The Orioles will have two opportunities to break their streak of being denied a Rawlings Gold Glove.

Infielder Ramón Urías didn’t need the implementation of a utility player category in 2022 to be recognized in the American League. He joined the Blue Jays’ Matt Chapman and the Guardians’ José Ramírez today as finalists at third base.

Orioles center fielder Cedric Mullins also was named a finalist with the Guardians’ Myles Straw and the Royals’ Michael A. Taylor.

Known more for his versatility in the field, Urías led the league with 14 defensive runs saved and a 10.9 ultimate zone rating at third base per FanGraphs.com. His seven outs above average put him ahead of Chapman (one) and Ramírez (one).

Urías, 28, was limited to 118 games due to injuries but made 84 starts and 98 appearances at third base. He also played second base and shortstop and twice served as the designated hitter.

Exactly one month passed before reliever Nick Vespi made his final appearance with the Orioles this season. He left after working two-thirds of an inning in Game 2 of a Sept. 5 doubleheader against the Blue Jays at Camden Yards and returned to work two-thirds of an inning in an Oct. 5 doubleheader against the Blue Jays at Camden Yards.

The symmetry in Vespi’s season was best exemplified at Triple-A Norfolk. The zeros across his earned run average.

Good at the beginning, middle and end.

In a season when some of the Orioles’ most celebrated prospects climbed the organizational ladder to reach the majors or upper levels of the system, Vespi was the grinder who flew under the radar. An 18^th-round draft pick in 2015, three years before the Orioles began to overhaul their front office, who crafted one of the most impressive streaks in recent memory.

The Orioles stalled it a few times, beginning on May 17 when his contract was selected, but it didn’t break. Vespi appeared in 26 games with Norfolk, one more than his major league total, logged 28 2/3 innings and allowed only three unearned runs and 12 hits, with five walks and 36 strikeouts.

As I sorted through the mailbag that I emptied this week, I came across a question that nudged my curiosity.

A question that made me want to do a little digging.

More of a team effort. I’ll admit that I passed the shovel to a few hands.

Could there be at least one game next year with a homegrown Orioles lineup? With nine position players drafted by the club or signed as an amateur free agent?

My first reaction was to scan each one posted this season to make sure it didn’t happen.

It feels like a homework assignment. Challenging the Orioles to pinpoint the exact moment when they realized the team would contend deep into the season. That it wasn’t a fluke.

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias shares the opinion expressed by one of the club’s outfielders.

“I read some quotes from Austin Hays and that was the way I think it felt for me. It just crept up on us that this team was playing really well and the wins were stacking up,” Elias said on Oct. 5.

“I think it was very organic, which was cool to see, and that was our approach. I think (Brandon Hyde) and I came into a very tough spot again in 2018, and we just kept trying to do the right thing for the organization with every move, every little decision, and kind of kept our eye on the ball. And we had to navigate the pandemic. It seemed to congeal this year organically.”

Getting the same results, or better, isn’t promised. Stand still and you might go backward.

The first offseason mailbag is here. I just wish the delivery guy hadn’t left it by my garage instead of walking up the steps and knocking on the front door.

This is the latest sequel to the beloved original. You ask, I answer, you ask again, I begin to doubt myself. And then I conduct a frantic search for a movie title that I haven’t already used.

I wonder whether anyone would notice a repeat. If not, get ready for Electric Boogaloo.

Full disclosure: I didn’t edit for clarity, length or brevity, but I did edit for style.

If you’re wearing a lime green leisure suit, your question won’t be used.

The Orioles won’t stay quiet during the postseason. They haven’t shut down other than games no longer played.

Same here.

Let’s do a little more reflecting on 2022, a season that brought so many unexpected highs and unavoidable lows.

I tend to zero in on anticipated story angles that didn’t develop, or energy wasted on certain topics because they seemed like a much bigger deal at the time. But it’s a mixture.

