Good Morning Birdland,
While much of the focus of Orioles fans has understandably shifted towards the rotation, there is another area that the team probably still needs to address. Are we cool with the current bullpen?
Now, Mike Elias has made two major moves on the front already this winter. He reacquired Andrew Kittredge in early November, and then signed Ryan Helsley on December 1 to be the team’s closer. Those are important additions. But it does feel like the teams one more veteran in the relief
mix.
The Orioles have depth in the bullpen ranks, but not much proven experience. In addition to Kittredge and Helsley, Keegan Akin and Yennier Cano are the only others that have established themselves in the big leagues. We saw some good things from Dietrich Enns, Rico Garcia, Kade Strowd, and Grant Wolfram last year, but not enough to lock them into a crucial role come March for a team with postseason ambitions.
Meanwhile, many of the interesting (and cheap) veteran bullpen arms are signing elsewhere. Just yesterday saw Chris Martin and Alexis Díaz sign with the Rangers, Jordan Romano and Drew Pomeranz join the Angels, Hoby Milner go to the Cubs, and Caleb Ferguson land with the Reds, among others. None of these guys are going to transform the bullpens that they join. But they do have some upside, and they give you a level of certainty that you might not get with a fringy arm that is yet to figure out the major leagues.
Of course, it’s only December. There is time to make additions. Elias won’t be kicking himself for not adding an average 35-year-old reliever to the mix just yet. He loves to scour the waiver wire for relievers, and has had some success in doing so. And if the Orioles do make a trade for a starter, it’s possible they also bring over a reliever in any potential deal since a team trading away in an impact rotation piece probably doesn’t need a passable veteran reliever either.
In any event, it’s tough to plan out your bullpen too much. These guys are so volatile. Outside of the elite closers, there is no guarantee that any of them stay good for more than a season or two anyway. But that’s all the more reason to build in cheap contingency plans if you can make the roster math work.
Links
Pete Alonso brings more to the Orioles than home runs — although he brings plenty of those, too | The Baltimore Banner
One week after the Alonso signing, let’s keep the good vibes going! And it includes quotes from Trey Mancini, who faced off with Alonso at the 2021 Home Run Derby. Any reason to hear from Mancini is a good one.
Bobby Bonilla on Pete Alonso: “I think the Mets are gonna miss him, and Baltimore is gonna love him”
Bonilla and his deferred money are a punchline nowadays, which looks pretty silly now that nearly every significant big league signing includes loads of money pushed down the road a decade or more. Anyway, he played in both New York and Baltimore, so his perspective is interesting.
Top tools remaining on the free-agent market | MLB.com
No mention of Ryan O’Hearn, who might be the best pure hitter left on the market. No, he doesn’t have the upside or power of guys like Kyle Tucker or Cody Bellinger, but he showed a great approach last year that should get him a nice little deal this offseason.
Orioles birthdays
Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!
- Fernando Abad turns 40 today. The journeyman reliever played for eight different teams across his 11-season MLB career. That included a 16-game pitstop in Baltimore during the 2021 season.
- Stu Pomeranz turns 41. The three MLB games that he appeared in all came with the 2012 Orioles.
- Álex Cintrón is 47 years old. He was an infield option for the Orioles in 2008.
- The late Jerry Adair (b. 1936, d. 1987) was born on this day. He played nine seasons in Baltimore from 1958 through ‘66 as a glove-first infielder that was worth 6.6 bWAR during his time with the team.
- The late Cal Ripken Sr. (b. 1935, d. 1999) is posthumously celebrated today. He never played in the majors, but is one of the key figures in the history of Orioles baseball. He spent 36 years as part of the organization, first as a minor league player, then a coach and manager in the minors, and eventually the manager of the big league club. Ripken is credited in part with developing “The Oriole Way,” an approach to baseball that helped produce the golden era of the club in the 1960s and ‘70s. And oh yeah, his two sons went on to be big leaguers too, Cal Jr. and Bill.
This day in O’s history
As of this writing, it’s unclear if the Orioles have done anything significant on December 17. Baseball Reference was having some technical issues, but hopefully they clear up at some point today. Anyway, here are some happenings from beyond Birdland:
1903 – The Wright Brothers make the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
1933 – The first NFL Championship Game is played at Wrigley Field in Chicago between the New York Giants and the Chicago Bears.
1939 – Otto Hahn discovers the nuclear fission of the heavy element uranium, which is the basis of nuclear energy.
1989 – The Simpsons premieres on television. The first episode is titled “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”
