Os stand pat, pressure is now on this offseason

Not trading Zach Britton is a good move, but only if the Orioles are willing to pay him the big bucks he’s going to demand this offseason.

Selling just hasn’t even been something the Orioles do and once again it isn’t something they were going to do this year. Despite sitting 6.5 games back in the American League East and 5.5 games back in the Wild Card (with four teams ahead of them), the Baltimore Orioles made no notable trades before the non-waiver trade deadline.

There was a lot of speculation that the Orioles would be big sellers with plenty of bullpen arms they could move, but Zach Britton, Brad Brad, Mychal Givens and Darren O’Day all stayed put. The only big league moves the Orioles made this month was sending backup outfielder Hyun Soo Kim to the Phillies in a deal to acquire rental pitcher Jeremy Hellickson. They also traded a minor league pitcher to the Tampa Bay Rays for shortstop Tim Beckham, a 27-year-old who is batting .259 with 12 home runs this season.

But since the Orioles decided not to trade any of their relief pitchers so they could rebuild one of the worst farm systems in the league, the pressure is entirely on them this offseason. They have to show they will be willing to pay big money to keep Britton instead of just letting him leave for nothing.

The Orioles have never been willing to give big money like that to pitchers. They let Andrew Miller go without even making him an offer a few years ago. Britton is going to get Aroldis Chapman-type money. This offseason, Chapman signed a five-year, $86 million deal. If they don’t keep him, then this lack of a move is a great failure.

The internal battle for the Orioles this past month has been whether they want to blow up the core group of players they have. They decided they did not want to through a trade, but they better not let it break apart for nothing in the offseason. This was an opportunity for the Orioles to add talent to the fame system, talent they would later call up and add to the guys they have. Instead, they stayed put, and there is even more pressure on them now to get it done in the offseason.

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Corey Johns

Editor in Chief

You could say Corey was born to become a sports journalist. His father won a national championship coaching college soccer. His mother is a baseball fanatic who hasn't missed seeing an Orioles game since 1983 (literally, sometimes it's annoying). His great uncle was a big-time boxing promoter and his maternal grandfather was once a department head at the Baltimore Sun. Basically, sports and journalism run through his blood. He played just about every little league sports there was when he was a kid and was a multi-sport athlete in high school; even playing in the first-ever high school sanction Rugby game in the country. Eventually he retired from sports as an undefeated Maryland state Rugby champion as a high school senior. Perhaps lack of athletic talent has more to do with the retirement, but he will tell you that it more had to do with a great desire to jump right into media. Upon his graduation from University of Maryland, Baltimore County as a triple communications major, Corey started the So Much Sports network and has continued to grow his websites and continues to work to make them premier sports media outlets.

Latest posts by Corey Johns (see all)

• So long and thank you from So Much Sports - August 7, 2017
• Os stand pat, pressure is now on this offseason - July 31, 2017
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