Video: Rays' Nelson Cruz Becomes Oldest Player to Hit 30 HR in Season
Sep 8, 2021
Tampa Bay Rays' Nelson Cruz tosses his bat as he watches his two-run home run during the third inning of the team's baseball game against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021, at Fenway Park in Boston. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)
Nelson Cruz continued his power surge and made a little history along the way while leading the Tampa Bay Rays to a 12-7 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday.
The 41-year-old Cruz launched two home runs during the game to give him 30 for the season and 447 in his career. ESPN noted he became the oldest player in Major League Baseball history to reach the 30-homer total in a season, surpassing David Ortiz and Darrell Evans.
Ortiz and Evans were each 40 when they accomplished the feat in 2016 and 1987, respectively.
"That's definitely a privilege. David Ortiz means so much to baseball, also he's Dominican," Cruz, who is from the Dominican Republic, said. "So, it's an honor to be by his side."
The Rays slugger now has four home runs in the last four games and three in the first two contests of the series against the Red Sox.
Tampa Bay will look to complete the sweep Wednesday and move further ahead in the division. It leads the American League East by 9.5 games over the New York Yankees and 10 games over the Red Sox.
Yankees' Gerrit Cole Exits vs. Blue Jays with Hamstring Injury
Sep 8, 2021
New York Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole throws during the first inning in Game 5 of the baseball team's AL Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays, Friday, Oct. 9, 2020, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
The right-hander has been durable for much of his career and made 32 or more starts four times in a five-year span from 2015 through 2019 while pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros.
Cole started 12 games during the shortened 2020 campaign for the Yankees and finished with a 2.84 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and 94 strikeouts in 73 innings.
The dominant performance underscored the 30-year-old's place as one of the best pitchers in the league. He is a four-time All-Star who led the league with a 2.50 ERA in 2019 for an Astros squad that reached the World Series.
Cole has followed with another strong season (14-6, 2.73 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 215 strikeouts) in 2021.
Any sort of extended absence would hinder the Yankees' push to lock up a spot in the postseason.
MLB Rumors: Marcus Semien, Robbie Ray Contract Extensions Interest Blue Jays
Sep 5, 2021
TORONTO, ONTARIO - SEPTEMBER 5: Marcus Semien #10 of the Toronto Blue Jays hits a home run against the Oakland Athletics in the second inning during their MLB game at the Rogers Centre on September 5, 2021 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images)
The Toronto Blue Jays are interested in keeping second baseman Marcus Semien and starting pitcher Robbie Ray around long-term.
"According to sources, they’ve attempted to sign Semien to an extension, without success to this point, and plan to approach Ray about a new deal this offseason," Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported Sunday.
The Blue Jays inked Semien and Ray to one-year deals last offseason.
Both contracts have clearly paid off: Semien entered Sunday with 81 RBI and an .858 OPS. He homered Sunday against the Oakland Athletics to give himself 35 on the year.
Ray, who started against Oakland on Sunday, entered the ballgame with a 10-5 record, an American League-leading 2.71 ERA and 202 strikeouts in 159.1 frames. He added to those totals by tossing 6.2 shutout innings while striking out 10.
Semien's one-year deal was for $18 million, while Ray's was quite a bargain at just $8 million. The former will turn 31 years old later this month, while the latter turns 30 in October.
However, Semien is now one of the best middle infielders in baseball, and Ray is a strikeout artist and established ace. Both figure to land lucrative, long-term contracts following All-Star-caliber seasons.
The question is whether the Jays are able to retain both of them. Toronto has the misfortune of being fourth in a competitive American League East division despite holding a 73-62 record. Semien and Ray are big reasons why the team has been so competitive despite the brutal schedule.
As Rosenthal noted, however, Ray might be the more valuable player if the Jays could only sign one, and that's because Toronto already has an excellent young lineup without the former Oakland Athletics shortstop. The Blue Jays have an embarrassment of riches, including Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Teoscar Hernandez.
The Jays have an above-average pitching staff that ranks fifth in the American League with a 3.89 ERA, but Ray is the clear ace on the team, and his efforts have proved to be invaluable this year.
For now, the Jays are fighting to remain in the American League wild-card race with under a month left in the season.
