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For the previous yr, the large query for the Orioles is whether or not they’ll add a high-end beginning pitcher. Whereas Kyle Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez took steps ahead in 2023 (throughout the second half of the season within the latter’s case), there’s clearly nonetheless room for one more pitcher who can slot into the higher half of the rotation.
O’s basic supervisor Mike Elias acknowledged as much throughout the GM Conferences a couple of weeks in the past. Baltimore has achieved just about nothing in free company throughout Elias’ five-year tenure. They’re nonetheless but to signal a free agent to a multi-year contract. A lot of that has been amidst a rebuild, so there’s a chance for Elias and his entrance workplace to be extra aggressive.
To that finish, Jeff Passan of ESPN reported this morning that the O’s had proven curiosity in Aaron Nola throughout his free company. There’s no indication that Baltimore ever put forth a proper supply earlier than Nola returned to the Phillies on a seven-year, $172MM contract. The correct-hander was clearly going to require a dedication nicely into 9 figures, so the O’s being concerned in any respect hints at some willingness to pursue a notable free agent strike.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell ought to land extra important contracts than the one which Nola obtained. Jordan Montgomery, Eduardo Rodriguez and NPB star Shota Imanaga are among the many subsequent tier of free agent starters. Rich Dubroff of Baltimore Baseball wrote yesterday that Yamamoto — whom MLBTR predicts for a nine-year, $225MM contract — is more likely to be out of Baltimore’s consolation zone financially.
Free company is just one technique of bringing in pitching expertise. There are a couple of notable names who may very well be accessible on the commerce market. It’s onerous to examine the Rays shifting Tyler Glasnow inside the AL East, however every of Dylan Cease and Corbin Burnes have additionally been floated as candidates. Dubroff suggests the O’s have curiosity in each hurlers — no shock given their expertise and the group’s want for a rotation improve.
Baltimore nonetheless has a top-tier farm system regardless of the prospect graduations of Rodriguez and Rookie of the Yr winner Gunnar Henderson. It’s protected to imagine that duo and prime shortstop prospect Jackson Holliday are off the desk in talks. Gamers like Jordan Westburg, Coby Mayo and Samuel Basallo are amongst quite a few youthful abilities whom Elias and his workers may make accessible in the event that they pursued a commerce for a high-end starter (notably one like Stop, who has two seasons of remaining arbitration management).
Additionally on the docket for the Orioles this winter: discovering readability on their lease settlement with the Maryland Stadium Authority. The franchise introduced in late September that that they had agreed to a 30-year lease extension at Camden Yards. Someday later, the Baltimore Solar reported that it was as an alternative a non-binding memorandum of understanding. That settlement would offer the Orioles long-term growth rights across the stadium however didn’t signify an official extension of the lease.
With the present lease expiring on December 31, the Sun’s Jeff Barker stories that the state and the group are contemplating decoupling the lease from the event rights to facilitate getting a binding lease in place inside the subsequent 5 weeks. As Barker factors out, the legislative hurdles to be cleared are decrease for the lease settlement itself than for the accompanying growth plans. Tabling these discussions (even briefly) may get an official lease extension in place to firmly put to relaxation any questions in regards to the O’s future in Baltimore. In 2019, proprietor John Angelos pledged the group will stay within the metropolis “so long as Fort McHenry is watching over the harbor.”
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