Between a new owner, a new lease at Camden Yards, and one of the offseason’s biggest trades, the Orioles made plenty of news on and off the field this winter. Now the question is whether the reigning AL East champions can take the next step forward to challenge for a World Series title.
Major League Signings
- Craig Kimbrel, RP: One year, $13MM (includes $1MM buyout of $13MM club option for 2025)
2023 spending: $13MM
Total spending: $13MM
Trades & Claims
- Acquired SP Corbin Burnes from Brewers for IF Joey Ortiz, SP/RP DL Hall, and a 2024 Competitive Balance Round A draft pick
- Acquired IF Nick Maton from Tigers for cash considerations
- Acquired IF Tyler Nevin from Tigers for cash considerations
- Acquired SP/RP Jonathan Heasley from Royals for minor league RHP Cesar Espinal
- Acquired RP Kaleb Ort from Phillies for cash considerations
- Acquired RP Matt Krook from Yankees for cash considerations
- Claimed SP/RP Tucker Davidson off waivers from Royals
- Claimed OF Peyton Burdick off waivers from White Sox
- Claimed IF/OF Diego Castillo off waivers from Phillies
Notable Minor League Signings
- Kolten Wong, Julio Teheran, Michael Perez, Ronald Guzman, Andrew Suarez, Daniel Johnson, Albert Suarez
Extensions
- None
Notable Losses
- Ortiz, Hall, Aaron Hicks, Kyle Gibson, Jack Flaherty, Adam Frazier, Shintaro Fujinami, Jorge Lopez
The Orioles entered the winter with pretty clear needs at the top of their rotation and bullpen. Since Felix Bautista’s recovery from Tommy John surgery will sideline the closer for the entire season, the O’s targeted some of the biggest names in the free agent relief market (such as Josh Hader, Jordan Hicks, Robert Stephenson, and Aroldis Chapman) before finalizing a one-year, $13MM deal with Craig Kimbrel.
The veteran closer brings a possible Cooperstown-worthy resume and plenty of experience to the back to the Orioles’ pen, where Kimbrel will team with setup men Yennier Cano and Danny Coulombe to hopefully get close to replicating the lockdown dominance of the Bautista-led 2023 relief corps. Of course, some red flags are apparent — Kimbrel faded down the stretch in both 2021 and 2022, and he had a couple of ill-timed blowups when pitching for the Phillies in last year’s NLCS. The righty is also entering his age-36 season, and is prone to allowing walks and hard contact.
An argument could be made that Baltimore could have aimed a little higher or gone with someone a bit steadier than Kimbrel, though with Bautista ostensibly returning in 2025, GM Mike Elias might not have wanted to make too lengthy of a commitment to a new reliever. As it stands, Kimbrel’s $13MM guarantee still represents the largest amount of money the O’s have given to a player since Elias took over the front office after the 2018 season.
While the Orioles’ lengthy rebuild precluded a lot of major spending, Elias continued to take a relatively measured approach to the payroll this offseason, even in the wake of a 101-win performance. While the O’s checked in on such notable free agents as Hader or Aaron Nola, the team mostly focused on the trade market to address its pitching needs. There were plenty of rumors linking the Orioles to top names like Dylan Cease or Jesus Luzardo, but amidst all these reports, Baltimore eventually landed another top trade candidate.
Corbin Burnes has been arguably the best pitcher in baseball over the last four seasons, and his acquisition instantly solves the Orioles’ desire for a frontline ace. Since Burnes is a free agent following the 2024 campaign, the trade also represents another shorter-term move for Elias — Burnes avoided arbitration with the Brewers by agreeing to a $15,637,500 salary, making him only slightly pricier than Kimbrel.
