The Orioles can have a pair of contemporary faces up the center this season with free agent additions Freddy Galvis and Yolmer Sánchez. Sánchez is a Gold Glove winner at second, however he’ll be pushed for taking part in time by the newly-acquired Jahmai Jones. Jones will work out within the outfield as properly, however the Orioles view him as a second baseman, per Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com. It was a bit stunning to see the Orioles internet the previous second spherical choose in trade for Alex Cobb, as the previous Angels farmhand was the highest prospect in LA’s system as not too long ago as 2017, per Baseball America. He was the 89th ranked prospect in all of baseball earlier than the 2018 season.
On the pitching facet, Baltimore made optimistic strides in 2020, ending within the higher half of the league by fWAR and across the center of the pack by measure of ERA (sixteenth) and xFIP (18th). The wrestle to allot rotation minutes stays a focus, nonetheless. Bruce Zimmermann, for example, hopes to make the rotation after seven debut innings in 2020. If Zimmerman doesn’t make the rotation, he may wind up within the pen as a bulk innings relievers, tweets Kubatko.
The identical goes for César Valdez, notes Kukatko. Supervisor Brandon Hyde instructed that Valdez could be utilized in a lot of totally different roles, however they are going to work to stretch him out within the spring in preparation for multi-inning stints and doubtlessly turns within the rotation. The 35-year-old Valdez made 9 appearances for the O’s in 2020 with a 1.26 ERA/2.14 FIP throughout 14 1/3 innings. It was Valdez’s first look within the bigs since 2017 and solely his third stint since initially debuting with the Diamondbacks in 2010.
