Ryan Ripken Gives BOLD TAKE On Orioles Off-Season Strategy

Ryan Ripken addresses some of the Baltimore Orioles off-season strategies, and why he thinks Adley Rutschman can and should be extended this year.

28 comments

  1. Do not sign Adley yet? We need to see which Adley is for real. He had a very bad second half, and one of our top 2 prospects is a catcher. They need to sign Gunnar first. They need to make it happen so how some way.

  4. What was the orioles offer to Corbin?? Corbin signing with Arizona was the biggest help for our front office. Now it’s the same narrative, he wanted to be in Arizona! Not completely true, he’s stated he wanted to be competitive as well as testing his value in FA.

    We don’t even know the offer made and personally to me, it’s a smack in the face to fans

  6. They are trying to get a bunch has beens and never will bes so they can drive attendance down to the point where the ex showgirl wife owner can relocate the team to Miami…well not quite but don't give them any bright ideas. Don't let them watch TBS in March that movie is on a lot

  8. The O's making an extension on ANYONE would call for champagne bottles to be popped. If it happened with a Boras client, fireworks should be exploded over the city for a month. It won't. They just don't have a history of signing long-term contracts. It's been almost ten years since they signed a SEVEN year contract with Davis. They aren't keeping this core. The window is now.

  13. Westburg,Gunnar and Holliday are all Boras clients. When Adley’s 6 years are up I believe he will be 29. I think to go to the next level we need to start developing pitching

  14. Kittredge is solid BP addition. O's offseason may not be "flashy" in terms of "big names" long term deals – but they are methodically plugging holes with solid veteran guys. Time will tell – but I believe the roster is filling out well for 2025. If our young core can continue to take steps forward (especially Holliday), this mix in of new vets could be just the recipe for better post season success. Don't forget – the Mountain will be back. And hopefully 2nd half returns for Wells and Bradish. Bradish especially could be a huge late season X-factor. Last 2 seasons he has pitched like a #1. Go O's!

  18. I would extend Adley [who can play first base] Westberg and Cowser if possible–but it all depends on how much money you're talking about. What do you guys expect it will require? I'd also extend Kjerstadt if he shows something like he did in his limited at-bats this year.

