The last Oriole to pitch a no-hitter is going to finish his second elbow rehab in a different uniform.
The Orioles have had all offseason up until now to decide whether they wanted to bring back John Means. That they didn’t do it before spring training opened was a strong signal they didn’t really want to. It’s now all but official that the former All-Star won’t be coming back to the O’s, with MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince reporting on Monday afternoon that Means is in agreement on a contract with the Guardians.
According to Castrovince and others, the contract, which is still pending a physical, is a one-year deal for Means, with the Guardians holding a team option for the 2026 season. It’s an extremely modest deal, as ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel reports the terms: Just $1 million guaranteed for 2025, with the team option potentially being worth as much as $7.5 million for next year.
Means’s signing has come this late probably because he’s guaranteed to open the season on the 60-day injured list. Players placed on that IL are not on their team’s 40-man roster, but this option isn’t available during the offseason. That can change now that spring training has started. Means, who had his second elbow surgery in mid-June of last year, is probably looking at an August return as the most optimistic outcome.
Any team could have beaten this contract offer to Means if they really wanted to, especially the Orioles. It’s disappointing to see the team decide not to try to give another chance to a guy who pretty much pitched his arm off for some bad O’s teams who deserved to get to share in some of the glory now that the team is good again.
Even if there is substantial risk that Means never throws another MLB pitch, what’s another $2 million? With 60% of the projected Opening Day rotation set to become a free agent after this coming season, having some depth stashed ahead of time for 2026 would be advisable. The Guardians will have a pretty good idea by season’s end if they should exercise the option for Means or not. The Orioles would have had the same good idea.
The cold logic case for why the Orioles didn’t opt to pursue Means and bring him back is not hard to see. He’s pitched in just ten major league games since the beginning of the 2022 season, and got all of eight starts out of the new elbow ligament from his first Tommy John surgery. If he can’t stay healthy, then it doesn’t really matter what he might have been able to do if he was healthy.