Baltimore Orioles protected list
The idea of a protected list is to protect players during an Expansion Draft that may occur sometime in the relatively near future. These lists are my guesses on who would be protected right now and who'd likely be available. In addition, I'd list the player I'd be most inclined to select if I was drafting for an expansion team. This list will be updated when transactions come in and when the 40 man roster changes.
Protected list:
John Means is a solid pre arbitration pitcher with all three option years intact and only 1 year of service time. He made the all star team last year and is poised to do so more often if Trey Mancini is traded like everyone expects him to be. This is what got Means to the top of my protected list despite the risk that he'll turn into a pumpkin.
Trey Mancini is a cheaper Nicholas Castellanos that should either play 1st base or DH instead of the outfield. He's going to be a free agent after 2022 so he's got some trade value and having three option years never hurts the team's flexibility.
Ryan Mountcastle needs Chris Davis out of the way to prove that he isn't Shea Hillenbrand 2.0 (not walking much and striking out too much) even if that's a massive upgrade for them. He's a top prospect for them that is pretty much ready as a hitter but has no real defensive home.
Keegan Akin is a solid pitching prospect with a good three pitch mix and enough command of his stuff. His high walk rate in AAA is concerning but a lot of pitchers in AAA had abnormally high walk rates and strikeout rates (Hector Noesi with more than 9 K/9!). Akin should be protected because he can be a multi inning relief beast like Josh Hader at worst and he could be a solid starting pitcher.
DJ Stewart looks like Anthony Santander with better plate discipline. As such, he's earned himself a spot on the protected list. The reason he is higher is because he has an additional year of team control and an additional option year.
Chance Sisco is a bat first catcher that seems to have defensive issues, but his bat makes them tolerable enough for him to start as a part of a platoon. That potential, his one year of service time and option year left keeps him on the protected list for now.
Anthony Santander is a solid corner outfielder who should NEVER play center field. He has five more years of control, but only one more option year.
Cole Sulser is a bit of a relatively unknown commodity considering he has only 7 1/3 innings in the MLB. But in AAA he has had excellent strikeout to walk rates over the last two years. Even though he's shown some flyball tendencies, his strikeout to walk rate suggests he's the second best reliever on the Orioles right now. He's got plenty of team control (six years) and he still has all three option years. Those factors have me rank him higher than Mychal despite Mychal being a known commodity.
Rio Ruiz is a solid stopgap 3rd baseman who can play above average defense but his hitting can use some work. Fortunately, he has five years of control left and two more option years if necessary.
Hunter Harvey is a former top prospect that has two plus pitches (very good, aka 60 grade) in his fastball and curveball, he also is the son of former all star closer Bryan Harvey. Harvey has been extremely injury prone and his career high in innings pitched is 87 2/3 back in 2014. He's got potential as a multi inning reliever who could perhaps transition back to starting if he can stay healthy or stay as a multi inning capable reliever. That kind of value, uncertainty, six years of team control but one option year in addition to averaging 98.4 mph as a reliever in 6 1/3 IP gets him protected.
Mychal Givens has been a given at the high leverage/closer role for the last three years now. He's definitely on the protected list because he's arguably their best reliever, one of their best trade chips because he's not too much money yet because of arbitration and because he still has three option years which is always an added bit of flexibility for a team.
Hanser Alberto is a very good utility guy that is much more valuable than Wilkerson. He should be protected despite being in arbitration years and having no options left because he's also a trade chip.
Paul Fry is a good reliever with better K/BB rates than Castro and generates a lot more groundballs. He's got five more years of service time and all three option years intact. Based on his decent floor, that's why I have him above top prospects Yusniel Díaz and Austin Hays.
