Hello, friends. There are now 119 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day 2026. Probably nothing is going to happen on this particular day, Thanksgiving, in the United States. Or at least I’m going to take
it quite personally if Mike Elias or anyone connected with the Orioles makes any kind of news today. I’ve got people to see and turkey to eat.
Baseball did deliver some big news last night, though. If you haven’t heard already, the Jays are signing one of the top free agent starting pitchers available, Dylan Cease, to a seven-year, $210 million contract. Deferrals in the contract, according to reporting by The Athletic, reduce the present day value to about $182 million, which is just about what had been projected for Cease to get.
The Orioles presumably could have beaten this bid, if they had in fact wanted to spend big money to try to improve the starting rotation. Considering the deferred money, they could have just offered the 7/210 and that would have beaten the Jays price. Mike Elias said the O’s are in pursuit of all of the free agent pitchers out there. As that statement contacts with reality, we see the truth of it. You can be in pursuit all you want but if you stop chasing before you catch up, that doesn’t do you much good, does it?
Not signing Cease is completely defensible. In truth, I was most anxious of the Orioles signing him out of any of the supposed “big three” free agents this winter – also including Framber Valdez and Ranger Suárez. Cease had the worst 2025 season by ERA out of all of these guys, with a 4.55 ERA in 32 starts. He also had a 4.58 ERA in the 2023 season, so that’s two of the last three seasons where he was, at least in terms of results, Dean Kremer-tier. $30 million per year for Kremer-like results is not appetizing.
Of course, Cease has some better results in his resume – tantalizing with upside in his 2022 season where he dropped a 2.20 ERA as the Cy Young runner-up. He has remained fairly consistent in peripheral stats like FIP, coming in the low-to-mid-3s, even as the ERA has swung wildly from year-to-year. The Jays are certainly betting on that being the kind of pitcher he’ll be over at least the next four or so years. They responded to their World Series loss by going out and spending big on their starting rotation. Orioles fans have to hope they’re wrong about the guy they’ve chosen to spend big on.
Will Elias zero in on Valdez or Suárez or perhaps even Japanese pitcher Tatsuya Imai? If he does and he pays up, then people won’t be grumpy around here. If he’s once again left out when this game of musical chairs stops, that’s not going to be great, and if the Orioles rotation sucks next year without one of these top-end arms, Elias is going to deserve every bit of criticism he gets. Frankly, if Elias screws up this offseason as much as he did the last one, he shouldn’t get a third chance to fix the mess.
In the meantime, the big Orioles news is they hired recent Padres manager Mike Shildt to be the upper level minor league coordinator of instruction. Folks, life is too short and I don’t get paid enough to say any more about the upper level minor league coordinator of instruction, no matter who it is.
In other Orioles-ish news, the Rays are apparently in talks to have former O’s manager Brandon Hyde serve in a senior advisory role in the organization.
Normally in this article I would talk about stuff I am thankful for about the Orioles this year, but after 75 wins and just about everyone disappointing, honestly, I’m not too thankful about much that happened with them in 2025. I do remain thankful about the Orioles for this reason: If it wasn’t for them, I’d have never met my wife.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
After the Tomoyuki Sugano experience, Orioles are ramping up efforts to sign Japanese players (The Baltimore Banner)
I have to say that I am skeptical about any feeling that, because the Orioles had Sugano, that Imai or some other Japanese player will want to play here. I do think the O’s did right by Sugano and it probably can’t hurt to at least get them in the door for a meeting.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
There are several former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2024 designated hitter Eloy Jiménez, 2009-12 pitcher Jason Berken, 1997 catcher Tim Laker, 1989-92 infielder Randy “Moose” Milligan, 1962/66 pitcher Bill Short, and 1956 pitcher Johnny Schmitz.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: temperature namesake Anders Celsius (1701), novelist James Agee (1909), martial artist Bruce Lee (1940), musician Jimi Hendrix (1942), science guy Bill Nye (1955), and violinist Hilary Hahn (1979).
On this day in history…
In 1095, the pope of the time, Urban II, delivered a speech in which he called for armed pilgrimage to capture both former Byzantine Empire possessions as well as the Jerusalem area. Over the next four years, what’s now known as the First Crusade achieved a number of victories towards these goals.
In 1895, the last will and testament of Alfred Nobel was signed, guaranteeing that his estate would establish the Nobel Prize upon his death.
In 1924, New York City hosted the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
In 1973, Gerald Ford was confirmed as a replacement nominee for vice president to Richard Nixon by a 92-3 vote in the Senate.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on November 27. Have a safe Thanksgiving.
