These days, whenever a young Japanese player is posted to come to MLB, the assumption is that he will join the Dodgers. And why not? The Dodgers are good every single year. They have more money than they can spend. They’re in a somewhat Japanese-friendly time zone. And they have a sizeable Japanese contingent already […]
4 months ago | 2 reads
Good Morning Birdland, Over the last week, things have slowed down around the warehouse. Meanwhile, the hot stove remains pretty active throughout the league. The Brandon Nimmo/Marcus Semien deal a few days ago was an interesting one. And then, on Tuesday, the Red Sox traded for Sonny Gray. Gray is a few years removed from […]
4 months ago | 3 reads
The Orioles didn’t have the kind of 2025 season they were hoping for. On the other side of the country, neither did Zac Gallen. Now the two could be a perfect match as they both look to improve their fortunes in 2026. The Orioles’ search for a starting pitcher continues apace, and the longtime Arizona […]
4 months ago | 1 read
Happy Tuesday, Camden Chatters. There hasn’t been any movement to the Orioles roster since the Grayson Rodriguez trade, but there was some news about the team yesterday. Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic reported that broadcaster Geoff Arnold will not return to the team in 2026. Arnold had been with the Orioles since the 2020 season […]
4 months ago | 3 reads
The 2026 Orioles starting rotation is full of holes. Camden Chat writers have written over the last couple of weeks about the ideal candidates to help at the front of the rotation. The back end needs some help too, particularly with even the dim possibility of a healthy Grayson Rodriguez having been removed from the […]
4 months ago | 1 read
Good morning, Camden Chatters. There was a bit of news on the MLB hot stove yesterday, as the Mets and Rangers made a surprising challenge trade — my struggling, expensive veteran for your struggling, expensive veteran — with a one-for-one swap that sent outfielder Brandon Nimmo to Texas and second baseman Marcus Semien to New […]
4 months ago | 9 reads
Hello, friends. There are now 123 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day 2026. After Mike Elias pulled off the surprise Grayson Rodriguez trade last week, it seems like anything could happen at any time, which means constant vigilance for me. It’s days later now and I’ve still got Rodriguez being traded for Taylor Ward running […]
4 months ago | 1 read
Good morning Birdland, One of the more significant offseason deadlines has come and gone. The Orioles have tendered contracts to all but one of their arbitration-eligible players. Albert Suárez was the only one left out. He will now become a free agent. The one move that is getting more attention than the others is the […]
4 months ago | 2 reads
The Orioles came into the tender deadline day with a number of decisions to make about players who are on the bubble of the roster without a lot of flexibility. In the morning, well ahead of the deadline, they sent catcher Alex Jackson to Minnesota for a minor league infielder. When the choices were finally […]
4 months ago | 2 reads
The Orioles have made another trade. The team announced on Friday morning that catcher Alex Jackson has been traded to the Twins in exchange for a minor league infielder, Payton Eeles. With the Orioles committed to Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo as their catchers and with the 29-year-old Jackson being out of minor league options, […]
4 months ago | 7 reads
After Tuesday’s trade of Grayson Rodriguez—which was puzzling or just startling, depending on your perspective—the Orioles’ rotation needs have become even more pronounced. Starting pitching was already at the top of Mike Elias’ offseason to-do list, but the departure of Rodriguez means Baltimore now has one fewer established arm to pencil into next season’s rotation. […]
4 months ago | 4 reads
A year ago, there was an argument to be made that Devin Williams was the best relief pitcher in baseball. He had just wrapped a six-season stint at the back of the Brewers bullpen that saw him compile a 1.83 ERA and save 68 games over 235.1 total innings. All that stood in between him […]
4 months ago | 7 reads
Good morning, Camden Chatters. The dust is still settling on the Grayson Rodriguez-for-Taylor Ward trade and everyone in Birdland has an opinion. It was perhaps the most unexpected trade of the Mike Elias era, sending away one of the Orioles’ most high-ceiling (but also high-risk) young pitchers for a 32-year-old outfielder with just one season […]
