Baltimore Orioles Potential Losses:

• Free agents: Adam Jones

• Potential non-tender candidates: Caleb Joseph, Andrew Susac, Jace Peterson, Luis Sardinas, Joey Rickard and Jhan Marinez

• Potential DFA candidates: Engelb Vielma and Donnie Hart

• Potential trade candidates: Jonathan Villar, Mychal Givens, Tim Beckham, Alex Cobb, Andrew Cashner, Mark Trumbo and Richard Bleier

Potential Additions:

• Potential Free Agent/Trade Targets: Ryan Madson, Jim Johnson, Clay Buchholz, Carlos Gonzalez and Matthew Joyce

The end, at least for the time being, is here for the Baltimore Orioles.

The O’s hit rock bottom in 2018, and it was a fairly quick fall. They won 89 games as recently as 2016 when they lost to the Blue Jays in the Wild Card game. Baltimore managed 75 victories in 2018 before plummeting to baseball’s worst record with a 47-115 mark this season.

Starting on July 18 with the trade of Manny Machado to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the fighting Buck Showalters started trading veterans left and right.

Zach Britton was shipped to the Yankees on the 24^th, Brad Brach went to Atlanta on the 30^th and Kevin Gausman and Darren O’Day joined him with the National League East franchise a day later.

Also changing teams on July 31 was Jonathan Schoop, who was flipped to the Milwaukee Brewers.

What’s more, Baltimore released Danny Valencia and Craig Gentry in the season’s final months.

There’s still plenty of work to do in terms of simply shedding veterans from the Major League roster, but the O’s will face an interesting situation with outfielder Adam Jones.

The longtime Oriole and arguable face of the franchise didn’t change locals in either July or August. Whether he moves on or not remains to be seen.

Non-Tender/DFA Candidates

Where the O’s can really start shedding excess weight on their roster is with the host of players who are still arbitration eligible.

Of course, Baltimore will need players on the Major League roster to play actual games, but if some of the current crop didn’t cut it, why hold on to them instead of potential waiver claims and Rule 5 draft picks who could turn into future pieces or trade chips?

The O’s have a boatload of AAAA players. Or rather, good, quality Triple-A players who’ve outgrown their “prospect” status but have yet to stick in the Majors.

Said boatload includes catcher Andrew Susac, infielders Jace Peterson, Luis Sardinas and Engelb Vielma, outfielder Joey Rickard and reliever Jhan Marinez.

With the O’s rebuilding—and it’s going to be a long rebuild—Baltimore shouldn’t think twice about moving on from any of the group to make way for younger players from either within or without the organization on the 40-man roster.

Hart and Joseph are slightly different stories.

They’ve both been successful enough in the Majors to conceivably be some kind of trade chip (even if it’s for a PTBNL or cash) but struggled enough in 2018 to warrant a change of scenery.

Hart was a useable reliever in 2017 (3.71 ERA, 4.49 FIP, 79.3 strand rate) despite not missing many bats with a mere 5.98 K/9.

Still he’s had swinging strike percentages of 10.2% and 8.4% in the last two years and, perhaps most importantly, throws left-handed.

That’ll help him find a job in 2019 even if the O’s move on from him. But, given his handedness and past success, he could be traded for some kind of minimal return.

Elsewhere there’s Joseph, who is a 32-year-old backstop with a penchant for quality defensive metrics. He wasn’t the best pitch framer in 2018, but has graded out positively in stats like DRS and rSB at different points in his career.

Catcher is a thin position around the league, so it’s possible someone could find value in Joseph as a second or third catcher despite a cratering offensive profile that has gradually declined since 2014 (71 wRC+, .146 ISO) and 2015 (11 HR, 88 wRC+).

Trade Candidates

Let’s be clear, a number of Baltimore Orioles players could be traded this winter.

Will many of the following players— Jonathan Villar, Mychal Givens, Tim Beckham, Alex Cobb, Andrew Cashner, Mark Trumbo and Richard Bleier—actually be traded?

Probably not.

Cobb has struggled mightily in 2018 and doesn’t exactly have a team-friendly contract. Ditto Cashner and Trumbo.

Bleier could probably get the O’s something if he were healthy, but he was limited to 32.2 innings for the O’s this past year. He doesn’t miss many bats (4.1 K/9, 8.3 swinging strike%), but owns a lifetime 1.97 ERA and 3.58 FIP. He had a 2.69 FIP in 2018 and throws left-handed.

