A few quick pre-Christmas thoughts

Just a short entry today to wish all the readers at Steve’s blog and all of Birdland a wonderful Christmas and Holiday Season. Enjoy your time with family and friends and I hope it’s your best Christmas yet.

A few quick thoughts on things in the news the last few days ...

Yamamoto signs: The Dodgers signed pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a 12-year deal for $325 million. It will also cost them the nearly $51 million posting fee that goes to the Orix Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball.

The rich get richer (in talent) here as Los Angeles wins the bidding war over several other big-market teams, even though the finalists reportedly made impressive bids. He pitched to an ERA of 1.21 (yep, not a misprint) over 168 innings and gave up just two home runs all season in 2023. His ERAs the previous two years were 1.39 and 1.68.

Kodai Senga came from Japan and pitched for the Mets. After posting an ERA of 1.89 in 2022 in Japan, he pitched to a 2.98 ERA for the Mets. That ranked fifth-best in all of MLB, one spot behind Kyle Bradish of the Orioles.

So Yamamoto should do well in the majors certainly and he is just 25. The Dodgers are getting him as he comes into his prime years. Unlike the Shohei Ohtani deal, this one includes no deferred money and does includes opt-outs after the 2029 and 2031 seasons. The deal is backloaded though, so he would be walking away from big money. But this deal is a whopper, plus following the trade for Tyler Glasnow and the signing of Ohtani, this team is loaded, said Captain Obvious.

The upside is how good they are. The downside, if there is one, is that the playoffs are still a crapshoot no matter how good a team is and clubs that won 100 or more games went 1-5 in playoff series the last two seasons. Ohtani, Glasnow and Yamamoto all could perform poorly in October. Or they could be at the top of their game and carry the Dodgers to a World Series title.

Remarkably, since 1989, the Dodgers have one World Series win. That alone should tell you how hard winning the title is and these additions enhance their chances but still don’t guarantee a thing.

Ryan Minor passed away: Even though we knew former Oriole Ryan Minor was battling cancer and in hospice care, when he passed away on Friday the news was still jarring. Gone way too soon. Cancer sucks times a thousand.

Even with my shaky memory, I am pretty sure I spent several days interviewing Ryan each of his three seasons as manager at Single-A Frederick in 2013, 2018 and 2019. He had a rare ability to tell me of a player's shortcomings or something he was working on, while at the same time showing support and encouragement for that player. Those players were lucky to have him and so were the Orioles.

He was always beyond nice to me and very helpful for me, taking all the time I needed and answering every question with real insight. Ryan seemed to be the near perfect minor league manager, who knew what players needed to work on but also always had their back in sincere ways. He knew few of them would truly make it, but they all got his best.

So did I in those interviews.

I think Cal Ripken Jr.’s son, Ryan, put it well on Friday.

He wrote: “Most would mention the tie of Ryan Minor to my dad. However, I had my own connection with Ryan. I had the opportunity to play for him in Frederick. He was a guy I loved being around. During a tough time that year, whether he knew it or not, he helped restore confidence in myself as a player and person. Words can’t fully express it, but I’m forever thankful for that. And that was the type of person he was.”

Ryan, you actually expressed it quite well about Ryan.

To borrow a line from former O’s skipper Buck Showalter, “I’m so glad he passed my way.”

RIP friend.

Final note: I will not be posting new stories for the next few days. Hope everyone has a great Christmas and I’ll be back very soon with new entries. Should the O’s break any news in that span, I reserve the right to jump back in with a story! But that would be unexpected of course. Over these next few days, come back often to post any comments/questions and/or thoughts on the Orioles and I'll check in with a few, too.

See you soon, Birdland!