Thanks a million for the hot stove Roundtable column in a recent edition of The Baltimore Sun (“Orioles offseason roundtable: Corbin Burnes is gone. Have they done enough to replace him?” Jan. 6). I enjoyed the living daylights out of your discussion. It left me with plenty of prime rib to digest.

I have a grade for the Orioles’ acquisitions that begins and ends in M with all other letters M in between. Money-motivated mediocrity means marginal marketability. The Orioles could have been in the market for Santander, Burnes, and others. However, the Orioles’ market has been long compromised since MLB impulsively and churlishly injected the Expos (now Nationals) into the Orioles’ market 20 years ago. This was the commencement of MLB’s truncation of a strong and burgeoning Baltimore Orioles market.

Now, all that the Orioles can seemingly afford are this parade of mediocre one-year rentals. Elfin at $18 million, is 62-62 lifetime. Morton, ($15 million) at age 41, is 138-123 lifetime with his best years in 2017-2019 (all with stellar ballclubs), Morton was 45 and 16 in those years. He is 93 and 107 for the remainder of his career. Sugano, at $13 million, has never thrown a pitch in MLB. He has faced only AA and AAA level hitters in Japan. Gratefully, at least to me, they all will walk at the end of the 2025 season. None of those mediocre (at best) starting pitchers figure to be part of the O’s starting rotation at this time next year. Gary Sanchez at $8.5 million, does have some pop as a backup catcher, but he is a one year rental as well. My point is that all of the above are only short term Band-Aids for a roster that is in desperate need of long term commitments and stability.

These starting pitcher acquisitions remind me of steaks that I have consumed at franchise commercial steak houses over the years. I periodically would have a yen for a top quality steak but I could only afford hamburger. My hunger, impulsivity, and my pocketbook conned me into thinking that I was getting a bargain. However, I already knew better. Knowing that I would have to carefully floss to get the gristle out would be my bad memory of real money being spent for mediocrity. The O’s have bought three everyday products who are only, at best, inning eaters. To me, they are roster fillers which are “bargains” which cost real money and will give nothing in return other than mediocrity. It’s insanity to expect anything else. Sounds like gristle between the teeth, doesn’t it? Gristle can tend to give cheap steaks false depth.

Grayson Rodriguez, Dean Kremer, and others will have to step up and stay healthy for the O’s to contend in 2025. Hopefully, Trevor Rogers and Cade Povich will be able to fill in the blanks and prove that they are quality lefties who belong on a contending ballclub. This would allow those three mediocre rentals to help the O’s buy some more time. Last year, the O’s traded two excellent big league ready prospects for Rogers. Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers were apparently expendable for peanuts (thus far) and both traded O’s players produced for the Marlins. Norby hit 9 home runs in 178 at bats with the Marlins in 2024 after being traded there. Those numbers project to around 30 homers with a full season of 600 at bats. Stowers did not fare as well as Norby, but that Stanford product showed in his brief time here that he was big league material. He looked like a quality left-handed hitter. Since Burnes is now gone, what do the O’s have to show for their jettisoning of Joey Ortiz and DL Hall, their top lefty SP prospect? A first round playoff exit, courtesy of the Royals, comes to mind, along with a shallower farm system.

Anyway, none of these new rental starters are lefties. The O’s should have chased left-handed starting pitching free agents who would have thrived at Oriole Park with the still big left field and the short right field flag court where dominating lefties could reign supreme over left handed pull hitters.

If the Orioles won’t be able to afford Henderson or Rutschman in their walk years, then trade them now for players they can sign for long term deals early on. Also, then let’s see what Holliday and Basallo can do in a full major league season. Bring them up and keep them here. Sign them to lifetime deals if appropriate.

It’s ironic isn’t it? The Expos were injected into D.C. 20 years ago. The Orioles will now be the new Expos who develop great talent that they can’t afford to pay as they blossom into superstars.

That’s the moral of the story, isn’t it?

Thanks again for a terrifically written piece that had no gristle for me to try to digest.

— George Hammerbacher, Baltimore