3 front office mistakes that cost the Baltimore Orioles dearly in 2023

The Orioles overvalued their depth all season long

While this mistake sort of bleeds into both the Orioles' offseason as well as the moves they made during the 2023 season, but it is worth discussing on it's own. One consistent thread that was true throughout the last year or so is that Baltimore really stuck to their guns about developing their roster internally and valuing the players they had very highly.

On the surface, this makes a ton of sense. Their position player group in particular is very young, but it also features some of the most top end talent in the entire league at several different positions. Having guys like Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Grayson Rodriguez, and others under cheap team control has a lot of benefits especially for a team that seems like it is going to be payroll averse as long as the Angelos family owns the team.

The problem is that this has both made the Orioles too willing to go with internal candidates that may not be as good as outside options and very, very reticent to use their prospect depth to make trades to improve their roster. Having a ton of hitting prospects is great and all, but there is no way all of these guys are going to have roster spots Baltimore and their pitching prospects aren't good enough to warrant this strategy. Baltimore's prospect hoarding and minimalist strategy regarding player acquisition was a big problem in 2023 which leads us to....