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 through my mind. The thing that I just can’t wrap my head around, even with some time to sit and think about it, is that for all of the time we (that is, Orioles fans) were invested in Rodriguez, he’s gone for one year of an older outfielder who strikes out a lot, is likely to be a mediocre defender at best, and will hit around 30 homers if the Orioles are lucky enough for him to repeat what he did this past season.
A commonly-spoken thought about this deal is that the Orioles must essentially believe Rodriguez is not going to ever be able to get through a full MLB season, certainly not as anything like the top-end starter he once was thought to be as a prospect, and probably not as even a middle or back-end guy. If they believe he has a decent chance of being anything useful, they would have pretty much had to have kept him if they couldn’t get more than this in a deal. I feel this way myself. It’s the only way to make sense of the trade.
The terrifying possibility lurks that Mike Elias is wrong about this. He’s made mistakes before, although up to this point those mistakes have not included “promising young player who becomes good for his new organization is traded away for questionable veteran who ends up being a bust.” Until Trevor Rogers started his masterful 2025 campaign in June, trading Kyle Stowers for him was trending in this direction. Rodriguez blossoming with the Angels while Ward is just kind of fine for one expensive year and then gone would be a devastating outcome for whatever philosophy led to the trade.
Of course, Elias has about two and a half months before spring training gets under way to do some more work on the roster. There are a number of free agents out there who would offer a decent probability of improving one of the 2025 team’s weak spots. There could be other surprise trades that shift one or more assumed returning players while bringing back someone you never would have thought the Orioles would acquire. Some kind of modest, not particularly exciting signing could work out like Ramón Laureano did.
The Rodriguez deal is probably going to look different when considered in the context of the whole offseason – maybe better, if Elias nails it (on paper), maybe worse if he loads up on one-year busts like Charlie Morton and Gary Sánchez again. The picture will likely not change today. It might, though. He’s crazy, he’ll do anything at any time.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
Mike Elias says the risk of trading Grayson Rodriguez was worth the reward of outfield stability (The Baltimore Banner)
Someone should really have some words with the GM from last season who gave a lot of money to Tyler O’Neill and got no outfield stability out of that, huh?
Elias on Ward, possible free agent signings, lineup issues (Baltimore Baseball)
Whether anything different comes from this compared to past years, I don’t know, but past years have sure not had Elias saying stuff like, “There are (starting pitchers) out there and we are in pursuit of every one of them.”
Orioles, Ravens spur nine-figure spending in Maryland. Is it enough? (The Baltimore Sun)
At least as far as the money being spent on Oriole Park at Camden Yards goes, I think it sucks that a lot of what it’s being spent on is stuff that will not have any impact whatsoever to the average fan, since it’s only being spent on premium seating areas.
A dream Orioles offseason, v2.0 (Orioles On The Verge)
In the wake of the Rodriguez/Ward deal, fellow Orioles podcaster Bob Phelan revisits his dream rest of the offseason, which includes several substantial free agent signings and a trade that would truly be stunning.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
There are a number of former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2010-11 infielder Brandon Snyder, 2009-10 infielder Justin Turner, 2009 pitcher Adam Eaton, 2002 infielder Ryan McGuire, 1983-84 infielder Todd Cruz, and 1960 pitcher John Anderson.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: 14th president Franklin Pierce, comedian Harpo Marx (1888), should-be Baseball Hall of Famer Luis Tiant (1940), Jersey Shore personality Snooki (1987), and actress/singer-songwriter Miley Cyrus (1992).
On this day in history…
In 534 BC, the first instance in recorded history of an actor portraying a character on stage occurred. The actor, Thespis of Icaria, is credited with introducing the concept of tragedy in a play, and his name was used as the root for the word thespian.
In 1963 AD, the first episode of BBC’s Doctor Who was broadcast. The episode titled “An Unearthly Child” was the first of what’s been 892 episodes in a show that’s run in fits and starts in the intervening years.
In 1981, President Ronald Reagan signed a secret directive that enabled the CIA to support Contra rebels in Nicaragua. This scheme involved getting the money to do this by secretly selling weapons to Iran, hence the eventual title of the scandal Iran-Contra affair.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on November 23. Have a safe Sunday.