Yusniel Díaz is a top prospect with solid plate discipline and hitting tools. He hasn't even played in AAA but has been above average in AA in the last two years. Most players like him would have normally been sent up to AAA, however, teams weren't sure how much of an effect the MLB ball would have on hitters and pitchers heading into 2019. Turns out, the MLB ball (aka the happy fun ball) made AAA extremely hitter friendly (like the KBO had been before 2019 as they switched to the NPB ball this year). Since he projects for a 1 WAR season right now, has six years of team control, and has all three option years he is on the protected list.
Austin Hays is similar to Yusniel Díaz above him except he only has one option year left, can play center field and has plate discipline issues. That's why he's just below Díaz.
Unprotected:
Dean Kremer is also a top 15 prospect for the Orioles who got four good starts in AAA (that is, if he didn't have an overly inflated babip or low strand rate.). He should be competing for a starting rotation spot this year and he would be my pick in an expansion draft scenario. That's why he's barely above Lowther since they're both pretty close in value.
Zac Lowther is a top 10 prospect for the Orioles. He just completed a solid year in AA albeit with a walk rate spike that was somewhat surprising considering his 45 grade command and the fact that he's never had a walk rate of more than 2.7 BB/9 until this season. Considering that increased walk rate, the fact that he's not even rule 5 elligible (referring to the rule 5 draft in December), and the fact that he's a pitcher means he just misses the protected list as pitchers are often much riskier than position players and relievers are even riskier than starting pitchers.
Alex Wells is a crafty sort of left handed starting pitcher like Andrew Albers is. This guy has a sneaky kind of value in being good while eating innings. He's the type of guy you'd prefer to have as a depth option but he's a relatively safe, bland starting pitcher. He doesn't make the protected list for now, but let's see what he can do in AAA.
Michael Baumann is in a similar state as Lowther except he's never had very good walk rates for very long. In fact, his 2.7 BB/9 in AA is his lowest BB/9 for any level with more than an inning pitched. Because of his previous history he's below Lowther, but higher than Scott.
Tanner Scott may have just one option year left, but as long as he can get his walk rate back down to his 2018 levels (which his AAA numbers suggest he should be able to do) he can become the best reliever that Baltimore has while occasionally getting more than three outs since he was a starter in the minor leagues. That potential, the fact that his current problems seem to be fixable, coupled with his five years of team control have him above Bleier.
Richard Bleier isn't your conventional reliever by any stretch of the means as he doesn't throw hard (88.9 mph average fastball velocity) or get strikeouts (4.3 K/9 and 11.6%). What Bleier does exceptionally well is limit walks (1.5 BB/9 and 4.0% BB) and generate groundballs at 62.2% for his career. In other words, he's a wormburner and that coupled with his low walk tendencies make him a very useful reliever that can be burned if the defense behind him is substandard. (Baltimore's defense definitely is substandard overall.) He's another small trade chip because he can definitely improve his ERA with a team that has better defense. Bleier's off the protected list to protect prospects like Yusniel Díaz, Keegan Akin, etc.
Chandler Shepherd is a controllable right handed starting pitcher depth option that has better groundball tendencies and good results in AAA, just not quite as good as Hess was in AAA this year. They're about the same in talent, but Shepherd has an additional year of team control and an additional option year. That's why he's above Hess and Kohl Stewart.
Kohl Stewart is similar to Shepherd except he gets less strikeouts and generally allows more walks. Fortunately for him, he gets a lot more groundballs and that makes his value about the same as his. The reason he is just below is because he costs approximately $220,000 more, has slightly more service time and has more issues with his K/BB rates.
David Hess is a controllable right handed starting pitcher depth option that has flyball tendencies and some walk issues. However, he has improved his strikeout rate an extra strikeout per nine innings over last year without walking more batters (+.2 per nine but the 8.2% is the same as last year. Since he's not likely to get an opportunity here in Baltimore, maybe he should be released to sign with a foreign league; he could also traded to the Kansas City Royals or the Detroit Tigers as that would give him more of a safety net since Camden Yards is a lot more hitter friendly than Comerica Park and Kauffman Stadium along with the foreign leagues give fringey players like him an opportunity to prove themselves. For those reasons, since he only has one option year and more than a year of service time he's not on the protected list despite having shown some massive improvements in AAA.