Trading for Burnes was a clear win-now move for the O’s, and a deal made possible by the team’s seemingly bottomless minor league talent pool. The Brewers came away with a potential shortstop of the future in Joey Ortiz, an intriguing rotation or bullpen candidate in DL Hall, and the 34th overall pick in the 2024 draft (the Orioles’ selection in Competitive Balance Round A, which are the only types of picks that can be traded). This is a pretty significant trade package, yet from Baltimore’s perspective, even a top-100 prospect like Ortiz is expendable considering how the Orioles’ infield of the future looks to already be in place.
Between Jordan Westburg, reigning AL Rookie of the Year Gunnar Henderson, and soon-to-debut star prospect Jackson Holliday, the Orioles may have second base, third base, and shortstop locked up for the better part of the next decade. This doesn’t even count Coby Mayo or Connor Norby knocking on the door of the big leagues, or incumbent utilitymen Ramon Urias and Jorge Mateo still on hand as perhaps overqualified bench depth.
The outfield is also crowded. Anthony Santander (a free agent next winter), Cedric Mullins, and Austin Hays (free agents in the 2025-26 offseason) have Colton Cowser, Heston Kjerstad, and Kyle Stowers pushing for playing time right now, let alone looming to eventually supplant the more experienced players as the Orioles’ starting outfield.
If the O’s were still rebuilding, it is easy to imagine a world where any of Santander, Mullins, Hays, Urias, or Mateo have been traded by now to let the kids play. However, the Orioles are both trying to win in 2024 and not hamper the development of any of their up-and-comers. That means someone like Stowers or Kjerstad might start the year at Triple-A in order to get regular at-bats rather than sporadic playing time in the majors, and the Orioles could use their bench spots for veterans more accustomed to part-time roles.
This could mean in-house names like Urias, Mateo, Terrin Vavra, and Ryan McKenna, or a familiar face back in the fold like Tyler Nevin (re-acquired from the Tigers in a January trade). Baltimore also dealt for Nick Maton and signed Kolten Wong and Michael Perez to minor league deals, further adding depth just in case the young core needs a bit more seasoning.
All of this depth makes it easy to see how more trades could be coming at the deadline or earlier, once the Orioles have a better sense of their needs or which of their prospects may or may not be ready for prime time. It isn’t out of the question that Elias could move earlier to obtain more pitching help, considering how Baltimore already has a couple of starters set to begin the season on the injured list.
Kyle Bradish emerged as the Orioles’ top hurler last year, yet his status is in question after an MRI revealed a sprain in his right UCL in February. Bradish received a PRP injection and has been slowly building his arm up over the last five weeks, with decent progress to date but still a lot of uncertainty over when (or even if) he’ll be able to make a proper return this season. John Means will also be sidelined for perhaps the first month of the season, as soreness in his surgically repaired elbow last October delayed Means’ offseason ramp-up work.
With two members of the projected rotation down, Burnes, Grayson Rodriguez, and Dean Kremer will be joined by Cole Irvin and Tyler Wells for the time being. Minor league signing Julio Teheran, waiver claim Tucker Davidson, trade acquisition Jonathan Heasley or Bruce Zimmermann figure to work as the top depth options before the Orioles think about dipping into their starting pitching prospect pool (i.e. Cade Povich, Chayce McDermott, Seth Johnson).
Michael Lorenzen and James Paxton were on the team’s radar as shorter-term signing options, and Mike Clevinger remains unsigned as a potential one-year stopgap. Beyond Baltimore’s flirtation with Nola, there wasn’t much of a sense that the Orioles were going to splurge on a big free agent arm, so Jordan Montgomery still doesn’t seem all that likely of a possibility even though Montgomery is still available as Opening Day nears.
The rotation picture could gain clarity once more is known about Bradish or Means’ recoveries, and things will look more stable if Rodriguez takes another step forward in his second MLB season. However, the question remains — could the Orioles have done more to shore up their pitching staff? Even with the prohibitive costs of pitching (either via signing or trade) in mind, adding Burnes but losing Bradish and Means more or less leaves the O’s in the same place rotation-wise as they were at the end of 2023.
