With the city buzzing at the possibility of its native son returning home, the Baltimore Orioles face a significant offseason ahead of them. With Mark Teixeira declaring for free agency, the Orioles are most certainly going to be in the bidding for him.
But, the O’s have other glaring needs with which they must address. The birds must address starting pitching and shortstop play if they are going to build upon a season that showed so much promise early on.
With pitcher CC Sabathia in high demand, look for Baltimore to go after the somewhat second tier of starting pitching within the free-agent market. Arms like A.J. Burnett (who makes his offseason home in Maryland), Ben Sheets, and Jon Garland are possible pitching candidates and should be on the Orioles offseason radar.
A.J. Burnett has all the stuff in the world and last season led the American League in strikeouts. Last season, Burnett pitched 200+ innings and would be a great front-line starter to go along with current Oriole ace Jeremy Guthrie.
But his enigmatic career has been plagued by several injuries, including an elbow injury. It should be interesting to see how aggressive the Orioles will be with signing the Maryland resident.
Ben Sheets, who missed the final month of the Brewers season with an elbow injury finds his career paralleling with A.J. Burnett. Sheets, a young arm with the ability to no hit a team on any given day, has often frustrated management with a rash of injuries. Sheets, possibly the best free agent arm on the market other than Sabathia, will not come cheap.
If the Brewers lose out on the Sabathia sweepstakes, look for them to do everything in their power to keep Sheets in Milwaukee.
Jon Garland may be the most under-appreciated pitcher on the free-agent market. Last season with the American League West Champion Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Garland went 14-8 with a 4.90 ERA. His overall career record is 106-89 with a 4.47 ERA.
Garland, who has shown throughout his career that can be relied on and is a durable starting pitcher, may be the most inexpensive out of the other two pitchers named. His addition to the young Orioles rotation would most certainly be welcomed.
While the Orioles need to address starting pitching, they must also look to fill the void at shortstop. Last season the Orioles started five different players at shortstop (Castro played the most games at shortstop with 61; batting only .193 on the season). This was more than any other team in baseball.
The gaping hole at shortstop was created after Team President Andy MacPhail traded Miguel Tejada to the Houston Astros
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about 1 month ago
Good read. As for the pitcher situation, I think that Burnett is the way to go. As you stated, he was not only healthy last season, but he was also the leader in K's. Only one thing: He was a #2 starter in Toronto, and if he comes to Baltimore, then odds are that he may be our #1. Well if that's the case, then Guthrie will be picking up the load of the victories next season.
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