I hope you got a chance to read my post earlier today, explaining how the 40-man roster works, and setting up where we are in terms of getting our roster down to where it needs to be. If you get lost or confused at any time, please take a look at it, as I tried to lay out the basics of how the roster management works in the off-season. In this post, I’ll go into more specifics of who needs to be cut, why they need to be cut, and if I don’t ramble on too much, who needs to be added so they aren’t taken in the Rule V Draft.
First off, who has no minor league options left, and therefore must make the major league team out of spring training? These guys must be on the team all year (barring injury), or else they can be picked up on waivers by any team. So, this is an important question to ask. Of the players with no options, if you have some that you feel have no shot of making the opening day roster, then it makes sense to cut them now, and perhaps save roster spots for players who can stay in the minor leagues all season.
The players that fall into that category include: Guillermo Quiroz, Brandon Fahey, Scott Moore, Oscar Salazar, Jeff Fiorentino, Brian Bass, Brian Burres, Lance Cormier, Hayden Penn, and Dennis Sarfate.
Of those guys, only Dennis Sarfate and Hayden Penn, to me, are guys you cannot afford to lose. I expect both of them to be on the opening day roster. Sarfate will be in the bullpen, Penn either joining him there or in the rotation.
So, who of these guys do I think has no shot? Lance Cormier and Jeff Fiorentino are the most obvious. I also think Guillermo Quiroz and Brandon Fahey are guys that could be cut now and perhaps re-signed to minor league deals.
I can see Moore or Salazar competing for a utility role on next year’s team. I could also see Burres or Bass competing for a spot in the bullpen (although I don’t think they should). So, I would cut loose Quiroz, Fahey, Fiorentino, and Cormier, as the first 4 guys off the roster. That would bring the roster down to 38.
Now, of the guys left who still have minor league options, who just doesn’t have enough potential value to keep, even though you could stash them in the minor leagues for the season. To me, there are two more obvious cuts.
One is Adam Loewen. Loewen, who as many of you know, has given up on his career as a pitcher to try and become a hitter. Most feel the team will cut Loewen, with an agreement in hand to re-sign him to a minor league deal, thus allowing him to develop in the minor leagues.
The other is Omir Santos. There just isn’t a need for him on the roster, and he can probably be re-signed to a minor league deal if the club feels it’s necessary. I would also cut Freddy Deza. Deza is just filler at this point. Again, we have plenty of depth in the organization when it comes to pitching. I’d rather have the open 40-man spot.
So, by cutting those 3 spots, that takes us down to 35 on our 40-man roster. However, before you go onto looking at the roster as set, there is one other thing that must be done. Some players in our system must be protected from the Rule V draft. But I'll get into that in my next post, since I don't want to overload one post.
So to recap this part of the off-season process, the 40-man is trimmed from 46 to 42 (Because of the 4 free agents mentioned in my earlier post). Then with the cuts I suggest here (Quiroz, Fahey, Fiorentino, Cormier, Loewen, Santos, and Deza), the roster is down to 35. This will allow us to add the guys we need to protect for the Rule V Draft.
Well I blabbed on a bit longer than I thought, and again, that can be kind of a complicated process, so I’m going to make that a separate post. I’ll explain who we need to protect, and how the Rule V Draft works. I’ll keep this off-season checklist rolling.
Keywords: Baltimore Orioles