It may be too soon to second-guess Elias’ decisions given that more moves could still be made, and that the roster on the whole still looks very capable of contending. It is also very much worth noting that the Orioles have increased spending, as their projected payroll (as per RosterResource) of $96.8MM is still a modest total in comparison to the rest of the league yet also a big jump from Baltimore’s $60.9MM payroll on Opening Day 2023.
Perhaps the most intriguing element of the Orioles’ season is whether or not the impending ownership change could give the front office some immediate extra spending capacity. David Rubenstein would hardly be the first new owner to want to make a splash upon buying a team, and since the billionaire’s investment group could be fully approved to buy the Orioles within even the next few weeks, Rubenstein might well be interested in giving Elias the green light to be more aggressive at the deadline. Boosting spending to even league-average levels would create a lot of extra spending capacity for the O’s to add talent, or (perhaps more importantly) start signing some of their cornerstone young players to extensions.
Even considering the ailing health of majority owner Peter Angelos, the legal drama between members of the Angelos family, and team chairman John Angelos’ cautionary statements about spending, it still counted as a surprise when reports emerged in January that the Orioles were being sold. This news broke just as the O’s were finalizing a new lease agreement with state and city officials about remaining at Camden Yards, and while this new lease technically only runs for the next 15 years, at least another 15 years could be added to the deal if the franchise and Maryland officials can work out (prior to December 31, 2027) a development plan for a “ballpark village” type of project around Camden Yards.
The ownership change only cements the new era that was already dawning for the team in terms of the on-field product. Baltimore fans had to endure a lot over the Orioles’ multi-year rebuilding period, but things couldn’t look much better for the fanbase over both the long term and in the immediate future. The O’s look like legitimate World Series contenders even with the remaining questions in the pitching staff, and some work at the deadline might patch those few remaining holes.
B. Got the ace, but the rest is meh.
A+++ solely because of new ownership. Without new ownership the Burnes deal doesn’t happen.
Good position to win the division, but still need another ace to compete with Houston and Texas
The Rangers have three splendid starters who won’t be available till what, June?
If the Rangers do anything this season, it will be with their bats
I thought the Orioles would have tried to sign a Free Agent Starting Pitcher
Either Montgomery or given a second chance to Trevor Bauer
That boggles my mind a but
Also what concerns me is a feared hitter is lacking in the Orioles lineup.
They have good hitters, but streaky hitters.
I expect them to he good, but what how good, I don’t know
I’m thinking they have had to reach out to Boras about JD Martinez. Martinez probably said no thanks because of the great LF wall of Baltimore. Who can blame him. But, yes, agree that they need a proven stick added to line up.
JD Martinez would be a DH, and the Orioles will want to have Adley in that spot when he’s not catching, while rotating other guys to give them rest.
The Os don’t need a DH with Adley, Mountcastle, Santander and O’Hearn rotating in that position and Mayo, Basallo and Kjerstad soon to arrive in the majors. What they need is bullpen help and probably another starter too.
Pitching, yes, of course. But an every day DH too that is spelled mainly by Rutschman only … with occasional help from the Santander’s, Mouncastle’s, Ohearn’s and others of that ilk. They need another experienced hitter in that line up and all the position player roles are more than adequately covered … so DH. IMO they lost pop in the line up by letting Hicks get away and not replacing the extremely low k rate guy Frazier.
Their young guys coming up from the minors should be much better than Hicks and Frazier. Maybe not right away but soon enough. I kind of agree they need an experienced bat, but even if they got one he couldn’t expect to play every day with all the young hitting prowess the team has. The Orioles have so much young hitting talent they badly need to trade some of it soon.
They still won’t make the WS. I’ve been watching them for 40 years and after last season I lost all hope for them. They’ll always find a way to lose. I can’t keep saying “there’s always next year” for another 40 years. They had a real shot last year and blew it. And after this season they lose Burnes and means to free agency which puts them back in the same boat, lots of hitting with no pitching.
