The Orioles' Team Leader At Each Position During Their Endless Rebuild Reveals Its Deep Flaws

There are innumerable ways to assess and quantify a rebuild now seven-and-a-half seasons deep.

In the case of the Baltimore Orioles and Mike Elias, when its very brand was prioritizing hitting over pitching from a draft-and-developmental standpoint – including almost all of the money in international signings was also directed at bats and not arms, plus all those top 100 draft picks – it makes sense to analyze every position group.

This deep into the process, the leaderboards should be littered with top five selections who have at least become solid major leaguers. If Elias had a pulse on how to do this correctly, and understood when to move off veterans and sell high (Austin Hays, Ryan Mountcastle, Cedric Mullins)., it would look quite different And if he didn’t hug prospects too long and prioritize squeezing every ounce out of their arbitration years over getting them bled into the majors sooner, then this may have been a very different exercise.

The sad reality is, when you look at the most productive players at every position, it’s filled almost exclusively with place-holder types who the entire industry knew Elias was never going to win with. Setting the standard at 150 play appearances made while playing a specific position reveals the vast underbelly of Elias’s overly-lengthy and inefficient process.

The ridiculous fetish with platooning everyone and not letting prized kids become experts at a singular position shows up. His pathetic trade deadline moves show up. How much worse the Orioles were from a hitting standpoint than the average MLB team, let alone true contenders, shows up. The fact that so many players who just got here – Pete Alonso, Taylor Ward, Leody Taveras (now-injured Blaze Alexander would too if he didn’t move around to so many positions) – is indicative of how long Elias refused to make real MLB moves and refused to spend.

It should shame them, and it should be another data point leading to an inevitable purge of The Warehouse of not just Elias, but so many of his minions and sycophants. This study is, frankly, kind of heartbreaking.

Catcher

Innings: Adley Rutschman 3578, James McCann 1038 2/3, Samuel Basallo 548 2/3

HR – RBI: Rutschman 47 – 216

OBP: Rutschman .337 SLG: Basallo .463 OPS: Basallo .747

C OPS: .692 (13th since 2019)

The biggest issue here is that Rutschman simply hasn’t been behind the plate nearly enough, with 570 fewer plate appearances than the guy selected one pick later (Bobby Witt Jr.). How many would believe that Rutschman would be at the All-Star break of his age 28 season, only one year of arbitration left, and still wouldn’t have hit 50 HRs when he caught? Basallo isn’t 22 yet and already has 15 HR and 42 RBIs in 64 G as a catcher, truly historic production.

If they don’t trade Rutschman now they are even bigger fools than I thought.

First Base

Innings: Ryan Mountcastle 3287, Ryan O’Hearn 1248, Pete Alonso 788 1/3

HR-RBI: Mountcastle 50 – 181

OBP: Alonso .340 SLG: Alonso .453 OPS: Alonso .793

1B OPS: .736 (17th)

This position was supposed to be a moveable feast with their bevvy of position players bursting at the seams forcing them to rotate various bats at first and DH. Yeah right. Inherited Mountcastle, who never really had a future here, yet he is still here on the 60-day IL despite years of struggles at the plate.

Second Base

IP: Jackson Holliday 1984, Rougned Odor 1019 1/3, Adam Frazier 948 2/3

HR – RBI: Holliday 26 – 107

OBP: Jordan Westburg .304 SLG: Westburg .476 OPS: Westburg .786

2B OPS: .666 (23rd)

If they did this right, Witt at SS and Gunnar Henderson at 3B and Westburg at 2B might have changed everything. Holliday is going to have a hard time doing anything more than what Frazier provided in his year here. It’s not pretty.

Shortstop

IP: Gunnar Henderson 4053, Jorge Mateo 2200 1/3, Holliday 75

HR – RBI: Henderson 81 – 297

OBP: Henderson .339 SLG: Henderson .472 OPS: Henderson .811

SS OPS: .752 (5th)

The best pick Elias ever made, by far, shows up here. But years of collecting shortstops and boasting about them and their value didn’t do anything at all for them at the MLB level save for Joey Ortiz helping land one season of Corbin Burnes.

Third base

IP: Ramon Urias 2695 2/3, Westburg 1147, Henderson 767 1/3

HR – RBI: Urias 35 – 141

OBP: Emmanuel Rivera .331 SLG: Urias .415 OPS Rivera .742

This is a premium power and production position in MLB. This franchises overloaded premium draft capital into alleged left-side of the IF impact players. Yeah, Rivera got 150 PA at 3B. No, Mayo doesn’t have the glove for this position but prepare to see a lot of it because there is nothing else in the system with Westburg hurt again.

Right Field

IP: Anthony Santander 2606 1/3, Tyler O’Neill 649 2/3, Austin Hays 479

HR – RBI: Santander 69 - 170

OBP: O’Hearn .381 SLG: Ramon Laureano .525 OPS: O’Hearn .890

RF OPS: .759 (9th)

Pathetic they couldn’t get anything out of a top two pick (Heston Kjerstad) even at this position. Never sold high on Santander and time well tell if they got anything much at all for sending O’Hearn and Laureano to the Padres at the deadline last year. No homegrown guys anywhere near the leaders here despite fetishizing college OF. Kyle Stowers woulda crushed Camden Yards.

Centerfield

IP: Cedric Mullins 4016, Colton Cowser 1072 1/3, Leody Taveras 500 1/3

HR – RBI: Mullins 64- 242

OBP: Taveras .322 SLG: Mullins .415 OPS: Mullins .725

CF OPS: .694 (19th)

Sadly, the two first-round picks they took to try to replace Mullins can’t hit in the minors and/or stay healthy. Cowser can’t hit lefties or offspeed pitches or get on base or stop striking out but offers sporadic power. Good luck with that. If they thought Cowser could really do this job he’d have a helluva lot innings played than this there by now.

Leftfield

IP: Hays 2223, Cowser 1273 1/3, Taylor Ward 703

HR – RBI: Hays 26 – 121

OBP: Santander .357 SLG: Santander .591 OPS: Santander .948

LF OPS: .745 (10th)

Hays started an All-Star Game and they didn’t sell him then, and waited to get a washed relief arm for him instead before he walked. With how Santander mashed when he played LF, probably shoulda played there more but Hays was always in the way. They butchered their ballpark twice and made left field quite challenging and drafted all those college OFs, and none of them could realty even play right field let alone handle LF in Mike and Sig’s version of OPCY. Sad.

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