Every weekday, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. If you’d like to submit a question, send it to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com. Questions may be edited for clarity, length and style.
Question: Although the Orioles’ starters have been excellent lately and given the Marlins’ expected firesale, are there any circumstances where you see the O’s making a trade for Jesús Luzardo? If you do, what might that trade look like? From: Dave Kausch
Answer: Dave, with the depth of the Orioles’ starting pitching, I don’t see them making a trade for a starter. However, if there are more injuries and some of the current starters falter, that could change. I would expect them to concentrate on adding another reliever.
Question: For all of us loyal O’s fans who cannot attend every game, it roils me that MASN/O’s deals with Apple TV+ and other apps occasionally make watching games inaccessible. Might the new ownership be considering other options on those days for fans who already pay lots for Xfinity and MASN? From: Judy Pruce Frank
Answer: Judy, I’ve gotten lots of questions and comments about the Orioles on television. Kel Nagel asked me if anyone likes Apple TV+ games.
Unfortunately, the price of being a sports fan keeps going up, whether it’s attending games or watching them at home.
As you know, watching on MASN is more expensive because of its new deal with Xfinity, and with more fans opting out of cable, major league sports are trying to find more ways to get people to watch.
The Orioles have one more scheduled Apple TV+ game on May 24th when they’re playing at Chicago. Though the deals haven’t been announced, they’re expected to have two games on Roku, July 14th and September 8th. They also have three games scheduled on FOX, June 29th, August 3rd and 10th.
While I don’t know how the new ownership will deal with the TV issue, I think it’s possible that there will be a streaming app where you can subscribe to Orioles games, which would similar to the one available for Wizards and Capitals games.
I empathize with you, Judy. It’s expensive to subscribe to cable, which I do so I can watch the games when I don’t travel with the team. I also have Apple, Peacock and Amazon Prime, just to watch sports, and I expect more streaming, not less, in the future.