I’ve already noted how Matt Harvey never had his contract selected from Triple-A Norfolk, Gunnar Henderson earned a promotion despite his age, Yusniel Diaz stayed only for a cup of coffee, Rougned Odor lasted into September, we never saw Robert Neustrom, DJ Stewart didn’t make it back to the Orioles after three games to begin the season, Jorge Mateo was exclusively a shortstop, Bryan Baker stuck for the entire season, Nick Vespi will never give up another Triple-A run, Joey Krehbiel disappeared after almost going wire-to-wire, and Terrin Vavra could wear many hats next season.

Austin Hays doesn’t believe that the Orioles spent the entire 2022 season or even the bulk of it sneaking up on opponents. He’s convinced that teams knew much earlier just how good the Orioles had become simply by paying attention. The results were spread out in front of them. Many more wins, much tighter games. The late comebacks, whether completed or missing by inches.

“I don’t think we were sneaking up on teams in July and August of this year,” he said in New York, “after we had already played over 100 games and we were playing a lot of the same teams over again.”

Players headed home after the Oct. 5 doubleheader understanding that expectations will rise in spring training. The national media and parade of prognosticators will cast them in a more favorable light. They aren’t blind to it.

Division winners? An unlikely prediction in the American League East. No matter what they do in the offseason. That’s just a sad reality.

Thinking outside the box still has its boundaries.  

The Orioles are stockpiling catchers in the early days of their offseason.

Two more arrived today, with the Orioles claiming Aramis Garcia and Mark Kolozsvary off waivers from the Reds.

A full 40-man roster required two corresponding moves, and the Orioles designated relievers Louis Head and Beau Sulser for assignment.

Garcia, who turns 30 in January, is a right-handed hitter and second-round pick of the Giants in the 2014 draft out of Florida International University. He appeared in 47 games with the Reds this summer and batted .213/.248/.259 with two doubles, one home run, three walks and 34 strikeouts in 115 plate appearances.

The Reds were Garcia’s third major league team. He played in 37 games with the Giants in 2018-19 and 32 with the Athletics in 2021 and is a career .216/.253/.332 hitter with five doubles, 10 home runs, 25 RBIs, 10 walks and 114 strikeouts in 320 plate appearances. He’s thrown out 12 of 43 runners attempting to steal.

Spenser Watkins started the fifth and 162^nd games for the Orioles in 2022. In between were impressive stretches, an injury, a demotion and a return.

What’s next for Watkins?

When you find out, please let him know.

Watkins signed another minor league deal with the Orioles in November after they outrighted him, and his contract was selected on April 11. He could stay on the 40-man or again become a casualty. He could be at spring training again as a starter or relief option or be pitching for a different team.

“Those thoughts definitely creep in, but just trying to focus on the fact that what I’ve done this year is great for an opportunity with this club, with another club, whatever it is,” he said.

The Orioles got a lot of mileage out of moving back the left field wall about 30 feet.

Every fly ball that approached the warning track would elicit references to previous seasons and how another batter was robbed of a home run by the new dimensions rather than an outfielder.

It got a little tired for me, to be honest, but I understood the obsession. And the importance of balancing the playing field.

The cheap home runs became a joke, except no one with the Orioles was laughing.

An article from CBS Sports in late August noted how the ballpark was averaging 1.87 home runs per game this season compared to 3.36 from 2019-21. Only 8.8 percent of fly balls and line drives found the left field seats compared to 13.5 from 2019-21. 

Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias is taking a more general view of the areas that he’s seeking to upgrade during the offseason.

In the past, he’s sought veteran placeholders at shortstop and come away with José Iglesias and Freddy Galvis. He’s tabbed third base as a priority and signed Maikel Franco.

Elias is hoping to add more punch to the lineup after the Orioles finished 20^th in runs scored with 674, in hits with 1,281, in batting average at .236 and in OPS at .695. Their .305 on-base percentage ranked 22^nd. They were shut out 11 times.

