The addition of players to be named later keep rolling in for the Orioles. The players always had names, of course, but now we know them as Orioles.
Yesterday, the Orioles completed the trade of lefty Tommy Milone to Atlanta on Aug. 31 when they got 23-year-old infielders AJ Graffanino and Greg Cullen from the Braves. The O's are owed one more PTNL for sending pitcher Hector Velázquez to Houston on July 29.
Graffanino, the son of former big leaguer Tony Graffanino, was rated as Atlanta's...
In June 2012, the Orioles selected him fourth overall in the First-Year Player Draft. The expectations were high and they included hopes he would pitch at or near the top of their rotation for years. And for years, right-hander Kevin Gausman pitched for the Orioles. He sometimes showed flashes of brilliance, but never lived up to the first-round hype.
Now, just over two years after the O's traded Gausman, he is about to come into some money. The San Francisco Giants recently made him the...
They are ranked as the Orioles' top two pitching prospects and their inclusion in the 60-man player pool this summer was expected. They were not expected to pitch yet for the Orioles and they did not. But it was a big summer of developing - even without minor league games - for right-hander Grayson Rodriguez and left-hander DL Hall.
Rodriguez will turn 21 on Nov. 16. Hall turned 22 on Sept. 19. Both are ranked as top 100 prospects. Rodriguez is No. 31 for both Baseball America and...
Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias took a few questions from local Orioles media on Monday. It was his first meeting with reporters since the end-of-the-season Zoom get-together on the final weekend of the 2020 season.
A few takeaways from this latest session:
Interesting comments on the starting rotation: John Means, Alex Cobb, Keegan Akin and Dean Kremer would seem to give the O's a strong start on putting together a 2021 rotation. If that group of four consists...
Maybe Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias looked at this only from an on-the-field standpoint. It made perfect sense to pick up the $3.5 million option and bring shortstop José Iglesias back in 2021. Yes, he missed time injured, but when he played, he played great and was almost indispensable.
He hit, he defended and he provided leadership.
But beyond the value he provides on the field, the move to bring him back will have other impact, too. It will calm a segment...
A few random thoughts for today's blog.
No asterisk for me: I can't imagine anyone will forget the year 2020 anytime soon. It has been strange in so many ways to include baseball, where the season lasted just 60 games, the World Series was played at a neutral site and there were no fans in the stands until the very end of the year.
But I still count the Los Angeles Dodgers' championship - their first since 1988 - as very legit. No asterisk needed. Yes, the season was very different, but they...
The Orioles' addition of infielder Yolmer Sánchez via waivers on Friday raised several questions for which we have no real answers at this point. Do they plan for him to replace one of their arbitration-eligible infielders? Do they plan for him to compete for a utility infield job? What will his salary be in arbitration? Will the club try to reach a deal with him in advance of that?
As of late Friday, the team has yet to pick up the option for 2021 on shortstop José Iglesias. Is...
They combined to make 10 starts for the 2020 Orioles, and rookies Keegan Akin and Dean Kremer made strong impressions. They showed talent, promise and poise and made strong major league debuts. A guy who knows both pitchers very well and worked closely with both this year was probably watching somewhere and nodding his approval.
Kennie Steenstra was the pitching coach at Double-A Bowie in 2018, when Akin went 14-7 with a 3.25 ERA in 25 starts. He was the Eastern League Pitcher of the Year and...
Lefty Blake Snell was cruising. In a game the Tampa Bay Rays had to win, he was dominating the Los Angeles Dodgers and trying to pitch the Rays to Game 7 of the World Series.
Then, in a span of just four pitches in the sixth inning, he was out of the game. He had not given up a run, his team had a 1-0 lead, the hitters coming up had not touched him that night. He had swing-and-miss stuff, but he was gone.
Soon after, so was the Rays' lead. Los Angeles moved ahead 2-1 against the Rays bullpen...
It was all a bit of mystery. They were playing baseball at Double-A Bowie this year but there were not any games that counted. No other Eastern League teams came to town. Bowie was an important place however, as it was the site of the Orioles' alternate camp this summer.
