Baltimore Orioles: Team preview and prediction for 2020 season

Are the Baltimore Orioles in for another long season in 2020, or will we see progressive development of young talent and the shaping of a future contender?

The Baltimore Orioles are undeniably a team in transition right now, but that doesn’t mean no positives can arise from this 2020 season. Are the O’s going to make a playoff push this season?

Probably not. But in carefully dissecting their roster, it becomes abundantly clear that 2020 will be about getting the reps for the young players and pitchers that will very soon become the core of this Orioles franchise.

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One thing that is quietly going unnoticed by the baseball world is how well-run this organization is and how good Brandon Hyde is as the manager of this team. Did anybody else see what the O’s got out of Renato Nunez, Pedro Severino, and Hanser Alberto last year as outcasts scooped up from other organizations?

What about John Means, a 46th round draft pick back in 2011 that made his first All-Star Game in 2019 as a rookie and is now slated to be the number one pitcher of the O’s this season?

How about how the O’s have drafted or how they’ve traded star players for solid returns?

Look at the Keegan Akin, DL Hall, Tanner Scott, and Hunter Harvey draft picks among a slew of high-ceiling position players. Look at the Cody Carroll, Dean Kremer, Josh Rogers, and Dillon Tate trade returns they got for Manny Machado and Zack Britton. The Orioles haven’t been too good the last couple of years, but they’ve loaded up on prospects and now is the time I believe we will get to see the majority of them get their playing time.

The point I’m trying to make here is that the Orioles obviously aren’t a very good team right now, but they have a stable foundation with a host of young players and a manager that’s game for the rebuild. I’m excited to see what the Orioles do this year and if they can indeed play spoiler to a few of the sure-fire playoff teams in the process