As I’m sure you’ll notice, I have the Orioles back in the No. 1 spot in my power rankings. Yep, the five-game losing streak was a bummer, but the club bounced back with a four-game winning streak before a national television beatdown by the Rangers on “Sunday Night Baseball.”
Injuries to Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells have greatly thinned the starting pitching depth that just a few weeks ago had us wondering about going to a six-man rotation. But while it may not be the exact path general manager Mike Elias would have hoped for, the Orioles possess something Elias has never had before.
That would be David Rubenstein and his well-heeled group that now owns the Orioles.
So far what we know about Rubenstein is that at 74 years of age he is having the time of his life, playing the role of Rubensplash, hat-giver and “Country Boy” dancer. He has also starred in TV ads for the team.
What we don’t know is how he’ll deal with extensions for players like Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman and Grayson Rodriguez, and most immediately Corbin Burnes and Anthony Santander at the end of this season.
I also bring this up at this time because we can assume that Rubenstein will be all-in on Elias finding the club the right starting pitcher and maybe even one more relief pitcher. And if Rubenstein is really all-in, this trade for a starting pitcher can’t be like last summer’s deadline acquisition of Jack Flaherty, for whom the Orioles gave up a few middling prospects.
This should be a guy like Chris Bassitt (Blue Jays), Garrett Crochet (White Sox), Andrew Heaney (Rangers) or even Erick Fedde (White Sox). Given the return starting pitchers will command in this trade market, this cannot be a guy the Orioles just let walk away at the conclusion of this season.
I was recently sent one of these idiotic online pieces passing as today’s sports reporting about what an embarrassment Rubenstein was to the Orioles, MLB and owners in general. What was this piece of clickbait writing making a point about? That Rubenstein dancing on top of the dugout was so over the top that it made him look like a fool.
Well, I am an unabashed Orioles fan who tries to write columns that offer real insights. The only embarrassment in that column was that someone wrote it and tried to pass it off as serious reporting.
And I’ll tell you one thing that is certain about Rubenstein’s ownership of the Orioles. If he allows Elias to make a deal for a significant starting pitcher who makes sense for 2024 and for at least a couple seasons beyond, nobody will be laughing at Rubenstein.
They’ll be cheering his team on and buying tickets, concession and O’s swag. That’s the simple business of sports. You get what you get when you go for it.
Here are this week’s power rankings.
1. Baltimore Orioles (53-31, No. 3 last week): Aside from the stinker on national TV, the Orioles look confident as hell. Mike Elias knows what he has to do, and I have every confidence he’ll have the vision and confidence of ownership to complete the job.
2. Philadelphia Phillies (55-29, No. 1): This club still has the best record in baseball. The Phillies’ small drop to No. 2 is a by-product of losing both Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber for a while.
3. New York Yankees (54-32, No. 2): This team is still dangerous, but with Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo on the injured list, the offense looks a bit toothless at times. Is Luis Gil ready for the job in front of him, or will he wilt from the innings load and pressure?
4. Los Angeles Dodgers (52-33, No. 5): Eleven pitchers have started games for the Dodgers this season. Aside from Tyler Glasnow, Yashinobu Yamamoto, Michael Grove and James Paxton none really look much better than No. 5 or 6 starters. And from that first group, Yamamoto is on the IL with a strained rotator cuff and Paxton has seen his ERA swell to well to above 4.00. Walker Buehler’s return from Tommy John surgery is a cautionary tale on the myth that it’s an easy surgery to come back from. Through 37 major league innings, he has a 5.84 ERA, 1.51 WHIP and .301 opponents’ batting average.
5. Cleveland Guardians (52-30, No. 4): You have to love José Ramírez, but the Guardians are one big bat short. Is Jhonkensy Noel the answer?
6. Milwaukee Brewers (50-34, No. 6): If Craig Counsell had it to do all over again, is the money really worth it in Chicago? Meanwhile his successor Pat Murphy, a longtime minor league skipper, has Brewers fans saying “Craig, who?”
7. Minnesota Twins (47-37, No. 9): The Twins are on a 13-6 streak, which is in some ways their season in a nutshell. They weathered a 4-9 stretch by going 17-3 in a 20-game stretch … then they went through a 1-5 week … and then they had this 13-6 run. Do they really have the goods to play with the big boys?
8. Seattle Mariners (47-39, No. 7): The Mariners were red hot, but in the last two weeks they have lost four consecutive series to Cleveland, Miami, Tampa Bay and Minnesota. Club president Jerry Dipoto has to get some offense somewhere.
9. Atlanta Braves (46-36, No. 8): The Braves have a huge series at home against the Phillies this weekend, but before those games mean anything, manager Brian Snitker has to get his club focused on the first team it plays this week — the Giants, also at home.
10. Kansas City Royals (47-39, No. 12): Is Seth Lugo the best free-agent pickup from last offseason? In 2023, he pitched to a 3.57 ERA in 146.1 innings (26 starts) with the Padres. This season, he is 11-2 with a 2.17 ERA and 1.03 WHIP in 116 innings (18 starts). His deal was for three years and $45 million.
11. San Diego Padres (46-42, No. 13)
12. Boston Red Sox (44-39, No. 10)
13. St. Louis Cardinals (43-40, No. 11)
14. Houston Astros (42-41, No. 14)
15. Arizona Diamondbacks (41-43, No. 15)
16. Tampa Bay Rays (42-42, No. 17)
17. New York Mets (40-41, No. 24)
18. Pittsburgh Pirates (40-43, No. 20)
19. Cincinnati Reds (39-45, No. 22)
20. Chicago Cubs (39-46, No. 19)
21. San Francisco Giants (41-44, No. 25)
22. Washington Nationals (39-44, No. 16)
23. Detroit Tigers (38-46, No. 21)
24. Toronto Blue Jays (38-45, No. 23)
25. Texas Rangers (38-46, No. 18)
26. Los Angeles Angels (36-47, No. 26)
27. Miami Marlins (30-54, No. 28)
28. Oakland Athletics (30-56, No. 27)
29. Colorado Rockies (28-55, No. 29)
30. Chicago White Sox (24-62, No. 30)