should follow that model. They have prospect capitals to acquire a top pitcher. Also, the Orioles have young and developing pitchers. It will be interesting what they will do during this offseason.
White Sox should be dangling Dylan Cease to clubs like the Orioles. Orioles have a plethora of prospects and the White Sox are not competing next year, time to start rebuilding yet again…
That would line up with what Elias likes to do. Get a guy coming off a down year from an inferior organization & try to fix him. I could see it.
2023 was an outlier year for Cease. He’s going to do better on another team.
Probably true of any player who was on this years White Sox.
Sign Giolito to a pillow contract. If a controllable top arm is available then kick the tires on that too. Prospects and payroll space is a good spot to be in
Bradish and Rodriguez were two of the AL’s best after the all-star break last year, and Means can get outs. They could use and could certainly afford someone good enough to slot among that top 3. They will have to pay for it.
Relievers though…Cano or DL Hall can close for a year and cheap bullpen arms are always around. They aren’t paying for Hader.
They won’t be paying for Gibson ($10M in 2023) or Frazier ($8M), I could see them involving Santander in a deal (probably $12-$13M coming in arb) as they could fill that slot with Kjerstad and Cowser. The money is there to solidify the staff and also to extend Rutschman or Henderson (whichever one doesn’t have Boras).
They can’t sit on their hands though. 101 wins can be 89 next year on a similar caliber team with a bit less luck and a one-run and extra innings record that regresses to the mean.
I don’t love Cano as the closer. We won’t go top dollar for one but id like to see us add another option with closer type stuff.
Brian – I agree. Cano is effective but just doesn’t have the lights-out repertoire that Bautista or Britton has. He’s great as your 8 inning guy/backup. DL Hall of the group they have now IMO has the most potential to be that lights-out guy based on how he pitched down the stretch.
I agree DL would be nasty. I think that we’ll probably use multiple guys to close games out next year though. DL being so tough on lefties—I can imagine situations where we’d bring him in before the 9th. I’d like to have another guy with high octane stuff in the pen who can chip in a few saves
Can I interest you in Corbin Burnes or Devin Williams?
@David
Two helpings, please.
On top of the red hot offense… Texas loaded up with multiple redundant arms. DeGrom, Evoldi, Scherzer, Montgomery.
Seems that unless you really luck out in super healthy seasons, the idea of redundancy is pretty important.
So bring on at least 3 of these to the rotation:
Burnes, Williams, Ryu, Maeda, Lugo, Wacha and even retaining Flaherty another year to add to those 3.
Hoping Angelos has been buying Nvidia stock with all the savings he’s enjoyed over the past several low payroll seasons…. the time for pitching redundancy is now at hand. and it’s going to cost the O’s. sell those investments… momma needs a basket of pitchers.
What are you gonna do with our guys if we sign 3? Bradish and G-Rod should be locks. Means should take a slot and Kremer is a perfectly good #5. Though if he had to be bumped so be it.
I don’t want Flaherty within 20 miles of OPACY again. Flush the turd down the toilet. That deal was a loser even though I think the only potential loss is the 19 year old pitcher that’s years away.
Who’s going to be the one to tell Elias that ownership isn’t going to spring for an elite FA SP?
Lucas Giolito is not a top of the rotation starter. He isn’t really a playoff caliber starter either. He’s been bad for 3 years now. Stop pretending that he’s a great pitcher. Giolitio is a back of the rotation pitcher.
I’ll take 2021 “bad” Giolito.
He’s an upside play that won’t require a long term commitment. Giolito might be a playoff starter. Dean Kremer definitely never will be. Fine #5 for the regular season though.
& that’s only if the org is too afraid to dip their toes in the Bauer pool. He is an even cheaper upside play.
Both would be great. We could go out and trade some of our prospect capital for a Devin Williams or something to go with that.
