Baltimore Orioles could push to keep free agents

Every team in Major League Baseball will have a to-do list this offseason, but the Baltimore Orioles may have one of the longest. Several of the Orioles’ key players will become free agents this winter, complicating the club’s plan to rebound after a disappointing 2015 campaign.

Winners of the AL East crown a year ago, the O’s finished third in the division this season with an 81-81 record. Despite the drop in performance, owner Peter Angelos recently backed manager Buck Showalter and GM Dan Duquette to remain at their posts.

According to Roch Kubatko of MASN.com, Angelos also expressed his desire to re-sign starting pitcher Wei-Yin Chen as well as make another significant addition to the starting rotation at a meeting of the organization’s top brass last week.

Kubatko views Chen as perhaps the least likely Orioles free agent to return to the club in 2016, and he may be correct. After the top tier of the starting pitching market (David Price, Zack Greinke, Johnny Cueto) sorts itself out, Chen will be a very attractive mid-level option for teams in need of rotation help.

The 30-year-old lefty led Orioles starters with a 3.34 ERA over 191.1 innings pitched in 2015. He has quietly been very solid over his first four seasons in the major leagues, posting an overall 46-32 record, 3.72 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 2.2 BB/9 and 7.0 K/9 in a challenging division. Kubatko feels that Chen should surpass the four-year, $50 million deal that Baltimore gave to Ubaldo Jimenez in 2014. That’s a fair bet.

The O’s need to improve their pitching staff, but it may be difficult to do so satisfactorily considering all the other pieces they aim to retain. First baseman Chris Davis is unsurprisingly their top priority according to Duquette, and after swatting a league-leading 47 homers someone is going to hand him a nice contract.

Other lineup members such as outfielder Gerardo Parra and catcher Matt Wieters are in the mix as well, along with bullpen leader Darren O’Day.

There is also the long-term future of third baseman Manny Machado to think about, as posited by Steve Melewski, also of MASN.com. The 23-year-old’s own free agency date is rapidly approaching in the wake of the 2018 season. The Orioles would do well to lock him up sooner rather than later, especially after the kind of numbers he put up this year.

Machado posted a .286/.359/.502 batting line, 35 home runs and 86 RBI while playing top-notch defense. His 7.1 WAR was fifth-best in the AL and he figures to remain a factor in MVP races for seasons to come.

To put it simply, if the Orioles want to achieve their offseason goals, they are going to have to open their checkbook more than they have in recent years. They did break custom by ponying up $85.5 million to extend Adam Jones back in 2012.

The reports out of last week’s meeting might give fans some hope that the organization could actually adopt a more aggressive spending approach. But those same fans will know all too well the franchise’s relatively thrifty track record under Angelos.

Baltimore’s should be one of the more compelling situations to monitor when free agency opens next month.

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