The Baltimore Orioles entered the 2015 Major League Baseball season fresh off of their first American League Eastern Division Title since 1997. And with that the Orioles were once again expected to contend for the AL East Title this year. But that hasn’t been the case for the O’s who find themselves limping to the finish line in 2015. The Orioles have a record of 67-72 which finds them in fourth place in the division as things never got going for them this year.
The Orioles were able to win 96 games last year as they advanced to the American League Championship Series. But the O’s suffered some big defections in free agency as they lost designated hitter Nelson Cruz to the Seattle Mariners and longtime outfielder Nick Markakis to the Atlanta Braves. Cruz led the Orioles last season in home runs (40) and runs batted in (108) while Markakis led the club in on-base percentage (.342) while winning a pair of AL Gold Gloves during his time in Baltimore. The O’s also failed to re-sign relief pitcher Andrew Miller who joined the New York Yankees this past off-season and has developed into one of the top closers in the AL. The Orioles have never been more than seven games over .500 this year and the bottom officially fell out for towards the end of last month as they have lost 15 out of their last 20 games to fall out of contention in the AL East.
The departures of Cruz and Markakis have not prevented Orioles outfielder Adam Jones from having another solid year. This past July, Jones made his fifth trip to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game and he his currently batting .272 with 25 home runs and 69 runs batted in as he is on pace for his third season of which he hit at least 30 homers in the last four years. The Orioles young third baseman Manny Machado has used 2015 to come into his own. After working back from a knee injury last year, Machado is one pace for his first 30-homer season of his brief MLB career and at just 23-years of age, he has established himself as the everyday guy at the hot corner in Baltimore. After leading the AL in home runs in 2013 with 53, Orioles first baseman Chris Davis spent 2014 battling injuries and a suspension for Adderall. But Davis has re-emerged this year to lead MLB in homers with 41.
The Orioles lineup has been able to survive the defections from this past off-season, but a big part of the Orioles problems this year has been their pitching. Whereas the O’s were third in the American League in team earned run average last year, they are tenth this year with a team earned run average of 3.98. Orioles pitching is also 13th in the AL in quality starts with 61 while they have allowed the third most home runs on the Junior Circuit (154). Led by starting pitcher Wei-Yin Chen’s 16 victories in 2014, Baltimore had four starting pitchers win at least 10 games last year. This season starting pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez is leading the O’s with 11 wins and he is the only starting pitcher in Baltimore that has won at least 10 games. And without solid pitching in the AL East, it is difficult for any team to remain in contention.
Buck Showalter
Buck Showalter is currently in his fifth full season as the manager of the Orioles and when he first arrived in Baltimore, he had a tough task as he had to change the culture there. Under Showalter, the Orioles have finished the last three years with winning records which is the first time that they’ve done that since 1994 and they still have an outside shot to accomplish another winning season in 2015. The Orioles are Showalter’s fourth stop along his journey as a Major League Baseball manager. But unlike Showalter’s time with the Yankees, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Texas Rangers, he appears to have not worn out his welcome in Baltimore and he still has his finger on the pulse of this club. But it will be tough for the Orioles to maintain their recent level of success as a potentially difficult off-season is looming.
After losing Davis, Cruz, and Miller last year, the O’s cannot afford to have another large round of defections this year. Davis, catcher Matt Wieters, utility man Steve Pearce, relief pitcher Darren O’Day, and Chen are all scheduled to become free agents this off-season with Davis, Chen, and Wieters all represented by super agent Scott Boras who has been known to bleed organizations dry for compensation for his clients which means that this will be a very different Orioles team in 2016. Unfortunately with the luxury tax and parity, this is the new Major League Baseball and with Orioles owner Peter Angelos unwilling to go over the luxury tax like most owners are, there is a possibility that Baltimore won’t be a contender in 2016. But knowing Showalter along with a nucleus of Jones and Machado, that won’t prevent the O’s from having one of the most scrappiest clubs in baseball.
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