I don’t know who will, the O’s have as much of a chance to win the WS as much as anyone else
They just need to make fine tuning adjustments
Baseball dude. There is hope. New owner Rubenstein says he’s a life long fan. If so, he definitely remembers the Hoffberger ownership era (early 60s to late 70s). If he follows that ownership model (trusting in his baseball people and keeping his ego in check), WS wins will happen.
@BB_dude
I feel ya. But consider that 3/4 of those 40 yrs were under the Angelos family. While Peter did spend money, his meddling and failure to appreciably invest in the Latin American market hurt the team. Then, the fruit of his loins, John, 86’d any spending as well created a black hole centered around his mouth.
1983 was a long time ago, but it can be once again. While we can only speculate on David Rubenstein’s future moves, there is no disputing that the Angelos family moving on cannot be overstated.
Hope springs eternal every year in baseball. Plus, the team is full of young and exciting talent. We’re not basing our hope on quad A talent or retreads but pretty universally scouted and agreed upon talent.
Can’t wait to see the team continue to win. Go O’s!
I get what you’re saying, but even with the Angelos family as owners, they still had opportunities to win many of times. 96 97 – 2012 2014 2016 and 2023, but they blew it every time.
.
.
I’ve been on this earth for 40 years, and I’ve yet to see them make it to a WS (not win it) just make it there. I’ve been upset for 6 months since they lost to the rangers, and that feeling has not gone away.
.
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It’s the same old story with them “we just need pitching” sure, maybe they have some good pitching right now, but after the season is over they’ll be back a square one with Burnes and means becoming FAs. One (or more) of their pitchers are going to get hurt this year and when that pitcher(s) does get hurt, they have no good replacement. I will not be watching them this year, I’ve done it for almost 40 years and it’s a disappointment in the end. It’s a false hope team
They have a new owner
Should run away with that division.
Solid B. I’d switch to an A with a Monty signing.
Considering no one has signed Monty yet, it seems as if the problem is in his asking price.
I don’t think its so much the asking price but the length of the contract. As far as being near the top of SP free agent class, Monty will never be in this position again. He’s likely gonna try til the bitter end.
I like to think of Mateo and Urias as “projected utilitymen” not ” incumbent”. They, not the kids, got the majority of action at SS and 3rd on that 101 win team. Their fate? Inevitable. “Utilitymen”. So wise of FO to keep them in the fold
biggest win of the off-season is the David Rubenstein acquisition. all paths with John Angelos leading were dead ends.
They need to sign some of the young core to long term deals, even if they’re just buying out arb years.
The only point in buying arb years is to gain cheaper FA yrs and lengthen team control
And to build on your relationship with the player
They can build on relationship regardless. Buying out arb years only takes away any leverage of extending them for FA years. It would be utterly foolish.
Solid 96 win team
F for Fail.
Their starting pitching is really lacking and they had room for both Snell and Montgomery.
You’re an idiot. You obviously don’t follow this team. Go away, troll.
Yeah, he’s clueless.
Wow so you are the 1% who voted “F”?
And with this ignorant of a take? Now I feel even better about the Orioles offseason.
@Ubaldo 4 of his8 seasons have been good, 2 ok, and 2 excellent.
I wanted another starter after the Bradish and Means injuries, but Mike Elias is a lot smarter than me and has a pretty damn good track record thus far so I will trust his judgement.
Looking forward to seeing Burnes on the mound in orange and black at OPACY in just about a week’s time!
(I went with a B grade btw)
The trades he has made so far have only been okay. Tanner Scott led all pitchers last year in WPA.
Both teams can win trades. Jorge Lopez? Mancini? For some reason you only remember Tanner Scott, who is still just OK?
Jury still out on Mancini trade, Irwin trade I’m not a fan of nor the Flaherty trade. Tanner Scott had an amazing year. I get it trades are hit or miss.
I think Elias has won some trades and lost others. Getting Bradish in the Bundy trade was huge. By the way, watch out for Preito in St Louis. Os let a professional hitter get away there.
