My mailbag is the gift that keeps on giving. And that’s never truer than when I find some questions stuck to the bottom and share them with you.

I won’t share what caused them to stick. Not everything is your business.

I’m bringing you the old schtick before the New Year. You ask, I answer, you keep asking as if you lost a bet, I keep answering as if I have nothing else going on in my life.

These are just leftovers, but the same rules apply to the editing. I don’t do it.

Also, my mailbag can drink an entire punch bowl of eggnog and your mailbag is lactose intolerant and unable to search the internet for alternative recipes.

I reached inside my holiday mailbag last night and found a lump of coal.

At least, I hope it was coal. Or I need an exterminator, pronto.

This is lovely weather for a sleigh ride together or to just chill out at home and field more questions in the latest sequel to the beloved original mailbag from 2008.  

The editing here remains sparse. Be clear or unclear, have style or no style, be succinct or ramble.

This is the internet. You can’t crash it like you did with your neighbor’s ugly sweater party.

Armchair general managers must always check their cell reception after walking into a mall to do some holiday shopping. Can’t miss an important call or text.

I literally took a few steps inside the Columbia Mall on Monday, scrolled Twitter and found breaking news about Mychal Givens reaching agreement with the Orioles.

Rookie mistake to leave the laptop at home.

I went to bed last night and received notifications on my phone about the Orioles acquiring catcher James McCann from the Mets for a player to be named later, which no longer makes Anthony Bemboom the favorite to back up Adley Rutschman.

At least I was near my laptop.

The Orioles found their backup catcher late last night.

James McCann has been acquired from the Mets along with cash considerations for a player to be named later. The team made the announcement.

McCann, 32, appeared in 61 games with the Mets this season and batted .195/.257/.282 with six doubles, three home runs, 18 RBIs and 19 runs scored. He spent nine weeks on the injured list with a fractured left hamate bone that kept him sidelined from May 11 to June 24 and a left oblique strain that left him inactive from June 10 to Aug. 4.

The right-handed hitting McCann is a career .243/.296/.380 hitter in 783 major league games. He was an All-Star with the White Sox in 2019, when he hit a career-high 18 home runs.

The Mets are paying $19 million of the $24 million remaining on McCann’s contract over the next two years, according to reports.

Mychal Givens remembers when sitting in the Orioles’ bullpen felt like a family gathering.

Now he’s back home. A little older, and perhaps a little wiser about the business side of the game that keeps forcing him to change locations.

Givens’ one-year contract with a mutual option for 2024 became official today, returning him to the team that drafted him as a shortstop in 2009, converted him to relief and watched him blossom.

The Orioles are guaranteeing Givens $3 million next season, with a $6 million option for 2024. He’ll receive $1 million if he declines it and get a $2 million buyout if he accepts and the Orioles decline their end.

The family theme also played out during today’s video call with the media. Givens had daughters Ahmya and Makaylah – the “wild card baby” born in 2016 - on each side of him.

The Orioles are conducting some minor league business, along with trying to fill out their major league roster.

The team announced the signings today of right-handers Eduard Bazardo, Wandisson Charles and Kyle Dowdy to minor league deals.

Bazardo, 27, made 12 relief appearances with the Red Sox this year and allowed five runs in 16 1/3 innings. He walked four batters and struck out 11.

The Red Sox used Bazardo twice in 2021 and he tossed three scoreless innings with one hit, two walks and three strikeouts. He was added to their 40-man roster the previous November.

Bazardo was designated for assignment on April 7, cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Worcester. The Red Sox selected his contract in September and he elected free agency the following month after being designated again.

The Triple-A phase of the Rule 5 draft, previously known as the minor league phase, tends to be skimmed in the minds of fans and some media because the players don’t land on the 40-man roster. They aren’t spring training storylines.

My personal experience is I’m busy looking up statistics and writing about the major league selection or selections and which players are lost to other teams, and must pause to tweet out the other stuff. Those names get tagged at the bottom.

The Orioles made three selections in the Triple-A phase: right-hander Alfred Vega from the Yankees’ system, left-hander Trey McGough from the Pirates and catcher Randy Florentino from the Rangers.

McGough was interesting because he attended Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Md. Who doesn’t love a local angle? We learned later that he is recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Nothing else really stood out among the group. Vega is 21 and he pitched in the Florida Complex League. His story requires some deep digging.

The Orioles experienced a quiet Friday in terms of transactions.

There were none.

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias has been in contact with a large number of agents and executives throughout the offseason, and it’s hardly the kind of news that qualifies as “breaking.” This is front office due diligence that we often talk about, even if a player is likely out of its price range.

Doesn’t hurt to check the market unless the cringing causes a headache.

I’ve got some lingering questions, to be expected in the third week of December, that probably are shared by many people in the industry and the team’s fan base. The first one went from a possibility to unlikely to perhaps in the discussion again.

The Orioles have arranged a video introduction in a few days between Adam Frazier and their hitting coaches who want to learn more about him before they tackle the reasons why his offensive production took a nosedive this summer.

The front office already has gotten ahead of the process.

Frazier signed a one-year, $8 million contract on Thursday to wrap up a recruiting mission that began early in the offseason. Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias and others in the organization sold him on the data available to hitters, the favorable aspects of Camden Yards, the chance to stay in the lineup.

Their interest was made abundantly clear through words and actions.

“I didn’t have my best offensive performance last season and Mike had asked what kind of adjustments I was making or trying to make this offseason, and then pulled up a frame of exactly what I had said,” Frazier said today in a Zoom call with the media, “so it seems like they’ve done their homework on myself and it seemed like we kind of view things in a similar manner.”

With so much attention thrown at the Orioles’ rotation and the free-agent starters who keep signing with other clubs, Adam Frazier looked like a guy yesterday sneaking through the back door.

The Orioles signed Frazier to a one-year, $8 million contract, increasing their offseason spending on the major league roster to $18 million.

Left-handed bats have been a priority. Finding a player who can replace Rougned Odor at second base has been a priority. Frazier checks those boxes, and he also can play the corner outfield.

That’s three boxes. Or four if breaking it down to left and right.

Frazier won’t duplicate Odor’s power, but he makes contact - he ranked in the top five percent in the majors with a 12.1 percent strikeout rate and 14.4 whiff rate this year, per Statcast – and he hit .305/.368/.411 in 2021 during his only All-Star season. He’s an above-average fielder at second, with 15 defensive runs saved, a 1.5 ultimate zone rating and 11 outs above average, and he's twice been a finalist for a Gold Glove.

The Orioles found their left-handed hitting second baseman.

Adam Frazier signed a one-year contract this afternoon worth a guaranteed $8 million. The club announced the length of the deal and an industry source confirmed the amount.

Frazier, who turned 31 yesterday, will be joining his fourth team since 2021. He appeared in a career-high 156 games for the Mariners this season, most on the club, and slashed .238/.301/.311 with 22 doubles, four triples, three home runs, 42 RBIs, 61 runs scored, 46 walks and a career-high 11 stolen bases.

The four triples also led the Mariners and tied for ninth in the American League.

Frazier was an All-Star in 2021, which he split between the Pirates and Padres. He hit a combined .305/.368/.411 in 155 games with 36 doubles, five triples, five home runs, 43 RBIs, 48 walks and 10 steals.

The Orioles will break camp in March with five starting pitchers. They haven’t talked about the possibility of a six-man rotation, though the depth they’ve built allows for it.

They have the numbers, but who are the names?

Kyle Gibson is the one lock after signing for $10 million, with his placement being the only uncertainty.

A second veteran is expected to join him, but the Orioles keep watching candidates disappear from the free-agent market. The club made its video recruiting pitch to Noah Syndergaard, but he's going to the Dodgers on a one-year deal worth a guaranteed $13 million with $1.5 million in possible incentives.

The New York Post's Jon Heyman reported that Syndergaard had multi-year offers for more money elsewhere "but preferred one year in L.A."

The Orioles won’t open the 2023 season until March 30 in Boston. The first exhibition game is Feb. 25 in Sarasota. The date for pitchers and catchers reporting to camp hasn’t been announced, but the middle of the month usually is a safe projection.

Plenty of time remains before the Orioles are required to set their 26-man roster. Accuracy isn’t a prerequisite today for posting an Opening Day lineup.

Most of the starters appear set unless there’s a trade, but second base is unsettled and the designated hitter could come from outside the organization – maybe the left-handed bat that remains on the shopping list.

Or not. It’s still early.

I don’t know who’s starting for the Red Sox in the opener, but let’s not overthink it.

Coby Mayo celebrated his 21^st birthday yesterday, which was a nice reminder that another Orioles prospect played at the Double-A level this summer before his legal drinking age.

Also a necessary reminder when evaluating Mayo’s season.

Back spasms forced Mayo onto the injured list and cost him about a month after he appeared in only three games with the Bowie Baysox. Reports that he was day-to-day proved inaccurate.

He was facing older and unfamiliar pitchers in a new setting who learned that challenging him with fastballs was a bad idea. That’s 100 percent true.

Drafted in the fourth round in 2020 and given an over-slot $1.75 million bonus, Mayo batted a combined .247/.326/.456 with 20 doubles, two triples, 19 home runs, 69 RBIs, 40 walks and 114 strikeouts in 439 plate appearances after beginning the season at High-A Aberdeen. MLBPipeline.com ranks him as the No. 7 prospect in the organization.

Andrew Politi didn’t want to think about the Rule 5 draft.

Being in San Diego, near the Winter Meetings, was merely a coincidence. A way to escape the cold back East. He decided to go on a hike with his girlfriend, Molly, for the exercise and the distraction. Fresh air and clear mind.

“Nothing crazy,” he said yesterday. “Just didn’t really want to sit there and watch it, because I know how unpredictable it is.”

The Tigers and Reds passed when their turns came, two teams believed to be interested in him. Politi stuffed his phone back in his pocket. He was done tracking the event. Just concentrate on his steps.

And then came the call from Eve Rosenbaum, the Orioles’ assistant general manager of baseball operations.

The dateline has been stripped from stories like an abandoned car in a bad neighborhood. I got a lot of mileage out of baseball’s Winter Meetings, but it was time to come home.

I flew. Just to clear the air.

Some fans may feel that the Orioles were grounded in San Diego because their most visible activity was signing pitcher Ofreidy Gómez, outfielder Nomar Mazara and infielder Josh Lester to minor league contracts and selecting reliever Andrew Politi in the Rule 5 draft.

They also announced the Kyle Gibson signing, which seemed to close the door on Jordan Lyles, though no one is saying it.

Pretty cool to me that Lyles helped to sell Gibson on the Orioles despite knowing that it probably removed his chance to re-sign. Such an unselfish act.

SAN DIEGO – Kyle Gibson reached out almost immediately to Jordan Lyles after hearing from the Orioles, an interesting twist in his free agent journey, since he appears to be replacing the veteran starter in the rotation.

The Orioles already began making their sales pitches to Gibson, which led to the agreement on a one-year, $10 million contract. Now, it was Lyles’ turn – no matter how it would impact his own professional life.

“I value his opinion, I value his friendship,” Gibson said of his former Rangers teammates, “and he only had glowing things to say about Baltimore, and that was one of the reasons why I felt so comfortable making the decision. Just hearing how he’d talk about the approach, why he thought he got better, to me was very interesting. And without going into it because I don’t want to speak for him too much, but that was really cool to hear him give credit where he thought credit was due.

“Talked about the makeup of the team, talked about even things like pitching to (Adley) Rutschman. Just the things that stood out to him. I look forward to hopefully being an extension of Jordan because I feel like we’re fairly similar when it comes to how we approach people.”

Similar but not identical.

SAN DIEGO – Kyle Gibson may or may not count as a Winter Meetings acquisition, depending on your timeline. He reached agreement on a one-year, $10 million contract on Saturday but signed after the Orioles contingent checked into the Manchester Grand Hyatt.

This is the only major league deal brought back to Baltimore. There will be others before opening day.

Trust me on this. Or better yet, trust the process.

The pitching market hasn’t dried up, but logical fits for the Orioles are disappearing, with Jameson Taillon agreeing to terms with the Cubs, Taijuan Walker with the Phillies and José Quintana with the Mets. They were never linked to Jason deGrom (Rangers) or Justin Verlander (Mets).

So, who’s left?

SAN DIEGO – The Orioles will return home from the Winter Meetings on Thursday satisfied with the advancements made in trying to improve their roster. To find another starting pitcher and some left-handed bats.

They just won’t have the bodies to show for it unless something breaks soon.

“I don’t know that we’re any closer to any acquisitions than we were at this time last night or this morning, but a lot of info’s come in, a lot of conversations have taken place,” Elias said during his last media session inside his suite at the Manchester Grand Hyatt.

“We still have a great deal of players out there. This is just really the beginning of the offseason. Whether or not something comes together in the next day or two, I think there’s a lot of information to claim here today.”

Elias said he views these meetings as more of “an information gathering event, first and foremost.” But if there’s an opportunity to make a move for a player, “we’ll get into that competition.” That’s how the Orioles reached an agreement Saturday with starter Kyle Gibson, becoming more aggressive before boarding a flight to San Diego and more bidders began to surface.

SAN DIEGO – The Orioles maintained their streak of being active in the major league portion of the Rule 5 draft, selecting right-hander Andrew Politi from the Red Sox organization.

Politi, 26, was a 15^th-round draft pick in 2018 out of Seton Hall. He made 50 appearances this year between Double-A Portland and Triple-A Worcester, including two starts, and registered a 2.34 ERA and 0.966 WHIP with eight saves. He struck out 83 batters in 69 1/3 innings.

In four minor league seasons, Politi has posted a 4.14 ERA and 1.250 WHIP with 16 saves in 125 games. He’s averaged 7.4 hits, 3.8 walks, 11.1 strikeouts and 0.8 home runs per nine innings.

Politi struck out 132 batters in 94 2/3 innings at Seton Hall. Baseball America ranked him as Boston’s No. 23 prospect in 2020 and No. 30 last year.

Baseball America’s 5.0 Rule 5 preview included the following about Politi: