NOTES
O’s keeping eye on MLB’s slow free-agent market
Bundy won’t make excuses for 2018; Trumbo on target to return on Opening Day
Even with a new regime in the front office, the Orioles feel they could be in position to find value on a late-developing free-agent market this offseason.
Executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said Saturday at FanFest that the team is “monitoring everything” with an eye toward some short-term additions.
“We’ve got some ideas in line for what might make sense for what we’re trying to do, for improving the club this year, and also possibly advancing some of our longer-term strategic goals,” Elias said. “But I don’t know what’s going to happen. We’ll see what happens, and certainly the group that we have now, or a group close to this group, shows up in spring training, we’re going to have what we need to work with in terms of putting together a team and putting together the competition for spots that we want. But we’re certainly watching at certain spots for what happens.”
One of those spots, Elias said, is pitching, and later Saturday, pitching coach Doug Brocail noted how little was settled on that front. At the winter meetings, Elias was frank in saying that part of the team’s free-agent valuation would be in the possible midseason trade market for players they decided to sign.
For that reason and others, he said “it’s less likely that we would find ourselves in a multiyear scenario this year.”
He also acknowledged that the wait-and-see approach to free agency is one that has worked well for the Orioles before.
“I think it’s something that a lot of organizations in our situation in terms of where we are in our competitive cycle can take advantage of,” Elias said. “I have no issue with it, and it’s nice that we can sort of calmly take our time, surveying various options.”
“Well, I left a whole lot of balls up in the zone and just weren’t executing pitches, especially when I was ahead in the count, and I wasn’t finishing guys the way I know how to finish guys,’’ Bundy said during a media session at Orioles FanFest on Saturday.
He could have blamed the ankle injury he suffered running the bases during an early-summer interleague game against the Philadelphia Phillies. Nope.
“Not at all,’’ Bundy said. “The ankle was totally fine. I was just not doing good. The ankle was 100 percent as soon as I came back. I just wasn’t able to get the ball where I needed to get it.”
He could have chalked the whole frustrating second half to the total team-wide collapse that had to knock the motivational wind out of everybody who experienced it.
“I don’t like to look at it that way, as how it impacted my performance,” he said, “because I like to go out there and win as a team and with your teammates every day. But it was definitely hard and you could see it took a toll on certain people, myself included. But that’s in the past and now we’re looking forward to spring training.”
Bundy, 26, said he has spent a relaxing offseason catching up with family and — more recently — getting to know his new manager and pitching coach through texts and phone calls. He said he didn’t change his offseason routine much because he has generally gotten off to a good start each year, but needs to address why he has had trouble carrying that momentum deeper into the season.
“It’s kind of hard to say ‘definitely,’ but I think of where we’re at, there’s a lot of optimism,” Trumbo said at FanFest on Saturday.
The surgery, which was a relatively new procedure that involved replacing cartilage that had deteriorated in his knee, left Trumbo on crutches for eight weeks after the September procedure. He said he started swinging “within the last week or so,” but the rehab was “nonstop.” “I was doing it as we were still playing last season. That was kind of the beginning of it and there hasn’t been any kind of letup. It’s really important because there’s going to be some atrophy if you’re on crutches for, I think it was eight weeks. We’re working really hard to kind of get the size of both legs as equal as we can.”
Going forward, Trumbo said he’d begin running a little more coming up, but he’s also thrown without problem.
“I think as we kind of get closer here, I’m going to go down to Florida a little bit early and test it a little bit more,” Trumbo said. “ I don’t see any reason why things won’t be where they need to be. … It’s probably not going to be totally normal [in spring training], but I’d like to be able to build some momentum and kind of end on a high note. As far as doing all the drills in the first couple of days or weeks, we’ll kind of play it by ear. I think if we can kind of ramp up where we need to, that’s what I’m hoping for.”
“Everything’s feeling good,” Harvey said.
Harvey, 24, said he hired a personal trainer to help strengthen his shoulder this offseason, and has thrown a few bullpen sessions already with only the usual soreness that comes with it. “I worked my butt off this offseason again just trying to prevent injuries, and it’s been tough the last few years. But hopefully we can put everything together this year,” Harvey said.
“It’s coming along extremely well,” Bleier said. “It’s definitely been a long process. I’ll admit to that. But I feel like I’m past the hump and I’m throwing long toss and about to get off the mound. We’re definitely getting there, for sure.”
Bleier said the timing of his injury allowed him to begin throwing early in the fall, and then to take a month off before resuming throwing again to prepare for spring training. He said his current rehab schedule puts him on track to be healthy and available on Opening Day. “I don’t see why not at all,” Bleier said. “As far as the scheduling goes, the scheduling is for Opening Day, so unless there’s any setbacks or anything, which I hope there’s not, I think I should be ready.”
PREVIOUS ARTICLE