4 months ago | 5 reads
Despite missing the playoffs last year, the Orioles are still entrenched in their “winning window.” Former top prospects Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, and Jackson Holliday all have multiple years of control remaining, and complimentary pieces like Jordan Westburg and Colton Cowser are still getting better. The future appears bright for rookies Samuel Basallo and Dylan […]
4 months ago | 3 reads
After Tuesday night’s divisive trade of Grayson Rodriguez, the Orioles’ biggest need is now bigger and more obvious than ever before. If Mike Elias has a Charlie Day board with his plans for the offseason, starting pitching was already plastered all over it in bold-lettered sticky notes. Those notes have now been taken down, underlined […]
4 months ago | 4 reads
Hello, friends. There are now 126 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day 2026. It will probably take several more of those days to digest the Grayson Rodriguez-Taylor Ward trade. That’s going to be a thing that’s prominently on my mind until the Orioles do a bigger move. It’s pretty much all that anyone else is […]
4 months ago | 2 reads
The Orioles traded Grayson Rodriguez last night. Even with a little time to digest this maneuver, that was still a surprising sentence to write out. Mike Elias really went and did it, whatever “it” might turn out to be, bringing in 31-year-old outfielder Taylor Ward from the Angels. The righty-batting Ward has one year remaining […]
4 months ago | 5 reads
When you post on SB Nation, we don’t want you to miss all the conversations and responses that follow. So starting today, whenever a user replies to your comment or to your post on the Feed, you’ll see a notification at the top right corner of the page. And of course, this means that when […]
4 months ago | 3 reads
Here we go, folks: I’m about to write a thousand words about how the Orioles should sign Kyle Tucker. Yes, yes, I do understand that there’s one critical flaw in that premise, and it is this: the Orioles are definitely not going to sign Kyle Tucker. The 28-year-old outfielder is the consensus #1-ranked free agent […]
4 months ago | 5 reads
The Orioles enter this offseason with a bullpen that is thin on pitchers with successful experience as late-inning relievers, and pretty much completely empty on pitchers who’ve been closers before. At last week’s GM meetings, Mike Elias acknowledged this in remarks to O’s reporters, saying, “Our plan A is to get somebody with closing experience.” […]
4 months ago | 4 reads
Good Morning Birdland, If you went to bed at a decent time last night, you may have missed one of the more surprising Orioles moves I can recall. The O’s are trading Grayson Rodriguez to the Angels in exchange for outfielder Taylor Ward. Independent of one another, the two pieces of this deal make sense. […]
4 months ago | 4 reads
Grayson Rodriguez will not be in the Orioles Opening Day rotation mix next year. He won’t be in the organization at all. The Orioles announced a surprise trade of the once-top prospect pitcher on Tuesday night, shipping Rodriguez to the Angels for outfielder Taylor Ward. Rodriguez has not thrown a pitch in an MLB game […]
4 months ago | 5 reads
The Orioles need to add two starters to their rotation for 2026 to have much hope of contending. The replacements for Tomoyuki Sugano and Zach Eflin need to be much better than either one of them to give the Orioles a chance. And Dean Kremer needs to find a place at the back of the […]
4 months ago | 3 reads
The Orioles might have the perfect excuse to bring Tyler Rogers to Baltimore: he’s practically already on the roster. At least nominally. With Trevor Rogers establishing himself as a legitimate ace after his dominant 2025 season, the Orioles should obviously be allowed to sign Tyler Rogers too. It’s right there in the name. MLB can’t […]
4 months ago | 7 reads
Good morning, Camden Chatters. The first major move of the MLB hot stove season dropped yesterday, with the Mariners re-signing first baseman Josh Naylor to a five-year, $92.5 million deal. That news doesn’t particularly affect the Orioles, who had no need for Naylor with first basemen Ryan Mountcastle, Coby Mayo, and (sort of) Samuel Basallo […]
4 months ago | 4 reads