Where would the Orioles plug in a bat? That's the burning question.

“I don’t have a specific prediction about which position any major league acquisitions are going to come in,” Elias said last week. “I think one thing that makes this a little bit tricky is that we have very interesting internal candidates for almost every single job, so it’s not necessary that we go target one particular part of the team.

The Orioles made their second roster move since ending the 2022 season, claiming outfielder Jake Cave off waivers from the Twins today and designating reliever Jake Reed for assignment.

An industry source confirmed the waiver claim, which appeared on the major league transactions page.

Cave, 29, appeared in 54 games with the Twins and batted .213/.260/.384 with seven doubles, three triples, five home runs and 20 RBIs in 177 plate appearances. He’s a career .235/.297/.411 hitter in parts of five major league seasons.

The Yankees selected Cave in the sixth round of the 2011 draft out of Kecoughtan High School in Hampton, Va. The Reds chose him in the 2015 Rule 5 draft and returned him on April 5, 2016. The Yankees traded Cave to the Twins on March 16, 2018 for pitcher Luis Gil.

As a rookie in 2018, Cave batted .265/.313/.473 with 16 doubles, two triples, 13 home runs and 45 RBIs in 91 games. He hasn’t played a full season in the majors, with those 91 games representing his career high.

An increase in spending by the Orioles during the offseason leads the imagination directly to the free agent and trade markets. However, the club has seven players eligible for arbitration. Raises are coming to most, if not all, of them.

Outfielder Anthony Santander leads the pack after making $3.15 million this year. He doesn’t reach free agency until after the 2024 season due to his status as a Super Two player.

Santander lost his arbitration hearing during his first year of eligibility and settled for $2.1 million instead of the $2.4 million that he sought. The sides agreed to a $3.15 million deal on Nov. 30, 2021.

MLBTradeRumors.com ran its annual salary projections yesterday and placed Santander’s at $7.5 million after he led the Orioles with 33 home runs, 89 RBIs, a .455 slugging percentage and a .773 OPS, tied Cedric Mullins for first with a .318 on-base percentage and ranked second in walks with 55 and in runs with 78. He played in a career-high 152 games.

The Orioles are building a surplus of outfielders, with Colton Cowser approaching his debut next summer. Kyle Stowers already arrived. Santander has drawn trade interest in the past and his value is at its highest, coming off his finest season and being under team control beyond 2023.

Players arranged flights home, hopped in their cars or weighed their options.

Reliever Keegan Akin normally drives straight through to Michigan, but didn’t know if he’d need to stop somewhere overnight with the Orioles playing a doubleheader on Wednesday. Center fielder Cedric Mullins was heading down to Georgia, with planned visits along the way as if checking them off his list.

Infielder Tyler Nevin needed to repack and get back into baseball mode this week. One season was over, but he committed for the first time to play winter ball in the Dominican Republic.

Nevin wanted to get more at-bats and try to gain an edge before spring training, hoping that the Orioles give him another shot at making the roster while infield prospects keep infiltrating it.

An uneven season for Nevin, with stops in the minors and stretches on the major league bench, left him with a .197 average and .560 OPS in 58 games and 184 plate appearance in his second full season in the organization.

The Orioles played their last games on Wednesday, a doubleheader feeling like a kick in the pants on their way out the door.

A gentle nudge would have sufficed, but the sport can be cruel.

Some of my reflections were shared ahead of the finale. Maybe a bit premature, but rules are made to be broken.

I’ve already noted how Matt Harvey never had his contract selected from Triple-A Norfolk, Gunnar Henderson earned a promotion despite his age, Yusniel Diaz stayed only for a cup of coffee, Rougned Odor lasted into September, we never saw Robert Neustrom, DJ Stewart didn’t make it back to the Orioles after three games to begin the season, Jorge Mateo was exclusively a shortstop, Bryan Baker stuck for the entire season, and Nick Vespi will never give up another Triple-A run.