*Is key* in my above post is meant to read *Os let*
I’m not shedding any tears over Tanner Scott having a good year in his second season after we traded him after he was pretty awful in his final year here. That is just Monday morning quarterbacking at its finest.
The biggest long term signing the Orioles need to complete ASAP is Mike Ellias
Yes, TRUTH!
Seems an long term extension for Elias as well as his top lieutenants might be extremely wise for Mr Rubenstein. Then of course locking down the cornerstone stars as well a la Atlanta. Just awaiting news that the owners have formally approved his purchase.
Don’t forget about the O’s signing former Jays radio pbp guy Ben Wagner. Yes, he’s boring and very mediocre, imo, but still I feel bad for him, given that he’s now one of, what?, about 16 broadcasters who will be taking turns on tv and radio, and filling in for one another.
I guess they each get to work two or three days a month and make about four grand in salary. What a cluster over there!
And Cavan Biggio lmao
Ubaldo: I couldn’t help but to offer up a little Ben Wagner razzing. He had a tough act to follow, taking the reigns from Jerry Howarth, one of the absolute all-time greats, and working side by side with the funny and talented Mike Wilner, who was let go for no good reason at all by the joyless woke sissy-a**es at Rogers Media.
So it wasn’t easy for Ben Wagner, but he also was pretty terrible. A low-talent poseur. But at least he landed on his feet three days a month for four grand. Now he only has to work weekends in the tire shop at Costco.
Ubaldo: “Waaaaah, woke, waaaaah”??
What are you trying to say, and to whom are you directing it?
Sounds like you’re (likely) a self-important, easily-triggered, ridiculous, hissy-fitting, joyless woke sissy-a** with serious World View issues.
They really didn’t get any better. The 2 big moves were reactionary to Bautista and Bradish getting hurt. They were good before I expect them to be good again but could be better with another big signing. Perhaps they make a legit trade at the deadline this year.
Burnes is gonna have a tough time replacing what Bradish gave the Orioles in 2023. Kimbrel isn’t as good as Bautista. I think the Orioles needed 1 more big move. Montgomery makes sense for them for sure.
I think Burnes has the track record. Of course Kimball isn’t as good, but finding better that would take 1 year or a trade that wouldn’t want a lot of prospects would be hard.
Means isn’t out for ever. Maybe 4-6 weeks and with the early off days the Birds will be fine. At this point Montgomery would need ramp up time almost as long.
A+++ just because they traded ownership.
They are a juggernaut. They are now a top 5 team in MLB, and they are just getting started
I’m at a B based on getting Burnes and new ownership. The Kimbrel signing is questionable and I’d love to see at least one extension of the young guys
I gave them a C. Last year was a proof of concept of sorts and they aced that test. This off-season they had the chance to be the undisputed best team in the AL East and largely didn’t go for it. The Burnes trade was good, but I feel like they had the money and prospects to make another impact move or two. They still have a good shot at the division, but I can’t call them overwhelming favorites, and they had the chance to be.
Solid A. Burnes and Kimbrel were good adds, but running back a 101 win team who will grow just because of the youth/extra year of experience is smart.
The Orioles don’t need to add to their club by trade or signings because of the insane depth of the system and the full talent on the MLB club. So much perculating going on.
…and somehow, Grayson is under valued/hyped. People have forgotten because of the volume of prospects in Baltimore, that Grayson too was the #1 pitching prospect.
Grayson and Gunnar both finish in top 3 of Cy Young/MVP in 2024.
disappointing they didn’t do more. What’s the point of having lots of value if you just stash it in the closet and do nothing with it? Prospects aren’t getting any younger and it’s a waste in every way to let them age in the minors once they’re ready for the Show.
Mike Elias knew that Bradish and Means were going down and he could easily have met the asking price for Cease. Cease, Burnes, GRod Wells Kremer would’ve made for a top five rotation.
Oh well, still the pick of the East.
Go Os!