The Orioles will go into this offseason happier than any 90-plus loss team has in the history of baseball.
They might have ended the season with 96 losses, but they were 34-24 in August, September and October and under new skipper Buck Showalter, the young players that the organization was beginning to worry about, stopped the regression that was frustrating every fan in Baltimore.
Because of this recent play, general manager Andy MacPhail will almost certainly make a bigger splash in the free agent market this year.
Of the holes to fill, the Orioles would like a solid corner infielder–Josh Bell is not panning out like the organization thought he would–a power hitter and a inning-eating pitcher that can replace Kevin Millwood.
The Orioles would also like a shortstop to replace Cesar Izturiz, who is a liability at the plate, but the pickings are very slim.
Not on this list are the big names of Cliff Lee, Carl Crawford and Jason Werth because the Orioles would have to drastically over pay for these players and I don’t see any of those guys going from Playoff stud, to leader of a rebuilding club.