They played hard, they played with a chip on their shoulders knowing they would never have the payroll or the publicity or the Sunday night appearances of the Yankees and Red Sox. Where once a visit from the Yankees or Red Sox nearly filled Camden Yards with visiting fans, the ballpark that changed sports was refilled with the stepchildren of Cal, Cakes, Flanny and Moose.
But rather than pay Johnson the more than $10 million he’d get in arbitration, they dumped him to sign Grant Balfour for $3.5 million less per season, then announced Balfour had flunked the club physical. And now, well, the Balfour “physical” fiasco has brought that culture back to reality. To begin with, reality is that they need to do everything in 2014 and 2015 to try to get back into the playoffs, because at the end of the 2015 season Wieters and Davis are going to be free agents, and as Scott Boras clients, they leave general manager Dan Duquette with two choices: play it out and try to get into the playoffs, or trade them off and try the long, slippery slide of rebuilding. The Cubs, for instance, discussed a Wieters-for-Jeff Samardzija deal, but decided against it because they have a better chance of signing Samardzija than they would Wieters.
Anyway, say they can get three players for Wieters. How will the Peter Angelos medicals impact the deal? On MLB Radio last Sunday, Jim Duquette (Dan's cousin and a former Orioles GM) recalled signings and deals that were killed in the past, from Jeromy Burnitz to Xavier Hernandez to Aaron Sele to Mike Lowell (the Lowell reversal also cost the O's A.J. Burnett, who would have been part of the deal) and Paul Konerko. Friday on MLB Network, Braves general manager Frank Wren recalled his days as Orioles GM and contended that when a deal was consummated and Angelos decided he didn’t like it, his way of reversing agreements was to pull out the medical card. Oh, if Pat Gillick would talk . . .
Maybe they'll sign Fernando Rodney now. Maybe Tommy Hunter closes, although left-handed batters had an .857 OPS with 11 homers in 177 plate appearances against him last season. They likely can’t sign Joel Hanrahan or Andrew Bailey because of the medicals; they tried to sign Gavin Floyd to a two-year deal, knowing he wouldn’t be ready to go into the rotation until midseason. Floyd signed with the Braves because he wanted a one-year deal so he could re-establish his health and head into the market again next November.
When Mike Napoli’s three-year deal with the Red Sox was held up by a hip condition he didn’t realize existed, the club issued no information, not even the simple admission that he had been signed. Eventually, they agreed to restructure the deal to a one-year pact built on incentives, and when he went back on the market this offseason he had at least two three-year offers. He settled for two years with the Red Sox because of his feelings for his teammates and the club.
That’s not going to happen with the Orioles, even with the character that manager Buck Showalter’s players have built across the clubhouse. The front office isn't going to spend to get premium free agents. Why would any player sign with them just because of great teammates, a great place to live, a great ballpark, knowing that the club may announce that the player is physically damaged goods?
The Orioles have made some good moves this offseason. Acquiring outfielder David Lough from the Royals for Danny Valencia was very smart. Signing Ryan Webb gives them a big bullpen arm. Bringing in pitching coach Dave Wallace was a tremendous move, especially since they have to develop their own young pitchers.
“There isn’t a team in the American League East with four core players better than Machado, Jones, Davis and Wieters,” says one GM in the division. A World Series with that foursome? In that park?
The last World Series game played in Baltimore was Oct. 12, 1983, a 4-1 Mike Boddicker complete-game victory over Charles Hudson and the Phillies. It was at Memorial Stadium; yes, there has never been a World Series game played at Camden Yards.
Machado, Wieters, Jones, Davis, Hardy, pitching prospect Kevin Gausman and second base prospect Jonathan Schoop will all be all right, down the line, but when? And where?
There was a time when busloads of members of the Willie Tasby Fan Club would make the pilgrimage from D.C. to Memorial Stadium to see the Orioles and Red Sox. “We have the Washington and Lincoln Monuments, we are here to see the Tasby Monument” was one of the phrases of the club that honored the player who played for the Senators, Red Sox and Orioles half a century ago. If this group of players never gets the chance to go further than they did in 2012, it will be because ownership made the small decisions to make Baltimore the wrong end of the Beltway.
