MASN: Sifting through spring training storylines as report date nears

https://www.masnspor...port-date-nears

Props for this line...

Carlos Correa looks at Díaz and thinks, “Man, this guy’s had a crazy offseason.”

Ryan O’Hearn’s acceptance of an outright assignment to Triple-A after clearing waivers - a smart move considering that he agreed to a $1.4 million contract with the Royals to avoid arbitration - makes him a contender to fill in for Ryan Mountcastle. He fits the description of the left-handed bat that the Orioles wanted, and he also can play the corner outfield.

The fact that we are paying 1.4 million for a guy with a negative career WAR and a .220 BA and he's still a contender to fill in for Mountie shows how little Elias has done this offseason.

The fact that we are paying 1.4 million for a guy with a negative career WAR and a .220 BA and he's still a contender to fill in for Mountie shows how little Elias has done this offseason.

I'd argue that he has not done "little" at all, in fact I think the moves he has made were poor and overall negative.

1. Gibson? I'll call this a 50-50 move. Could turn out ok could turn out crappy.

2. Mychal Givens - also call this a 50-50 move.

3. Ryan Ohearn - negative move. $1.4M for a career negative player. Seriously?

4. Adam Frazier - negative move. Blocks the use of other players that might have a future with the club. Sure they can play them anyway but then why throw away $8M?

5. James McCann - positive move. I am fine with this one.

So overall I think he did worse than any tangible effort to improve the club.

The problem isn't the moves themselves, the problem is doing nothing to improve any of the spots that project to be the 15 or so most important on the roster.

5th SP

Backup C

Utility 2B/3B/LF (possible starter at 2B)

5th or 6th best MR

AAAA 1B

Even if you like all the guys we brought in for those roles, those were not in any way the roles that we most desperately needed improving.  We had all of those spots covered with a reasonable and cheap internal option except for Backup C.  What we needed was one (or two) really good SP and one (or two) really good bats.  Possibly the same positions, but not the same roles, as we needed to bring in higher caliber players for the positions and had ample opportunity to do so.

Its an absolute travesty that they've done zero to improve the the core of the roster.  Spending a lot on guys who modestly improve the fringes is pretty pointless and stupid.  I'd rather have pooled all of the money they've spent so far and gotten one actually good player, but that's a meaningless argument that lets them off the hook, as the idea that they only had that $25M or so to spend is obviously untrue.  They simply chose not to make any moves to improve 2023 that might in any way be a risk of not being helpful to some future rosters. 

Nobody in the management chain prioritizes 2023 in any meaningful way.