All the Orioles' work to build a team worth adding Adley Rutschman to has created one. Now, they just need to call him up.

If a competitive Orioles team was a prerequisite for finally handing Adley Rutschman his debut, at least that box has been checked with this current edition

This space’s official calendar does not recognize the 2018 season as part of the actual Orioles rebuild, though a sweep in Detroit this weekend harked back to an early moment of that nightmare summer.

That April, the 5-11 Orioles went to Detroit after being swept in Boston with the idea that the Tigers would be the ideal opponent to get a roster bolstered that spring for one last run back on track. They were swept then, too, rather decisively, and so continued a season that made it clear plenty was about to change.

It did in quite a significant way that summer and continued at a higher degree over the ensuing three seasons, even if the progress is best characterized from a top-down view as a duck meandering across the water with the constant motion of its feet below the surface not always evident.

Only the ends, which are still a long way off, will justify that approach. But over four years later, another sweep disappointing sweep in Detroit feels like a point in time when this big old boat is finally charting its new course.