Meet the 20-Year-Old Budding Superstar Primed to Take the MLB Playoffs by Storm
Sep 3, 2021
Tampa Bay Rays' Wander Franco celebrates after scoring on an RBI single by Austin Meadows off Boston Red Sox pitcher Stephen Gonsalves during the third inning of a baseball game Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Just as it was a scintillating rookie who led the Tampa Bay Rays to the World Series in 2020, so too might another first-year player perform the same trick in 2021.
Move over, Randy Arozarena. It's Wander Franco's turn.
This is not meant as a slight against Arozarena, who's still technically a rookie and very much in the race for the American League Rookie of the Year. His stat line includes an .806 OPS, 18 home runs and 3.3 rWAR. Indeed, he actually leads Franco in the latter category.
Franco, though, has been charging hard over the last month or so. You've probably heard that he's gotten on base in 33 straight games, the most recent highlight of which was his two-run homer off Boston Red Sox ace Chris Sale on Wednesday:
Though he was able to add to his on-base streak with a seventh-inning walk on Thursday, Franco promptly had to leave the game with a headache. The Rays are monitoring him for concussion symptoms, though it's hopefully nothing that serious.
Franco is slashing .315/.387/.528 during his on-base streak and is up to a .794 OPS and 2.4 rWAR for the season. This is over just 56 games—48 of which have seen him start at shortstop—which would hypothetically put him on track for a 7.0-WAR season if he had been with the Rays from Opening Day. That's MVP territory, folks.
Of course, there are good reasons to pump the brakes on this hype train.
If 56 games is a small sample size, then 33 contests is a downright Lilliputian stretch. Franco and the Rays, whose 84-50 record has them atop the American League for the second time in as many years, have also been feasting on relatively weak competition of late.
Yet it's not as if Franco's rapid rise is surprising. He wasn't an ordinary prospect before he arrived in the big leagues on June 22 and, even though he's only 20 years old, it's already clear that he's no ordinary hitter as a major leaguer.
What Franco Was Supposed to Be
At the time the Rays called Franco to The Show in June, there wasn't much doubt that he was the No. 1 prospect in baseball. Nor was there much doubt that he was absolutely deserving of it.
At the outset of both this season and last season, Franco ranked as MLB's top prospect not just here at B/R, but also at MLB.com, Baseball Prospectus and Baseball America. FanGraphs was also in on the hype, with Eric Longenhagen going so far as to say that Franco "looks like, and has performed like, a generational talent and annual MVP contender."
Coming into 2021, the catch was that Franco didn't play in any professional games last year after the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the cancellation of the minor league season. Accordingly, there was something resembling rust on him as he hit just .257 with seven strikeouts and one walk in 16 games with the big club during spring training.
After that, though, the Dominican Republic native promptly got back to tearing up the minors with Triple-A Durham. He slashed .315/.367/.586 over 39 games to bring his overall minor league line to .332/.398/.536 in 214 games.
More specifically, two things made Franco's minor league dominance even more exciting. For one, he was significantly younger than his competition every step of the way. For two, he refused to fit into the typical mold for young hitters by racking up 20 more walks than strikeouts in the minors.
As comps go, Jose Ramirez was one that Franco himself quite liked, per Baseball America. You could also squint and see the possible second coming of Juan Soto. Except this time, he'd be a switch-hitting shortstop instead of a left-handed-hitting corner outfielder.
What Franco Is Now
Upon reaching the major leagues, Franco made an immediate impression by going 2-for-4 with a three-run home run off Red Sox left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez. But after that, reality called to check on him.
In 14 games from June 23 through the end of the first half on July 11, Franco went just 10-for-57 with one homer. He was better out of the gate in the second half, but only to the extent that he went 9-for-34 with yet another lone homer in eight games through July 24.
Then began his on-base streak, during which he's looked a lot more like that fantastically tough out that he was in the minors. He's improved his walk rate from 6.8 percent before the streak to 9.2 percent during it and cut his strikeout rate in half from 20.4 to 9.2 percent.
When something like this happens, it's typically because a hitter started choosing his swings more carefully and benefited via increased contact against more hittable pitches. But Franco is doing things differently, as he's increased his swing and contact rates against pitches both inside and outside the strike zone:
On their own, the increased swing rates would imply that Franco decided to swing his way out of his slow start and is sticking with it because, hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But in tandem with his improved contact rates, the picture is more so of a guy who's adjusted to the speed of the major leagues and is swinging comfortably.