  20. I like the Kittredge signing, I can’t believe they let Hoffman go, especially considering that he went to Toronto for $7 million less than what the O’s were paying him. Signing Charlie Morton has to be viewed as a veteran presence at the back end of the rotation, but at this point, with Fried going to New York, we need to sign Flaherty and pray that he pitches as well as he pitched for everyone BUT us over these past 3 seasons. With Bautista, Dominguez, Cano, Soto and Kittredge, combined with the lack of available starting pitchers on the market, I think the best move we can make, now that Burnes and Snell are gone as well, is to sign Flaherty. From there, we need to either go deep into our bullpen to supplement our rotation woes by signing Tanner Scott which gives us the best bullpen in all of baseball and the ability to go to the bullpen early and often all season long especially with Suarez, but that also means that McDermott and Povich are going to need to come up, step up and play major roles in the rotation this season. The other option is to sign Kyle Finnegan instead of Scott, along with Flaherty, and then start making preparations now to make a big trade at the all star break if the rotation needs it. In my opinion, it would be most ideal to sign Flaherty and Scott, and then let the season play out. We get Wells and Bradish back midseason, so if we are in first or close to it at the all star break, there might not be any reason to make any trades, but bolstering the bullpen is essential. We have to learn our lesson from putting too much of the workload on King Felix Bautista. We have Grayson, Efflin, Morton, Kremer and Rogers, but I think Sugano is going to be very good and will be the sleeper signing of the offseason for us. Then you have Povich, McDermott, Suarez with Wells and Bradish coming, so there is significant depth. The only question mark is who will be our true #1? There’s every possibility that Bradish or Grayson can evolve into true #1’s and pitch as well as Corbin did last year, they’re more than talented and capable enough as young starting pitchers. Especially Bradish, he could easily pitch to a 2.50 ERA range and be our ace. If he did so, and Grayson wasn’t far behind him, with Flaherty in that same range, and Efflin doing what he did last year, and Sugano having the potential to pitch to a 3-3.25 ERA, that’s as good a 5 man rotation as anyone could hope for, with Bautista, Kittredge, Domínguez, Cano, Soto, and hopefully Finnegan or Scott added to that mix, in addition to Suarez, Povich, McDermott, Morton, Rogers, Wells and Kremer giving us immense depth to both the rotation and the bullpen, with the additions of Strowd, Young, Gonzalez, Contreras already on the 40 man roster. While I’m devastated that Burnes chose the desert over the additional money to pitch in Baltimore, if we sign Flaherty and another arm to the bullpen in the form of Scott or Finnegan, and we bring back Tony Taters, I like our club A LOT. The Tyler O’Neil signing was absolutely awesome, one of the most devastating right handed bats against lefty pitchers in all of baseball last year with great numbers at Camden Yards. And with all our young guys, Holliday, Kjerstad, Mayo breaking into the big leagues in a more full time role this year, replacing McCann with Sanchez who is extremely good at stopping the running game, and Basallo on his way to making his debut, not only do we have the best 40 man roster in the AL in my opinion, but if we need to make a move at the ASB, we can easily bring in Luis Castillo from Seattle and solidify the top of the rotation. As upset as I am about losing Burnes, and then losing Hoffman, both to extremely stupid and equally upsetting reasons, I look at the Yankees loss of Soto replaced with Bellinger and their loss of Cortez replaced with Fried, and I say with confidence that we are already the team to beat in the AL which is why Flaherty has expressed his desire to pitch in Baltimore. If I was going to nitpick any further, I would say that all we are missing is a veteran bat with postseason experience and success to get past our offensive postseason woes. It would have been great to see Teoscar Hernandez in Orioles Orange to fulfill that role, but we just need a singular player to eliminate those postseason offensive catastrophes, which a guy like O’Neil could already be. The moral of the story is I’m nothing but excited from this point forward since we were willing to spend $250+ million on Burnes that didn’t get spent, so we know that money is going to go somewhere and we are already the best 40 man roster in the AL East, if not the entire AL. Hopefully Flaherty signs and pitches like he did with Detroit and LA last year, and hopefully Tony signs and does what he did last year minus the postseason stats and his batting average goes up. From there, hopefully we stay healthy this year going down the stretch and hopefully Adley gets back to being the .300 hitter he is more than capable of being because with Adley, Gunnar, Holliday, Westburg, O’Neil, Kjerstad, Mountcastle, Mullins we have the most stout, versatile and lethal lineup with Mayo as the potential DH, but preferably Santander so we can get a better RF from him than O’Neil even though I have no clue what his defensive capabilities are if I’m being honest. This is the season where our young guys come into their own, become the top tier, well feared players throughout the league that they’re capable of being, while the next generation of young players(Holliday, Mayo, Kjerstad, Basallo)get past their rookie stages and become the supporting cast they’re capable of being, on their way to becoming the perennial power houses the generation ahead of them will become this season. With the veteran presence, depth and talent in our rotation and bullpen, this is our year. The fact that the Yankees went to the World Series last year when they weren’t half the team we were should have told our guys that it should have been us last year and not them. The regular season is a literal formality at this point for us and we need to be focused on October all season, and we need to step up, cash in and show the world who we are when playoff baseball starts. This is our time, our season and we have everything we need and more to execute. Bradish, Grayson, Flaherty, Efflin as our 4 man rotation, Bautista, Kittredge, Domínguez, Cano, Soto dominating from the back end of the bullpen, Gunnar, Adley, Westy, Holliday, Kjerstad, O’Neil leading the offensive charge, with an immense amount of depth as the supporting cast behind these studs and even more top shelf young talent waiting in the wings, making their way to becoming impact players as well, this is our time. Not only should we be the team to beat in the AL this season, we should be World Series contenders the next 6-8 years no matter what we do in terms of signings and trades. We just need our manager to be better, he needs to work on making these guys more well rounded ball players, perfecting all aspects of their game and bringing the best out in them so they play as well as their capable of playing, and making sure their postseason performances match their regular season performances, both of which match their general capabilities and become the hall of fame caliber ball players that they are meant to be, should be and will be, if our manager can get his shit together. I’m more than upset that Ellis didn’t get rid of Hyde because he is easily our weak link, but hopefully Hyde realizes that he is our own worst enemy and has worked on his game all offseason, and brings a whole new level to his game this year, realizing he is the issue and that having a winning season is no longer the goal of this team, and that the expectation from now on is to win the World Series, or it’s a bust of a season. His expectations, goals and demands all need to be risen to that bar, with no exceptions being made at any point, in any way, to any degree whatsoever. His mentality needs to shift, and he needs to hold himself accountable because from this point forward, with everything we have and are capable of, if we don’t win the World Series, he has no one to blame but himself. The talent is there, the versatility is there, the experience is there, the depth is there both in the big league club and the young guys on their way to the big league club, and if the coaching staff isn’t meeting the players in terms of capability and all other relevant factors, it’s his job to make the necessary corrections because, as I said, at this point, if we don’t find ourselves in the Fall Classic this season, it’s 100% his fault and he should step down and resign as our manager if he fails to get us this year. Losing two games to KC by one run in each game was absolutely unacceptable, and he should be insanely clear on that fact after seeing what the Yankees did to them, knowing what we did to the Yankees all season, and then seeing how the offense provided by two players got the Yankees to the World Series because the American League pennant was there for the taking last season. Which was evident in how outclassed the Yankees were when they played a team that was actually a good ball club when they met the Dodgers in the World Series. We deserved to be that team, representing the AL in the Fall Classic, more than anyone and we were the better team across the board. If Ellis pulls out all the stops, signs Flaherty, Santander and Scott or Finnegan, and Hyde doesn’t get us to the World Series, he needs to accept his inability to manage a big league ball club and resign because even without them, we are the team to beat, but with them we should absolutely coast to 105 wins, and all the way to the World Series. This is our year, World Series or bust, no exceptions, no excuses and anything less is unacceptable at this point.

