I wanted to revisit the Orioles’ group of mid-20s starting pitchers and how the injuries to ace John Means and top prospect Grayson Rodriguez have gifted them even more opportunity in 2022.
We could have talked about Adley Rutschman still not having a home run or RBI nearly three weeks into his major league career and whether that’s reason for concern yet.
Austin Hays and Trey Mancini are having really strong seasons at the plate, the bullpen continues to impress, and 20-year-old infielder Gunnar Henderson is looking more and more exciting as a high-end prospect at Triple-A Norfolk.
But that all feels trivial on the heels of The Baltimore Banner breaking the story about the Peter Angelos family feuding over control of the franchise and the estate. By now, you’re aware of Louis Angelos filing a lawsuit against brother John and mother Georgia that feels like only the tip of the iceberg of a very messy and sad situation. As it pertains to baseball and the Orioles, taking sides or rooting for one family member over the other at this stage feels futile, especially with only one side of the story presented thus far. After all, we’re talking about a family whose patriarch largely ran a once-proud franchise into the ground over a quarter century, and even the positive steps taken in the midst of the current rebuild are of a more prerequisite nature than evidence of an overwhelming commitment to lift the Orioles to greatness. Beefing up analytics and player development efforts, building an academy in the Dominican Republican, and spending allotted bonus pool money hardly require the same financial commitment as an annual major league payroll of $150 million, which is right around average in today’s game. Regardless of one’s own feelings about the rebuild and whether it will work, the Orioles have saved plenty of money during this process, which is why many are skeptical of the multiyear teardowns we’ve witnessed around baseball in recent years.
To be clear, I’m not about to express any real concern or sound the alarm about a potential relocation of the franchise to Nashville simply because of some speculative mentions in a lawsuit, but that doesn’t mean the future of the franchise in Baltimore is healthy either. That the Orioles couldn’t draw 20,000 fans on the third Saturday night in May even before news broke that Rutschman was being summoned to the majors — they didn’t draw 20,000 for his T-shirt night during the last homestand either — speaks volumes about where local interest currently lies beyond a diehard base still holding on for better or worse. When you operate as though the major league product doesn’t matter for multiple seasons — which includes the nickel-and-diming of the TV and radio broadcasts — the public tends to believe you after a while.
This is where we come to that hopeful light at the end of the rebuilding tunnel we’ve anticipated for years now.
From a player development standpoint, the Orioles are in better shape than they’ve been in years with general manager Mike Elias overseeing a top-ranked farm system, an improving international presence, and a modernized focus on analytics and technology. And while some of the improvement talk this season is exaggerated for a club still on pace to lose 95 games, there are promising signs at the major league level. But this is an organization still without great pitching depth in its system and in need of significant financial commitments to add outside talent to contend, especially in the American League East. Otherwise, you’re merely hoping for a lightning-in-a-bottle scenario and otherwise content to remain in a perpetual state of rebuilding — and saving money in the process — since you’re never quite “ready” to take that next step.
Thursday’s bombshell story only casts doubt on the proper financial support coming when it’s time to “flip the switch,” which should really begin this offseason with so many of the Orioles’ top prospects now in the majors or at Triple-A. In a similar way to how the MASN dispute — which still isn’t resolved, mind you — was perceived as a roadblock for former general manager Dan Duquette to maximize the club’s competitive window last decade, the Angeloses now feuding over the club and the family estate doesn’t inspire confidence that Elias will receive the necessary backing to spend more meaningful money on baseball players in the near future.
Admittedly, many of the legal ramifications of this mess are above this writer’s pay grade to try to predict what will happen, but the potential saving grace of this embarrassing situation would be an expedited sale of the club. And though the intentions of a new ownership group might be unsettling when pondering the Orioles’ future in Baltimore, the state of Maryland recently committing $1.2 billion for upgrades to Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium as well as MLB’s aversion to relocating clubs — there’s been only one move in the last 50 years despite no shortage of floundering teams over that period — should provide significant peace of mind despite the current absence of a long-term lease.
The problem is how long a resolution could take and how it could potentially impact Elias and a major league club with a payroll currently in the basement. A new Angelos family legal battle prolonging what’s already been a brutal period of losing would be devastating to the Orioles while further cementing an abysmal baseball legacy that includes just seven winning seasons and five playoff appearances since Peter Angelos became principal owner at the end of 1993. The latest development only reinforces a need for new ownership if this franchise ever hopes to approach a period of prosperity close to what it enjoyed through the 1960s, 70s, and early 80s.
Just when you thought the Orioles might be turning the corner on the field, a reminder of what’s largely driven their misery for the better part of the last three decades has returned to the forefront, subduing that light at the end of the tunnel.
