It’s doubtful that Darell Hernaiz will ever join, let alone replace, Robert Andino in the lore of unlikely heroes in the history of the Baltimore Orioles. But the chances are very good that he will at least be a footnote in the organization’s current rebuilding project.
Andino, as any diehard fan knows, is the player who delivered the final hit of the 2011 season, the one that knocked the Red Sox out of the playoff picture and set the stage for the improbable run that sent the Orioles to the playoffs three times in the next five years.
Hernaiz never made it to Baltimore, rising only to No. 16 among the Orioles’ minor league prospects (according to MLB Pipeline) before being traded last week to the Oakland Athletics for pitchers Cole Irvin and Kyle Virbitsky. Under more normal circumstances the trade would garner little more than the couple inches of agate type it got around most of the country.
But times haven’t been normal around here for quite awhile, and this trade is significant because it is the first time Mike Elias has dipped into what he expects to become an “elite talent pool” in order to improve the major league team.
While Irvin has had what might be called a checkered major league career, he has been a durable starter for the last two years. The number of innings he has pitched far outweighs strikeouts, walks, hits, even earned run average. And he’s left-handed, which always seems to carry added weight.
The fact that eight of the 15 prospects ahead of Hernaiz on the Orioles’ prospect chart are ranked among the 100 best in baseball says more about his potential than his otherwise mediocre ranking. Obviously, there’s enough there to influence the A’s, where surprisingly Hernaiz is listed as only the 18th-best prospect. Given the fact that the A’s have only two players on that top 100 list, those numbers somehow don’t add up, but that’s hardly unusual in this era.
What does add up is that this figures to be the kind of move Elias will make often in the future. As that hoped-for pipeline fills up, room will have to be made for the cream of the minor league crop, leading Elias to deal from the top, the shallow end, where all the “blue-chippers” reside.
If in fact that happens, it will replicate a successful strategy from long ago, when the Orioles traded established players to make room for younger talent. It was like a revolving roster of All-Stars.
Jim Gentile made way for Boog Powell, Jerry Adair was replaced by Davey Johnson, who in turn had to make way for Bobby Grich. Luis Aparicio was traded to open a spot for Mark Belanger, Merv Rettenmund left to make room for Al Bumbry and, of course everybody remembers that it was a rising Jim Palmer who made Milt Pappas expendable in the trade that brought Frank Robinson.
And after a run of four pennants and two World Series championships in six years, Robinson himself moved on — to make way for Don Baylor. If there was ever a great “what if?” moment in O’s history it would be this: Suppose the American League had adopted the designated hitter rule after the 1971 season instead of 1972 and Robby had stayed?
That was all part of a long ago past, but even as the nuances have changed, the game itself hasn’t and the truly consistent winning organizations have learned that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
If Elias’ approach works, and history tells us that continuity is almost always a key to prolonged success, he will be making more trades like the one he made last week. Many of them will be from that shallow end of the “elite talent” pool. Some of them won’t be popular because by necessity there will be young players moving out. But they will leave in order to either bring in younger talent — or a missing piece for a potential championship run.
With Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson already on board, as well as Cedric Mullins, Austin Hays, Ryan Mountcastle and Anthony Santander, and Grayson Rodriguez, DL Hall, Kyle Stowers on deck, trades in the near future are inevitable. A chosen few will hopefully become mainstays, but there will be a revolving door, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Elias has some “goodies” on his plate moving forward. It was surplus of infield talent that allowed him to deal for Irvin. No doubt the outfield is next.
It’s inevitable that some top talent will leave, perhaps even one or more of the “Top Eight.” Hernaiz didn’t make it to that level. He didn’t qualify for the shallow end, where the truly elite swim, but someday perhaps he’ll be remembered as the first “chip” to leave the pipeline.
Jim Henneman can be reached at JimH@pressboxonline.com
Photo Credits: Billy Dunty and Kenya Allen/PressBox