Latest Orioles moves set up no excuses if they fail to bring back top free agent

While the MLB world focuses on where Juan Soto will sign and for how much, the stove has been piping hot. The San Francisco Giants finally got the star they've been looking for in Willy Adames, and the Baltimore Orioles have made a couple of moves.

First, the team elected to sign Tyler O'Neill to a three-year deal. This move is a bit risky, but given O'Neill's upside, there's a lot to love. Just hours later, Baltimore brought a familiar face back to the AL East, signing long-time New York Yankee Gary Sanchez to a one-year deal. Sanchez will presumably be Adley Rutschman's backup catcher and might also see some time as the designated hitter against left-handed pitching.

Are the Orioles better in a vacuum? Probably not. The O'Neill signing probably means Anthony Santander is departing, and while James McCann doesn't have Sanchez's offensive ceiling, he provides a lot more defensive value.

With that being said, though, the moves that the Orioles have made so far set the stage for them to make one of the biggest moves a team can realistically make this winter - signing Corbin Burnes.

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Orioles early offseason moves make re-signing Corbin Burnes a must

O'Neill's ceiling might be higher than Santander's, but he has played over 100 games just twice in his seven-year career. There's a reason he signed for what could be considerably less than what Santander ends up going for. The Orioles the the more reliable outfielder who has been with the team for eight years depart just to sign more of a wild card suggests.

Their other move saw them spend $8.5 million on a backup catcher. Whether Sanchez was the right catcher to bring in based on his skillset can be debated, but $8.5 million is far from cheap for a player who will be on the bench more often than not.

Saving money on O'Neill and spending as much as they did on Sanchez suggests that they must have money to spend, right? If they were severely limited, why spend on Sanchez knowing that the rotation was a need? A big move must be coming in some capacity.

That big move simply has to be adding a starting pitcher. Burnes proved in his year with the O's that he can lead this rotation in an elite way. He didn't win the Cy Young, but he was just about as good as advertised during the regular season, and he even dominated in his lone postseason start.

For the Orioles to have more postseason success in 2025, their rotation must be addressed. They have solid starters like Grayson Rodriguez, Zach Eflin, and Dean Kremer, but lack the ace to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Gerrit Cole and Tarik Skubal in the American League. Burnes would be that guy.

Yes, it'd cost a lot, but the Orioles have a new ownership group in place, and they just saved some money by choosing O'Neill over Santander. If they didn't have much to spend, they wouldn't have spent that much on Sanchez. Even if that ace is Max Fried, the Orioles must bring in a frontline arm to prove that they're serious about winning big in 2025. Risking a downgrade from Santander to O'Neill and spending substantial money on a backup catcher only to not sign an ace would be a major mistake.