Ryan Eades is a reliever like Cole Sulser except he has one less option year and he's not quite as good as Sulser. In addition, he has less success in AAA than Sulser so he's not on the protected list. But he should be a valuable asset to Baltimore for years to come.
Shawn Armstrong is a worse version of Cole Sulser as he walks more batters. He used to get more groundballs, but his current amounts are bad. Fortunately, he gets enough strikeouts to make due. He's down here because he has four years of team control left and no options remaining.
Renato Nuñez as DH/1B is down here because his offense at 1B is theoretically easy to replace and his defense in a small sample was bad despite having a decent run at 3rd base last year. Considering this along with his past defense at 3rd base, and his five years of team control pushes his ranking higher than it normally would be, but I'd tentatively have him off the protected list since he has no option years left.
Dillion Tate is similar to the last two pitchers as he can pitch multiple innings, but unlike them he has shown a tendency to generate groundballs frequently and has two option years in addition to six years of team control. The main reason he is above them is because he has some MLB experience.
Brandon Bailey, one of the two Baltimore Orioles rule 5 draft picks is a lot like Asher Wojciechowski except he gets more groundballs (barely) and has more upside as he's 25 years old. His three option years, six years of team control, and other factors listed earlier is why Bailey is higher than Wojciechowski.
Michael Rucker was mainly used as a multi inning long reliever, and while that has value he could also be a starting pitcher like Brandon Bailey. If anything, we know he can be an effective starting pitcher in AA and he might just be better than Bailey.
Pedro Severino is Chance Sisco's platoon partner at catcher. He's an ok hitter for a catcher who generally has had about average framing ratings. For him to suddenly have such a horrible framing rating sounds kind of far fetched to me, but 2020 is a new year. Overall, he's not worth protection considering his performance, he's got four years of team control and no option years left.
Rylan Bannon isn't even a 40 man roster guy but I happen to like him since he's shown good power numbers (when he hits more flyballs) along with solid plate discipline. He is a nifty player who I'd want to stash in AAA and maybe have start at 2nd base when Hanser Alberto is traded. Not protection list worthy yet, but he could be in short order.
Evan Phillips is a AAAA reliever who gets results in AAA but his 6.81 BB/9 won't fly unless he brings his strikeout rate up higher than the 10.89 K/9 he has for his MLB career and his groundball rate towards his previous minor league levels. For now he's not on the protected list despite having six years of team control and an option year remaining.
Asher Wojciechowski (nailed that first try in spelling it!) is a starting pitcher that gets a good amount of strikeouts while having a roughly average walk rate. His flyball rate is scary enough that most teams wouldn't have him in the MLB but he's just a fill in starter for Baltimore.
Miguel Castro is a fringey reliever that isn't related to Fidel Castro as far as I know. He throws really hard but he's not getting enough strikeouts to mitigate his walk problems. His groundball rate means he'd probably stay on the 26 man roster but he's not worth protecting because he's worse than Bleier, he's got about the same amount of service time and has one option year left.
Ryan McKenna is a top prospect that is in a similar position to Cedric Mullens Jr was in last year. Unfortunately, he looks like he strikes out too much considering his lack of home run power. Fortunately, he takes walks, has good defensive ratings, good speed and baserunning, (per scouts and some stolen base statistics.)
Cedric Mullens Jr is a better fielding version of Smith Jr that has two option years left and six years of team control. Since he has more potential to be a good player, can fake it in center field, has more team control and option years compared to Smith and that's why he's higher than them.
Richie Martin is a better version of Stevie Wilkerson right now since he can fake it at shortstop since the throwing errors are fixable and that should lower the negative defensive score and increase his value. His bat is very bad, but he can steal bases and should be able to be an asset on the bases. Unfortunately, he's probably going to be in AAA this year and I can't see a reason to put him on the protected list.
