The region’s two major league clubs embarked on similar rebuilding plans a few years back. The Nationals decided simply to bottom out and were rewarded. The Orioles never embraced that “lose-so-much-it-hurts” approach in quite the same way. So while Washington, helped by its top-rated farm system, draws buzz as a possible National League wild-card contender, Baltimore just generates more criticism.
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It’s up to new general manager Dan Duquette to change things. The starting rotation was in tatters, so that was the obvious place to start. On Monday, Duquette traded … Jeremy Guthrie? The durable 32-year-old right-hander would have started on Opening Day. What gives?
Guthrie does have three straight years of at least 200 innings, but he also sported an ERA between 3.83 and 5.04 during that stretch. That’s at best a No. 4 starter on a contender. So Duquette flipped Guthrie to Colorado for a similar talent in 29-year-old starter Jason Hammel (4.76 ERA in hitter-friendly Coors Field) and Matt Lindstrom, a 31-year-old reliever. Guthrie is an upcoming free agent. Hammel and Lindstrom are under team control through 2013.
Not exactly a major splash. But Duquette already had signed Korean lefty Wei-yin Chen, ranked the fifth-best starting pitcher on the open market heading into the offseason by ESPN. The 26-year-old is a question mark. But he’s also the kind of risk the Orioles need to take. With young pitchers like Jake Arrieta, Brian Matusz, Zach Britton and Chris Tillman, Baltimore still hopes to provide innings to its next generation. But it also has a Plan B if things fall apart — as they did last season when no team in baseball had a worse ERA among its starting pitchers (5.39).
– Brian McNally
