Baltimore Orioles: Answering Ten Early Offseason Questions

We’re answering ten questions posed by MASN’s Steve Melewski about the Baltimore Orioles offseason and 2020.

Over on MASNSports.com, Baltimore Orioles beat reporter Steve Melewski posted 10 early offseason questions for O’s fans to answer and discuss as we look ahead to the coming months and the 2020 season.

Many of the responses were interesting to read and answering the questions was a fun way to pass some time waiting around for a playoff game to start. Below are Melewski’s questions and our responses. We would love to hear your answers in the comments!

• What will the Orioles record be next year?

Not great. General manager Mike Elias has already said that 2020 is another year of evaluation and we’re hoping to see a handful of rookies make their major league debut, including a good number of pitchers. There’s also the fact that no major free agents will be making their way to Baltimore this winter. However, looking at the glass half full, I’m going with 63-99. No more triple digits in the loss column.

• Who will lead the 2020 Orioles in home runs?

Are we using 2019 regular season or playoff baseballs in 2020? Trey Mancini hit 35 in 602 at-bats, Renato Nunez hit 31 in 541 at-bats, and Anthony Santander logged 20 in 380 at-bats. I want to say Santander, but I’m curious as to how pitchers will adjust to him. Nunez certainly has the power to record more than 31, especially with a juiced baseball. Let’s lock in Renato Nunez, final answer.

• Who will lead the team in wins?

John Means. There really aren’t a lot of options here and Means is clearly the best pitcher on the current major league roster. He will certainly perform better than any free agent brought in and if we see Bruce Zimmermann and/or Dean Kremer alongside Keegan Akin in 2020, it won’t be for a while.