This weekend saw the some moves in baseball, but none by the Orioles.
Happy Monday, Camden Chatters! How about that “snow” this weekend? If you live in central Maryland it was just a cold rainy Saturday and looked especially miserable at the Ravens game. But I guess if your favorite team has the top seed locked up going into the final game, what’s a little cold rain?
We had another weekend of no news in Birdland but there were a few developments across MLB. The weekend kicked off on Friday night with the Mariners trading Robbie Ray to the Giants and wrapped up with the Dodgers spending even more money with a one-year, $23.5M deal for Teoscar Hernández.
In between, the Angels signed Zach Plesac, the Mets gave Sean Manaea two years and Harrison Bader one year, and one-time power bat who totally ruined my HR derby team in 2022, Frammil Reyes, is headed to Japan.
Starting pitchers Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, Shōta Imanaga, and Marcus Stroman are all still out there, in addition to trade possibilities. It’s old news to state that the Orioles could use any of those pitchers in their rotation. And it’s not a new idea to believe that they won’t sign any of them.
If you thought an Orioles’ offseason would be less frustrating after a 101-win season, I don’t know what to tell you. There’s still time for something big to happen.
Links
What Could Keep Gunnar Henderson and Bobby Witt Jr. From Making the Hall of Fame? FanGraphs Baseball
Michael Baumann (not Big Mike – although in fairness I have no idea how tall FanGraphs Mike Baumann is) thinks good things about Gunnar Henderson.
Adley Rutschman, James McCann steady Orioles 2024 roster – MLB.com
A feel-good Baltimore catcher story for your Monday.
The Dylan Cease trade market may be heating up again – Steve Melewski
I’m about ready for Dylan Cease to be traded somewhere, anywhere, so I can stop reading about him.
Orioles still have arbitration work to do – Roch Kubatko
Friday is the deadline for teams to reach agreements ahead of arbitration hearings starting at the end of January.
Birthdays and History
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have a lot of Orioles birthday buddies who you probably haven’t heard of. They are:
- Breyvic Valera (32), who was part of the trade return for Manny Machado in 2018. He appeared in 12 games for the Orioles in 2018 after the trade
- Paul Carey (56), whose entire big league experience was 18 games, with the Orioles in 1993
- Shane Turner (61), who logged four games and one plate appearance with the Orioles in 1991
- Willie Tasby (b. 1933, d. 2022), who spent three seasons in Baltimore from 1958-60
- Jim Busby (b. 1927, d. 1996), who had a 13-season career with six teams, including 1957-58 and 1960-61 with the Orioles.
On this day in history, the Orioles acquired a bunch of players that didn’t end up mattering. Maybe that will change today! Those players are Carlos Pérez, Willis Otáñez, Stu Pomeranz, Mike DeJean, Chris Stynes, Rod Allen, and Joey Terdoslavich.