Grading the Orioles performance at 2024 Winter Meetings: O's asleep at the wheel

Well, the 2024 Winter Meetings are officially over and we've had a few days to process all the information from this past week's events. The Orioles were unfortunately quiet during the meetings themselves, though they did acquire both Tyler O'Neill and Gary Sanchez just prior to the start of the events in Dallas last Monday.

Keith Law wrote about this at The Athletic last week too - while the O'Neill and Sanchez signings are likely to be useful in their own right, they're just not the types of moves Orioles fans were hoping to see. Regardless of how optimistic you are about either Grayson Rodriguez or Zach Eflin heading into 2025, it's tough to argue that the Orioles don't need another top line starting pitcher.

Kyle Bradish will hopefully be back to full strength sometime this summer but he'll be starting the year on the IL, as will Tyler Wells. And with Corbin Burnes poised to leave in free agency, the O's will have to find a way to replicate the production they got at the top of the rotation in 2024.

Former star closer Felix Bautista is set to return at the start of 2025, but we're still not sure if he'll be the old version of himself that we've gotten used to or if it'll take time for him to get back to full strength. The Orioles' bullpen struggled pretty heavily in 2024 and Mike Elias has yet to really address that problem. They might just try to run it back and hope that Bautista is enough of an upgrade, but it's a risky move for sure.

Grading the Orioles' 2024 Winter Meetings effort

While the additions of O'Neill and Sanchez look good on paper, they don't exactly move the needle like Anthony Santander did last year. With the knowledge that the Orioles still need an impact bat, preferably a right handed one, and that they've failed to address the top of the rotation, it's tough to give them good marks for their performance at the Winter Meetings.

Other teams, for instance the Red Sox and Yankees, went out and actively attacked the market to get pieces they needed. The Yankees bringing Max Fried into an already strong rotation is a big time move, and the Red Sox were able to trade for Garrett Crochet and solve their rotation problem before the Orioles could.

Part of the problem, at least from an outside perspective, is that the Orioles aren't seemingly in on any of these top free agents. Alex Bregman isn't a perfect fit but he'd look good in the Orioles' lineup. Pete Alonso isn't a perfect fit either, but he might be the type of impact hitter Baltimore desperately needs.

The most obvious idea is working with Burnes and bringing him back on a long term deal. The market for Burnes might be shrinking, with teams like the Sox, Yankees, and Dodgers already having acquired top of the rotation arms. The Orioles have a need, and Burnes needs a home. Tough to argue that there's another team that makes more sense as a potential landing spot.

Overall, the Orioles' efforts at the Winter Meetings left much to be desired. They didn't lock themselves into any weird overpays, like a long-term deal for Nick Pivetta or something of that nature. So it's not a complete failure. However, the decision to sit out the meetings isn't sitting well with a large portion of the fanbase, who are rightly anxious about the team's expected performance in a more difficult AL East this coming season. We can be generous and give the Orioles a C- for their performance in Dallas. There's a lot of time left in the offseason, so hopefully the O's will find a way to upgrade the handful of weak roster spots left open.