  21. At this point, with Bautista back, Bradish and Grayson being more than capable of evolving into top of the rotation, Cy Young caliber starters, and the addition of Kittredge, Sugano and O’Neil, if the O’s sign Flaherty, Santander and either Tanner Scott or Kyle Finnegan, the mentality should be World Series or bust. No excuses, no exceptions, no nothing. Hyde needs to be 100 times better, and start managing this team in a way where their expectations are to win the division by a landslide and represent the AL in the Fall Classic, and anything short of that is a complete and utter failure on our behalf. We have the most talented core group by miles, we have the strongest supporting cast by miles and we have the most depth both in our big league club and in our young players making their way to the big league club by miles. We have the most versatility defensively and offensively, the most well rounded lineup in the AL with speed, high average guys and power bats across the board. We have the strongest bullpen both in back end, shut down power and middle/long relievers without question, and we have the strongest rotation in the sense that nobody has equivalent strength going down the rotation. If Bradish and Grayson evolve into the Cy Young caliber starters they can be, we have 5-7 starting pitchers that are #1 and #2 starters where we don’t have any pitchers that would be considered anything less than a #3 starter in any rotation in baseball. If Flaherty is added to this rotation and he repeats what he did in Detroit and LA last year as an Oriole, and our lineup does what they’re truly capable of doing in October, even if we have five starters that are all #2 starters, the deficit we face when matching up against Cy Young contenders in games 1 or 2 should be completely irrelevant because our lineup strength should more than eliminate the minimal gap between starting pitchers. Hyde and the rest of the coaches have to be better, the offense needs to be who they really are when postseason baseball starts, and if that happens, there is no way the Orioles don’t win the American League next year, and, more than likely, the World Series as well because when we actually put it together in October and win our first postseason series, that is going to be a snowball effect that turns into an avalanche which won’t let up for the rest of this decade. It’s. Our. Time. The attitude, mentality and expectation from this point forward needs to shift from being grateful for turning up a winning season, into expecting to win the World Series with anything short of that being a total failure for the season. Once that happens, and these guys expect to play and win the way they’re capable and talented enough to do so, the rest of baseball better watch out and get used to playing for first place loser the rest of the way because no one can shine our shoes once we start believing in ourselves the way we should.

  22. Gunnar needs to be traded 2 years from his free agency. We need to maximize the return for him and thats the sweet spot. WE CANNOT afford to get a comp pick, if we went to stay relevant for many years.

  23. Extensions used to be done ALOT. Now these top picks are multi-millionaires when they sign. They don't need the security. Especially since it seems more and more, that players literally pick where they want to go. Add Scott Borass into the mix and its all but done. (Bobby Witt Jr's agent is his Father)

  26. Cease, Flaherty, and Castillo are not worth the asking prices. It is better to revisit when free agents. Note: I would not sign Flaherty at any cost!

  28. What’s with the gunner Henderson hate is every bit as good as Witt and Soto has what four years on him three years on him, you don’t think he’s gonna develop at all

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