The Baltimore Orioles have made two moves so far this offseason, both addressing actual issues with the roster but neither a big enough move for a team that made the playoffs the last two years and now has a big opportunity to pass their most direct rivals in the American League East. Signing Tyler O’Neill and Gary Sánchez makes the team marginally better; they’re just not the big moves this team needs to make to project to 95 wins and a division title.
Baltimore’s projected lineup for 2025 leaned pretty left-handed, with several players who have shown real platoon issues. Colton Cowser hit .220/.283/.369 against southpaws, even with some days off when the opposing starter was left-handed, and struck out in over a third of his PA against them. He really hasn’t hit lefties at all since A-ball. Cedric Mullins hit .196/.228/.278 against lefties in 2024, and Ryan O’Hearn hit .262/.296/.310. Both Heston Kjerstad and Jackson Holliday hit left-handed, although neither has much of a sample of professional ABs against lefties yet. They could have a typical lineup with six left-handed hitters, including Gunnar Henderson (who has no platoon-split issues), for any given day in 2025, although the arrival of right-handed hitting infielder Coby Mayo may push someone else to the bench or out in a trade.
O’Neill helps with that about as much as anyone they could have acquired. His wRC+ against left-handed pitchers last year was the third-best in baseball, as he clobbered them for a .313/.430/.750 line. He has a career line against lefties of .270/.376/.547 with 32 homers in 516 PA. If he could only face left-handed pitchers and still play every day, he’d be an MVP candidate. But he doesn’t hit righties and never really has, while he’s a liability on defense beyond a strong arm.
The Orioles gave him three years and $49.5 million, which is more than you’d want to guarantee to a right-handed hitting platoon player who ideally wouldn’t play close to every day. O’Neill can only fill in for one of the above players, and most of his value will come in about 150 or so PA. He also has a pretty lengthy history of injuries, missing time on multiple occasions in 2023 and 2024 with knee problems, along with finger, back, and hamstring injuries, as well as a freakish leg infection that interrupted his 2024 season.
Adding Gary Sánchez on a one-year, $8.5 million deal is a much more sensible way to attack the same problem. Sánchez is nowhere near the lefty-masher that O’Neill is, with a career .215/.312/.476 line against them, but he’s good enough to be an improvement over several of their LH-only bats, and because he can catch he’s a much more efficient use of the backup catcher spot on the roster that is usually occupied by a guy who plays once a week and otherwise is kept behind emergency glass. Of course, O’Neill is the better player, even if we only think of these two guys as strict platoon players, but I can’t get behind guaranteeing three years to someone on the short side of a platoon with O’Neill’s history of missed time.
All of this is a way of saying to the Orioles, c’mon, do something. Juan Soto is out of the division. The Orioles won 91 games last year despite losing their No. 2 starter, Kyle Bradish, after just eight starts. Their ace, Corbin Burnes, is now a free agent, and their rotation right now would be Grayson Rodriguez, Zach Eflin, Albert Suarez, Dean Kremer, and one of a handful of candidates for the last spot, which is pretty clearly missing a top-end starter if this team wants to contend. (Rodriguez might get there this year, but his breaking ball remains a real question mark, and he missed about 10 starts in 2024 with shoulder and lat injuries.)
They could just re-sign Burnes, or they could use their surplus of bats — I heard something about them having too many left-handed guys — to try to go acquire a starter, perhaps dangling top prospect Samuel Basallo, a catcher with a cannon and excellent plate discipline who is blocked by Adley Rutschman. Ryan Mountcastle’s name seems to come up a lot in trade talks, as he’d start for a lot of teams but is rapidly sliding down the Orioles’ offensive depth chart.
They need another starter, and not just an innings guy. GM Mike Elias was willing to trade two very good young players, including prospect Joey Ortiz, to get Burnes last winter. They still have so many position players that they can do a similar trade this winter and upgrade their rotation again — and with the Yankees losing ground already after Soto left, this is the time to strike.
(Photo of Elias: Julio Cortez / Associated Press)
