Buck Showalter explained it well. The Orioles manager had just finished watching some intriguing pitching prospects during the Orioles' three-day minicamp in Sarasota, Fla., and shared with a small group of reporters the rationale for it.
"We've got two teams in our division that paid a luxury tax last year …" Showalter said. "It's a lot more fun, quite frankly, instead of trying to outbid on people. That's kind of who we are. We have to do things like this to find somebody that nobody really knew about."
The Orioles can't spend the money the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox spend. Even though Baltimore somehow has the eighth-highest estimated Opening Day payroll, according to Baseballreference.com, the Orioles operate with a different mindset than the Yankees, Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers, who have the three highest estimated payrolls.
