Reviewing news and notes from yesterday's Elias video call

The biggest news to come out of yesterday's Zoom conference call with executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias was the latest promotion bestowed upon Chris Holt.

That's three titles in three years with the Orioles. I'd hold out for space cowboy.

The Orioles hired Holt as minor league pitching coordinator in November 2018 and bumped him a year later to director of pitching, a move intended to more closely connect him to the major league team. Now he's adding pitching coach to his title as Doug Brocail's replacement.

Holt, 41, had been the leading candidate and yesterday's confirmation didn't come as a surprise. The Orioles envisioned him in the role since bringing him over from the Astros.

To Holt's credit, he always made certain in interviews to stress how he mainly worked on the minor league side, as if fearful of giving the impression that he trampled toes. And ask pretty much any pitcher about Holt at the alternate camp in Bowie and you'll get rave reviews.

There was concern in the organization that Holt could be offered a pitching coach job somewhere else and the Orioles didn't want to lose him.

Is everyone OK now with Holt being in the pension plan?

Too soon?

Making Darren Holmes the assistant pitching coach is a nice reward for his work in the bullpen, where he's still expected to be stationed for games.

Elias said that Holmes will be "predominantly working out of the bullpen, but also assisting Holt in all facets."

I'd think someone has to answer the phone.

Brocail passed a lot of credit to Holmes for improvements on the pitching staff in 2020. The Orioles are smart to hold onto him.

I was more surprised when Elias indicated that the staff probably would contain eight coaches again rather than be reduced to seven - though it's still possible.

An assumption was made that third base coach José Flores would be replaced by someone already on the staff. There are a few qualified candidates. But it's looking now like the Orioles are trying to make an outside hire.

Did they keep Bobby Dickerson's phone number?

Most of the information and responses yesterday were anticipated.

Elias wasn't going to clarify why outfielder Heston Kjerstad didn't attend the fall instructional camp, since it's a non-sports medical issue.

He wasn't going to give an exact number of prospects to be protected in the Rule 5 draft, though we learned that they're going to be upper-level and able to reach the majors.

He doesn't know if the minor league season will be played or how it will look, and he doesn't know where the affiliates will be based with contraction on the horizon.

Never hurts to ask, though.

We still don't know whether Yolmer Sánchez will be a starter at second or third base, or if he's a utility player. We don't even know for sure whether he's making the club.

Stuff happens, which is basically the point Elias tried to make. A waiver claim in late October doesn't guarantee a job.

We already figured out that Trey Mancini was feeling great after his final chemotherapy treatment - if we could read anything into his Instagram photo on Halloween, with the outfielder dressed as Buddy the Elf and smiling from ear to ear.

I took it as a good sign.

The three players to be named later in the trades of Hector Velázquez (one) and Tommy Milone (two) could be announced later this week. That's how I'm interpreting "on the sooner side."

Funny that Elias had just been updated yesterday prior to his Zoom call and my question about it.

The Orioles won't be big spenders in free agency, but they'd like to participate.

They first need to get a solid reading on it.

"It seems like this is the most uncertain free agent market. I don't think anyone knows how it's going to go," Elias said.

"I was watching very carefully the option decisions that were taking place and the qualifying offers just to get some kind of indicator. I think there were some interesting things there and we'll see. It's just, our revenue picture as an industry is so uncertain next year and that's a big factor, but also, teams want to win and there are good players out there and eventually this crisis is going to pass. Hopefully sooner than later. So I think teams are going to compete for players.

"As it pertains to additional free agent moves for the Orioles, we're just going to have to see. We're going to monitor the market. I think while this sounds a little maybe strange for a team that was in fourth place last year with a losing record and has not been shy about saying that it's rebuilding, I look at the players that either are already on our 40-man roster or are soon to be on our 40-man roster and it's a very functional group, all of whom either they have settled roles on the team or we want to audition some of these guys and leave paths open for them this year.

"We're fortunate to have some upper-level starting pitching depth. I think our bullpen right now is fairly set and it's a quality group. I'm not saying we won't look to upgrade that or add a veteran presence in free agency, but it's definitely a group that will work for next year. I want to say we'll have six to eight outfielders on our 40-man roster that are high-quality, that are interesting young guys, players with options, so I feel like that group is pretty fleshed out and we want to see in action next year.

"The infield, we're still addressing that with our arbitration class and with a move like José Iglesias the other day and we'll continue to monitor ways to fortify our infield, but we have a lot of really interesting internal candidates on our roster now. And the same with the two catchers. So we're trying to get better, we're trying to amplify the talent base across the whole organization as we've been talking about for two years now.

"I do feel like this is a group that's not full of holes right now and our team is improving. It got a little bit better (last year), got a little bit better (this) year and there's a lot of guys who still have a lot of room to get better, so I think there's an interesting group here and we're just going to try to be smart about mixing in any additional acquisitions right now."

* Ryan Mountcastle's push for American League Rookie of the Year will continue in 2021, hopefully with a full season of games.

Mountcastle is making the opening day roster. It's more about staying healthy and the word "truncated" not being attached to the season.

Finalists for this year's Rookie of the Year award were announced last night and didn't include Mountcastle. The winner will be Mariners outfielder Kyle Lewis, White Sox outfielder Luis Robert or Astros pitcher Cristian Javier.

Confirmation that Mountcastle received at least one vote on a Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot will come on Nov. 9. Three players had to be selected.

The Orioles don't have any finalists for the major awards. Mountcastle was their only shot.

The last Most Valuable Player was Cal Ripken Jr. in 1991, the last Cy Young winner was Steve Stone in 1980, the last Rookie of the Year was Gregg Olson in 1989 and the last Manager of the Year was Buck Showalter in 2014.

Manager Brandon Hyde deserved consideration as a finalist by keeping his team in the playoff race until the last five days of the season. During a rebuild that included trades of Richard Bleier, Milone, Mychal Givens and Miguel Castro. During a season without Mancini.

A 25-35 record removed Hyde from consideration - fair or unfair - but he's still earning props within the industry for keeping the Orioles competitive and motivated.

The Rawlings Gold Glove winners will be announced tonight beginning at 8 p.m. on ESPN. Anthony Santander is a finalist in right field, but unlikely to win it.

The Rangers' Joey Gallo and Yankees' Clint Frazier are the other finalists.