This theory is further solidified by Franco's about-face against high fastballs. Through July 24, he was 0-for-11 against four-seamers at or above the top of the strike zone. He's 10-for-25 against such pitches since then, a sample that notably includes the 95 mph heater from Sale that he took for a ride Wednesday.
As reported by John Tomase of NBC Sports Boston, you can take it from Sale himself that a normal big leaguer doesn't hit a pitch like that over the wall:
Those are the ones you don't lose sleep over, honestly. That's not a home run pitch. He's not supposed to hit that ball out. That was me vs. him and he won. That's one of those cliche moments where you tip your cap, but it's true. Not too many guys can get to that.
You know what else is hard to do in the major leagues? Hit sliders. They are baseball's signature nasty pitch, and increasingly so as the leaguewide average against them has descended from the .220 range in the late 2000s to the .210 range in the early 2020s.
For Franco, though, sliders have presented little problem. He's hitting .360 and slugging .840 against them. In terms of run value per 100 pitches, he's the best slider hitter in the game.
Mind you, this is just the stuff that can be quantified. To actually watch Franco is to see a constant display of more intangible, dare we say Gwynn-ian, hitting qualities. He's just one of those guys who knows what to do with different pitches, whether it's:
A sinker with the infield shifted? Poke it through the hole for a single.
Fastball on the inner half? Turn on it and line it to left for a single.
Backdoor cutter? Whack it the other way down the line for a double.
Hanging changeup? Hit it to the dang moon for a home run.
As such, it's misleading that some of his Statcast metrics, such as exit velocity and hard-hit rate, have either been static or gotten worse during his on-base streak than they were before. That would imply he's been lucky, when the eye test confirms what he really is, is locked in.
What Franco Could Still Be
Small sample size be damned, Franco is one of the best hitters in the American League. Among AL hitters who've taken at least 130 plate appearances since July 25, his 155 wRC+ ranks fourth.
The next step for Franco involves proving he can keep the hits coming under the oh-so-bright lights of October. That's a difficult test, but the fact that he's gotten so hot even as he's carried the No. 1 prospect label in the thick of a pennant race is as good as omens get.
Come 2022, Franco should be at least a dark horse for the American League batting title. His switch-hitting will be an inherent leg up in that regard, and he may well outlast batting average luminaries Michael Brantley and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. if he can pick up where he left off from this season.
What's harder to predict is whether Franco will come into still more power, but it's a good guess that he will.
He may only be 5'10", but he's a well-put-together 5'10" at a muscular 189 pounds. Not unlike Guerrero during his first two seasons, Franco's only missing link may reside in his ability to consistently elevate the ball. His average launch angle (9.5 degrees) and sweet spot rate (33.3 percent) could stand to go a little higher.
His defensive ceiling is still another question mark, as none of the major defensive metrics (OAA, DRS and UZR) rate him as a particularly gifted shortstop. That tracks with scouting reports on his defense, seemingly none of which billed him as the next Andrelton Simmons.
Even if Franco's power and defense remain stuck in neutral, however, the Rays will still have something like a switch-hitting Xander Bogaerts. If the power comes, it will be as if Franco is their very own Soto at shortstop. If the power and the defense come...well, think 2017-2019 Francisco Lindor turned up to maximum.
Bottom line? Go ahead and dream big on Franco. No matter how he turns out, he's one prospect who won't break your heart.
Yankees Announcer John Sterling Rescued from Hurricane Ida Flooding by Rickie Ricardo
Sep 2, 2021
TORONTO, ON - MARCH 31: John Sterling the radio play-by-play announcer of the New York Yankees during batting practice before the start of MLB game action against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on March 31, 2018 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** John Sterling
New York Yankees Spanish radio announcer Rickie Ricardo was called upon for the save Wednesday night. In this case, to help out legendary play-by-play announcer John Sterling.
Ricardo appeared on WFAN's Moose and Maggie show Thursday and recounted (h/t Peter Botte of the New York Post) how he was called to pick up Sterling in Edgewater, New Jersey, after the 83-year-old's car flooded and left him stranded as he was attempting to go home from the Bronx amid Hurricane Ida after the Yankees' 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels.
