The Baltimore Orioles are the American League East champions due to Thursday evening’s win over the Red Sox (BAL 2, BOS 0). The Orioles are locked into the No. 1 seed in the American League playoff bracket and may have home-field merit thru the ALCS. Considering the depths to which the ballclub sank in 2018, 2019 and 2021, it is been a surprising flip of occasions for the O’s, who’ve now hit the 100-win mark.
Remember, they misplaced 110 video games simply two seasons in the past. No staff has ever misplaced 110 video games after which received 100 video games inside the subsequent two years. Previously, the fastest turnaround used to be a tie between the Houston Astros, who misplaced 111 in 2013 and received 101 in 2017, and New York Mets, who misplaced 112 in 1965 and received 100 in 1969.
Now, with the eyes ahead right here, it is value questioning if the Orioles can maintain this luck. Or, extra particularly, may they have got the glance of an AL East dynasty like in the first a part of the Seventies?
The Orioles received the AL East in 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973 and 1974, a six-year span that noticed them take hold of 3 AL pennants and the 1970 World Series championship. The ballclub has noticed a just right collection of highs since then, however now not that point of sustained luck. Since 1974, the Orioles — till this season — have handiest performed in seven other postseasons and in just one example (1996 and 1997) did any of the ones years come consecutively. Hell, this 2023 season marked handiest the Orioles’ 6th successful document this millennium.
Things are covered up for any other point of sustained luck, regardless that, beneath the structure of government vice chairman and basic supervisor Mike Elias. Let’s read about why.
The position-player basis
It all begins with Adley Rutschman. The 2019 No. 1 general select wasn’t known as up till May 21 remaining season, however he is already posted two seasons of no less than 4.0 WAR. He’s a catcher who plays as a well-above reasonable hitter and is already flashing management abilities. Oh, and the Orioles have not been swept since he arrived. He’s as cast a foundational piece as avid gamers get.
So is Gunnar Henderson. He used to be the Orioles’ second-round variety in 2019 out of highschool and is handiest 22 years outdated. He’s going to win AL Rookie of the Year and looks as if a five-tool celebrity.
Ryan Mountcastle (age 26, managed thru 2026), Austin Hays (28, 2025), Cedric Mullins (28, 2025), Anthony Santander (28, 2024) and Ryan McKenna (26, 2027) may additionally, to various levels, be a part of the long term basis.
Jordan Westburg, Colton Cowser and Heston Kjerstad all debuted this season and feature excessive upside. Kjerstad and Cowser have not noticed a lot time and may practice Henderson with a Rookie of the Year win subsequent season.
Whatever route the Orioles move, Rutschman and Henderson are very good avid gamers to construct round and there are most probably a handful of others who stick round with nice luck those subsequent a number of seasons.
The pitching building program
First off, Grayson Rodríguez is a luck tale. He used to be drafted eleventh general in 2018, did not pitch in 2020, had harm problems in 2022, struggled in his first foray into the majors this season however has since flashed his high-level talent. He’ll be just right to head as a imaginable frontline starter subsequent season. At naked minimal, he is a mid-rotation starter.
John Means is a former All-Star who has made 3 begins coming off Tommy John surgical operation. He has a 2.60 ERA and nil.81 WHIP in his 17 1/3 innings. He’s beneath staff keep an eye on thru subsequent 12 months and is able to an excellent season, even supposing now not as a frontline starter simply but.
Kyle Bradish, on the different hand, does seem like a frontline starter and he got here from a wholly other route than Rodríguez. He used to be drafted in the fourth around by way of the Angels and got here to the Orioles in 2019 in the Dylan Bundy industry. He used to be by no means truly thought to be a peak prospect. This season, regardless that, he has a 2.86 ERA and 1.05 WHIP in 166 2/3 innings.
Bradish is a great instance of the sorts of wins the Orioles may have in their rotation because of their inner building. There are a number of in the bullpen, too. Félix Bautista, Yennier Cano, Cionel Pérez (extra remaining 12 months than this 12 months, but it surely nonetheless applies), Danny Coulombe are amongst the reduction pitching examples of the a number of tactics in which GM Mike Elias has proven himself remarkable in development a pitching group of workers.
That is, he is been in a position to draft and expand effectively, whilst additionally grabbing pitchers off the scrap heap or buying and selling for less-than-hyped guys and has discovered luck thru just about each and every road. That’s a serve as of the methods which were put in position in figuring out the forms of pitchers they are able to effectively gain and expand.
There’s each and every explanation why to imagine that more or less luck will proceed right here in the following couple of years.
The potentialities
Even with all the promotions, the Orioles are thought to be to have both the easiest farm device in baseball or considered one of the easiest.
Jackson Holliday tops the listing and it is simple and a laugh to check him along Westburg and Henderson long-term in the Orioles’ infield (perhaps with Westburg at moment, Holliday at quick and Henderson at 3rd base, whilst now not forgetting Rutschman at the back of the plate). Perhaps Cowser and Kjerstad are additionally long-term solutions in the outfield.
Should those 5 avid gamers hit their upside and even simply come just about it, that is a stellar team. We’ve already mentioned the Orioles’ talent and in finding and expand pitching.
Those are handiest the greatest weapons, too. There are additionally the likes of infielders Coby Mayo, Mac Horvath and Joey Ortiz in addition to outfielders Enrique Bradfield Jr., Dylan Beavers, infielder/outfielder Connor Norby, catcher/first baseman Samuel Basallo and a stockpile of fingers.
It’s in reality a device of insane upside and intensity, a mixture so infrequently noticed.
The job in entrance of Elias and his entrance workplace now could be to strike that steadiness in proceeding to expand top-notch potentialities with out excessive draft selections and understanding precisely which of them to stay and which of them to industry. I understand it’s tough for lovers now and again to turn that transfer after years of simply stockpiling potentialities and preserving onto them for pricey lifestyles whilst making plans for the long term, however there is no extra worries about that. The staff is a staff of the provide.
They’ll nonetheless have avid gamers that are supposed to be saved beneath each and every circumstance (hi, Holliday), however in different spots, the Orioles will finish up with a top-flight prospect who’s blocked by way of a longtime giant leaguer. Those are the scenarios in which potentialities are industry foreign money to shore up weaker spaces of the ballclub. Just have a look at all the ones names I indexed above and check out to seek out constant taking part in time for they all. You simply can not, so even supposing you sought after to stay each and every unmarried title there, the roster is not large enough.
Just to throw a hypothetical in the market, if a longtime, bona fide ace turns into to be had by means of industry, the Orioles may blow different groups’ provides out of the water to land stated ace and also have a top-flight minor-league device. These are the forms of choices now in entrance of Elias and he hasn’t but handled this.
How adept he proves in working a sustained contender with a stacked farm device versus development a farm device and stellar MLB basis is the subsequent step in his analysis as an government. To this level, he is been an exemplary performer, however now it is time to construct that sustained winner. Part of being a sustained winner is bringing domestic a World Series championship. The Orioles have not had a type of since 1983. The easiest means to make sure no less than one name is to ensure there are as many probabilities in that window of competition as imaginable.
They can get started running on that name right here in the subsequent week. They can proceed to paintings on sustained luck in the coming months and years.
For now, the Orioles are the 2023 American League East champions. Not many believed even two years in the past that observation would come to fruition. That’s a huge win for the franchise. Elias and corporate are now having a look to make it one of the, many wins for the franchise right here in the 2020s.