Peter Schmuck: Two days that may have saved the Orioles’ season

I’m guessing that January 27th and February 4th do not stand out in the collective memory of Baltimore sports fans, who were busy mourning another devastating Ravens loss in the NFL playoffs, but they would turn out to be very important dates on the Orioles’ 2025 calendar.

Those were the days that O’s executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias bought two outfield insurance policies for a team that didn’t appear to need them.

He picked up Dylan Carlson for a paltry $975,000 and – eight days later – signed Ramón Laureano to a one-year, $4 million deal with a club option for next season.

Not sure if he would admit it, but Elias obviously knew he made a huge gamble signing free-agent outfielder Tyler O’Neill to a three-year, $49.5 million contract that includes an opt-out clause at the end of this year.

I’ve already weighed in on what I think of opt-out clauses in guaranteed contracts, but now the Orioles can only hope that O’Neill comes back from another in his long career string of injury-list assignments and plays so well during the second half that he decides he can get more money by going back on the market.

Good luck with that.

Elias obviously knew the risk. What he didn’t know was that 2024 Rookie of the Year runner-up Colton Cowser would stupidly dive into first base during the first week of the season and break his left thumb (hopefully, he learned his lesson, since it’s hard to swing a bat wearing an oven mitt), and Cedric Mullins would end up on the IL with a hamstring strain.

That’s how Laureano and Carlson have made Elias look pretty smart after he disaffected a lot of fans with his inability to make any premier acquisitions over the winter. Laureano, in particular, has emerged as a team leader and lately has been doing everything the Orioles were expecting O’Neill to do in right field and at the plate.

He’s batting .269 with eight homers, 19 RBIs and a strong .839 OPS in the equivalent of a quarter season while making some big defensive plays, including a fabulous outfield assist during Tuesday night’s victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

The switch-hitting Carlson has provided a big boost at the back end of the batting order during the Orioles’ 15-7 resurgence, batting .329 with four homers and 10 RBIs over that four-week span while also providing solid outfield defense.

Who knows where things go from here, but the two of them have helped restore some hope for a respectable season and may create a dilemma for Elias when O’Neill is healthy enough to return to active duty sometime in early July.

These kinds of roster issues generally work themselves out, but it will be pretty hard to keep $49.5 million bucks on the bench.