In a different era of 21st century Orioles history, we all got hyped up for another switch-hitting catcher mega-prospect, Matt Wieters. A Camden Chat commenter whose name I don’t recall said something that stuck with me: “He shall lead us to the Promised Land, a.k.a. slightly ahead of the Blue Jays.” It was always fitting for that earlier dark age of the Orioles, that the best thing a fan could imagine was not being in last place. Only in the fourth season of Wieters’s career did the Orioles emerge from the basement.
Here we are 13 years later in the early days of Adley Rutschman’s career.