4 Orioles players we'll be glad are gone in 2024 and 1 we will wish stayed

Keeping Kyle Gibson around would have really helped the Orioles' pitching depth

Among all of the guys that the Orioles lost this offseason, Kyle Gibson is really the only loss that they could feel in 2024. At first glance, a guy that generally puts up an ERA close to 5.00 each year that doesn't really miss bats and who is 36 years old shouldn't warrant a second thought. However, given Baltimore's lack of pitching depth, there is an argument for wishing he hadn't landed with St. Louis.

All of the above criticisms of Gibson are fundamentally true. However, the one thing this guy does year in, year out is eat innings (and a lot of them). Over the last three seasons, he hasn't thrown less than 167.2 innings in a season and he has eclipsed 175 or more innings five times in his 11-year career. With the Orioles' bullpen being a bit thin while Felix Bautista rehabs in 2024, having a guy like Gibson around to preserve the relief corps this season wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world.

Aaron Hicks was great with the Orioles, but betting on a repeat could have backfired

Aaron Hicks' short stint with the Orioles in 2023 surprised pretty much everyone. Hicks is a fundamentally weird player who gets the bulk of his value from his ability to draw walks, but he was legitimately awesome after Baltimore signed him last May. In 236 plate appearances with the Orioles last year, Hicks slashed .275/.381/.425 and was a key reason the team was able to weather some injuries in the outfield.

That said, Hicks is really a pretty infuriating player offensively. Sure, he draws a ton of walks and, every once in a while, his power will show up for a stretch. However, he is also a career .233 hitter and has dropped some real offensive duds in his career. The Angels seemed to like what they saw out of him last year enough to give Hicks a one-year deal for the minimum (special thanks to the Yankees for eating Hicks' previous contract there) and, for that small sum, maybe keeping him wouldn't have been bad. With all of the young bats the Orioles have potentially coming up this year, though, cleaning up the roster and avoiding Hicks altogether was probably the right choice.