Roch Kubatko

Another sampling of spring storylines

Another sampling of spring storylines
The Orioles haven't made any announcements during the holiday break. Nothing about minor league deals or staff hires. Not a creature is stirring, not even a rumor to douse. The ice pellets in yesterday's wintry mix had me yearning for the Florida sunshine that illuminates spring training workouts and afternoon exhibition games. Warms the heart - and areas where you should apply sunscreen. I've already written about eight camp storylines that should keep me busy, whether or not I'm able to...
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Mark Zuckerman

Most significant stories of 2021: Strasburg's devastating injury

Most significant stories of 2021: Strasburg's devastating injury
As we reach the final week of the year, we're taking a look back at the Nationals' most significant stories of 2021. Some of them are uplifting. Some of them are depressing. All of them were significant in telling the story of the 2021 season. We continue today with one of the most depressing developments of the year: Stephen Strasburg's latest (and perhaps most serious) injury. ... It's not fair to boil a baseball franchise's chances for success in any given year to the health and...
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Roch Kubatko

Rewinding an Orioles roster review

Rewinding an Orioles roster review
Among the inconveniences of baseball's lockout is the delay in attacking roster deficiencies with major league free agent signings. Get ready for the frenzy of activity after a new collective bargaining agreement is in place, with teams racing through the green light at speeds that could leave many competitors in the dust. The Orioles tossed a starting pitcher and second baseman in their cart before the market closed. Jordan Lyles isn't listed on the 40-man roster, which holds at 38, because...
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Mark Zuckerman

Most significant stories of 2021: Schwarber's homer barrage

Most significant stories of 2021: Schwarber's homer barrage
As we reach the final week of the year, we're taking a look back at the Nationals' most significant stories of 2021. Some of them are uplifting. Some of them are depressing. All of them were significant in telling the story of the 2021 season. We begin today with one of the most uplifting events of the year: Kyle Schwarber's early-summer home run barrage. ... When he stepped to the plate to lead off the bottom of the first inning of a June 12 doubleheader at Nationals Park, Kyle Schwarber...
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Mark Zuckerman

What will you remember - or try to forget - about 2021?

What will you remember - or try to forget - about 2021?
It was a difficult year for so many, for so many reasons. And that it came on the heels of a difficult year for so many, for so many reasons, only made it more difficult. In some ways, the Nationals fit right in with that theme. As tough as 2020 was for them, 2021 was even tougher, on and off the field. And it leaves the franchise in an entirely different position as it looks ahead to 2022. Before we turn the page, though, we're going to take the final week of December to look back at the most...
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Steve Melewski

News has been expectedly slow in Birdland

News has been expectedly slow in Birdland
This time of year is usually pretty slow in baseball. And with the lockout on top of that, it's been real slow. And things may not speed up for a while, but hopefully it won't be too far into the new year when we get some better news on that front. Today I want to wish every reader and your family a merry Christmas and happy holidays! I appreciate this community today and every day. Just a short entry today to look back at a few recent items of news and feel free to leave any comments. But...
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Mark Zuckerman

The Nats' surprising history of Christmas Eve transactions

The Nats' surprising history of Christmas Eve transactions
Christmas Eve and baseball. They go together like, well, Christmas and hot dogs. This just isn't historically the time of year to be thinking much about the national pastime. Especially when the national pastime is nearly one month into a work stoppage. And yet for the Nationals, Christmas Eve has been the source of a surprising amount of news. Big news. Go back through the annals and you'll find six significant transactions made by the Nats in the final 72 hours leading up to Christmas,...
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Roch Kubatko

Taking a quizzical look at Orioles

Taking a quizzical look at Orioles
Making it through Christmas yesterday during a cream cheese shortage goes down as another victory and proves again that nothing can stop me from living my best life. I also can't be deterred from assigning a quiz on a Sunday morning. You can treat it like the socks and underwear that someone gift-wrapped and left under the tree. Or the one chocolate candy in the sampler box that is filled with jelly. If you choose to take the quiz - and you can't spit it out - this would be a good time to get...
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Mark Zuckerman

Who might join Soto in Nats outfield in 2022 and beyond?

Who might join Soto in Nats outfield in 2022 and beyond?
If you had to pick one position group on the Nationals roster you feel best about in both the short- and long-term, would you pick the outfield? There's a good case to be made it's the most reasonable answer. Not because the Nats outfield is loaded, or even guaranteed to be successful. There's still plenty of uncertainty at two of the three positions. But you can't find anything to complain about at the third position. And there is some ample reason to be optimistic about the future at the...
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Roch Kubatko

A son's conversation to keep close on Christmas

A son's conversation to keep close on Christmas
I wake up to my third Christmas morning without my father, who fought esophageal cancer until he decided, on his own terms, that he was done. The entire family gathered in Ocean Pines to be with him in late December 2018, the only time we've done that. He didn't say much as we exchanged gifts. He just sat in his recliner, watching our faces, taking it all in. We knew why. Three weeks later, he was gone. We still talk, and sometimes the exchanges feel like they're coming from one of my...
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Steve Melewski

O's could pursue more free agent pitching

O's could pursue more free agent pitching
It was a bit of a surprise when the Orioles reached an agreement with free agent right-hander Jordan Lyles on a deal that will pay him $7 million for the 2022 season. They agreed to sign Lyles before the lockout began, but the signing will not become official until after it ends. But when it does end, will Lyles' deal be just the first the Orioles add with free agent pitchers? Will they sign another pitcher to a similar deal, and if so, who could it be? After the experience of last season,...
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Mark Zuckerman

Wednesday morning Nats Questions and Answers

Wednesday morning Nats Questions and Answers
We've been doing most of our Q&As on Fridays this offseason, but with the holiday weekend coming up, it seems to make some sense bumping it up to Wednesday this week. (Hey, if nothing else, maybe this will help you take your mind off the Washington Football Team's back-to-back losses, the Capitals' COVID-19 postponements and the Wizards' return to being the Wizards.) It's been an awfully quiet December for the Nationals, not that we expected anything else once the lockout began at the...
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Steve Melewski

A look at where rebuilding led one organization

A look at where rebuilding led one organization
Sometimes in this space, we take a look at the Orioles at a micro level, checking on the present and future for a player like Tyler Wells, as we did here on Monday. Sometimes we take a bigger-picture view, discussing how the rebuild is going, as we did here yesterday. The 30,000-foot view can often be more fun to discuss - and more complicated, too. Yesterday's blog produced many interesting comments. Some predictable, some not. As always, some see what the Orioles are doing - the rebuilding -...
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Roch Kubatko

Rough road trying to guess Orioles roster in December

Rough road trying to guess Orioles roster in December
Among my yearly winter endeavors, and I'm not referencing the non-baseball stuff like ingesting too much pre-workout powder and listening to my heart perform the drum solo in "Moby Dick," is offering Orioles roster suggestions to a national publication. In December. Accuracy is optional. An extremely difficult task is much more challenging in 2021 with baseball's lockout, which denies teams permission to tamper with their 40-man rosters. Holes in lineups, rotations, bullpens and benches...
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Roch Kubatko

More trends to track in Orioles spring training

More trends to track in Orioles spring training
I took an early look over the weekend at some possible spring training storylines. The rotation setup behind John Means and Jordan Lyles, catcher Adley Rutschman's chances of breaking camp with the team, second baseman Rougned Odor's chances of avoiding the Yolmer Sánchez treatment,and the composition of the infield's left side. Just scratching the surface, of course, and I've been itching to share more ideas. Let's get to it, with four more to consider. How does Yusniel Diaz look in...
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Steve Melewski

Rebuilding was always going to be tough to judge along the way

Rebuilding was always going to be tough to judge along the way
The rebuilding of a baseball team - in this case, the Orioles - can be extremely hard to judge along the way. In the end, probably years from now, it will be easier to look back and see if executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias and his staff made more right moves along the way. The rebuild's success or ultimate failure will be easier to judge in a long view looking backward. Did they win enough to produce a contending team, one built to contend over many years, not just one or...
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Roch Kubatko

Some early assumptions on Orioles

Some early assumptions on Orioles
Has this bizarre and stalled offseason taught us anything about the 2022 Orioles? Their direction, their mindset, their priorities, their plan? Your time is better spent reading a novel. There's more coming from a winter story that had to be bookmarked. In the meantime, here are a few observations on another slow morning: A willingness to spend on pitching We won't get a comment from executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias on the negotiating process that led to Jordan Lyles' $7...
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Mark Zuckerman

MLB can only watch as COVID-19 impacts rest of sports world

MLB can only watch as COVID-19 impacts rest of sports world
By sheer virtue of timing, Major League Baseball was the first major North American sport to return to play during the pandemic. July 2020 feels like a lifetime ago at this point, but it's worth remembering just how uncertain everything was as ballplayers took the field for the first time in empty stadiums. We didn't know if the strict protocols put into place were going to allow for games to be played without the spread of the virus. We didn't know if clubhouses would become petri dishes...
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Steve Melewski

The pitcher that went from Rule 5 longshot to bullpen stalwart

The pitcher that went from Rule 5 longshot to bullpen stalwart
Considering that there are often situations where teams selecting pitchers in the Rule 5 draft try to spend all season hiding such a player and using him sparingly, right-hander Tyler Wells worked out much better than that for the 2021 Orioles. In looking back at the Rule 5 from Dec. 10, 2020, there were 18 players selected in the major league phase. With the 5th pick, the Orioles took right-hander Mac Sceroler from the Cincinnati Reds, and with the 17th pick, they selected Wells from the...
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Mark Zuckerman

Tales from the clubhouse: Sleep-deprived Gio González

Tales from the clubhouse: Sleep-deprived Gio González
Over the course of 17 seasons on the Nationals beat, you come across players with every type of personality and every type of approach when it comes to dealing with reporters. Some are outgoing and gregarious. Some are shy and reticent. Some are polite but know how to say nothing interesting. Some are rude but can't help themselves and say plenty of things they shouldn't have said. In those 17 seasons, though, there has never been an interview subject quite like Giovany Aramis...
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