Each excruciating day that passes means that the Orioles’ full-blown organizational rebuild inches closer to completion. It felt as if a monumental leap forward had been taken on Sunday evening when the club promoted the sport’s top prospect, catcher Adley Rutschman, to Triple-A Norfolk. The 23-year-old is now on the major league doorstep and will soon be loudly banging on the door. But as your internal pessimist has likely already concluded, the odds of Rutschman actually making it to Baltimore before 2021 ends are remote.
There are a few factors at work here, and yes, service-time manipulation is one of them.