The Baltimore Orioles saw their years of hard work in the doldrums of Major League Baseball pay off with a 101-win campaign in 2023 and an American League East division title.
In 2024, the team took a step back, winning 10 fewer games than the year prior and finishing as the second-best team in the division, behind the New York Yankees by three games. It still resulted in a playoff berth, though they had to settle for one of the Wild Card variety.
This offseason, while the team has made moves, they have done little to move the needle, remaining mostly stagnant despite lacking a “true” ace, with plenty of names available to fill that role at the onset of the winter.
While the Orioles have remained mostly stagnant, the Toronto Blue Jays have made a plethora of moves this offseason to better themselves and their standing in the division, and they may have done just that.
In fact, on Thursday the Blue Jays signed veteran starter Max Scherzer to round a rotation that is arguably the best one-through-five unit in the American League East.
A unit headlined by Kevin Gausman is now rounded out with Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt, Bowden Francis and the aforementioned Scherzer, five starters who are capable of giving the team solid innings while posting ERA totals below 4.00.
Offensively, the Jays of Blue added former Baltimore standout Anthony Santander to add even more power to a lineup that contains Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, while also adding Andres Gimenez in a trade with the Cleveland Guardians for more offensive depth and to complete one of the better defensive infields in MLB.
Bichette certainly faced adversity in 2024, but his struggles were mostly due to injuries, which also held him to only 336 plate appearances. The shortstop is entering a contract year, along with Guerrero, and the team has looked to be going all-in for this year.
Toronto’s offseason has been a stark contrast to what Mike Elias and the Orioles have done, which is a lot of nothing meaningful outside of Charlie Morton.
Elias did sign Tyler O’Neill and Gary Sanchez, but the only thing that those moves accomplished was leaving everyone asking, “Why?”
There is still time to turn things around, though it will take a trade to acquire a “true” ace at this point in the offseason. If that does not happen, Baltimore’s streak of playoff appearances may come to an end sooner than later.