Advice to Orioles fans: don’t get too attached
MIKE BURKE Allegany Radio Sports
Perhaps angry is too strong of a word. Upset maybe? Concerned? Confused? Maybe just a bit curious?
Well, if Baltimore Orioles fans are not at least one of the above, then the folks who work in the B&O Warehouse should be a lot more than a little concerned. For if fans aren’t at least wondering what reason they are going to have to go to the ballpark next season, then Camden Yards is going to be an even more exclusive scene this summer than it was last summer.
And by exclusive, we mean quiet. Tranquil. Peaceful. A lot of head and leg room. Or, you could say empty. Or near empty, other than the Johns Hopkins students who liked to go there to study for the USMLE.
In fact, according to the Baltimore Business Journal, the average paid attendance for an Orioles home game last season filled just 36 percent capacity of the 45,971-seat Oriole Park at Camden Yards. In all, 1,307,807 fans attended home games during the 2019 season, a 16.4 percent decrease compared with 2018, when the Orioles averaged 20,053 fans per home game.
The 2019 attendance mark was the worst in the 27-year history of what is still regarded to be the gem of major league ballparks. And now the Orioles have traded arguably their best all-around player from last season for a bottle cap and one of their two best starting pitchers, which, granted, is kind of like being one of the two smartest idiots in the room.
Infielder Jonathan Villar was traded to the Miami Marlins on Monday in exchange for young left-handed pitcher Easton Lucas, while right-handed starter Dylan Bundy was shipped to the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday in exchange for four pitching prospects you’ve never heard of unless you are a major league scout, although all four of the pitchers have received pretty decent marks from scouts.
Villar was entering his final arbitration year before free agency and was due at least $10 million for the 2020 season, which the Orioles did not want to pay for one season in the still-early stages of a massive rebuild.
So while the Orioles were not much to look at last season — 54 wins, 108 losses — it appears there will be even less to look at on the big league roster next season with the departure of Villar and Bundy, who never came close to the clouds of his Sky Is The Limit potential as the No. 4 selection of the 2011 draft, but who has become a serviceable big league starter, something the Orioles now have just one of in All-Star lefthander John Means.
And the fire sale could be just under way, as next week’s Winter Meetings approach.
So while fans who still enjoy going out to Camden Yards (you know who you are) may be a little perturbed that two of the best players on a bad team won’t even be around anymore, they also have to understand that being a bad team means never having to say you‘re untouchable.
Who will be next to go? Trey Mancini, the closest thing the Orioles have to being a franchise player? Hanser Alberto, one of the best hitters in the American League last year? Reliever Mychal Givens or maybe even Means?
It could be anybody or nobody, but don’t bet on it being nobody, because as Orioles general manager Mike Elias said after making the Bundy deal, “… as we’ve been doing with every move and every decision we’re making, we are eyeing the long-term benefit of the club and for us to get four pitchers back whom we view as real prospects was too good to pass up.”
Elias went on to say the trade of Bundy is “a big step toward our stated goals to accumulate and develop as much young talent as possible as the club rebuilds its roster and gets our talent level back to the level needed for consistent playoff contention.”
So what are Orioles fans who still go to the ballpark or watch on TV going to see in 2020? If they’re lucky, they’ll see a competitive team like they saw last year. No, the Orioles were not very good, but they battled in every game and they battled to the final out, which is a heck of a lot more than you could say about the 2018 team.
Last year’s team, while not very good, fought and scrapped its way into being a very likeable team under first-year manager Brandon Hyde. But as we found out this week and are likely to find out again next week, nobody should get too attached.
This is year No. 2 of a rebuild that is likely to take at least four years to even sniff .500 baseball. Thus, nobody is safe. Everybody is available. There are no untouchables. And at this early stage, there shouldn’t be.
Mike Burke writes about sports for Allegany Radio and Pikewood Digital. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter @MikeBurkeMDT.