Don’t know about you, but just when I was starting to count the days until the Ravens kick off next month, I’ve suddenly found myself counting the minutes to first pitch again.
The Orioles called up Top 100 prospect Dylan Beavers and put him right in the lineup on Saturday. Now comes Samuel Basallo, who might end up being an O’s Hall of Famer at first base or catcher…or both.
Okay, I know that we’ve all watched too many Septembers that held no playoff promise, but somehow this seems different. The future – both short-term and long – is unfolding before our eyes and there are more reasons than just these new faces to stay engaged for the next six weeks.
Beavers had a nice debut on Saturday night in Houston, getting his first major league hit and getting his first taste of big league intensity that took some of the sting out of a walk-off loss to the Astros.
That came on the heels of the terrific performance by rookie Brandon Young on Friday that has to make you wonder what he and the rejuvenated Trevor Rogers might do in a potentially rejuvenated O’s starting rotation next season.
And there could be some more September subplots as Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells get close to returning with their rebuilt elbows and unmistakable talent. Who knows, executive VP/general manager Mike Elias might even be able to convince Zach Eflin to stick around one more year with a qualifying offer.
No one is saying that this season hasn’t been a huge disappointment. The Orioles were supposed to be a slam-dunk to make the playoffs for the third straight year and it only took a couple of bad months to get the cynical wing of Orioles Nation to bail on Elias.
Well, we’re going to find whether his eye for young talent is as good as advertised starting with the next 38 games.
We’ve already gotten a good look at young slugger Coby Mayo, who appears to be developing into a solid first baseman on pretty short notice. He looked like he was born there Saturday night with that terrific glove flip to the plate to postpone the Astros’ walk-off win and is starting to unveil his offensive potential.
If that keeps up, the front office will have a tough decision to make this winter when Ryan Mountcastle is eligible again for salary arbitration, especially if it becomes obvious that Basallo is ready to give the club great depth at first and behind the plate.
Mountcastle doesn’t look like he’s going to go quietly. He has missed a huge chunk of this season and it’s easy to imagine the team moving on from him, but he came back from the injured list looking like he had figured something out at the plate. So, there’s another bit of intrigue to examine down the stretch.
The only area where it’s hard to see real promise is in the bullpen. The continuing uncertainty surrounding Félix Bautista and the midseason departure of three leverage guys test Elias’s ability to build a playoff-worthy relief corps this coming offseason.
The club is already holding auditions for those roles and it will be interesting to see how Wells might fit into that mix.
Another day. Another storyline.