Minor league manager assignments for 2015 and other notes

All six managers, from the rookie-level Gulf Coast League up through Triple-A Norfolk, will return to manage Orioles affiliates next season. Three will return to their 2014 teams, while three will be with new clubs in 2015.

The Orioles have not confirmed this or made any announcements yet about their 2015 minor league staff, but Ron Johnson is expected to return to manage at Triple-A Norfolk, Gary Kendall will return to Double-A Bowie and Ryan Minor is expected to return to Single-A Delmarva.

Orlando Gomez is returning to manage at Single-A Frederick after serving as skipper the past two years in the GCL. Luis Pujols is expected to manage at short-season Single-A Aberdeen with Matt Merullo taking over the Gulf Coast League Orioles.

Johnson, the Boston Red Sox first base coach in 2010-11, will be in his fourth season managing Norfolk in 2015 and in his 22nd year as a minor league manager. He led the Tides to back-to-back winning seasons in 2012-13 for the first time since 1990-91. Norfolk went 65-79 last year.

A Baltimore native, Kendall is beginning his 16th season in the organization. He has managed Bowie to four straight seasons of .500 or better and led the Baysox to the 2012 Eastern League playoffs.

Gomez is back at Frederick after managing the GCL O's for two seasons. The winningest manager in Frederick history, Gomez led the Keys from 2010-12. The 2011 Keys, led by Manny Machado and Jonathan Schoop, went 80-59, winning the Carolina League championship. That was the last championship by an Orioles affiliate.

Minor is beginning his eighth season in the Orioles organization. He managed Delmarva in 2010-12 and again last year after serving as Frederick's skipper in 2013.

Pujols begins his third season in the O's organization in 2015. The native of the Dominican Republic managed Delmarva in 2013 and at Frederick last year. A former big league coach with Montreal, Pujols became interim manager of the Detroit Tigers six games into the 2002 season.

Merullo is about to begin his third year in the O's organization, moving to the GCL team after two seasons as skipper at Aberdeen. The former big league catcher spent 13 seasons scouting with Arizona before joining the Orioles.

Last year, when the O's signed Matt's son, Nick, and father managed son with the IronBirds, the Merullos became a family with four generations of pro players. Matt's grandfather, Lennie, played on the last Chicago Cubs World Series team in 1945, while Matt's father, Leonard, played in the Pirates organization.

The Orioles are expected to soon announce all their minor league staff assignments for the 2015 season.

Monica honored: Major League Baseball raised more than $175,000 through an MLB.com auction that featured over 80 unprecedented baseball experiences and rare items during last week's Winter Meetings. The proceeds benefit LUNGevity, the largest national lung cancer-focused nonprofit.

Inspired by members of the baseball family who have been directly affected by cancer, the Winter Meetings auction, which began three years ago, has raised over $450,000 for cancer research, with this year's total being the highest since the auction's inception. The 2014 auction honored the memory of Orioles public relations director Monica Barlow, who fought a courageous battle with lung cancer until her passing in February. Barlow was a proud and active supporter of LUNGevity.

Series odds: The online casino/sportsbook Bovada has the Orioles now listed at 18-to-1 to win the 2015 World Series. The odds have actually improved for the Orioles since the end of the 2014 season, when they were 20-to-1.

In the American League East, Boston's odds to win it all improved from 22-to-1 to 9-1, New York has gone from 22-to-1 to 25-to-1, Toronto from 33-to-1 to 18-to-1 and Tampa Bay from 33-to-1 to 66-to-1.

Right now, the Dodgers and Nationals are co-favorites at 15-to-2. The longest odds are 150-to-1 on Houston, Minnesota and Philadelphia.

Talking baseball with the Keys: Frederick Keys radio broadcaster Geoff Arnold interviewed me for his blog and you can listen to that interview here.