Austin Wynns is a decent backup catcher that is very expendable.
Stevie Wilkerson is a decent utility guy that isn't very good and not worth having on the protected list.
Richard Ureña is the same kind of guy as Wilkerson, except he is younger, has one more year of team control, has no option years and can fake shortstop. That's why he is slightly below Wilkerson.
Branden Kline had been a promising pitching prospect before he missed 2016 and 2017 from surgeries on his elbow. Since then he's taken to being a reliever relatively well before this year where he had been getting 11 K/9 in the minor leagues this year but he was allowing nearly 6 BB/9 so that strikeout rate increase did no good. His MLB numbers (7.5 K and 4.2 BB/9 with a 5.93 ERA, 5.87 FIP, 5.15 xFIP, 4.98 SIERA) are replacement level quality. He's still not anything more than a depth arm unless he can prove himself in the upper minors.
Eric Hanhold is another AAA depth guy who was good last year in AA and AAA but his strikeout rate went way down and his walk rate also went up. His groundball tendencies are what kept him relatively ok. Fortunately, he has less service time than Kline and that's why he's above Smith Jr and barely above Carroll on this list.
Cody Carroll and Hanhold are essentially interchangeable except Carroll played more in AAA and has flyball tendencies, but pretty much missed all of 2019 and is a year older. That puts him slightly below Hanhold for now.
Dwight Smith Jr is a AAAA guy that really should go over to Japan or the KBO if he wants consistent playing time and more money since he's not quite an MLB caliber hitter and his defense is bad.
Alex Cobb is an injury prone pitcher who is more good than great. His cost and injury history coupled with the fact that he's being paid $14.25 million a year means it's no surprise that he's off the protected list.
Chris Davis, the man who has been the worst player in the MLB over the last two seasons is also the most overpaid player as he's being paid $23 million annually to bat .160. Eating sunken costs so the team can have a much better player doesn't sound that crazy to me, but MLB teams HATE eating big sunk costs because to them it's like admitting that they made a massive mistake in signing that player. The Orioles likely will admit this mistake soon enough in the 2020 season.
Protected list:
John Means is a solid pre arbitration pitcher with all three option years intact and only 1 year of service time. He made the all star team last year and is poised to do so more often if Trey Mancini is traded like everyone expects him to be. This is what got Means to the top of my protected list despite the risk that he'll turn into a pumpkin.
Trey Mancini is a cheaper Nicholas Castellanos that should either play 1st base or DH instead of the outfield. He's going to be a free agent after 2022 so he's got some trade value and having three option years never hurts the team's flexibility.
Ryan Mountcastle needs Chris Davis out of the way to prove that he isn't Shea Hillenbrand 2.0 (not walking much and striking out too much) even if that's a massive upgrade for them. He's a top prospect for them that is pretty much ready as a hitter but has no real defensive home.
Keegan Akin is a solid pitching prospect with a good three pitch mix and enough command of his stuff. His high walk rate in AAA is concerning but a lot of pitchers in AAA had abnormally high walk rates and strikeout rates (Hector Noesi with more than 9 K/9!). Akin should be protected because he can be a multi inning relief beast like Josh Hader at worst and he could be a solid starting pitcher.
DJ Stewart looks like Anthony Santander with better plate discipline. As such, he's earned himself a spot on the protected list. The reason he is higher is because he has an additional year of team control and an additional option year.
Chance Sisco is a bat first catcher that seems to have defensive issues, but his bat makes them tolerable enough for him to start as a part of a platoon. That potential, his one year of service time and option year left keeps him on the protected list for now.
Anthony Santander is a solid corner outfielder who should NEVER play center field. He has five more years of control, but only one more option year.
