Rebuilding program lifts weight of expectations for Orioles

Red Sox can bury their mistakes under a pile of cash and reload at will from the free-agent market.

Of course, it could be quite a while before that’s a real problem. The record loss total from last season, which was the obvious catalyst for the organizational reboot, should give Elias plenty of slack as he and his staff seek to build the “elite talent pipeline” that would allow the Orioles to compete at a high level over a long period.

If that effort is successful, the Orioles will have a chance to head into the future without the kind of looming payroll explosion that forced them to trade away so many of their top veteran players during the same season. In a perfect player-development world, that pipeline would regularly pour new talent onto the major league roster and sustain a contending team in perpetuity.

It’s still hard to fathom the depth of the Orioles’ 2018 collapse. They went from being in playoff contention the previous August to being the worst team in baseball in such short order that it almost defies explanation.

The likely prospect of a midseason selloff might have weighed on some players at the outset and affected team chemistry. The early-season loss of slugger Mark Trumbo to injury and the struggles of several other hitters — most notably Chris Davis, Jonathan Schoop and Trey Mancini — clearly crippled the offense. The pitching staff, which was supposed to be improved with the spring signings of veteran starters Alex Cobb and Andrew Cashner, seemed to wilt without adequate run support.

The first full year of the rebuilding effort might well expose some of the same problems, but the weight of expectation has been lifted from the organization, leaving fans to decide whether they want to come along for what could be an interesting ride back to respectability … or a bridge that turns out to be too far.