Baltimore Orioles SP: John Means
Starting in the basement of the AL East means we get to take a trip to Camden Yards to visit the Orioles. I went right for John Means and the reason is that the O’s have already opened the door for their star lefty.
Before the baseball world went to hell there was a rumor that Baltimore would be willing to listen to serious offers for the southpaw and I think Chaim should make that phone call.
Means had his best season in 2021 since his All-Star efforts back in 2019. He tallied a 3.62 ERA through 146.2 innings while being the workhorse of a team that didn’t have much to be excited for.
The Red Sox lost one of their strongest starters in Eduardo Rodriguez and plugging in Means would fill that massive void with another lefty. The left-hander also 1.030 WHIP in 2021, the best of his career beyond the COVID shortened 2020 campaign.
More importantly, I’m a big fan of his K/BB ratio as he ended the season with an 8.2/1.6 split which breaks down to a 5.15 SO/W. That’s a guy I’d sure love to have to start for my team every fifth day.
If the O’s hadn’t already lit the flame a bit on this one I may have gone another direction but we know that they love to get rid of star players before they are about to get rich.
The Kansas native is in his first year of arb eligibility and won’t be a free agent until 2025, seems like a perfect situation to me!