I’m sure a lot of fans were expecting the Orioles to do something of note at the Winter Meetings, despite the advance warnings of Dan Duquette and notes from the media.
Overall, the Baltimore Orioles did very little of note in Texas. While the Miami Marlins, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and some other teams made major moves, Baltimore traded for well-traveled pitcher Dana Eveland and potentially filled in some organizational holes with the Rule V draft.
The big move – if you want to call it that – was for Eveland, who has been in several organizations and has had his share of trips in the Major Leagues. I would think this is a clichéd, low-risk, high reward signing.
Or whatever you may think…
Here’s more about him from the Baltimore Sun:
Eveland isn’t the top-of-the-rotation starter coveted by Orioles fans. He is 19-24 with a 5.52 ERA in 100 games (59 starts) in parts of seven big league seasons. But last year, the lefty sinkerballer was 3-2 with a 3.03 ERA in five starts with the Dodgers and was 12-8 with a 4.38 ERA in 25 starts with Triple-A Albuquerque, which plays at one of the worst pitchers’ parks in baseball.
“He won 15 games this year between Triple-A and the big leagues,” Duquette said. “He’d been up in the big leagues before as a starting pitcher, and he has gotten himself on track to compete for a starting job in spring training. We like his stuff. We like his durability, and we like his experience. And we like the fact that he won 15 games and pitched over 180 innings.”
I would gather for now that Eveland is just another arm in the picture and will contend for a rotation spot in Spring Training.
For some reason, I expected more to happen in Texas; silly me. Then again, the Orioles have more than two months until pitchers and catchers report down in Florida. I’m sure the Orioles will make most of their moves via trades and maybe sign a mid-to-low level veteran; however, only time well tell.
