3. What will the fate of the top prospects be?
Many things became clear in the first Elias/Hyde spring training last year, and first among them was that opportunities might not extend to the young — at least immediately. When they touted opportunity and competition in camp, it was initially seen as a call for some of the team’s young and one-time top prospects, like Austin Hays and Chance Sisco, to make the Opening Day roster and start a new era of Orioles baseball immediately.
Those two and Anthony Santander all performed well in camp but started the year in the minors. Outfielder DJ Stewart played every day in September 2018 but was among the first cuts from major league camp. The opportunities were clearly meant for those who had Triple-A experience and something to prove in the major leagues.
That could still be frustrating to watch play out this spring, even if there’s more perspective on what’s happening. Akin and first baseman Ryan Mountcastle each spent all of 2019 at Triple-A Norfolk, with Mountcastle winning the International League Most Valuable Player award. Even though they’re on the 40-man roster, they still might not break camp with the team, thanks to the disincentive baseball’s playercontrol rules create for accelerating young players to the majors.
It will be fun to watch so many possible future pieces of this organization play every day come Grapefruit League time, but for many, that’s probably going to be the last opportunity to wear an Orioles uniform until later this summer. typically engulfs him. First, it will be the scrutiny of his offseason work and any changes he says he made. Then, at a time when most players are just trying to get a good feeling against live pitching, his every at-bat will be scrutinized as if it’s September for a contending team. And if the changes he made don’t take hold, those at-bat results will be used as a reason why, and the cycle will continue.
In truth, given the Orioles’ inexperienced roster and lack of highly paid players through salary arbitration, having Davis and Cobb on the books for $37 million (with $10.5 million deferred) spares the Orioles’ expected payroll of around $60 million from being embarrassingly low as opposed to just noncompetitive and low.