Cole Sulser is a bit of a relatively unknown commodity considering he has only 7 1/3 innings in the MLB. But in AAA he has had excellent strikeout to walk rates over the last two years. Even though he's shown some flyball tendencies, his strikeout to walk rate suggests he's the second best reliever on the Orioles right now. He's got plenty of team control (six years) and he still has all three option years. Those factors have me rank him higher than Mychal despite Mychal being a known commodity.
Rio Ruiz is a solid stopgap 3rd baseman who can play above average defense but his hitting can use some work. Fortunately, he has five years of control left and two more option years if necessary.
Hunter Harvey is a former top prospect that has two plus pitches (very good, aka 60 grade) in his fastball and curveball, he also is the son of former all star closer Bryan Harvey. Harvey has been extremely injury prone and his career high in innings pitched is 87 2/3 back in 2014. He's got potential as a multi inning reliever who could perhaps transition back to starting if he can stay healthy or stay as a multi inning capable reliever. That kind of value, uncertainty, six years of team control but one option year in addition to averaging 98.4 mph as a reliever in 6 1/3 IP gets him protected.
Mychal Givens has been a given at the high leverage/closer role for the last three years now. He's definitely on the protected list because he's arguably their best reliever, one of their best trade chips because he's not too much money yet because of arbitration and because he still has three option years which is always an added bit of flexibility for a team.
Hanser Alberto is a very good utility guy that is much more valuable than Wilkerson. He should be protected despite being in arbitration years and having no options left because he's also a trade chip.
Paul Fry is a good reliever with better K/BB rates than Castro and generates a lot more groundballs. He's got five more years of service time and all three option years intact. Based on his decent floor, that's why I have him above top prospects Yusniel Díaz and Austin Hays.
Yusniel Díaz is a top prospect with solid plate discipline and hitting tools. He hasn't even played in AAA but has been above average in AA in the last two years. Most players like him would have normally been sent up to AAA, however, teams weren't sure how much of an effect the MLB ball would have on hitters and pitchers heading into 2019. Turns out, the MLB ball (aka the happy fun ball) made AAA extremely hitter friendly (like the KBO had been before 2019 as they switched to the NPB ball this year). Since he projects for a 1 WAR season right now, has six years of team control, and has all three option years he is on the protected list.
Austin Hays is similar to Yusniel Díaz above him except he only has one option year left, can play center field and has plate discipline issues. That's why he's just below Díaz.
Unprotected:
Dean Kremer is also a top 15 prospect for the Orioles who got four good starts in AAA (that is, if he didn't have an overly inflated babip or low strand rate.). He should be competing for a starting rotation spot this year and he would be my pick in an expansion draft scenario. That's why he's barely above Lowther since they're both pretty close in value.
Zac Lowther is a top 10 prospect for the Orioles. He just completed a solid year in AA albeit with a walk rate spike that was somewhat surprising considering his 45 grade command and the fact that he's never had a walk rate of more than 2.7 BB/9 until this season. Considering that increased walk rate, the fact that he's not even rule 5 elligible (referring to the rule 5 draft in December), and the fact that he's a pitcher means he just misses the protected list as pitchers are often much riskier than position players and relievers are even riskier than starting pitchers.
Alex Wells is a crafty sort of left handed starting pitcher like Andrew Albers is. This guy has a sneaky kind of value in being good while eating innings. He's the type of guy you'd prefer to have as a depth option but he's a relatively safe, bland starting pitcher. He doesn't make the protected list for now, but let's see what he can do in AAA.
Michael Baumann is in a similar state as Lowther except he's never had very good walk rates for very long. In fact, his 2.7 BB/9 in AA is his lowest BB/9 for any level with more than an inning pitched. Because of his previous history he's below Lowther, but higher than Scott.
Tanner Scott may have just one option year left, but as long as he can get his walk rate back down to his 2018 levels (which his AAA numbers suggest he should be able to do) he can become the best reliever that Baltimore has while occasionally getting more than three outs since he was a starter in the minor leagues. That potential, the fact that his current problems seem to be fixable, coupled with his five years of team control have him above Bleier.
