For a rebuilding team like the Orioles, success in the future depends on actually being able to acquire and develop the young talent that will make up what will hopefully be a sustained run of good baseball over several seasons. With no minor league baseball in 2020, the O’s were deprived of the easiest way to get some practical instruction to their young players.
The fall instructional camp, the roster for which the O’s announced on Monday, could prove to be an important part of the talent pipeline. There was no fall instructional league for the O’s last season, which at the time Mike Elias indicated was in line with an industry trend to move those kinds of activities into January, when prospects are less tired from just-concluded minor league seasons.