Remember a few weeks ago, just after the Orioles lost to the Kansas City Royals in the American League Championship Series, when we wondered if the season the Birds had would be enough to forget the sting of coming up short in the quest for a World Series title?
That question now has to be replaced by these two: First, are you OK with what the team has done since that last out was recorded in Kansas City? And secondly, if general manager Dan Duquette doesn’t add any significant pieces to the roster as it is currently constituted, can the 2015 Orioles come close to matching, much less exceeding, what the 2014 team did? Hardly anyone who bleeds black and orange can answer the first question in the affirmative.
In one breathtaking week, the Birds saw two-thirds of their starting outfield as well as a key cog in their bullpen machine all take off for other teams, while a possible replacement signed somewhere else. That the Orioles would lose slugger Nelson Cruz was a lock. The club got him at the baseball bargain basement price of $8 million for one season, coming off a 50-game suspension in 2013 for using a performance enhancing drug. Once Cruz cleaned up his reputation, and particularly after he led the major leagues in home runs this year, you just knew that he would command a price tag that the Orioles couldn’t or wouldn’t pay. And, as it turns out, Cruz signed a four year, $58 million deal with Seattle. The Orioles missed a chance to sign Cruz’s replacement when Melky Cabrera signed a three year contract with the Chicago White Sox over the weekend.
The Birds also lost Andrew Miller, a brilliant young left handed reliever they obtained from Boston in July. Miller was sensational down the stretch and could have been the next Orioles closer. Instead, he will ply his trade with the hated Yankees, having signed a four-year, $36 million deal.