Jon Meoli is the Baltimore Banner's Orioles columnist. He covered the team for the Baltimore Sun from 2016-2021, and started his own Orioles newsletter, Maximizing Playoff Odds, in 2022. Prior to that, Jon covered the Ravens and community news at the Sun. A Connecticut native, lives in Riverside with his wife, two children and cat.
The Orioles can still make win-now moves this winter with this first-time manager in place. But there’s no indication that Mike Elias and company are just going to change tack and go a traditional route to get there.
Trevor Rogers, Kyle Bradish, Tyler Wells, Grayson Rodriguez and Dean Kremer make for an imposing rotation on paper. But can the Orioles depend on them?
You have to take Toronto seriously from now on, and you can’t just assume it won’t deliver when it matters. The Yankees and Red Sox always reside in that category where the division is concerned.
Elias’ Orioles just finished a dispiriting 87-loss season, one in which the club’s offseason of short-term deals and stopgap measures caught much of the blame.
Deals for veterans are far riskier propositions and take a lot more capital. They’re the kind of moves that will likely make the Orioles a contender again.
Bradish completed seven of the most comfortable innings you’ll see Tuesday night in a 3-2, walk-off win over the Pirates, striking out six and allowing just one run on four hits with a pair of walks.