In Austin Hays’ first taste of major league life, the Orioles were trying to compete.
He debuted in 2017 for a club that ended up fading, and was about to implode.
Hays spent 2018 fighting injuries in the minor leagues as stars and plenty of useful players were shipped out of Baltimore.
Manny Machado and Zack Britton were gone. Kevin Gausman, Darren O’Day and Jonathan Schoop were traded.
The Orioles lost 115 games that year in one of the worst MLB seasons of all time.
What followed was a painful rebuilding process. The replenished farm system has now become the best in baseball.
And the Orioles are threatening to take over the AL East — not just for this season, but for the foreseeable future.
Could Hays have foreseen this Orioles resurrection in 2018 and 2019?
“Maybe not,” the All-Star outfielder said this week in Seattle. “The years to come were very tough. We saw a lot of those big names and faces make their way out of the organization, and on the new teams, there just wasn’t a lot of talent and depth throughout the organization at that time.
“It was really tough to imagine having four guys go to an All-Star Game.”
For the first time since 2016, Baltimore sent multiple representatives to the Midsummer Classic.
Hays, catcher Adley Rutschman and the dominant duo at the back end of the bullpen — Felix Bautista and Yennier Cano — made the trip in what amounted to an announcement that another persistent contender had arrived.
General manager Mike Elias, who took over in November 2018, has used the same tanking playbook he implemented with the Astros, who under Elias were pitiful until they were powerful.
The horror of the 2018 season turned into Rutschman, the No. 1 overall pick in 2019.
Their top picks in 2020, outfielder Heston Kjerstad at No. 2 overall, and 2022, shortstop Jackson Holliday, at No. 1, represented the team at the Futures Game this past Saturday.
Their top pick in 2021, outfielder Colton Cowser (No. 5), was called up last week. Infielder Gunnar Henderson, a second-round pick in 2019, has begun to play like a star.
The Orioles (54-35) hold the top wild-card spot, are two games back of the Rays in the AL East and still believe they are rising.
“When one guy goes down, we have an organization able to fill that void,” said Hays, a 28-year-old who has ridden good health to a breakout year, with a .853 OPS and nine home runs. “When you look at all the really good organizations and franchises across baseball, that’s what they have the ability to do.
“One or two injuries isn’t going to ruin a season.”
The indispensable one, though, is Rutschman.
The Orioles were 16-24 in May 2022 when the top prospect was brought up for his major league debut.
Since then, they have gone 121-90 with Rutschman consistently hitting second in the order and working with a pitching staff that has come together.
The 25-year-old introduced himself to the national audience at the Home Run Derby on Monday, when the switch-hitter put on a solid show as a lefty — then switched sides, and hit dingers on seven of his eight righty swings.
“He’s a huge part of it because he’s really, really good at both. He’s commanding our pitching staff, and he’s also our two-hole hitter who’s got a good combination of bat-to-ball skills, plate discipline and power,” Hays said of Rutschman, a first-time All-Star with a .799 OPS.
“You take his bat out of the lineup, it’s hard to replace it. You try to put someone else behind the plate, and you can’t really replace him, either.”
Add in what has become perhaps the best 1-2 punch at the end of games in Bautista (who lifted his prospect stock with Baltimore after flaming out as a teenager with the Marlins) and Cano (acquired in a trade from the Twins), and the rebuilding is over.
The Orioles now seem to never run out of top prospects, and the Yankees have one more divisional opponent to worry about.
“We have guys in place and pieces in place that just support the team,” Hays said.
