A look at a few things that went right for the Orioles

As the calendar year winds down, let's take another look back at the summer of 2020. Let's note a few things that went right during the shortened 60-game season for the Orioles.

From Rule 5 to MVO: One of the biggest things that went right was the play of right-fielder Anthony Santander. He was a Rule 5 pick from Cleveland by the club in 2016, and by 2020 was the Most Valuable Oriole, as voted by local media. That is indeed a success story. Santander's season was a big thing that went right. He was later a finalist for a Gold Glove, showing that he can impact the game with his bat and glove. And he has become a middle-of-the-order hitter. So yeah, nice Rule 5 pick.

Santander batted .261/.315/.575 in 165 plate appearances with 13 doubles, 11 homers, 32 RBIs and an .890 OPS. The team surely missed Santander late in the year. The Orioles scored three runs or fewer 12 times in their last 18 games, going 5-13. That was just about the time they lost Santander. For the year, they went 1-23 when scoring three runs or fewer.

When he played, he was among the American League stat leaders in several categories, and led the league in extra-base hits on Sept. 5 when he was done for the year due to a strained left oblique.

How about a batting order that starts this way: Austin Hays, Santander, Ryan Mountcastle and Trey Mancini?

The bullpen delivered twice: I say twice because the O's bullpen had a solid season and three of its key members were traded for future talent. We didn't know this time last year that the O's could trade Richard Bleier, Mychal Givens and Miguel Castro and still have a solid 'pen, but they did just that.

The bullpen ERA of 3.90, which ranked seventh in the American League, was much better than the 5.79 ERA of 2019, which was last in the AL. The 2019 bullpen led the AL in homers allowed, but the 2020 group allowed 0.93 homers per nine innings, third-best in the league. In FanGraphs.com's Wins Above Replacement (WAR) for 2020 AL bullpens, the O's were tied for fourth at 3.0.

To all those saying, "Yes, but it was 60 games and not 162," you're right. But it was a pretty darn good 60 games for the 'pen, with 40 coming versus the AL East.

Bleier was traded Aug. 1 to Miami for a player to be named later. That player turned out to be 18-year-old Dominican shortstop Isaac De León. Givens was traded Aug. 30 to Colorado for infielders Tyler Nevin and Terrin Vavra and a player to be named, which became 18-year-old Dominican outfielder Mishael Deson. Castro was traded Aug. 31 to the Mets for minor league lefty starter Kevin Smith and a player to be named, which became 17-year-old Dominican shortstop Victor Gonzalez.

In the latest MLBPipeline.com O's top 30 ratings, Smith is No. 12, Vavra No. 13 and Nevin No. 22. So the O's moved those three relievers for three players ranked in their top 30 and three young international prospects, all signed for at least $250,000.

The rotation is getting younger: Younger doesn't mean necessarily mean better, but it did for the 2020 Orioles. The O's rotation ERA was 4.75 late in the year, but it finished 11th in the AL at 5.09. A couple of late outings where Jorge López gave up eight runs and Dean Kremer gave up seven, raised it again over 5.00. But that was still the best rotation ERA by Baltimore since the 2016 team that won 89 games and made the playoffs, posting a mark of 4.72.

It was exciting to see debuts from Kremer, Keegan Akin and Bruce Zimmermann. This year we may see others - Alexander Wells, Zac Lowther, Michael Baumann, Smith, Ashton Goudeau - get a shot. Kyle Bradish impressed at the Bowie camp. Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall are not on the cusp of the majors yet, but their day is coming.

Plenty of other things went right during this past season, such as Mountcastle's debut and the progress young players made at the Bowie camp. What did you see that went right for the Orioles?