Davis erupted for 53 homers last season, helping the Orioles lead the majors in that category. They tied for fifth in runs scored, behind the three A.L. division winners and the St. Louis Cardinals, who won the National League pennant.

Good pitching beats good hitting, as the saying goes, but major league teams averaged 4.17 runs per game last season, the lowest mark since 1992. A high-powered offense can be a separator in that environment, and two A.L. teams that scored more than Baltimore last season, Boston and Detroit, lost significant punch in the winter.

“We have a bunch of core players returning, and they’re at the good age where they should do well and have good years,” Duquette said. “The key for us will be getting some on-base players, because we’ve got good power. If we can work in the strike zone and make the opposing pitchers throw strikes, we should be good.”

More base runners, of course, would help the Orioles take better advantage of their power. Their .313 on-base percentage last season was five points below the major league average. Cruz, 33, is their oldest everyday player, so perhaps a young team can learn better plate discipline. But Manager Buck Showalter does not want his hitters to lose their aggressiveness.

“If you’ve ever been in the batter’s box in the major leagues or the minor leagues, you cannot take until you hit — you hit until you take,” Showalter said. “It’s ‘Hit, hit, hit’ — and then some mechanism says, ‘Take.’ You can’t go, ‘Take, take, take,’ and try to hit. You can’t do it.”

In any case, Showalter said, the Orioles emphasize defense from their regulars, and five have won Gold Gloves within the last three seasons: shortstop J. J. Hardy, outfielders Adam Jones and Nick Markakis, catcher Matt Wieters and third baseman Manny Machado, who could miss opening day while recovering from knee surgery. Even with strong defense last season, Baltimore pitchers had a 4.20 E.R.A., ranking 10th in the A.L.

Duquette traded closer Jim Johnson to Oakland, but Tommy Hunter should be a capable replacement, and a new setup man, Ryan Webb, has strikingly similar statistics to Johnson. The rotation — with Jimenez, Chris Tillman, Wei-Yin Chen, Bud Norris and Miguel Gonzalez — is respectable, if unspectacular.