Showalter meets the press

SAN DIEGO - As a reporter began to ask Orioles manager Buck Showalter this afternoon about the moves made by the Yankees and Red Sox during the offseason, he interrupted with a question of his own.

"They run out of money yet?"

Probably not, which doesn't have him overly concerned.

This isn't Showalter's first season with the Orioles and it isn't his first time at the Winter Meetings. Good luck trying to ruffle his feathers.

Showalter was relaxed and quick with a quip during his media session. He talked about the loss of Nick Markakis to free agency, how Steve Pearce currently projects as the starting right fielder, on his heightened expectations for Ubaldo Jimenez and Chris Davis in 2015, and lots more.

Showalter reminded everyone that conversations here between executive vice president Dan Duquette and agents and executives could lead to moves further down the road.

"We obviously made a lot of good additions in January and February last year," he said. "Some things do get done here or it may not happen. I really don't dwell on that too much. I'm making sure our workouts on the East Coast and West Coast and in Baltimore are set up and we're trying to make what we have as good as possible. Some things will change, but I kind of like some things about where we are. We have some things to do to bridge the gap."

It's been said many times that a manager becomes a lot smarter when he's given great players. Does it work the other way when losing key components like Nelson Cruz, Markakis and Andrew Miller?

"Oh, yeah. It's hard to believe I could get any dumber, but I think I did," Showalter said.

"If you look at it, we had two minor league players we used to acquire (Alejandro) De Aza. We had a minor league player we used to acquire Andrew Miller. We have five picks in the first 102 picks this year. I'm excited about that. I think we're going to be able to do some things to make a good system even better.

"You don't go through the things we go through together, whether it's Andrew in a short period, whether it's Nelson for a year, whether it's Nick for quite a few, without having some things tug at you. We are human beings. When the things that tug at your heart and the things that are purely business kind of get together, it's not always something that's easy to take. I talk a lot about how we try to out-opportunity other teams. We may not be able to outpay them even though our payroll is plenty competitive. But the opportunity we afford Steve Pearce, the opportunity we afford Jonathan Schoop or Caleb Joseph, I could go on and on. About Brad Brach and people nobody was talking about at this time last year. I feel very confident we'll uncover some people that allow us to be competitive.

"The biggest reason we made a leap last year was our pitching, and other than Andrew Miller we really haven't lost anything there. Our starting pitching got better, they got us deeper in the game and it allowed us keep our bullpen healthy and match up a little bit more. It happens again, we'll have some fun this summer."

Showalter isn't going to rank which departures hurt the most among Markakis, Cruz and Miller, saying "each one is different."

"I'm not saying there's going to be somebody from within to replace Nick. That's going to be hard to do. But they all leave a certain void we have to fill and that's what we're supposed to be able to do. Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. It's a very competitive situation. We'd like to have them, but I try not to dwell on it. It's easy to. It's hard to move on from a guy like Nick, but we'll have to."

There's also the issue of clubhouse chemistry. Markakis, especially, was a valued leader on the team.

"I don't know about working harder, but I think that's probably one of my biggest challenges between now and the time we open up is not selling, but making sure our players have the same morale," Showalter said. "What comes first though? Is it winning games or is it having that, because there's nothing that takes morale out of a team like not playing good baseball and losing a lot of games. There's such a fine line. We saw it last year. Such a fine line between success and failure and we've got some work to do."

Showalter remains hopeful that Matt Wieters will be behind the plate and Manny Machado will be at third base on opening day at Tropicana Field.

"It's so hard to handicap that," he said. "It's not so much if, it's when with Matt and Manny. They're both worth waiting on and we feel confident they'll be close in the start of the season. Whether it's the start or two weeks into it, just because it's delayed it doesn't mean they're going to be denied."

Showalter played golf with Chris Davis over the weekend and is encouraged that the first baseman will experience a big bounceback season after batting .196, having his home runs drop from 53 to 26 and being slapped with a 25-game suspension.

"I think there's a lot of things pushing that way," Showalter said. "I was with Chris Saturday and he's doing well. I think he's in a good mindset. A lot of things point up with him, some that I won't make note of, but you can probably figure out, as far as what this year means to him not only as a future for him but also as a teammate and somebody that he takes very seriously that his teammates and fans count on.

"I can't really see anything that would point to something being negative to Chris having a big year and getting back on the saddle so to speak of where he was. I'm expecting him to be solid for us, rather it be first base, right field or whatever.

