Baltimore Orioles: Matt Wieters to DC?

One thing is certain; Baltimore Orioles’ catcher Matt Wieters will be playing in DC – this week, that is. Wieters and the Birds are there for what was supposed to be a Monday-Wednesday series, but is now Tuesday-Thursday due to last night’s rain out. I know, I know…kind of a petty play on words there. But work with me here for a moment.

Courtesy of Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

Wieters, along with many other Orioles will be free agents at the end of the season. Most Orioles fans rank re-signing Chris Davis as imperative – a stance with which I mostly agree. However many of the same people are almost assuming that it’s a foregone conclusion that Wieters will be gone next year. I would submit that one of the two absolutely needs to be on the roster in 2016. Gun to your head if you had to pick one, I’d go with Davis. (And that’s as much about the Orioles’ depth at catcher as anything else.

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Washington’s baseball team is kind of the pink elephant in the room with regard to the Orioles and the mid-Atlantic region. The history and quite frankly the bad blood between the two organizations is well-documented. (When I say bad blood I’m not talking on-field; there’s never been any issue between the teams on the field, and by all accounts several players on both sides are friendly off the field.) All the more reason why I found this piece by Ken Rosenthal of FOXsports very interesting.

Wieters’ agent, Scott Boras, is fairly tight with Washington’s management. And we’d thus be remiss to mention that the Orioles haven’t been his favorite people in the world. Furthermore Washington’s had issues at catcher for some time. Most Washington fans whom I know tell me that they like Wilson Ramos, their primary starting catcher. However he’s had issues staying healthy for some time – although ironically so has Wieters,

Nevertheless, the other team that Rosenthal mentions is Atlanta, which makes sense because Wieters went to Georgia Tech and he still lives in the area. I would say this; if Matt Wieters went to either Atlanta or Washington, Orioles fans probably shouldn’t have a problem with that (other than the fact that he’s no longer with the O’s). That’s kind of a best-case scenario given the fact that not only would he be out of the American Leauge, but out of the AL East.

Given the tension between the franchises, it’s understandable how fans might not want him to go to Washington. Granted the O’s would still end up facing him several times a year if he ended up there, however that’s a lot different than what would unfold if he ended up with Boston, New York, Toronto, or Tampa. With that said, I maintain that the Orioles need to focus on re-signing both Wieters and Chris Davis – so as to effectively render this column null and void.

As I said, one thing is certain…Wieters will be playing in Washington this week. In the lineup that was posted for last night, both Wieters and Jones were sitting on the bench. So it’ll be interesting to see if they’re in the lineup tonight. Incidentally, the make up game for last night’s rainout will be at 4 PM on Thursday at Nationals Park.

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