The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• RHP Carson Ragsdale and LHP Josh Walker claimed off outright waivers by the Atlanta Braves.

The general manager meetings in Las Vegas are over, and Orioles president of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias is flying back to Baltimore. He didn’t bring any new players but he’s gained some clarity on the trade and free agent markets.

The daily sessions have served their purpose.

Elias sat down with executives from other teams, agents and some players who showed up at the Cosmopolitan hotel.

“A lot of information gathering and a lot of meetings,” Elias said this afternoon.

“Overall it was really good. I can’t say anything happened, but this is how the offseason starts to develop usually is the conversations that initiate at the GM meetings.”

Nationals open home schedule Friday, April 3, at 1:05 p.m. ET vs. Dodgers 

The Washington Nationals today announced first pitch times for the team’s 2026 regular-season home schedule, opening next year’s Nationals Park slate on Friday, April 3, at 1:05 p.m. against the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Fans can guarantee access to Opening Day tickets by purchasing a 2026 Full, Half or Partial Season Package. Visit nats.com/Tickets for more information.

Fans can get an early look at the 2026 squad on Monday, March 23, as the Nationals host the Baltimore Orioles for an exhibition contest. The game is part of a multi-year agreement with the Beltway rivals, which places one game at Nationals Park and another at Oriole Park at Camden Yards each year through 2029. Following this year’s exhibition game in Washington, D.C., Nationals Philanthropies hosts its annual Homecoming Gala at The Anthem, featuring red carpet arrivals and special activities for fans.

For the 14th consecutive season, the Nationals will kickstart MLB’s slate of Fourth of July games, hosting the Pittsburgh Pirates for a 11:05 a.m. first pitch. A special showcase of the national pastime in our nation’s capital, the game will offer plenty of pageantry and patriotism leading into a slate of special events around the District in celebration of America’s 250th birthday.

Washington Nationals home start times will remain consistent with the previous two years, as evening games begin at 6:45 p.m.; Saturday afternoon games start at 4:05 p.m.; Sunday games at 1:35 p.m.; and most weekday afternoon games at 12:05 or 1:05 p.m.

Trevor Rogers received some well-deserved recognition last night with the unveiling of the American League Cy Young ballots.

I didn’t think I’d be solely responsible for it.

Rogers tied the Rays’ Drew Rasmussen for ninth place, with both pitchers receiving a fifth-place vote from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

The Tigers’ Tarik Skubal is a back-to-back winner, followed by the Red Sox’s Garrett Crochet, the Astros’ Hunter Brown, the Yankees’ Max Fried and the Mariners’ Bryan Woo. Skubal received 26 first-place votes and Crochet the other four.

I put Skubal first, Crochet second, Brown third and Fried fourth, keeping me in line with the majority. The last spot came down to Rogers or Woo. I didn’t want to be viewed as a homer if I selected Rogers or a jerk if omitting him because I cover the team.

Baseball’s annual GM Meetings wrap up this morning in Las Vegas, and as is always the case, there hasn’t been a whole lot of hard news coming out of the event. This isn’t the Winter Meetings (which are coming up Dec. 7-10 in Orlando), where the rumors fly fast and furious and we often get major news breaking at all hours of the day and night.

The process, though, begins at the GM Meetings, with executives starting to get a sense of what other teams are looking to do, who they might want to sign and who they might be willing to trade. And surely Paul Toboni has spent the last three days talking to as many people as possible as he prepares to embark on his first Hot Stove League as a major league president of baseball operations.

Toboni’s primary focus since taking the job in late-September has been overhauling the Nationals’ front office, then hiring a manager (Blake Butera, whose introductory press conference is now set for 1:30 p.m. Monday, by the way) and filling out his coaching staff. But the attention will shift to improving the roster soon enough, and there is no shortage of work that needs to be done in that regard.

Toboni inherits a roster that won only 66 games but lost only three veterans to free agency in Josh Bell, Paul DeJong and Derek Law (who was hurt the entire season). Pretty much all of the regulars return, but that doesn’t mean the 2026 Opening Day roster is anywhere close to set. The Nats are going to want to improve at a number of positions, and that can’t come solely from within the organization.

Though he hasn’t publicly stated his wish list yet, Toboni should be looking at three positions in particular that need upgrading no matter what: First base, starting pitching, relief pitching.

The Orioles’ coaching staff for the 2026 season has three confirmed outside hires and three likely holdovers.

A source confirmed tonight that Buck Britton, Drew French and Ryan Klimek are expected to remain with the Orioles.

Britton finished as third base coach and infield instructor after Tony Mansolino was named interim manager. French completed his second season as pitching coach. Klimek has served as pitching strategy coach since 2023.