The market is going to be a long drawn out process. The MLB owners are cheap. Look how NFL free agency starts. Ohtani would have been signed Tuesday at 5 pm. Throw in the past couple years of contracts given to Correa, Turner and so on. Orioles will end up with another Gibson type starter. This is because teams like Cardinals, Cubs, Red Sox, Dodgers are all in the market. Hopefully someone like Sonny Gray will accept the hey we will be in the playoffs next 3-4 years conversation and take less money. To win 100 games and have the number 1 farm system in the league is not easy to do. I think maybe the dodgers are the only team I can remember like that.
Problem is FA starts right away
NFL has a window
I always felt MLB needed to have a window to get rosters in order to force teams and players to get stuff done
Already hearing a few teams publicly saying they are trimming payroll (Padres and Twins). Anytime you hear that you start to wonder if there is backdoor collusion happening again and the result being a slow market over the winter.
Lance Lynn. He screwed up so bad in 23, no takers on a multi year deal. The next in line older FA SP on a 1yr in Baltimore … following Lyles and Gibson.
Maybe. Elias was in the Cards FO when Lynn was drafted
that’s interesting.
we all know Mike like*his* guys.
add Lynn to my list above… lol
Don’t sign Marcus Stroman merry Christmas from Chicago
Stroman & Kimbrel
Blake Snell and Jash Hader!…but since that’s just not who the Orioles are, I think Free Agency will not be the means of improving the team as much as trades.
The Orioles have a log jam that needs addressing…and team like Seattle, LAD, MIA, MIL, CHW, DET all have interesting SP options. Perfect world, they move a bunch of prospect capital for a Bobby Miller type.
I’m not fooled into thinking any of the above will happen…
call the brewers, they will answer the phone.
White Sox said to need CF and SS. Trade Mullins, Mateo and Irvin for Dylan Cease.
Yeah. White Sox aren’t taking that deal.
If you’re the Orioles now is the time to strike. You saw what Texas did. Went out 2 seasons ago got their big boy bats. Last season went out and got their work horses in the rotation.
Orioles have a cheap young core and plenty of pieces to deal from.
They should go out and sign at least 1 TOR arms. Blake Snell Sign another arm like Sonny Gray.
Snell, Gray, Bradish , Rodriguez, Means.
I’d deal guys like Kremer and Wells in any potential trade to improve the roster or keep them as pen guys and long relief/spot starter types. I’d sign a guy like Joc Pederson to DH from the LH side. He’d need a RH platoon partner (Mountcaslte)? I’d put O Hearn at 1B.
Ramon Urias is a nice piece but maybe you explore upgrading ss with a more proven player. Maybe you talk to the Mets about Lindor given their recent fire sale of Verlander and Scherzer.
Lindor is essentially on a 7 year x 32 so 225 mill give or take contract. Maybe mets kick in some cash for a better return of prospects like they did with Verlander and Scherzer.
I don’t want to operate anything like the Padres. Getting a top starter and clearing out some of the redundant prospects for upgrades is something we need to do. But not go insane by adding vets just because. I don’t think they serve any purpose.
Worst idea in the world is trading for Lindor.
Jackson Holliday and Gunnar Henderson are the left side of the O’s infield. Don’t need a boat anchor contract. I don’t want to touch Snell either. If we’re paying big dollars—I’d want a pitcher who has strong command and pitches deep into ballgames.
Joc Pederson is no better than Ryan O’hearn at this point. Heston Kjerstad could be better than both of them.
If you can get the Mets to kick in 50 60 mill knocking the price tag down to 7 years 160 mill. Not that bad of a contract. I wouldn’t acquire him at full price 32 a year. But reduced price I’d ask. Worst they say is no.
Pederson is essentially back up in case o Hearn regresses prior to his 1st year with Orioles. Pederson has a longer track record offensively. You sign pederson they rotate 1B and DH. Both do well you’re better off. O Hearn struggles least you have pederson.
Our 3B is one of the best in baseball. He can also cover SS. Holliday is the #1 prospect and is knocking on the door. That would be an egregious misallocation of resources.
If Santander is kept—We have coverage if O’hearn isn’t good. Kjerstad and Mayo are right there to come in.