Playing through a rebuild
After 115-loss season, Orioles have new look
BALTIMORE – In the unforgiving world of baseball’s extreme rebuilds, there is no feeling quite like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, when years of careful regime building yields on-field results.
It is another feeling entirely to merely enter the tunnel.
That’s where you’ll find the Orioles, who didn’t fully launch their rebuild until after losing a franchise-worst 115 games in 2018. They entered 2019 with a new front office, a new manager, 14 roster players with less than a year of experience and a can’t-hit albatross due $92 million clogging the payroll. Yet 26 games into this expected disaster flick, the Orioles are learning plenty about themselves, not all of it damning.
Their cudgel of a manager, their redemption-seeking slugger and a band of castoffs are proving inevitable failure mustn’t be accompanied with a loss of dignity. They are 10-16, after an unlikely 4-1 start gave way to 15 losses in their last 21 games. They’re on pace to lose 100 games. They’ve already used three position players to mop up on the mound in blowout losses. The descent has begun. But the misery has not.
“We knew there were going to be struggles,” starting pitcher Alex Cobb told USA TODAY. “We’re in that moment right now. We have to realize this is what was expected. We got off to a pretty good start where everybody was kind of riding that high and feeding off each other.
“Well, this is our first real look at adversity and struggles. Learning how to deal with that is part of the developmental process. You continue to compete and learn to grind through it. Because it’s a learning process to deal with failure.”
Fortunately, the Orioles have
a shining example in the middle of their clubhouse.
Chris Davis, the All-Star slugger and two-time home run champion, had a virtual kickme sign on his back since finishing last season hitless in his final 18 at-bats, his .168 average and 49 OPS-plus designating him the worst hitter in the majors. At a cost of $23 million annually through 2022.
When a new year brought an additional 34 at-bats without a hit, and Davis broke the mark for longest oh-fer in MLB history, his comportment was nearly as remarkable as his collapse.
“We literally look up to Chris,” says outfielder Dwight Smith, acquired in March from Toronto for the low price of international slot money. “We watch how he handles his business every day, and he was the exact same guy. It has an effect
on everybody when you see a veteran like him, being here as long as he has, to go out there and no matter the result continue to keep pushing.”
After going 0-for-33 to start the season, Davis broke through with a first-inning single at Boston on April 13. Two days later, he homered at Fenway Park. Tuesday night, the White Sox’s Ivan Nova threw him a pitch at his eyes and over the plate. Davis rode it out to left-center field for his first home run at Camden Yards since Aug. 22. The crowd of 8,953 rose to its feet and roared.
With nine hits in his last 25 at-bats, Davis is seeing the payoff from months of toil with hitting coaches Don Long and Howie Clark. “It’s a huge boost, mentally, emotionally,” he says.
The Orioles know gains in the bigger picture won’t be so linear. On one hand, they were tied with the defending World Series champion Red Sox in the win column going into Thursday. On the other hand, the Orioles were last in the American League in almost every pitching category, most notably ERA (6.03) and home runs allowed (a staggering 59, 34 more than the first-place Rays).
Veteran starters Cobb, Andrew Cashner and Dylan Bundy can provide a modicum of predictability on many nights. And then young starters like David Hess can threaten to throw a no-hitter one week and fail to record more than six outs the next, taxing a bullpen with its own question marks.
It’s the sort of volatility that can produce a five-game losing streak capped by a 12-2 trouncing by the White Sox on Monday, followed by a 9-1 rout of Chicago on Tuesday.
Steering the roller coaster is rookie manager Brandon Hyde, who saw all ends of the spectrum with the Cubs, serving as bench coach during a 96-loss 2013 season and first-base coach during their 2016 World Series championship.
Hyde, 45, was tabbed by GM Mike Elias as much for his player-development background as for his bench chops. This season should test his skill set.
“We’re going to have nights like (Monday),” Hyde said before Tuesday’s game. “But we all have to hold ourselves accountable, too. I think we’re going to learn how to win. We’re just scratching the surface.”
The clubhouse seems to approve. Hyde’s mantra — be who you are, but be a professional — has struck a chord. He gave an impassioned speech on the first full-squad day of camp.
“Right after that meeting I thought, ‘I’m ready to run through a brick wall for this guy, any day of the week,’ ” right fielder Trey Mancini recalls. “He’s awesome to play for. And I think he brings the best out of all of us.”
Elias launched the rebuild in predictable fashion, working the edges of other clubs’ 40man rosters to hopefully uncover assets. The result is a clubhouse of players grateful for opportunity.
Smith, 26, received 104 major league plate appearances in his eight seasons in Toronto’s organization. Infielder Rio Ruiz was drafted by Elias with the Astros but hit a dead end in Atlanta. Richie Martin never made it past Class AA or onto Oakland’s 40-man roster but the Rule 5 draft pick is the Orioles’ starting shortstop.
The results are predictably uneven. Martin is batting .172 with an OPS-plus of 31. Opening-day center fielder Cedric Mullins was optioned to Class AAA Monday after batting .094. Smith has been a revelation, smacking five home runs and posting a .286 batting average. Tuesday, the left fielder robbed Chicago of a home run and hit one out of the park.
“A lot of guys are hungry in this locker room,” Smith says. “Nobody’s coming here taking it for granted. Whenever you feel wanted, in anything, it’s always a great thing to have.”
The extent of that desire is unknown. The Orioles’ rebuild is so extensive — their farm system is rated the worst in baseball by ESPN — there’s little guarantee any of their current players will be around when they turn the corner.
“Whoever’s here three years from now, I don’t think any of us know,” Hyde acknowledges.
For now, they’ll make the best of what’s still around, be it retreads from other organizations or a slugger hacking his way out of the weeds.
“We have a lot of games left to play,” Davis says, “and hopefully a lot of damage left to do.”