Questions are flowing into the mailbag. It’s like a valve is open. Major League Baseball hosts its quarterly owners meetings next week in New York. The Baseball Writers’ Association of America will begin announcing winners of its four major awards Monday with Rookie of the Year in both leagues. Colton Cowser is a finalist and will try to give the O

After producing a 44-homer season, hitting 11 more than he ever had previously, O's outfielder Anthony Santander tonight was named an American League Silver Slugger Award winner. A finalist the last three years, Santander is a first-time winner and joins Yankees Aaron Judge and Juan Soto as AL outfield winners. The O's had two other Silver Slugger

Over the weekend, an announcement that Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki will be posted by his current team, the Chiba Lotte Marines to come to the MLB in 2025, put a top pitcher out there that some team will get at a real bargain price. Because at age 23, Sasaki is too young to qualify to be signed as a “foreign professional” and he instead will be sig

If there’s only one player the Nationals are likely to pursue this winter, it’s an established slugger, preferably one who can play first base. If there’s a No. 2 item on general manager Mike Rizzo’s wish list, it’s probably an experienced starting pitcher, one who could help lead an otherwise young rotation to better days. This isn’t earth-shatter

My energy level isn’t allowing for a deep dive into anything beyond my couch, but Danny Coulombe’s removal from the bullpen adjusts the Opening Day projections. Not too soon to post them and not too soon to pivot. It isn’t common for a team to stand pat with its ‘pen, and I’d expect executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias to check the m

With one American League rookie award secured already, Orioles outfielder Colton Cowser tonight was named a finalist for the Baseball Writers’ Association of America's American League Rookie of the Year award for 2024. The other finalists are both Yankees: pitcher Luis Gil and catcher Austin Wells. The award winner will be announced a week from ton

It doesn’t take tremendous insight to figure out the Nationals’ No. 1 need this winter. They need to add power to a lineup that simply hasn’t had enough of that in recent years. The Nats ranked 29th in the majors in home runs each of the last two seasons, and their total actually went down from 2023 (151) to 2024 (135). In today’s game, that simply

The baseball offseason is about to really heat up. Some big name free agents like Juan Soto and agent Scott Boras will meet with teams this week to get the ball rolling. There seemed to be a glacial pace of free agency last year and maybe it all moves faster this time around. The Winter Meetings are in early December. The general manager meetings w

So, what did I miss? I’m using open-heart valve-replacement surgery as a convenient, albeit painful, excuse for being so far behind on transactions and other news. It’s also why I’m resting after every sentence that I’m typing. A quick but heartfelt thank you to everyone who cared for me at Sinai Hospital, beginning with Dr. Peter Cho, who removed

It’s still early November, so the Hot Stove is far from heating up. But with this past week getting us further removed from the end of the World Series, the offseason – specifically free agency – has officially begun. For the Nationals, that means it may be time to make some significant offseason additions to the major league roster after years of