Pitchers and catchers report on Wednesday. Now that it’s Sunday, that’s this week!
Hello, friends.
Orioles pitchers and catchers will be reporting to Sarasota in just three more days. As for Opening Day, that’s now 46 days from today. It’s really going to be here before we know it.
The fact that spring training is starting very soon has not stopped anybody from wondering about whether the Orioles will still squeeze a trade in this offseason. They’ve done a whole lot of signing unexciting players to one-year contracts and not a whole lot else. Do you think there is any possibility of some other kind of move coming?
For whatever it’s worth, MASN’s Roch Kubatko put this in his mailbag column yesterday:
Will the Orioles trade for Dylan Cease?
I could be way off, but I feel like a trade is gonna happen for a starting pitcher. Maybe it’s Cease, maybe someone else. I’ve heard that the Padres checked on Samuel Basallo, Jordan Westburg and Coby Mayo, but those players weren’t on the table. I doubt that it comes as a surprise. Nothing has changed. Cease is a one-year rental, which explains why some teams are cautious about surrendering too much.
It doesn’t guarantee anything is going to happen just because a beat writer thinks there will be a trade, but this is an interesting reference point anyway. He doesn’t say he thinks the trade will be for Cease, just some starting pitcher. Maybe that would be Cease, maybe not.
Once spring training really starts, that seems to me like it’s late to be making major moves of this sort. On the other hand, it’s hardly without precedent. Dylan Cease was traded in the middle of spring training literally last year – and not even in the early days of spring training, he got dealt in mid-March. For me, the fact that Kubatko still believes a trade is coming will be enough to keep me on guard. Mike Elias is certainly not above shaking up the roster picture with days to go before the season, though he’s never shaken up the top of the rotation after camp has started.
About Cease in particular, I’ll be surprised if the Orioles trade for him because that sets up a starting rotation where 80% of the guys we assume right now would be in it are free agents after the season. Cease is heading to his final year before free agency. Zach Eflin is in the last year of a three-year deal he signed with the Rays. Tomoyuki Sugano and Charlie Morton signed one-year deals.
That’s a lot of turnover to build in to having to deal with for the 2026 season. I don’t feel like that would be the best way to start off towards successful pitching staffs in either of the two seasons after this coming one. But much like people who were once interrupted by The Rock, it doesn’t matter what I think. Elias’s thinking is the only thing that matters. If he gets a deal that he thinks improves the 2025 Orioles for a price he’s willing to pay, he’ll take it, and if Roch Kubatko’s prediction is right, that’ll still be coming before Opening Day.
Around the blogO’sphere
Orioles sign Dylan Coleman (MLB Trade Rumors)
The Orioles announced their spring training invite list a few days ago, which doesn’t mean they can’t add more to it. Coleman is a 28-year-old reliever who walked 42 batters in 36 innings in Triple-A last year. That’s not a typo. If he doesn’t harness the command, he will surely not push into the roster picture.
Orioles 2025 spring training FAQ (Orioles.com)
Jake Rill is here with a lot of the important things that someone who might want to go down to spring training should know.
2025 Orioles draft could benefit the team in several ways (Baltimore Baseball)
Steve Melewski breaks down some of what the Orioles could probably do with what should be a large bonus pool thanks to their two free agent compensation picks.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
There are a number of former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: Baltimore-born 2020-23 pitcher Bruce Zimmermann, 2005 four-gamer Napoleon Calzado, Hall of Famer and 2011 designated hitter Vladimir Guerrero, 1999 pitcher Doug Linton, 1955-56 pitcher Erv Palica, and 1954 outfielder Vic Wertz.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: revolutionary pamphleteer Thomas Paine (1737), 9th president William Henry Harrison (1773), Nobel Prize-winning author J. M. Coetzee (1940), actor Tom Hiddleston (1981), and actor Michael B. Jordan (1987).
On this day in history…
In 1775, the Parliament of Britain proclaimed the colony of Massachusetts in rebellion, one of the key steps in escalating the American War of Independence.
In 1825, the House of Representatives was called upon to decide the previous year’s presidential election since no candidate received a majority of electoral votes. John Quincy Adams was chosen as the eventual sixth president.
In 1943, the Japanese Army evacuated the last of its remaining forces on Guadalcanal, ending the battle for the island after more than six months and confirming American control of the area.
In 1964, the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in America, a broadcast that was watched by an audience of 73 million people, a record at the time.
In 1986, Halley’s Comet made its most recent appearance in the inner portion of the solar system. It will be back in 2061.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on February 9. Have a safe Sunday.