The Orioles announced a series of transactions today. Catcher Jesus Sucre was selected to the 40-man roster, with outfielder/DH Mark Trumbo being transferred to the 60-day injured list to clear space.
Right-hander Alex Cobb and backstop Austin Wynns each hit the 10-day injured list. The former, who could be of interest to contenders if he throws well in the first half of the season, is dealing with a groin strain. The latter has a strained oblique.
Sucre will pair with just-claimed receiver Pedro Severino behind the dish. Both are known for their glovework but carry subpar bats. Sucre has yet to reach two hundred plate appearances in a given season; in parts of the past six campaigns, he has compiled 654 plate appearances of .223/.259/.308 hitting. The rebuilding O’s are obviously prioritizing defense from their catching unit, which makes for a nice opportunity for both of these players to gain more extensive exposure to major-league pitching.
It had seemed that Trumbo would be able to make an earlier return from the knee surgery he underwent last fall. He made it into six games of spring action, after all. But it seems he’s not going to be ready to go for some time. Like Cobb, he’s playing on a significant contract that the Baltimore organization would no doubt love to shed in some part. But it’s tougher to see a trade path for Trumbo, a bat-only player who hasn’t excelled offensively since re-signing with the O’s.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the 2019 Baltimore Orioles.
They will be a different team this year, and when they beat your team with hustle, speed, grit, and defense, please give them the credit that they deserve…
They will likely not win all the games, but they will play hard and will be way tougher to beat than you think they will…
Coming soon to a Stadium near you.
Recognize.
Would you go as far as saying it’s very likely that they won’t win “all the games?”
Lol
It’s a different team then I am used too. Speed, good catching and defense. Not the homerun or nothing.
Davis situation should be interesting. He hit .143 in ST. If that continues much longer before he is just cut.
Crush Davis had diagnosis for adult ADHD that allow for taking adderal, which is amphetamin. He let diagnosis and prescription go unrenewed so he lost access to legal PED. Then he switched to Vyvanse which is not as good for performance because it is slow release drug and timing dosage to coincide with game is too hard.
Your Crush not coming back!
Davis’ major problem right now is that he has too much pride to make any significant changes to his hitting approach. He resisted all through last year and while he has said all the right things in interviews this spring he has not actually done anything differently. I expect him to be given until Memorial Day to show improvement and, when he hasn’t, he will be released. He’s blocking Mancini from playing 1B which is blocking an outfielder (Hays, Santander, Diaz) from an every day major league spot.
I appreciate your sentiment and share some of it. No question they will play hard and scrap (not to mention they’ll have some intriguing talent in the upper minors) but their depth of pitching is questionable, as is the offense.
Trumbo has near zero trade value even when healthy.The O’s will not start to get on track until they rid themselves of Trumbo, Davis and Bundy
Don’t see how that makes much sense because whether those guys are on the team or not since the O’s won’t be noticeably better for a few years at least. Trumbo is a free agent at the end of the year,. And why would they need to get rid of Bundy? — unless you think he has more value in a trade than he does on the field. It’s not like Bundy is any worse than any of their other current starters — and he still has the potential to be good.
Agreed. Makes no difference if it’s trumbo or some 4A scrub as a placeholder. They’re on the team til the prospects are developed and ready to take over.
You’re foolish as always. The O’s do not need to rid themselves of Bundy. I believe that he is one of those who will do well with the analytics and will improve over the performance from the second half of last season. He wasn’t the same after he got hurt running the bases and it altered his mechanics.
Bundy is one of the most underachieving 4th overall picks of the last 10 years.
So has Sisco been optioned already, not part of the immediate picture?
He had a down year last year on both sides of the ball. I think they want him to earn a way onto the team and they have repeatedly said that spring numbers won’t do it. He had good springs before. If he plays well in AAA he will be up in no time.
I think we want to control sisco for another year. He’s been praised all year for his defensive ability and this will be his 3rd go around in AAA. Elias and co are manipulating service time.
All spring**
He’s got too much service time to really manipulate it much.
It’s probably just them trying to get him some real development, he’s still young.
I’ll have to look into how much service time sisco has exactly but we can 100% gain another year of control if we keep him down long enough. I’m not sure what month that would be but it certainly can be done and I believe will be done unless he absolutely demolishes AAA pitching to a level where they literally can’t keep him down.
Cisco has 156 days of service time. He only needs 16 more days to hit a year. It’s clearly not service time manipulation, unless they plan not to bring him up at all in 2019.
I don’t get that at all. He had an amassing spring and has talked about feeling confident (which he lacked in the past). So what do the Orioles do? Send him to triple a. Great boost to his confidence…
The team is placing a priority on defense, and one of Cisco’s major weaknesses is calling a game. If he can’t do that basic catching skill, then I don’t care how good his bat is he can’t be a major league catcher. He’s been sent back to make further progress on being a catcher instead of just a hitter who plays catcher.
Ah, the O’s….few here are old enough to remember LBJ’s description of a Texas hailstorm….”You can’t run from it, you can’t hide from it, and you can’t make it stop”…..
This team is predicted to lose 100 games. I like them at 72-90
I predict 59-103 for the Orioles this season
I do not see 72 wins on this club. If we’re on that pace that means a lot of things went right and we’d be dismantling even more at the deadline. I think 65 wins is this teams ceiling.
I think anything over 55 would be icing on the cake for this team this year. Realistically, they will win 30-35% of their games. (48-55 games)
48 games is putrid. There’s not much talent on the team but you usually luck into more wins that that. I think 55 is the floor and 65 is our ceiling.