Good morning, Camden Chatters.
That epic World Series, one of the wildest of my lifetime, has sadly ended. The 2025 MLB season is over. Now begins the long, cold, and sometimes dreadfully dull offseason.
Try your best to keep your mind occupied until next spring. If you have any hobbies besides baseball, lean into those for a while. As someone who doesn’t, I’m not sure what I’ll be doing these next few months.
As for the Orioles, they can’t afford to have a dormant winter. The O’s checked the first item off of their to-do list by hiring new manager Craig Albernaz, but there’s plenty more they need to accomplish this offseason. They need to hire a new coaching staff. They need to add starting pitching, hopefully of a more high-quality tier than last winter’s additions of Charlie Morton and Tomoyuki Sugano. They need to reconstruct basically the entire bullpen, including a new closer to replace the injured Félix Bautista. And don’t forget the offense, which could benefit from a veteran bat or two to provide support to the core group of hitters who underperformed this season.
If you’re so inclined, you can check out the current list of MLB free agents and plot out your preferred choices for the Orioles to pursue. A guy could dream about the O’s adding, say, Kyle Tucker and Framber Valdez, two star veterans who have ties to Mike Elias from his days in the Astros front office. Of course, there’s no reason to believe the Orioles will sign a top-shelf, high-priced free agent until they prove otherwise. They’ve only ever fished at the middle to low end of the free-agent pond during Elias’s tenure, and that’s probably not going to change.
Perhaps going the trade route would be more up the Orioles’ alley. MLB Trade Rumors compiled a list of 40 possible trade candidates, some of whom would clearly make the O’s better if they’re willing to give up the prospect package a deal would require. I like the idea of picking up another Brewers ace, Freddy Peralta, two years after the O’s acquired Corbin Burnes from them. I’m intrigued by Sandy Alcantara as a buy-low option who could potentially offer big upside if he bounces back somewhat close to his Cy Young form. Or how about Steven Kwan? He’s not a great hitter but he provides the OBP and contact abilities that the O’s lineup sorely lacks, and he’d be reunited with his Oregon State teammate and friend Adley Rutschman.
Most likely, the Orioles won’t acquire any of the specific players I just mentioned. But they’ve surely got their own list of players they’re targeting and a plan in place for how to proceed. Let’s hope it turns out better than last offseason’s.
Links
The 2025 Orioles batters struck out more than any club in team history – Steve Melewski
Oof. It’d be one thing if the Orioles had a Three True Outcomes kind of offense, but no, they weren’t particularly good at hitting home runs and drawing walks. They were a One True Outcome offense, and it was the worst of the outcomes!
Free agency set to begin, qualifying offers aren’t expected from Orioles – School of Roch
The O’s won’t be able to collect any draft picks for their impending free agents as they did last year with Burnes and Anthony Santander. Somehow I don’t see Gary Sánchez landing a five-year deal with anyone.
Do you think Orioles can make offensive adjustments in 2026? | MAILBAG – BaltimoreBaseball.com
The answer had better be yes, or we’re in for another disappointing season next year.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Five former Orioles have Nov. 3 birthdays: right-handers Armando Benítez (53) and Mark Corey (70), outfielder Dwight Evans (74), and the late lefty Ken Holtzman (b. 1945, d. 2024) and outfielder Earl Robinson (b. 1936, d. 2014).
On this date in 1982, Hall of Fame Oriole Jim Palmer came up just short of winning his fourth career AL Cy Young Award, finishing second to Milwaukee’s Pete Vuckovich. Palmer topped Vuckovich in basically every statistical category — significantly so, in some cases — but Vuckovich had 18 wins to Palmer’s 15 and his Brewers topped the Orioles for the AL East title, which I suppose was all that mattered in the minds of the voters. The guy who really got robbed was Toronto’s Dave Stieb, who threw a league-leading 288 innings, 19 complete games, and five shutouts, but finished a distant fourth in the balloting.