Another source said earlier today that Britton might remain at third base but details had to be worked out and nothing was official. The team definitely had shown interest in retaining him.

Britton was promoted from Triple-A manager to major league coach prior to the 2025 season, but Orioles manager Brandon Hyde was fired on May 17, which led to a reshuffling of the staff.

New Orioles manager Craig Albernaz is dipping into his past again with the hiring of Donnie Ecker as bench coach, which a source confirmed this afternoon.

Ecker, 39, served as Rangers' bench coach and offensive coordinator from 2022-24. They removed his bench coach duties prior to the 2025 season and fired him on May 4.

The shakeup included the hiring of former All-Star second baseman Bret Boone as hitting coach.

Ecker was on the Rangers’ staff when they swept the Orioles in the 2023 Division Series and won the World Series.

The Giants hired Ecker as one of their two major league hitting coaches prior to the 2020 season, which is where his career intersected with Albernaz, the team’s bullpen and catching coach from 2020-23.

The general manager meetings in Las Vegas probably won’t produce any trades for the Orioles. They tend to function more as a way to lay the groundwork for future discussions at the Winter Meetings, which are held next month in Orlando.

Of course, there are exceptions throughout the league. Not everyone comes home empty-handed.  

The Padres traded future Orioles closer Craig Kimbrel to the Red Sox on Nov. 13, 2015. A day earlier, shortstop Andrelton Simmons went from the Braves to the Angels in exchange for shortstop Erick Aybar and pitcher Sean Newcomb.

The Twins traded future Orioles outfielder Aaron Hicks to the Yankees at those same meetings, among the busiest in recent memory.

Reliever Andrew Kittredge came back to the Orioles in a Nov. 4 deal with the Cubs for cash considerations, the club’s only trade this month. President of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias has done a lot more claiming and selecting than trading in November since his hiring in 2018.

The youngest major league manager in five decades is going to have a pitching coach even younger than him. One with a significant D.C. connection and a pedigree in modern baseball philosophy.

The Nationals have hired 30-year-old Simon Mathews as their new pitching coach, luring the up-and-comer from the Reds to work for 33-year-old manager Blake Butera.

Mathews, who first made a name for himself as one of the best pitchers in Georgetown history, spent this past season as Cincinnati’s assistant pitching coach, working underneath the highly regarded Derek Johnson. That’s his lone season on a major league staff, but that actually makes him more experienced than Butera, who has never played, coached nor managed above Single-A.

Mathews worked in the Reds organization for five seasons, the first four in the minors. He began in 2021 by implementing the club’s pitching program at its Dominican academy, then was rehab pitching coordinator in 2022. He served as assistant coordinator of rehabilitation and pitching initiatives from 2023-24, then earned his first promotion to the big leagues in 2025 as assistant pitching coach.

Cincinnati’s pitching staff has lowered its ERA and WHIP each of the last four seasons, from a 4.86 ERA that ranked 28th in the majors in 2022 to a 3.86 ERA that ranked 12th this year, and from a 1.389 WHIP that ranked 26th in 2022 to a 1.222 WHIP that ranked seventh this year. The Reds earned a wild card berth this season behind a pitching staff anchored by three homegrown starters in their 20s (Hunter Greene, Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo) who each finished with an ERA under 3.35 and a WHIP under 1.150.

The Washington Nationals officially named Simon Mathews the team’s pitching coach on Tuesday. The announcement was made by Nationals President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni and Manager Blake Butera.

Mathews, 30, joins the Nationals after five seasons with the Cincinnati Reds, most recently as their assistant pitching coach in 2025. He spent four seasons in Cincinnati’s Minor League system, serving as their assistant coordinator of rehabilitation and pitching initiatives (2023-24), rehab pitching coordinator (2022) and, in his first season in 2021, implemented the club’s pitching program at its academy in the Dominican Republic.

“Simon brings a tremendous amount of knowledge and a wide range of experience to our staff,” said Butera. “He is grounded, has great perspective on pitching and connects incredibly well with players at all levels. He is widely respected throughout the game and the type of coach that makes everyone around him better. Simon is a tireless worker and is uniquely equipped to help our pitchers reach their full potential.”

Mathews was the director of pitching at Push Performance in Tempe, Ariz. and an online trainer at Driveline Baseball prior to joining the Reds organization in 2021. In those roles, he designed throwing programs for pitchers, with an emphasis on improving movement patterns and velocity and promoted arm health.

Mathews signed with the Los Angeles Angels as a non-drafted free agent following the 2017 First-Year Player Draft and went on to pitch three seasons (2017-19) in their system. He appeared in 71 professional games, advancing as high as Triple-A Salt Lake in 2018 and 2019.

Blake Butera’s right-hand man in the dugout will be a familiar face to the Nationals’ new manager, not to mention one with more experience at the sport’s higher levels.

Butera has selected Michael Johns as his bench coach, the club officially announced Monday evening, tabbing his longtime Rays colleague to work alongside him in D.C.

Johns, 50, has worked in various capacities for the Rays since 2008, including nine seasons as a minor league manager, culminating with an 88-62 record and league finals appearance with Triple-A Durham in 2023. He spent the last two seasons as Tampa Bay’s first base coach, his lone experience in the major leagues.

A former infielder in the Rockies’ farm system in the late ’90s, Johns has since made a name for himself as an instructor for a franchise known for having one of the sport’s best player development pipelines. He served five seasons (2018-22) as Tampa Bay’s minor league field coordinator, tasked with establishing a consistent program for all the organization’s affiliates.

Johns and Butera overlapped nine seasons with the Rays, forming a connection that led to their current reunion with the Nationals. Butera, 33, is 17 years younger than his new bench coach and figures to lean heavily on Johns’ expertise both in establishing pregame routines and in-game decision-making.

The agreement with reliever Enoli Paredes yesterday on a minor league deal is the latest piece of business that’s so prevalent in the weeks following the World Series. Common throughout baseball and lacking in pizazz. More routine than riveting.

The last transaction from the Orioles was listed Friday, with pitcher Carson Ragsdale designated for assignment, though the club confirmed it the previous night while making several changes to the 40-man roster.

The moves this month aren’t generating much excitement among fans, but that’s typical for November. Depth signings and claims are easier to consummate and necessary to supply minor league teams and perhaps increase competitions in spring training.

Go back a year ago.

The Orioles signed right-hander Rodolfo Martinez to a minor league contract on Nov. 1, 2024. Three days later, they claimed right-hander Thaddeus Ward and catcher René Pinto on waivers and declined reliever Danny Coulombe’s $4 million option, all of it unfolding while I underwent open heart aortic valve replacement surgery, which made me a little late in reporting it.

Just to be clear from the outset: Daylen Lile will not be named National League Rookie of the Year tonight. We already know the 22-year-old outfielder didn’t finish among the top three vote getters. Either Braves catcher Drake Baldwin, Cubs right-hander Cade Horton or Brewers third baseman Caleb Durbin will receive the award when the results are announced this evening.

But Lile’s name will show up somewhere on the ballot below those three. He actually far outperformed both Baldwin and Durbin in batting average (.299), slugging percentage (.845) and triples (11).

The two reasons Lile didn’t at least finish in the top three: 1) He wasn’t in the majors as long as those other guys, with 95 fewer plate appearances than Baldwin and 155 fewer than Durbin, and 2) His poor defensive play left him trailing everyone else in WAR by a healthy margin.

In the end, it’s a shame Lile didn’t spend more time with the Nationals than he did, because who knows how much more he could’ve produced at the plate with, say, 451 big league plate appearances than 351. We do know nobody in the league was better down the stretch, because Lile won not only NL Rookie of the Month for September but NL Player of the Month as well.

The fact Lile will even appear on the ballot tonight is noteworthy on its own. Because it’s been a while since anybody in a Nationals uniform accomplished that.

The Orioles have made the following roster move:

• Agreed to terms on a 2026 minor league contract with RHP Enoli Paredes.

The Orioles have a new first base coach, the latest move to build a staff under first-time manager Craig Albernaz.

A source has confirmed the hiring of Jason Bourgeois, who spent the past two seasons as first base and outfield coach with the White Sox. He wasn’t returning in 2026, which created an opportunity in Baltimore.

Bourgeois, 43, is replacing Anthony Sanders, who took a job as Tigers first base coach. Sanders also worked with the outfielders, a responsibility that now falls to Bourgeois.

This is the second hire for the Orioles after hitting coach Dustin Lind, who served as an assistant hitting coach with the Phillies.

Bourgeois had an eight-year major league career as a player, beginning with the White Sox in 2008. He also played for the Brewers in 2009, Astros in 2010-11, Royals in 2012, Rays in 2013 and Reds in 2014-15. He batted .253/.300/.326 in 317 games.

The Washington Nationals officially named Michael Johns the team’s bench coach on Monday. The announcement was made by Nationals President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni and Manager Blake Butera.

Johns, 50, brings nearly 20 years of coaching experience to Washington’s staff, most recently as the first base coach for the Tampa Bay Rays the last two seasons (2024-25). Prior to that role, he managed Triple-A Durham in 2023, leading the club to an 88-62 record and an appearance in the International League Championship Series.

“Michael shares the same values that are important to me and to our organization,” said Butera. “He’s humble, has an incredible work ethic, and his preparation and attention to detail are unmatched. He played a major role in building Tampa Bay’s player development system and brings valuable recent Major League experience. More than anything, I know he’ll do everything he can to help our players, staff and organization succeed.”

Johns was Tampa Bay’s Minor League field coordinator for five seasons (2018-22), having moved to that position after managing Single-A Charlotte (2015-17), where he led the club to its only Florida State League championship in 2015. Prior to that, Johns managed Single-A Bowling Green (2014), Single-A Hudson Valley (2013) and Rookie-level Princeton (2010-12). He joined the coaching ranks in 2008, spending two seasons on Hudson Valley’s coaching staff.

Prior to joining the Tampa Bay Rays, Johns was the head coach at Orange Park (Fla.) High School from 2004-07 and prior to that, was an assistant coach at Fernandina Beach (Fla.) High School.

Baseball’s general manager meetings begin today in Las Vegas. The Orioles did some heavy roster shuffling last week to keep it at a full 40. Perhaps they can make the kind of progress this week that leads to other moves.

Pitchers Zach Eflin and Tomoyuki Sugano and catcher Gary Sánchez became free agents, and none of them are expected to return. Eflin’s back surgery diminished his chances but didn’t completely eliminate. He could stay on the market while teams monitor his recovery from back surgery.

Pitchers Félix Bautista, Grayson Rodriguez and Brandon Young were reinstated from the 60-day injured list. It’s a temporary reprieve for Bautista.

The bullpen added Andrew Kittredge in a trade with the Cubs. I’m old enough to remember when it was the other way around.

The Orioles picked up the $9 million option and also could be responsible, per Cot’s Contracts, for performance bonuses for appearances and games finished, and award bonuses that include Reliever of the Year, World Series Most Valuable Player, All-Star selection and Gold Glove.

On the same day that the Orioles fired manager Brandon Hyde, they also dismissed Tim Cossins, a close friend who served as major league field coordinator and catching instructor. The title wasn’t attached to anyone else on the staff. It just disappeared like the man behind it. 

The Orioles are in the process of hiring coaches for new manager Craig Albernaz, with the only confirmed addition being Dustin Lind as hitting coach. We’ll find out whether field coordinator and catching instructor are making a return.

Hyde and bench coach Robinson Chirinos also were former catchers. Chirinos won’t return.

Albernaz caught in college and in the minors, with arm strength and accuracy that became legendary for the people close to him. Everyone’s got a story. The ink hadn’t dried on his contract with the Orioles before media and fans began wondering how he might influence the careers of Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo.

Rutschman is a two-time All-Star and Rookie of the Year runner-up whose offense has declined since the All-Star break in 2024. The two oblique injuries didn’t allow him to get on any sort of roll.

Baseball – a game that spans generations around the globe – is a vast world. And yet, sometimes we discover hidden connections that make it seem oh so tiny.

Much like that Disneyland theme ride says: It’s a small world after all.

When the Nationals announced Blake Butera as their eighth manager last week, very few people (if any) in local circles knew much about the 33-year-old former senior director of player development with the Rays.

In fact, even the guy who hired him, new Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni, had only heard about Butera without ever meeting him prior to the interview process, though he did scout Butera as a draft prospect coming out of Boston College in 2015.

“We didn't know each other personally,” Toboni explained Tuesday during a Zoom call with reporters to discuss his first major hire. “I heard a lot about him, actually, even though I'm not much older than him (35), I scouted him when he was at Boston College. We just have a lot of mutual connections where I'm actually surprised that I had never met him prior to this process kicking off. So many mutual connections. I can't remember exactly the first time I really heard about him, but there had been a number of people over the years that had told me about Blake. I really went into this process having an understanding of what I thought it was going to be like, but didn't honestly know until I really hopped into it. I'm really fortunate that we did reach out to interview him because he blew me away throughout the process.”

We noted earlier this week how the Nationals have cleared a bunch of spots on their 40-man roster, losing several players to other clubs via waiver claims while outrighting several more to Triple-A Rochester, some of those players electing to become free agents in the process.

All of those moves leave the team with only 34 current players on the 40-man roster heading into the offseason, which means new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni has a lot of work to do to assemble his 2026 major league roster.

Toboni and his staff also have a lot of work to do to assemble their minor league rosters, which have already seen a host of slots open up following the recent departures of players.

A whopping 32 minor leaguers officially became free agents Friday, the date when all minor league players with enough professional service time have the right to leave their organizations. The Nationals aren’t the only club to experience a significant exodus, but that number is pretty staggering nonetheless.

Most of the names aren’t recognizable to anyone but the most hardcore of prospect hounds, but there are several notable ones sprinkled in there who played this season at Triple-A: Joan Adon, Juan Yepez, Nick Schnell, Jackson Cluff, C.J. Stubbs and Chase Solesky.