That last one might come back to bite me, but man, he was good.

Dillon Tate can be pleased with his 2022 season. He probably should be ecstatic.

How he led the Orioles in appearances with 67 and also established a career high in innings. How he posted the lowest ERA and walk average in his four years in the majors. How he became a trusted late-inning reliever on a contending team with 16 holds and five saves as a substitute closer.

Pleased, ecstatic … but not satisfied.

I wasn’t expecting Tate to treat the summer in such a casual way when I sought his personal reflections before Wednesday’s doubleheader. But he isn’t ready to relax. He can’t do it and go against his competitive nature.

He must stay true to it.

A tweak of the 40-man roster yesterday was similar to cleansing the palate before the main course. Likely the first and only time that Anthony Bemboom has been compared to a sorbet.

The Orioles can’t really get busy with their offseason until after the World Series. The free agent market opens. Executives discuss potential trades. Decisions are made regarding arbitration-eligible players and who’s protected in the Rule 5 draft.

Bemboom had his contract selected yesterday from Triple-A Norfolk, preventing or delaying his plunge into minor league free agency, depending on whether he stays on a 40-man roster that’s currently full.

Pending free agents Robinson Chirinos, Rougned Odor and Jesús Aguilar will come off the 40-man, and Jordan Lyles would join them if the Orioles don’t pick up his $11 million option. John Means and Chris Ellis must be added from the 60-day injured list, though the latter isn’t guaranteed to stick.

The Orioles could designate Ellis for assignment and try to re-sign him to a minor league deal or cut ties.

The Orioles made an adjustment to their 40-man roster on the first day of their offseason.

Catcher Anthony Bemboom’s contract was selected this afternoon from Triple-A Norfolk, and right-hander Anthony Castro was designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

Bemboom didn’t play for the Orioles after No. 1 prospect Adley Rutschman arrived on May 21. He cleared waivers and was outrighted to Norfolk six days later.

The Orioles signed Bemboom to a minor league contract and he broke camp with the team, beating out Jacob Nottingham as the backup to veteran Robinson Chirinos. He appeared in 22 games and went 6-for-52 (.115) with two doubles and a home run.

Bemboom threw out three of eight runners attempting to steal.

One season after his club lost 110 games and earned the chance to pick first in the draft, the darkness of a rebuild turning another ugly shade, Brandon Hyde is a favorite to win the Manager of the Year award in the American League. Arguments that I heard about him needing to finish above .500 became moot on Sunday afternoon in the Bronx.

Also, I never agreed with them.

Hyde oversaw an unprecedented improvement, which is a solid reason for him to collect votes, but there’s competition from the Guardians’ Terry Francona, the Mariners’ Scott Servais, the Blue Jays’ John Schneider and the Rays’ Kevin Cash – whether based on low expectations or surviving an avalanche of injuries.

Francona has the youngest roster in baseball. The Orioles are tied for fifth, with 38-year-old catcher Robinson Chirinos skewing the numbers, but the lack of experience can’t be measured by age. The untested starters and relievers with long minor league track records and little to show at the major league level before this season.

“I think this is the year that people are noticing what a talented manager that we have in Baltimore, but for me this has been four years,” executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias said yesterday, with Hyde sitting next to him in the auxiliary clubhouse.

Jorge Mateo slapped a ground ball to the right side of the infield in the ninth inning, from mitt to first base to the final out of the 2022 season.

Fans stood and cheered the Orioles after a 5-1 loss to the Blue Jays in Game 2 of the doubleheader. The team came back out of the dugout with caps held high in the air. Some players waved and others returned the applause.

Manager Brandon Hyde intended to play everyone today. No one would be left on the bench on the last day, with a makeup doubleheader carrying them to their 162^nd game.

A winning record was intact. Stats could be padded before players scattered for the winter. Go home, rest, and get ready to make a stronger run within the division in 2023.

But first, an emotional send-off.