Andrew Stetka: As O's slide, future starts now

As the Orioles continue to slide further and further away from the playoff picture, the start of the season's final full month will bring an opportunity to see what the future holds. The O's aren't out of it, but it's looking more and more like they'll be sitting home for the postseason. The question then becomes who are the players that will help the O's get back to October in 2016? As rosters expand, some of those players will join the team and look to make their mark. Some of those players are already hanging around.

The rotation could carry a lot of intrigue as there are many candidates going forward. The O's have already seen the departure of Bud Norris from the opening day rotation and it's very likely that Wei-Yin Chen will follow him in free agency. Kevin Gausman is an obvious candidate to fill one of those spots going forward, but there's no guarantee that Miguel Gonzalez has a spot. Mike Wright and Oliver Drake are intriguing names that we could see over the next month. They've both already had a dip in the MLB waters this season, and either one or both could be rotation-worthy come 2016. Tyler Wilson has also seen the big leagues already, and Eddie Gamboa could turn out to be an option, as well. I continue to get the sneaking suspicion that T.J. McFarland's name will continue to come up as a rotation candidate for next season. It's not that I like the move, but he's left-handed and would be the team's only in-house southpaw to replace Chen.

We are already getting our first look at Dariel Alvarez, who will have a lot of pressure on him to become a corner outfield staple for the team. Whether that pressure is justified or not remains to be seen. We've seen immense failure in both left and right field all season long by the Orioles, and seeing a promising prospect like Alvarez establish himself could take some of that hurt away going into next season. It's not like Alvarez is some young fresh prospect either. He's a 26-year-old Cuban defector who will have to start making his dream a reality if he wants to stick on a roster. Much of the O's outfield going into next season will also depend on the team's desire, or ability, to re-sign Gerardo Parra. I'd guess that the team has interest, but whether or not that interest is mutual remains to be seen. Parra is a seasoned veteran, but just about 18 months older than Alvarez. There's a sprinkling of other outfield prospects in the organization as well. Henry Urrutia and Junior Lake have each had a shot, while David Lough and Nolan Reimold have each had a number of shots. No one seems to want to emerge as a long term fix.

It's fair also to speculate as to what may happen going forward at first base. I don't see much of a chance of Chris Davis returning to the Orioles in 2016, something I've been saying since the start of the year. If Davis does go, does Christian Walker slide right in as the starter? He's had his taste of the big leagues, but is still a very big unknown. Steve Pearce has a chance to come back as a free agent I'd assume, but he's far from a long term solution at the position. Chris Parmelee remains under team control as well, while Trey Mancini is making big noise down on the farm.

While many of the issues that the Orioles roster had at the beginning of the season remain, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of solutions going forward. Unless the Orioles plan to spend on some free agents to fill holes, fans may need to prepare for a much younger, unseasoned team in 2016. The Orioles don't have a ton of talent or a lot of depth in the organization, and it's why the farm system has been ranked towards the bottom by many experts. There are plenty of options, but questions remain about whether or not any of them are the right ones. Some of the potential solutions could get an extended look over the next month as the playoffs slip away and 2016 gets even closer.

Andrew Stetka blogs about the Orioles for Eutaw Street Report. Follow him on Twitter: @AStetka. His thoughts on the O's appear here as part of MASNsports.com's continuing commitment to welcome guest bloggers to our little corner of cyberspace. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.