No media or fans were allowed to watch and/or chronicle the happenings. But it was clear that some good instruction and work was going on out of the limelight and the major league spotlight.
We saw Ryan Mountcastle come from...
When fans look to grade how successful the 2020 season was when it comes to the Orioles rebuilding, what is the best way to do that? Is it just noting the won-loss record and looking for progress there? Or is it about looking more at individual players, especially those that came up from the farm and finding successes there?
Since we don't have to choose just one standard, it was nice to have a little of both during this past season. But which one is more significant: an improved record or...
The 2020 season for Orioles outfielder Austin Hays included a few firsts. He made the opening day roster for the first time. He hit his first inside-the-park home run and he went to the injured list because he was hit by a pitch for the first time.
The last few seasons have seen Hays battle various ailments and injuries. A player that has said he didn't deal with injuries in high school and college has had a steady stream in pro ball. He spent time on the injured list at Double-A in 2018,...
There were quite a few things that went right and/or showed some promise during the 2020 season for the Orioles. They provide areas to build on as the club rebuilds and tries to work its way up in the American League East standings.
Today, I list three things that worked or showed promise and I rank them in importance.
1) The bullpen was quite solid: This was an area of marked improvement for the 2020 Orioles. They traded three key 'pen members during the year and still got better. So that...
Here is something pretty remarkable. Nelson Cruz, who remains a feared hitter at 40, is about to sign his third contract since leaving the Orioles. In the offseason following the 2014 season, the Orioles, coming off an appearance in the American League Championship Series, had big decisions to make.
One was whether to re-sign Cruz and how far to go to get him. They made a significant three-year offer, but were reluctant to go four years on the deal. The Seattle Mariners however, would go four...
Even though one season was 60 games long and one was 162 games in length, O's bullpen lefty Tanner Scott threw a similar number of big league innings in each, tossing 26 1/3 in 2019, when he spent some time at Triple-A, and 20 2/3 innings this season.
But what he did with those innings was very different.
The pitcher long considered a top bullpen prospect lived up to the hype this year. His ERA was down while results against his fastball were up for him. We've talked often about his...
Major League Baseball is closing in on completing a unique 2020 season. One that featured 60 regular-season games, 16 teams in the playoffs, but zero fans in the stands.
While everyone hopes the fans return next year, we could also see some rules that we saw for the first time in 2020 returning next year. This could include the extra- innings rule for one. We could also see more than the previous 10 playoff teams next year, although it may not be 16 that make it.
This season, when extra innings...
Should the Orioles look to establish one pitcher as their closer in the 2021 season? Baltimore had five pitchers record saves in the shortened 60-game season in 2020.
The short answer for me is definitely not. No reason to try and find one established closer right now. In fact, on a rebuilding team, why not give several players a chance to save games next year?
Find out which players seem to handle the ninth-inning pressure well and which do not. Closing games is hard and there are pitchers...
If absence does make the heart grow fonder, can something similar work when it comes to baseball attendance?
I've heard from a few fans lately that basically said they can't wait to attend another Orioles game when they are allowed back into Camden Yards and it's safe to do so. They missed going to games. I can tell you that applies to some of the media as well. Speaking only for myself, I greatly missed the daily in-person interaction with O's players and staff. And seeing some media...
They are both infielders the Orioles claimed off waivers. They've gotten a golden chance to show they can play at the big league level with the Orioles since the start of the 2019 season.
But after the performance of both fell off in the second half of the shortened 2020 season, their futures are maybe more uncertain today than they were heading into last year.
I am talking about 26-year-old Rio Ruiz and 28-year-old Hanser Alberto. Both have been regulars in the lineup for most of the last two...
The American League East champion Tampa Bay Rays are headed to the World Series. They won the first three games of the AL Championship Series against Houston, but then lost the next three.
But behind right-hander Charlie Morton, they won 4-2 in Game 7 last night to head to the World Series for the second time in team history. In 2008, they lost, four games to one, to Philadelphia. Now they will chase their first title against the winner of tonight's National League Championship Series Game 7...