The game was in Los Angeles, though Yankees broadcasters have been working from Yankee Stadium during road games throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Ricardo said Sterling's broadcast partner, Suzyn Waldman, called him to let him know Sterling was in trouble:
Suzyn asked me, 'Where are you?' I said, 'I'm working my way across upper Manhattan to get to the [George Washington] Bridge to get to New Jersey.' She says, 'John is stuck on River Road in Edgewater.' Now, I know for years, I've seen how bad it gets flooded on River Road in Edgewater, and with the kind of rain we had, I can only imagine. So I said, 'Suzyn, I'm on my way. I more or less know where he lives. I'll figure out where he's at and see what I can do.'
Ricardo managed to get ahold of Sterling on his cell phone and locate him, despite a power outage in the area that caused the lights to go out. He said he saw about 25 other vehicles stranded near Sterling's car.
"I pull up and John says, 'Is that you?' I said, 'Yeah it's me. I'm flashing my lights, I'm now behind you, I'm as close as I could get,'" Ricardo said. "Because his car, his wheels, now are completely covered by water. [There's] water in the cabin. I get as close as I can and said, 'Let me help you out.'"
Ricardo helped Sterling out of his car and into his SUV. He said it took about an hour to get Sterling back to his residence, which was about half a mile from where his car was abandoned, and another hour for Ricardo to go the one mile between his home and Sterling's, with a number of roads shut down because of the flooding.
Per Reuters, at least 12 New York City residents were killed in the flash flooding that hit the metropolis, leaving streets and the subway system overflowing with water.
Stadium of Yankees' Double-A Affiliate Completely Flooded After Hurricane Ida Storms
Sep 2, 2021
NEW JERSEY, USA - SEPTEMBER 2: Highway 440 flooded in Jersey City of New Jersey, United States on September 2, 2021 as hundreds of cars stuck in water as Hurricane Ida left behind flash floods east coast. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
TD Bank Ballpark, the home stadium of
the Somerset Patriots in Bridgewater, New Jersey, was flooded
Wednesday night when the remnants of Hurricane Ida moved through the
northeast.
NJ.com provided aerial footage of how
the park looked Thursday morning:
TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater was underwater following heavy rainfall from Hurricane Ida remnants. The park is home to the minor league baseball Somerset Patriots. pic.twitter.com/gKaRLfcNeB
The Patriots are the Double-A affiliate
of the New York Yankees.
CNN's Madeline Holcombe and Jason Hanna
reported at least 11 people were killed in New York, New Jersey and
Maryland because of the storm, which caused widespread flooding.
Hurricane Ida made landfall in
Louisiana on Sunday. While it lost the hurricane distinction because
the wind speeds dropped as it traveled across land from the Gulf of
Mexico toward the northeast, it still dropped devastating rainfall
totals.
Many areas in the New York, New Jersey
and the surrounding states were already waterlogged after Hurricane Henri made
landfall in the region on Aug. 22.
The Patriots are currently playing a
six-game road series against the Bowie Baysox in Maryland that runs
through Sunday. Wednesday's game was postponed because of the heavy
rain.
Somerset is scheduled to return home to
TD Bank Ballpark for its final homestand of the minor league regular
season beginning Tuesday against the Hartford Yard Goats.
The Patriots (60-42) lead the Double-A
Northeast Division with a 3.5-game lead over the Portland Sea Dogs
heading into the stretch run of the campaign.
Xander Bogaerts Pulled from Red Sox vs. Rays After Positive COVID-19 Test
Sep 1, 2021
Boston Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts throws out Baltimore Orioles Maikel Franco during the eighth inning of a baseball game on Monday, May 10, 2021, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
NESN cameras captured manager Alex Cora waving Bogaerts into the dugout.
Red Sox eight positive COVID tests since Friday: Xander Bogaerts Kiké Hernández Christian Arroyo Matt Barnes Martin Pérez Hirokazu Sawamura Ramon Vázquez (quality control coach) Kiyoshi Momose (strength and conditioning coach)
The shortstop entered the day hitting .297 with a .865 OPS in 2021 while becoming an integral part of the Red Sox lineup.
Bogaerts has also been able to stay healthy with an average of 149 games played from 2014 to 2019 before playing 56 of 60 possible games in 2020. The only time he missed more than 20 games in a season was in 2018 when a fractured ankle and a sprained finger limited him.
His durability only adds to his value as one of the top players in the league at his position.
The 28-year-old is coming off another solid season in 2020 despite struggles throughout the Red Sox roster. He hit .300 with 11 home runs to earn MVP votes for the third straight year. He also has two All-Star selections, three Silver Sluggers and two World Series titles on his resume.