Richard Bleier isn't your conventional reliever by any stretch of the means as he doesn't throw hard (88.9 mph average fastball velocity) or get strikeouts (4.3 K/9 and 11.6%). What Bleier does exceptionally well is limit walks (1.5 BB/9 and 4.0% BB) and generate groundballs at 62.2% for his career. In other words, he's a wormburner and that coupled with his low walk tendencies make him a very useful reliever that can be burned if the defense behind him is substandard. (Baltimore's defense definitely is substandard overall.) He's another small trade chip because he can definitely improve his ERA with a team that has better defense. Bleier's off the protected list to protect prospects like Yusniel Díaz, Keegan Akin, etc.
Chandler Shepherd is a controllable right handed starting pitcher depth option that has better groundball tendencies and good results in AAA, just not quite as good as Hess was in AAA this year. They're about the same in talent, but Shepherd has an additional year of team control and an additional option year. That's why he's above Hess and Kohl Stewart.
Kohl Stewart is similar to Shepherd except he gets less strikeouts and generally allows more walks. Fortunately for him, he gets a lot more groundballs and that makes his value about the same as his. The reason he is just below is because he costs approximately $220,000 more, has slightly more service time and has more issues with his K/BB rates.
David Hess is a controllable right handed starting pitcher depth option that has flyball tendencies and some walk issues. However, he has improved his strikeout rate an extra strikeout per nine innings over last year without walking more batters (+.2 per nine but the 8.2% is the same as last year. Since he's not likely to get an opportunity here in Baltimore, maybe he should be released to sign with a foreign league; he could also traded to the Kansas City Royals or the Detroit Tigers as that would give him more of a safety net since Camden Yards is a lot more hitter friendly than Comerica Park and Kauffman Stadium along with the foreign leagues give fringey players like him an opportunity to prove themselves. For those reasons, since he only has one option year and more than a year of service time he's not on the protected list despite having shown some massive improvements in AAA.
Ryan Eades is a reliever like Cole Sulser except he has one less option year and he's not quite as good as Sulser. In addition, he has less success in AAA than Sulser so he's not on the protected list. But he should be a valuable asset to Baltimore for years to come.
Shawn Armstrong is a worse version of Cole Sulser as he walks more batters. He used to get more groundballs, but his current amounts are bad. Fortunately, he gets enough strikeouts to make due. He's down here because he has four years of team control left and no options remaining.
Renato Nuñez as DH/1B is down here because his offense at 1B is theoretically easy to replace and his defense in a small sample was bad despite having a decent run at 3rd base last year. Considering this along with his past defense at 3rd base, and his five years of team control pushes his ranking higher than it normally would be, but I'd tentatively have him off the protected list since he has no option years left.
Dillion Tate is similar to the last two pitchers as he can pitch multiple innings, but unlike them he has shown a tendency to generate groundballs frequently and has two option years in addition to six years of team control. The main reason he is above them is because he has some MLB experience.
Brandon Bailey, one of the two Baltimore Orioles rule 5 draft picks is a lot like Asher Wojciechowski except he gets more groundballs (barely) and has more upside as he's 25 years old. His three option years, six years of team control, and other factors listed earlier is why Bailey is higher than Wojciechowski.
Michael Rucker was mainly used as a multi inning long reliever, and while that has value he could also be a starting pitcher like Brandon Bailey. If anything, we know he can be an effective starting pitcher in AA and he might just be better than Bailey.
Pedro Severino is Chance Sisco's platoon partner at catcher. He's an ok hitter for a catcher who generally has had about average framing ratings. For him to suddenly have such a horrible framing rating sounds kind of far fetched to me, but 2020 is a new year. Overall, he's not worth protection considering his performance, he's got four years of team control and no option years left.
Rylan Bannon isn't even a 40 man roster guy but I happen to like him since he's shown good power numbers (when he hits more flyballs) along with solid plate discipline. He is a nifty player who I'd want to stash in AAA and maybe have start at 2nd base when Hanser Alberto is traded. Not protection list worthy yet, but he could be in short order.
