Red Sox: Ranking the American League East's front offices by competence

2.) Baltimore Orioles

Coming in at #2 is the Baltimore Orioles, although there is an argument to ranking them a bit lower for the moment. The Orioles have been both fun and awesome this season, but Mike Elias has only been on the job for a few years as Elias was brought in back in 2018. While the amount of young talent he has assembled speaks for itself, Baltimore has yet to find an impact player in free agency or the trade market under this front office. Some of that is on ownership to be sure, but it is a noticeable omission from their resume at the moment.

However, the sheer amount of talent that the Orioles have been able to accumulate in the last few years is staggering. A huge chunk of their lineup is guys with a year or two of big league experience that are already among the better players in the league at their positions. On top of that, they still have Jackson Holliday, Colton Cowser, and Heston Kjerstad among others on the way. Baltimore just has an embarrassment of riches and a big reason why is the work of the front office and player development team.

1.) Tampa Bay Rays

As good as the Orioles have looked this year, the Rays remain the gold standard when it comes to the front offices in the AL East. Sure, they are basically never going to even try to sign a big name free agent as long as they are in Tampa, but what the Rays have done and continue to do with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball is nothing short of amazing.

Each and every year, the Rays compete near the top of one of the hardest divisions in baseball thanks to a talent pipeline that never seems to end. They are one of the best teams at finding talent on the international market, draft very well, and are notorious for making trades for seemingly minor prospects and turning them into stars. If Tampa is interested in one of your prospects, you should probably never trade that guy. If the Rays could actually spend real money, they would probably become a dynasty in short order and that speaks to how good the Rays are at their jobs as annoying as it may be for Boston fans.

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