In theory, that could get the O’s at least a lottery-ticket prospect.

Then there’s Beckham, who after a torrid start in Baltimore has reverted to being the same kind of player he was with the Rays.

The infielder owns a 79 wRC+, a .289 wOBA and a .661 OPS this year. The O’s should probably hang on to him to see if he can regain any of his trade value, but if some team wants to bring him on as a bench infielder, Baltimore shouldn’t think twice in moving him if the return is decent enough.

Speaking of infielders, Baltimore’s best trade chip might just (once again) be an infielder.

After the Manny Machado trade, Jonathan Villar has seemingly taken over as arguably the O’s best trade asset.

He was never teammates with the former first-round pick and won’t bring back anywhere near as much in a trade as Machado did, but the infielder could have trade value all the same.

Despite a small sample size—and this probably speaks more to the Orioles struggles, but it’s hard to ignore Villar’s production— the ex-Brewer has the second-highest fWAR among position players to wear a Baltimore uniform this year.

The only position player with a higher fWAR? You guessed it, Machado.

Rounding out the list is Givens.

If there’s anyone who could rival Villar for the coveted (said doused in sarcasm) title of being the Baltimore Orioles’ best trade chip, its Mychal Givens.

Givens, a reliever, has registered a career-high 1.7 fWAR in 2018 despite slight drops in strikeouts per nine innings and swinging strike percentage. His ERA, walks allowed per nine innings and BABIP all went up, but his 3.07 FIP was a bright spot.

The good news is that Givens still throws hard (his average fastball velocity has never dipped below 95.3 MPH), misses bats (his SwStr% has never dipped below 11.2%) and is generally very good at pitching in games as a relief pitcher (4.7 lifetime fWAR, 3.12 ERA, 3.18 FIP, 10.42 K/9).

He’s also controlled through 2021, via Spotrac, which should help both his tradability and the O’s chances of netting a high return.

Potential Free Agent/Trade Targets: Ryan Madson, Jim Johnson, Clay Buchholz, Carlos Gonzalez and Matt Joyce

Givens is the obvious and most accomplished candidate to assume closing duties in 2019 for the Orioles. However, if he’s traded, someone is going to have to pitch the ninth.

A healthy Bleier could be shoehorned in, but he doesn’t miss near enough bats.

That’s why signing a few bounce-back free agents to short term deals makes sense in regard to shoring up the bullpen.

Madson and former Baltimore closer Johnson would help ease the pressure on some of the organization’s younger arms while also becoming potential trade chips come July.

Speaking of trade chips, Clay Buchholz is a potential one that Baltimore should look into signing.

He enjoyed a resurgent year in Arizona last season and does one thing that a number of Orioles pitchers struggle to do—accumulate strikeouts.

Buchholz may never rack up Ks like Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer or Chris Sale, but he’d be a definite upgrade and welcome addition to a rotation that is home to contact-oriented hurlers like Alex Cobb and Andrew Cashner.

Rounding out Baltimore’s offseason shopping list is an outfielder.

Whether said outfielder comes by trade or free agency, help is needed.

Yusniel Diaz and Austin Hays aren’t far off, and could be starting full-time in 2020, but the O’s need place holders.

There wasn’t a ton of success with the 2018 Baltimore Orioles outfielders. Gentry and Valencia didn’t last the full season with the team while the likes of Joey Rickard, John Andreoli, Trey Mancini, Anthony Santander, Colby Rasmus, Jace Peterson all struggled to produce.

Cedric Mullens and D.J. Stewart seem likely to be part of the mix in 2019 but adding a veteran or two to help stabilize the position early on would help.

This is especially true if Adam Jones ends up departing via free agency.

It’s the same story as the bullpen, where said veteran reinforcements—like say Carlos Gonzalez and Matt Joyce—could be flipped for some kind of prospect returns at the deadline.

Offseason previews continue next with the Detroit Tigers. Click here to read more

It's #October1st & that means #MLB offseason has begun 4 teams not in the playoffs
What will #Tigers do?
Which players should they trade?
Which FAs should they sign?@BenRosener has you covered
If you like articles w/ nearly 2,000 words, this is for youhttps://t.co/TbsA5T3S5j

— Know Hitter (@knowhitter272) October 1, 2018