After a 2020 season shortened due to the coronavirus pandemic, a 2021 season that handled its lingering results and a 2022 season delayed by a piece stoppage, 2023 figures to be Major League Baseball’s true return to normalcy.
That’s welcome information for the Orioles, who will begin the marketing campaign making an attempt to contend for the primary time for the reason that rebuild started. As with each new yr, there’s optimism to go round, however the Orioles’ long-discussed shiny future has by no means felt nearer to the current after an surprising 83-79 season that fell simply in need of a playoff berth.
It helps that Baltimore’s flip towards legitimacy comes on the similar as MLB’s new scheduling format, one that can enable the staff to play the American League East’s different 4 playoff-hopeful groups 13 instances every as an alternative of 19. Here’s what Orioles followers should look ahead to in 2023.
1. A full yr of Adley and Gunnar
In 2022, the Orioles performed 122 video games with catcher Adley Rutschman on their roster. Infielder Gunnar Henderson was within the majors for his or her ultimate 34 contests. They didn’t get 162 video games mixed out of the pair of younger phenoms.
If well being permits, Baltimore will take pleasure in a complete yr of two gamers who’ve each been ranked as the highest prospect within the sport, and that further season’s price of video games alone might enhance the staff sufficient to push it into the postseason.
FanGraphs tasks the Orioles’ first two draftees underneath government vice chairman and basic supervisor Mike Elias to account for greater than a 3rd of Baltimore’s wins above alternative for place gamers. Rutschman is forecasted to earn 5.2 WAR, with Henderson at 4.0; no different Oriole is projected to be price 3 wins.
They won’t be alone, both. Kyle Stowers, Kyle Bradish, Terrin Vavra, DL Hall and Grayson Rodriguez — all of whom have additionally ranked among the many group’s high 15 or so prospects — are all lined up for his or her first full main league campaigns.
2. Plenty of debuts
Regarded as the game’s high pitching prospect, Rodriguez is likely to be Baltimore’s solely debutant on the staff’s opening day roster, with Elias saying there’s a “very high likelihood” of him breaking camp within the Orioles’ rotation. It received’t harm that, with Henderson, Hall and Rodriguez more likely to be ranked among the many recreation’s Top 100 prospects total, together with them on the season-opening roster provides the Orioles a shot at an additional draft decide ought to any of them turn into American League Rookie of the Year.
But 2023 ought to see a number of prospects debut, ought to they make it by way of the remainder of the offseason with out being a part of a commerce bundle. For Rule 5 draftee Andrew Politi to stay within the group, he’ll should be within the majors all yr. Infielders Jordan Westburg, Joey Ortiz and Connor Norby reached Triple-A final season, as did outfielder Colton Cowser. Pitchers Drew Rom and Noah Denoyer joined Rodriguez and Ortiz in being added to the 40-man roster in November. Perhaps Coby Mayo echoes Henderson by starting the season in Double-A and ending it within the majors as a 21-year-old infielder.
3. The return of John Means
For a lot of the Orioles’ rebuild, the one video games to look ahead to have been these Means began. With the left-hander persevering with to rehab from final yr’s Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgical procedure, “John Means Day” received’t be celebrated once more till {the summertime}, and the wait ought to make it much more of a special day.
From 2019 to 2021, solely seven pitchers who threw as many innings as Means allowed a decrease on-base proportion to opposing hitters than he did. Baltimore got here three video games shy of the postseason in 2022 regardless of getting solely eight innings from Means earlier than his left elbow gave out. His midseason return will undoubtedly provide a lift to the Orioles’ rotation.
4. More ninth-inning mild reveals
One pitcher hasn’t been answerable for greater than half of the Orioles’ saves since 2017, and even then, Brad Brach narrowly managed to take action by recoding 18 of Baltimore’s 35. Inconsistency within the ninth has been an indicator of current seasons, however due to Félix Bautista, that figures to vary in 2023.
Unexpectedly handed the position to open 2022, Jorge López dealt with it properly, changing into Baltimore’s lone All-Star earlier than being traded to the Minnesota Twins for 4 minor leaguers. Bautista took over the ninth from there and did so with aplomb, with the Orioles welcoming him to the mound at Camden Yards with Omar Little’s signature whistle from “The Wire” and a subsequent mild present. Now, supervisor Brandon Hyde will head to spring coaching with a transparent nearer for the primary time in his five-season tenure.
After the López commerce, Bautista transformed 12 of his 13 save alternatives, with the lone exception accounting for half of his earned runs allowed in that point. Beyond that outing, he gave up 4 runs in 21 innings, a 1.71 ERA, and struck out 30 of the 80 batters he confronted. FanGraphs venture him to be answerable for greater than half of the WAR the Orioles will get out of their bullpen, however the arms who will set him up — Dillon Tate, Cionel Pérez, Bryan Baker and Mychal Givens — ought to be invaluable, as properly.
5. A brand new long-term lease
Since first declaring in September 2019 the Orioles will play in Baltimore “as long as Fort McHenry is standing watch over the Inner Harbor,” staff CEO and chairman John Angelos has reiterated that stance each publicly and privately. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred echoed it final month. Throughout the 2022 season, Orioles government vice chairman and basic supervisor Mike Elias hinted at upgrades deliberate for Camden Yards within the coming years.
But the group enters 2023 with its lease to play on the ballpark set to run out on the finish of the yr. That upcoming deadline, although, gives hope for decision. The Orioles have lower than a month to train a one-time, five-year extension, and if Feb. 1 comes and goes with out them doing so, their settlement with the Maryland Stadium Authority will finish Dec. 31.
Comments from group and league leaders recommend the staff received’t attain that date with out a long-term lease. In that sense, 2023 figures to be an enormous yr for the way forward for the Orioles no matter what occurs on the sphere.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com