SAN DIEGO — As manager Buck Showalter held court during his winter meetings media session Tuesday, he admitted that the Orioles have their work cut out to defend their American League East title.
The Orioles have stood idly this offseason -- watching key cogs like Nelson Cruz, Nick Markakis and Andrew Miller leave -- while their division rivals have opened up their checkbooks and beefed up their rosters.
"God bless them," Showalter said. "That's the system. If we were in their shoes, we'd do the same thing. What are you going to do? Throw your hands up in the air? It's all right. It can be done. You've just got to be good at some things that will allow us to compete with them. ... We're not going around trying to emulate them. If it works for them, God bless them. If we were in their situation, we'd do the same thing."
Despite the holes the Orioles have to fill, Showalter said he'd be able to fill out his lineup card with his existing players.
"Really the only thing we don't have, even though we've made three subtractions, is who's going to DH?" Showalter said. "Other than that, I could tell you what we'd break camp with right now as starters."
Showalter said if the season opened today, Steve Pearce would be in right field replacing Markakis. The Orioles are also high on Cuban defector Dariel Alvarez, especially his defensive skills, after a breakout season in Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Norfolk. And even though he has been forgotten to a degree, fellow Cuban Henry Urrutia could "jump out on us this spring," Showalter said.
"We still have some other players we're looking at," Showalter said. "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."
Showalter said establishing pitching depth will be important. The Orioles have six starters already, but they will be prepared to use more.
"I do know that we plan to be seven, eight pitchers deep by the time we break camp with our what ifs," Showalter said. "We 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."
Showalter said right-hander Kevin Gausman won't be penalized because he has minor league options as he competes for a rotation spot this spring.
"We're not going to pick our pitching staff according to who has options and who doesn't," Showalter 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."
Showalter said he's optimistic that right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez, who has three years remaining on his contract, can rebound from a rocky 2014 season. Jimenez made a slight adjustment to his delivery late in the season -- no longer lifting his arms over his head and behind him when working from the windup -- that Showalter said showed promise for next season.
"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. ... 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."