His absence also creates a hole for Boston, making it tougher to compete in the loaded American League East.
Yairo Munoz entered the game for him and moved to second base, while Jonathan Arauz shifted to shortstop.
Chris Sale Joins Sandy Koufax as Only MLB Pitchers to Ever Throw 3 Immaculate Innings
Aug 27, 2021
Boston Red Sox's Chris Sale pitches against the Minnesota Twins during the first inning of a baseball game, Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Move over, Sandy Koufax. You have immaculate company.
Boston Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale threw what is known as an immaculate inning in the third frame of Thursday's game against the Minnesota Twins. That occurs when the pitcher tallies three strikeouts on nine pitches in a single inning, and the southpaw did so by striking out Nick Gordon, Andrelton Simmons and Rob Refsnyder.
Sale also joined Koufax as the only pitchers to have such an inning three different times:
Chris Sale joins Sandy Koufax as the only pitchers to throw 3 immaculate innings. pic.twitter.com/pDxef2eYNu
Friday was just Sale's third start of the season after he missed the 2020 campaign because of Tommy John surgery. In fact, his start Aug. 14 was his first since Aug. 13 during the 2019 season.
Thus far, he has been his typically dominant self.
He allowed two earned runs while striking out eight in five innings in his first start against the Baltimore Orioles and then pitched five shutout innings with five strikeouts in his second start against the Texas Rangers.
And now, he joined Koufax in the history books in his third start.
Boston played its way into playoff contention even before Sale returned this season and is now holding onto the final American League wild-card spot ahead of the Oakland Athletics. While asking Sale to be the version of himself that was a seven-time All-Star who helped lead the Red Sox to the 2018 World Series may be too much to ask, he has already impressed.
If he can continue pitching like he has in his first three starts, Boston figures to remain a threat in the American League as the season approaches the stretch run.
Orioles Snap 19-Game Losing Streak vs. Shohei Ohtani, Angels
Aug 26, 2021
Baltimore Orioles right fielder Anthony Santander jogs off the field during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
The Baltimore Orioles broke their 19-game losing streak with a 10-6 comeback win over the visiting Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday.
Outfielder Anthony Santander scored three runs and had three hits to lead Baltimore to its first win since Aug. 2, when the O's beat the New York Yankees 7-1.
Santander and Cedric Mullins each hit solo home runs in the first inning off Angels starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani to give Baltimore a 2-0 lead.
Per Joe Trezza of MLB.com, the Orioles became the only team to hit multiple home runs off Ohtani in the same game with those blasts. The presumptive American League MVP entered the night with an 8-1 record, 2.79 ERA and 120 strikeouts in 100 innings this year.
However, the Angels scored six consecutive runs (two in the second, four in the fourth) to take a 6-2 advantage. The fourth inning featured Brandon Marsh's three-run blast and a solo shot by Jared Walsh.
The Angels went down in order in the ninth. The victory means the longest losing streak in MLB's modern era will stay at 23 games—set by the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies en route to a 47-107 season.
The 1988 Orioles, who started their season 0-21, are second on that list. The 1969 Montreal Expos, the 1916 and 1943 Philadelphia Athletics and 1906 Boston Americans are tied at third with 20 losses apiece.
The Orioles are now 39-86 after the win.
How Low Can the O's Go? A Look at Orioles Historic Losing Streak and What's Next
Aug 24, 2021
ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - AUGUST 19: Jorge Mateo #26 of the Baltimore Orioles reacts after being struck out to end the game and lose to Tampa Bay Rays by a score of 7 to 2 at Tropicana Field on August 19, 2021 in St Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)
The Baltimore Orioles are pretty bad right now.
Well, maybe not this exact moment since they were idle on Monday and won't return to action until they take on the Los Angeles Angels later on Tuesday. But the Orioles have certainly been bad of late, as their 3-1 loss to Atlanta on Sunday made it 18 in a row since August 3.
Baltimore's losing streak is the longest since the Kansas City Royals lost 19 straight in 2005. If the O's lose again on Tuesday, they'll have tied that mark.
After that, the modern record for consecutive losses would be within range. Should the Orioles stretch their streak to 23 losses in a row, they'll cozy up next to the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies in a place of all-time futility.
While we're piling on, it's very much because of Baltimore's sudden inability to win games that the club now has the worst record in Major League Baseball. Whereas they had five more wins than the Arizona Diamondbacks on August 2, the latter now has a four-win edge.