Evan Phillips is a AAAA reliever who gets results in AAA but his 6.81 BB/9 won't fly unless he brings his strikeout rate up higher than the 10.89 K/9 he has for his MLB career and his groundball rate towards his previous minor league levels. For now he's not on the protected list despite having six years of team control and an option year remaining.
Asher Wojciechowski (nailed that first try in spelling it!) is a starting pitcher that gets a good amount of strikeouts while having a roughly average walk rate. His flyball rate is scary enough that most teams wouldn't have him in the MLB but he's just a fill in starter for Baltimore.
Miguel Castro is a fringey reliever that isn't related to Fidel Castro as far as I know. He throws really hard but he's not getting enough strikeouts to mitigate his walk problems. His groundball rate means he'd probably stay on the 26 man roster but he's not worth protecting because he's worse than Bleier, he's got about the same amount of service time and has one option year left.
Ryan McKenna is a top prospect that is in a similar position to Cedric Mullens Jr was in last year. Unfortunately, he looks like he strikes out too much considering his lack of home run power. Fortunately, he takes walks, has good defensive ratings, good speed and baserunning, (per scouts and some stolen base statistics.)
Cedric Mullens Jr is a better fielding version of Smith Jr that has two option years left and six years of team control. Since he has more potential to be a good player, can fake it in center field, has more team control and option years compared to Smith and that's why he's higher than them.
Richie Martin is a better version of Stevie Wilkerson right now since he can fake it at shortstop since the throwing errors are fixable and that should lower the negative defensive score and increase his value. His bat is very bad, but he can steal bases and should be able to be an asset on the bases. Unfortunately, he's probably going to be in AAA this year and I can't see a reason to put him on the protected list.
Austin Wynns is a decent backup catcher that is very expendable.
Stevie Wilkerson is a decent utility guy that isn't very good and not worth having on the protected list.
Richard Ureña is the same kind of guy as Wilkerson, except he is younger, has one more year of team control, has no option years and can fake shortstop. That's why he is slightly below Wilkerson.
Branden Kline had been a promising pitching prospect before he missed 2016 and 2017 from surgeries on his elbow. Since then he's taken to being a reliever relatively well before this year where he had been getting 11 K/9 in the minor leagues this year but he was allowing nearly 6 BB/9 so that strikeout rate increase did no good. His MLB numbers (7.5 K and 4.2 BB/9 with a 5.93 ERA, 5.87 FIP, 5.15 xFIP, 4.98 SIERA) are replacement level quality. He's still not anything more than a depth arm unless he can prove himself in the upper minors.
Eric Hanhold is another AAA depth guy who was good last year in AA and AAA but his strikeout rate went way down and his walk rate also went up. His groundball tendencies are what kept him relatively ok. Fortunately, he has less service time than Kline and that's why he's above Smith Jr and barely above Carroll on this list.
Cody Carroll and Hanhold are essentially interchangeable except Carroll played more in AAA and has flyball tendencies, but pretty much missed all of 2019 and is a year older. That puts him slightly below Hanhold for now.
Dwight Smith Jr is a AAAA guy that really should go over to Japan or the KBO if he wants consistent playing time and more money since he's not quite an MLB caliber hitter and his defense is bad.
Alex Cobb is an injury prone pitcher who is more good than great. His cost and injury history coupled with the fact that he's being paid $14.25 million a year means it's no surprise that he's off the protected list.
Chris Davis, the man who has been the worst player in the MLB over the last two seasons is also the most overpaid player as he's being paid $23 million annually to bat .160. Eating sunken costs so the team can have a much better player doesn't sound that crazy to me, but MLB teams HATE eating big sunk costs because to them it's like admitting that they made a massive mistake in signing that player. The Orioles likely will admit this mistake soon enough in the 2020 season.
Comments
Post a Comment