Biggest Winners and Losers from the Baltimore Orioles' Offseason

The Baltimore Orioles have had a characteristically quiet offseason so far, but it has been extremely quiet even for a club such as Baltimore that tends to not overspend and rather builds from within.

While other teams have been working the telephones organizing blockbuster trades or courting huge free-agent superstars, the Orioles have been content with what got them to the American League Championship Series in 2014.

If it ain't broke, they won't fix it.

Nonetheless, the decision to not bring back either corner outfielder in Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis has opened up opportunities for other players to inherit more playing time than they would have been given had the club chosen to re-sign either free agent.

In addition, the decision not to move any of the club's impending free-agent starting pitchers has caused a logjam at the position, leaving one man out due to the positional surplus.

While any organizational move has the chance to put a negative impact on any player's season or even career, it seems that Baltimore's lack of activity this offseason has opened up a lot of opportunity for playing time across the board.

Let's take a look into the biggest winners and losers on the Baltimore Orioles this offseason.

Winner: Alejandro De Aza, OF

Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

Acquired in an August trade with the Chicago White Sox in 2014 that involved sending two minor league right-handers in exchange for his services, Alejandro De Aza is most likely Baltimore's starting left fielder heading into 2015.

With the departure of Cruz, and more relevantly Markakis, De Aza will most likely jump right into the leadoff role and man left field for the Orioles to begin the season.

It's no secret that the Orioles struggle in the on-base department and have experimented with candidates for the leadoff spot for several years.

With a career .334 on-base percentage leading off and 48 steals in 296 starts from the spot, De Aza will be the answer, at least initially, to act as a catalyst to Baltimore's potent offense.

Loser: Ubaldo Jimenez, SP

Kathy Willens/Associated Press

At this point in time, the Orioles possess six capable starting pitchers for the 2015 season, which means someone will be the odd man out and head to the bullpen.

If the end of last season is any indication, it looks as if the Orioles will be paying off the rest of Ubaldo Jimenez's four-year, $50 million contract for him to pitch out of the bullpen.

This situation is far from what the Orioles brass imagined when it inked him to the largest free-agent deal in club history prior to the start of the 2014 season.

But, after failing to draw much interest in the trade market due to the large contract attached to Jimenez, the Orioles will at least need to get some value out of him, and the solution for now is from the bullpen.

Jimenez did improve coming down the stretch in the final month of the regular season, pitching to a 3.27 ERA and surrendering just four earned runs over 11 innings pitched.

As it stands, Jimenez will have a minimal impact in 2015, but if any of the five regular starters go down due to injury or struggle to produce, he may step in and look to prove the doubters wrong.

Winner: Christian Walker, 1B

Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

Baltimore's minor league player of the year in 2014, Christian Walker will be receiving an increase in playing time in the 2015 season.

Right now, it seems to be that Steve Pearce could be the starting right fielder out of the gate, making Chris Davis the starting first baseman after he finishes out his 25-game suspension, which ends following the conclusion of Opening Day.

That leaves the designated hitter spot unmanned, which may be the best route toward playing time for Walker to date given his defensive woes.

In an interview with MASNSports.com's Steve Melewski, Walker singled out his defense as an area of improvement.

"Defense is first and foremost," Walker said. "But in the big scheme of things, I'm expecting my offense to carry me through to where I want to go. I'm definitely not going to let my defense prevent me from playing at the next level."

After notching 26 homers to go along with a stellar .288/.357/.489 slash line in the minors in 2014, Walker will be an extremely underrated asset for the Orioles offensively this coming season.

Statistics provided by Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.