As for how the Orioles got here, well, there's the small picture and then there's the big picture.
Are the Orioles Really That Bad Right Now?
The Orioles never were supposed to be good this year, as FanGraphs pegged them for just 65 wins at the outset of the season. After a brief window of positivity in the opening days of the season, they fell under .500 for the first time on April 11 and have been there ever since.
The problem isn't just that the Orioles lack talent. They're also stuck with one of the most difficult schedules in baseball, and it's only fair to acknowledge that it's been especially difficult during their losing streak.
Their 18 losses have come against the New York Yankees (2), Tampa Bay Rays (7), Detroit Tigers (3), Boston Red Sox (3) and Atlanta (3). The Tigers are the only one of those teams that's not in contention for a playoff spot, yet even their 60-66 record looks like a slice of fried gold relative to Baltimore's 38-85 mark.
As one unnamed Oriole told Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic: “It sucks, man. We’re totally overmatched with the schedule we play.”
But even in spite of their schedule, one would hope that the Orioles could at least play competitive baseball. They haven't. Of their 18 losses, 17 have been by more than one run. Overall, their skid is marked by a minus-102 run differential and both the most runs allowed (149) and fewest runs scored (47) of any team between Aug. 3 and 22.
At 1.86, Orioles pitchers posted the worst strikeout-to-walk ratio of any team during that window. At 2.29, they also allowed the highest rate of home runs per nine innings. Among their starters, specifically, John Means' 6.52 ERA is actually the low mark during the slide.
If there's anything to be said in defense of O's pitchers, it's that they haven't gotten much support from the guys with the gloves. The team has allowed an inordinately high .328 BABIP during its 18-game skid. Too many catchable balls have gone for hits, such as this one, this one, this one and, maybe most memorable of all, this one:
On the other side of the ball, the Orioles actually hit more home runs (22) between Aug. 3 and 22 than contenders like the St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres and New York Mets. And in situations when nobody was on base, O's hitters racked up a .265 average and .481 slugging percentage. Both marks were among the top 10 in MLB.
This, however, points to the obvious problem of the Orioles being tragically unclutch. During their skid, they've hit just .198 with men on base and .146 with runners in scoring position. And of their 22 home runs, a league-high 20 were with the bases empty.
The Orioles' 18-game skid has thus been a perfect storm of a difficult schedule combining with a significant talent deficit and an utter failure to execute when it matters.
As much as we'd love to tell them it will get easier, it won't. The Orioles have the hardest remaining schedule of any team in baseball. Even if their losing streak eventually ends, there's likely no stopping them from their third 100-loss season in four years.
How Did Things Get This Wrong?
It wasn't that long ago the Orioles were not only good, but really good.
Between 2012 and 2016, they had the highest winning percentage of any team in the American League. They netted three playoff berths during that stretch, making it as far as the American League Championship Series in 2014.
Though there's a case to be made for the club's ultimately ill-fated $161 million deal with Chris Davis during the 2015-16 offseason as the true beginning of the end, things didn't actually start going south for the team until 2017. After winning 89 games and making the playoffs in 2016, that was when Baltimore slipped to last place in the AL East amid an 87-loss season.
Four years later, it's easy to look back and say that Dan Duquette, then the Orioles president of baseball operations, should have blown it up. If he had, he surely would have landed prospect riches for the likes of hitters Manny Machado, Jonathan Schoop and Adam Jones and hurlers Kevin Gausman, Brad Brach, Darren O'Day and Zack Britton.
Back then, though, context mattered. As poorly as the O's played in 2017, it was only one bad year after five successful years. And with both Duquette and manager Buck Showalter headed into the last years of their respective contracts, both had a clear reason to see 2018 as a last hurrah rather than the first step into a rebuild.
BALTIMORE, MD - SEPTEMBER 13: Manager Buck Showalter #26 of the Baltimore Orioles and General Manager Dan Duquette talk during batting practice before the game against the Oakland Athletics at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on September 13, 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images)
So the Orioles went for it, even going as far as to spend $73 million on starters Alex Cobb and Andrew Cashner to round out their rotation. The projection systems weren't sold on the team going into 2018, yet another playoff run wasn't totally outside the realm of possibility.
That is, of course, until it was.
