The most painful thing about being an Orioles fan these past four to five seasons is the feeling that the sense of shared community had disappeared.
As much as it pains me at this moment that I may never see Trey Mancini in a uniform with that Orioles script emblazoned across his chest, the fact so many of you are up in arms, crying, agitated or frustrated is because slowly but surely we are all beginning to hope on the Orioles. We are beginning to care again.
I said to my editor Luke Jackson early in the Mike Elias era that Elias “would trade his mother if he got a good enough return.” Luke reminded me of that on Monday, and so did a friend of mine, Judy Kramer, an Orioles fan of long standing who roots from afar in the calm of New Mexico.
“I hate that they traded Trey Mancini for two pitchers who will probably suck. He was the soul of the Orioles,” Judy said.
So, before I defend Elias, let’s take a look at the two pitchers the Orioles got back in this deadline deal that sent Mancini to the Astros. The Rays were the third team involved in the deal.
And actually, the Rays sent the Orioles the bigger pitching arm in the deal in Seth Johnson, who is about to undergo Tommy John surgery and will most likely not return to competitive baseball until the fall of 2023 or even spring training in 2024.
Johnson, 23, was drafted as the 40th overall pick out of Campbell in 2019. If not for the injury, he would never have been available. The Orioles are attempting to position themselves for the not-too-distant future, what Elias describes as a championship window. Elias doesn’t believe that betting on the off chance of a playoff spot in 2022 outweighs making the Orioles of 2024-2028 much better positioned for a true championship run.
Remember, for Elias and top assistant Sig Mejdal, this isn’t a hypothetical. They were part of a Houston Astros franchise that has actually walked down this same path.
The Astros added right-hander Chayce McDermott, who played his college ball at Ball State, to the deal for the Orioles. McDermott has a live arm, and while he is 23 years of age and is only at High-A, some of his numbers paint the picture of a guy who possesses the ability to get a lot of swings and misses. McDermott has a 4.92 ERA with 154 strikeouts in 93.1 pro innings.
While I was against trading Mancini, when you listen to Elias explain his rationale, it’s hard not to see the wisdom in what he’s done if you take emotion out of the equation.
I am not just blowing smoke at you to get past the emotion of trading Mancini. Orioles history does have one example of a trade that sent a popular and solid player to a contender only for that player to re-sign the following offseason. The Orioles traded Mike Bordick to the Mets at the trade deadline in 2000, but Bordick ended up playing two more seasons with the Orioles.
I listened intently to Elias’ conference call with the local media after the Mancini deal. I counted four separate times that Elias mentioned that the deal does not rule out interest in talking to Mancini as a free agent this offseason.
I’ll stand by my statement about Elias being cold-hearted enough to trade his mother. However, that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t re-sign her as a free agent.
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