Dead last, that is where the Baltimore Orioles sit in the MLB standings in the American League east and where they sit in Major League Baseball’s ranking of team payrolls. In total ‘The Birds’ have a roster payroll of $45,922,463 according to Spotrac.
To put it into perspective, the highest paid player in the MLB is New York Mets ace Max Scherzer at $43.3 million a season. According to a Washington Post article the Orioles spent less than $10 million on their roster during the offseason and it shows. The Orioles have a 6-13 record and are 3-7 in their last 10 games.
Injuries to John Means, Chris Ellis, and Dean Kremer have not helped matters much. Ellis in 8 games for the Orioles can account for a 1-0 record, while Kremer is 1-8 lifetime, hardly anything you can hang your hat on, no matter how high Ellis and Kremer may be as prospects. Now the O’s are in major survival mode with no real answers in sight.
Light at the end of the tunnel for the Orioles is through their pitching
The O’s best baseball came when they took 2 out of 3 from the Yankees in mid-April only to get blown away by the Bronx bombers early this week.
Nonetheless according to Camdenchat.com ‘The Birds’ are throwing more strikes this season, among the league’s best at 64% strike percentage.
Bruce Zimmermann has improved tenfold for the team but defensively the Orioles are a mess and manager Brandon Hyde has been left looking for answers for a team that will need to turn Oriole Park into a place the team can win, at the moment the club has a 3-3 record at home.
With virtually no major investment on the horizon the club will need to rely on the continued improvement of their pitching and lone bright spots like Ryan Mountcastle.
The Orioles have not had a winning season since 2016 and have been last in 4 of the last 5 seasons. All Brandon Hyde can do is to continue to improve his team from within, and the first place that has improved is pitching, at least statically, now defense is the next step. It could be worse; the Orioles could be the Cincinnati Reds.