The Orioles won their opener in 2018, but were never over .500 the rest of the way en route to final record of 47-115. Of the aforementioned trade chips, only Jones wasn't moved before the end of the year. And that was only because he used his 10-and-5 rights to block a deal that would have sent him to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Three years later, it's not a good look for Duquette that just one of the players (outfielder Yusniel Diaz) acquired in trades of Machado, Schoop, Gausman, O'Day and Britton is among the club's top 30 prospects at MLB.com. Apart from modest contributions (i.e., 0.8 rWAR) of reliever Dillon Tate, those trades also aren't bearing fruit in the majors in 2021.
Could Duquette have done better, though? Perhaps not. The Machado trade, in which Diaz was but one of five players netted by Baltimore, was generally well reviewed at the time. Duquette otherwise had to get what he could for the other guys, whose value had fallen off sharply from 2017 by way of injuries and inconsistency.
All this makes Duquette a valid, yet oddly unsatisfying scapegoat for the current state of the Orioles. And this isn't even to mention the fact that the Orioles are now in their third season under different leadership after Duquette and Showalter got canned in October 2018.
It's been Mike Elias' show ever since the Orioles hired him away from the Houston Astros to run their front office. The club's long-term outlook has undeniably improved under his watch, as he's boosted the club's prospect depth through three years of high draft picks and trades of inherited assets like Cobb, Dylan Bundy, Mychal Givens and Miguel Castro.
Elias did, however, make an unforced error in March 2019 when he sent Mike Yastrzemski to the San Francisco Giants. He's since turned himself into one of baseball's better outfielders, while Baltimore's end of the deal (pitcher Tyler Herb) is still languishing in the minors.
Save for waiver-wire pickup Cole Sulser and Rule 5 pick Tyler Wells, Elias has also failed to perform alchemy with players from outside the organization. Inside the organization, meanwhile, All-Star center fielder Cedric Mullins is the only Duquette-era holdover to significantly improve under the Elias regime.
Though the Angelos family that owns the team certainly shares the blame, a lack of free-agent spending has also held the Orioles back. They've spent just short of $8 million on free agents over the past three winters, according to Spotrac. This tracks with the kind of slow, steady and cheap rebuild that Elias was a part of in Houston, but it's frankly pathetic that the Orioles are spending over $100 million less on players than they were as recently as 2017.
What the 2021 Orioles are, then, is the byproduct of one regime that was understandably neglectful of the future and another that's been frustratingly neglectful of the present.
On the Bright Side...
After they secured a solid haul led by Sam Houston outfielder Colton Cowser at No. 5 overall, we liked Baltimore's farm system enough after the draft to place it at No. 10 in MLB.
The folks at Baseball America have since done us one...well, actually eight better. They rate Baltimore's system as the second-best in baseball, remarking that it's the "highest-ever ranking" for an Orioles farm system.
Leading the pack is catcher Adley Rutschman, who Elias selected at No. 1 overall out of Oregon State in 2019. He's put up a .909 OPS with 19 home runs at Double-A and Triple-A this season, numbers which both support his case as the best prospect in any organization and hint at a possible cup-of-coffee stint with Baltimore in September.
FILE - In this June 25, 2019, file photo, Baltimore Orioles first-round draft pick Adley Rutschman takes batting practice before a baseball game against the San Diego Padres in Baltimore. Catcher Adley Rutschman, first baseman Ryan Mountcastle and outfielder Yusniel Diaz are among the top prospects in the organization. None of these youngsters are expected to be on the opening day roster, but they'll provide a glimpse of the future at camp this spring. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)
Lest anyone think Duquette didn't leave anything behind, arguably Baltimore's second- and third-best prospects are holdovers from his regime: right-hander Grayson Rodriguez and left-hander DL Hall. Both look like top-of-the-rotation types who could debut early in 2022.
In addition to plentiful prospects, the Orioles also now have plentiful payroll flexibility as a result of their recent stinginess and Davis' retirement. To wit, they don't have a single player under a guaranteed contract for 2022.
In theory, the Orioles could use that flexibility to sign Mullins and noted Home Run Derby participant and fan favorite Trey Mancini to long-term extensions. Should the Angelos family and Elias finally decide to kick-start the team's rebuild, it could just as easily be put to use on the free-agent market.
It's perhaps premature to say that the Orioles' future is bright. But compared to what's going on right now, it's certainly brighter than the team's present.
