Analyzing the Orioles' rebuilding effort
"We clearly did some things that we felt we needed to do," he said Friday, referring to the twin trades of Miguel Tejada and Erik Bedard. "We're always going to look and evaluate circumstances as they come up to help and advance the club. We want to win. We are serious about wanting to win, and sometimes you have to pay the price for that. You have to be willing to make a short-term sacrifice. Being stuck in neutral and staying where we were, that to me was very untenable."
Baltimore has endured 10 straight losing seasons, and MacPhail said that they weren't any closer to winning with the existing core. So he traded Tejada, a four-time All-Star, to Houston for an outfielder, a Minor League slugger and three pitching prospects. Then, he dealt Bedard, his staff ace, to Seattle for a center fielder and four more arms.
The moves won't make the Orioles better in 2008, but they should make the organization healthier moving forward. MacPhail sees the wealth of pitching prospects his team has developed -- stretching from the big league rotation all the way to the bottom of the Minor League chain -- and knows that at the very least, he'll have more options in the near future.
"We want to attack the pitching with numbers," he said Friday. "We've given up two players in these two high-profile transactions and we picked up seven pitchers. We think that they're talented and they have futures. We know by definition that if you've got seven, you might end up at the end of the day with three or four. That's just the way the game works."
"It solidifies the approach that we're taking," added Baltimore manager Dave Trembley when reached Friday afternoon. "We're acquiring some very good young players that are going to have a definite impact on our club -- not only for this year, but for years down the road. We got quality back in return for a very good starting pitcher."
Baltimore added four starters -- Troy Patton and Matt Albers from Houston and Chris Tillman and Tony Butler from Seattle -- in the trades, and it's entirely possible that none of them will be in the big-league rotation when the team breaks camp. Tillman and Butler may even be years away from the Majors, but the Orioles have plenty of time to let them develop.
MacPhail said he wouldn't be surprised to see the team sign a veteran starter to fill out the rotation, allowing even more time for the prospects to prove they belong in the big leagues. If they do, that might mean that pitchers like Patton and holdovers Garrett Olson and Hayden Penn will pitch at Triple-A Norfolk until they force the parent club's hand.
Surprisingly, despite the fact that Baltimore has traded two of its most popular players, there's even been a groundswell of support. MacPhail has said that he's heard accolades for the moves and even dismay that they weren't done sooner, and he seemed incredulous that the fan base would readily accept deals that might make the team worse on paper.
"I never thought I'd see [a situation] where people would be disappointed if we didn't trade one of the best young left-handed pitchers in the game. But that's really the scenario that developed here," he said. "And I think people understand. Look, it's going to be a little bit painful, but it's necessary. And this is to really win. This is what we have to do, and that's what we came here to do. We're very confident that we have five young players that can help us get to that goal."
MacPhail went on to say that Peter Angelos, the managing partner of the Orioles, has backed him at every juncture. He supported that claim with a point-by-point demonstration of the cooperation he's received in the rebuilding effort.
"I asked for an improved presence outside the United States, particularly in the Dominican Republic, and we've got a brand new facility there coming online," he said. "We've changed our entire way of how we computerize our reports. We're going to have a brand new video system that's state-of-the-art for next season. As competitive as he is, as much money as he's thrown at this and as much as he wants to win, I've tried to make the case that I think it's time that we take some of our existing assets and trade them for as many future assets as we can. He's been on board and he's been great."
MacPhail also said that the Orioles will begin increased scouting in the Pacific Rim, and that John Stockstill will soon be promoted to director of international scouting. All in all, he said he's "batting 1.000" in terms of asking for things and getting them done, and contends that he's much more comfortable with the team than he was when he arrived.
One of the final problems, you might imagine, is getting the existing roster to buy into the rebuilding plan. But if you ask Kevin Millar, the team's first baseman and one of the few remaining veterans, it should be fairly easy.
"I'm an Oriole. If my job is to help younger guys and make sure we play the game hard and play the game right, then that's my job," he said. "You have no control over this stuff as a player. We just have to understand what the plan is here, and the Orioles have lost for 10 straight seasons.
"We brought in Mr. MacPhail to come in here and try to change the situation, and I think now you've got to take a step back to take a couple steps forward."
Spencer Fordin is a reporter for MLB.com.