"We've got a lot of options. With Stevie Pearce, we've got some options to move things around. Really the only thing we don't have even though we've made three subtractions is who's going to DH? Other than that, I could tell you what we'd break camp with right now as starters."

On the subject of bounceback seasons, Jimenez could use one after going 6-9 with a 4.81 ERA in 25 games and losing his spot in the rotation.

"There were a couple little adjustments that he finally kind of took to, especially with his hands that really made us kind of feel very positive about next year," Showalter said. "He's just had too good of a track record at a young age and being a healthy guy with a lot of want-to for not to be...

"Let's face it, he had an ERA that in years past for us would have been good enough in a lot of cases, but we have five guys pitching a little better than him and we were in a very competitive situation that we had to put our best foot forward. We think this year he's got a good chance to be part of putting our best foot forward. I think he's going to have a big year."

Looking more into the outfield picture, Showalter offered the following:

"We've got Dariel Alvarez coming. We've got some good young players. (Henry) Urrutia is still on our roster. I think he's going to jump out on us this spring. We've got Steve Pearce. If we opened today, Steve would be in right field. Depthwise, we've still have Quintin Berry. We still have some other players we're looking at. I probably missed a couple of players, but it's something we've talked about, kicked around. We've kind of got it prepped around upstairs. A lot will depend on what it costs, what kind of commitment. It's not about the money, it'll probably be about the money."

I tried to get Showalter to commit to whether Kevin Gausman would be in the rotation at the start of the season, but no such luck.

"We're not going to pick our pitching staff according to who has options and who doesn't," he said. "We're not going to use that against Kevin. If he's one of our best 11 or 12 or whatever we break with, he'll be on our club. And it doesn't always mean they're going to be in the same capacity.

"I do know that we plan to be seven, eight pitchers deep by the time we break camp with our what-ifs. Have some people at Norfolk that we feel like can come up and help us. Same way in the bullpen. That's something we've been attacking daily. It may not be up on the stage announcing it, but they're key moves for us. You saw some we made last year that nobody really paid much attention to that came into it. I really feel like we've got to stay on top of our bullpen in the offseason to make sure it's still a strength for us."

The Orioles are still conducting interviews for the hitting coach job. Minor league hitting coordinator Jeff Manto remains a candidate. The Rangers denied permission for the Orioles to interview Scott Coolbaugh, their minor league hitting coordinator.

Wait, wouldn't that be a promotion?

Anyway...

"We're getting closer," Showalter said without revealing names. "We've got three or four really good candidates. We're sifting through some, making sure we're taking everybody into consideration. Like I said before, we're not going to get caught into some false deadline, so when it happens, it happens. We're going to get a good one. We're taking a lot of input from our coaches, our other five coaches, a little bit from everybody.

"It's a hard job. It's been surprising to me how many people really not have said, 'No,' but said, 'Geez, you mean I have to be there every day, seven days a week, to do this every day?' That's what a hitting coach does. The hitting coach job in the major leagues has become one of the most challenging jobs in baseball other than a player, the physical part of it. That's why you see these assistants. It's challenging. To find a good one, that's really hard to find.

"The hitting coach for us, sometimes that's different from a hitting coach from some of those other teams. Every situation calls for a little different. ... I'm not looking for a guy with a big shtick. You know, a bunch of crazy mechanics. I'm just looking for a dependable, solid guy who is sincere that our players can count on and fits into everybody's strengths and weaknesses."

Showalter said major league experience isn't a prerequisite.

"It's all relevant," he said. "I'm always going to look from within before I look somewhere else. That's why we interviewed Jeff Manto. That's not a prerequisite. That stuff lasts about two weeks and then they want to know how you're going to help them be a good player and how you're going to help them win."

Still worried about clubhouse chemistry as you've reached the bottom of this blog entry? If so, Showalter isn't ready to join you.

"Not yet, not yet," he said. "I worry about everything, but that's yet to be determined. I've got some things we'll do between now and then. I think sometimes we make the mistake of getting bogged down and thinking that...

"We did this last year without Matt and Manny and Chris. We didn't have Nick Hundley all year. We didn't have Caleb Joseph all year, so I understand what you're saying, but I'm not worried about it yet. But it's going to be a challenge for us to make sure that part of it is covered. It was a strength of ours last year and the year before and the year before."