There’s no easier take to have in this business than ” _____ should sign _____.”
It’s beautifully brainless. In baseball there’s no salary cap, so you don’t have to consider the ramifications. In football you can always remind everyone that “the cap isn’t real” and go on with your day. Talk show hosts have said “hey, it’s not my money” in corny talk show host voice more often than they (we) have even said “I don’t have the answer, I’m just asking the question” in that same corny talk show host voice.
At the moment, saying “I think the Orioles should re-sign Corbin Burnes” falls squarely into that category. Of course we do! He’s great! The Orioles should have more cash to spend with new ownership! Two and two together has always equaled four!
I remain on the “almost certainly not going to happen” side of the Burnes conversation. Players don’t hire Scott Boras to say, “I’m happy here, just get me a fair deal to stay here.” They hire him to brutally do anything and everything necessary to get every possible penny they can. Maybe the Orioles will stun the world and be that team. Even with new ownership, I don’t expect it.
And because of that, it’s not at all the most compelling pending Orioles free agency storyline to me. I’ll spare you any further misdirection because I assume there is a picture of Anthony Santander accompanying this column. The conversation regarding Santander’s future has been and will continue to be much more interesting.
So many of us had written off the possibility of Santander having a long-term future in Baltimore — but not because he wasn’t worthy of being viewed as a cornerstone piece of the franchise. The Orioles have been and continue to be so flush with corner bats that many of us believed they would have to move on from some of the veterans in order to make room for the younger players.
To say the least, 25-year-old Heston Kjerstad has no business being at Triple-A right now. But with so many left-handed bats in these spots, the Orioles traded for Eloy Jiménez and Austin Slater, with early returns even better than when Al Gore thought he was winning Florida in 2000. With Kjerstad having no path to regular playing time, he’s the odd man out. (Too many good baseball players. Meek Mill used to pray for times like this.)
We saw this logjam coming the last couple of seasons. It will get more complicated when Jordan Westburg returns because Coby Mayo will need somewhere to play, too.
Because of that, many of us thought the “survivors” of the Dan Duquette era might all ultimately end up elsewhere. But that common belief no longer feels so common.
Santander has been spectacular. He will in short order set a new career high in home runs and will almost certainly reach 40 for the first time. He’s shown himself to be an emotional leader of this young group and at least somewhat makes up for his limited (but not woeful) range with a cannon of an arm. He’s absolutely a piece you’d like to have around for a bit. The logjam can be solved otherwise.
(Corny talk show host voice) The Baltimore Orioles should sign Anthony Santander!
And yeah, they should. Or they should try. I mean, they shouldn’t prioritize Santander over Burnes or extending Gunnar Henderson or anything like that, but they should try to keep Santander around for a while.
What does that cost? This time last year, I thought it might be in the neighborhood of three years and $50 million. At this point, the internet is noticing the similarities between Santander’s pending free agency and Nick Castellanos, who signed a five-year, $100 million deal with the Phillies coming off a 3.6 fWAR season in 2021. To be fair, I believe Castellanos got paid an additional premium so that the Phillies could guarantee home runs in every possibly inappropriate moment for the life of the deal.
That’s what makes it so hard to do the ” _____ should sign _____” take. I think the Orioles should try to sign Santander, who will almost certainly push to match that 3.6 fWAR number. He’s at 2.7 at the moment. The ballpark going rate in recent free agency years has been $6.5 million per win. Even the Castellanos number might ultimately be fair for Santander. Is it the best way for the Orioles to spend whatever money they’re going to spend in the near future? “Hey, it’s not my money!”
So I’m not saying the Orioles “should sign” Santander. I’m saying I hope they do. I believe he’s valuable. I don’t think signing Santander should be what prevents them from doing some of the other things we want to see them do spending-wise.
And I also hope Santander — who is NOT represented by Scott Boras — might be willing to work with the Orioles a bit to get such a deal done.
And I hope that they work on it soon so that perhaps the news of an extension could be a late-season boost for the entire clubhouse that helps give the team some more momentum.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox