Leftovers from O'Day at FanFest

I'm a huge fan of sarcasm unless it's coming from my doctor, and Orioles reliever Darren O'Day brought it strong at Saturday's FanFest at the Baltimore Convention Center.

Meeting with the media behind the main stage, O'Day was asked what ran through his mind during the week that the Orioles lost free agents Nelson Cruz, Nick Markakis and Andrew Miller to free agency and reports surfaced in early December that the Blue Jays were courting executive vice president Dan Duquette.

"How are we going to field a team, you know?" he said. "I was panicked. We've got to have nine guys to play, at least, and then some guys in the bullpen."

We saw what he did there.

"It's going to be really hard to go out on the field without Nicky. I'll say that," O'Day continued. "He was a great teammate and a consummate professional. I'll miss him a lot. Obviously Nelson and Andrew added a lot of flash and power to our team there for a period. It'll be tough, but like I said, we're getting two All-Stars back this year in Manny (Machado) and Matt (Wieters), and Chris (Davis) is coming back with a clear mind. We've got a lot of positive things to look forward to."

O'Day apparently forgot that Davis has one more game to serve on his suspension for using Adderall without an exemption, which he obtained this winter.

"He's got another game left, doesn't he? Huh. I guess we should have won one in the American League Championship Series. We really screwed that up," O'Day quipped.

"I think that's in the past. We've all talked to Chris about it, he's talked to us about it. We've addressed it as a team. He's moving on and we're moving on and we expect him to be right back where he was with the sweet swing hitting balls out to left field. It will be fun."

One common theme among the relievers Saturday was their insistence that the bullpen won't collapse without Miller.

"Andrew made us a better bullpen. There's no question about that. But we were pretty good and we'll be just as good this year, if not better, I think," O'Day said.

"You look at a guy like Brad Brach last year who came out of nowhere. Really wasn't on the radar at the beginning of the year and Brad can be a setup guy for any team. He's going to be really good. And there's going to be another guy like that. Zach Britton last year, coming out of camp nobody thought he was going to end the year as a shutdown closer. I'm sure you'll see another case like that this year. It just seems to happen around here. That's the way it is with the bullpen. Losing Andrew's tough, but we'll find a way to patch it together."

I asked O'Day how long it took to shake off the disappointment of being swept by the Royals in the ALCS. His response was no joke.

"I still don't think I've forgotten about it," he replied. "That's something you want to remember, I think. After the last game, we all kind of sat around and it was pretty low, and I didn't want anybody to forget that feeling. That's motivation for the rest of the offseason. I think opening day hopefully will be time to put it behind you, but for now I want to keep that fresh in my mind."

The Orioles have a big batch of pending free agents, including O'Day, Wieters, Davis, Wei-Yin Chen, Bud Norris, Tommy Hunter, Alejandro De Aza, Steve Pearce and Delmon Young. O'Day admitted that there's a "sense of urgency" to win it all this season.

"You like to keep teams together forever, but it's just not feasible in today's game," he said. "These guys pay attention to what's going on. There are a lot of guys who could take off after this year. We've been a pretty good team here for a few years and we'd like to continue that as long as we can in the future. We'll see what happens after spring training and the season. We're going to give it our best this year, for sure."

Shameless plug alert: I'm back in-studio tonight with MASN's Jim Hunter for the "Hot Stove Show" that airs from 6-7 p.m. on 105.7 The Fan. Our guests include Duquette, Britton and new hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh.