After a 110-loss season in 2021, expectations were low for the Baltimore Orioles.
But out of nowhere, the team found its way back into contention for the first time since 2016.
Even after dealing away Trey Mancini and Jorge Lopez at the trade deadline, the Orioles kept their heads above water and remained in the thick of the postseason race.
Baltimore ultimately won 83 games, missing the postseason but finishing only three games back of the Tampa Bay Rays in for the final American League Wild Card spot.
If not for their status as an AL East team, the Orioles fortunes may have been different.
But ahead of the Winter Meetings, Eve Rosenbaum, the team’s assistant general manager made a bold claim, saying that the Orioles were “serious about competing and getting into the playoffs in 2023.”
O’s Set To Contend
Though the season ended in disappointment, hope was ignited this year in Baltimore.
And with free agency underway and the meetings approaching, the Orioles are in a position to spend some money and put themselves right back in the conversation for the postseason.
The Orioles last reached the playoffs in 2016, when they were walked off in the AL Wild Card Game by the Toronto Blue Jays.
But similarly to last decade, the O’s have risen from nothing and now find themselves in a position to make a run at postseason contention.
The next few weeks should tell a lot about what the Orioles plans are for the offseason and how they plan to build their club for 2023.
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