MLB Offseason Preview - Baltimore Orioles

Baltimore Orioles

American League	East Division
89-73 4.0 GB of Division Lead	Lost in the AL Wild Card Game
Manager: Buck Showalter	GM: Dan Duquette
AAA Affiliate Norfolk Tides	AA Affiliate Bowie Baysox

2016 Rankings

Hitting	AVG – 14th	OPS – 6th	Runs – 12th	HR – 1st	SB – 30th
Starting Pitching	ERA – 24th	K/9 – 19th	H/9 – 19th
Relief Pitching	ERA – 3rd	K/9 – 20th	H/9 – 13th

Top Hitters

POS.	Name	AVG	OBP	Slug	HR	RBIs	SB	WAR
3B	Manny Machado	.294	.343	.533	37	96	0	6.7
1B	Chris Davis	.221	.332	.459	38	84	1	3.0
2B	Jonathan Schoop	.267	.298	.454	25	82	1	2.1

Top Pitchers

POS.	Name	G/GS	Record	IP/Saves	ERA	K	BB	ERA+	WAR
CP	Zach Britton	69 G	2-1	47 saves	0.54	74	18	827	4.3
SP	Kevin Gausman	30 GS	9-12	179.2 IP	3.61	174	47	123	4.2
SP	Chris Tillman	30 GS	16-6	172.0 IP	3.77	140	66	118	4.1

Trades that the Orioles Completed

• Traded P Ariel Miranda to Seattle for SP Wade Miley
• Traded C Jonah Heim to Tampa Bay for UT Steve Pearce
• Traded OF Jason Heinrich to Arizona for OF Michael Bourn
• Traded P Zach Phillips to Pittsburgh for P Kyle Lobstein

Impending Free Agents

• C Matt Wieters
• OF Mark Trumbo
• DH Pedro Alvarez
• UT Steve Pearce
• LF Nolan Reimold
• RP Brian Duensing
• RP Tommy Hunter
• RP Logan Ondrusek
• SS Paul Janish
• CF Drew Stubbs
• OF Michael Bourn

Top Prospects

• No prospects in MLB's top 100 list

Team MVP

• A relief pitcher has to have a major impact for me to consider him a team's MVP but that is exactly what Baltimore's closer, Zach Britton, did this season.  He was the best closer in all of baseball this season, and it wasn't even close.  He should have been a finalist for the AL Cy Young Award but was left out most likely because a large number of the writers wouldn't include him on principle.  Britton was lights out at the end of games this season, allowing only four earned runs all season, and none between April 30 and August 24.  He and Brad Brach were two of the major reasons that the Orioles even made it to the Wild Card game and Britton didn't even get to pitch in the game, a decision that may haunt manager Buck Showalter for the rest of his career.

Success/Failure

• Success - Prior to the season, not many writers picked the Orioles to make the playoffs.  They had the most powerful lineup in baseball, which lived up to the hype and led the league in home runs, but also struck out a lot.  They also had one of the weakest starting rotations in the majors and it never really came together for the team.  Lastly, Baltimore also had one of the strongest bullpens in baseball, led by lights out relievers, Zach Britton and Brad Brach.  Their rotation dealt with injuries all season long, with only two 30 game starters, but Showalter was able to nurse them along.  

Offseason Outlook

• The 2017 Orioles could look significantly different than the 2016 team.  Catcher Matt Wieters, outfielder Mark Trumbo, and DH Pedro Alvarez are all free agents, meaning a significant amount of runs could be missing from their lineup next season.  Because of these subtractions, the team will need to bring in a new catcher or re-sign Wieters, sign at least one new outfielder, and determine what they are going to do at DH.  I will be curious to know if they try and change their approach by pursuing free agents who aren't just power hitters.  What the Orioles desperately need are starting pitchers, an area that is extremely weak this free agency class.   It has been brought up recently about whether the front office considers trading Zach Britton, whose trade value will never be higher than it is right now.  Trading him would most likely get the Orioles a higher end starter in return that could help their rotation now, plus prospects for the future. Britton has two more years of arbitration left and then he becomes an unrestricted free agent, and he will be very expensive and possibly priced out of what Baltimore is willing to spend.  I also wonder if the front office considers a minor re-tooling of their roster.  Their current roster, even with minor free agency additions, probably isn't good enough to truly compete in the American League with the Rangers, Indians, and Red Sox, especially with how bad the Orioles' rotation is.  They also have a horrible farm system that has no prospects on MLB's top 100 list. If they decided to trade players like Adam Jones, J.J. Hardy, and Zach Britton, it could help jump start their farm system and they could still be competitive in the present.

*All stats and information come from baseball-reference.com, fangraphs.com, rosterresource.com, baseballamerica.com, and spotrac.com