Hello, friends.
There are 143 days remaining until the next scheduled Orioles game. Much sooner than that, only a month away, will be the start of the lockout that will leave the question of when the next game will happen in doubt for months afterwards.
For now, the baseball offseason is proceeding. It’s not exactly a normal offseason, because everyone knows that this month of November is all that there is going to be before things get weird for a while. What is normal is that all the usual offseason dates
will be ticked off in the meantime.
We are currently in the “five days after the World Series” period where teams have exclusive rights to negotiate with their own departing free agents. It is unusual for big deals to be struck in this time period, but it does exist. The only Orioles free agent who might be worth something here is Trevor Rogers. My guess is that there’s not much talking going on because they already know he’s looking beyond the price range they’re willing to pay. Regardless, that period ends tomorrow.
Also tomorrow is the deadline for teams or players with contract options to decide whether or not to exercise them. We already know that Ryan Helsley opted in for next year, and that the Orioles declined an option for Zach Eflin. I expect before the deadline we will hear about team options declined for Ryan Mountcastle and Luis Robert Jr. as well.
With the exclusive window ending, teams will also decide who to extend a qualifying offer to. Again, that’s going to be Rogers and that’s it. When Mike Elias traded for Taylor Ward, I think he hoped Ward would play well enough to get a QO. Ward did not, and they traded him besides. Helsley’s signing may have been in this category also, hoping that the closer would pitch so well that he’d opt out and they could give him a QO – the same move they played with Tyler O’Neill a year earlier. It didn’t work for O’Neill and it didn’t work for Helsley.
One last bit of recordkeeping that awaits tomorrow: The 60-day injured list stops being available, meaning players who were on it must be placed back on the 40-man roster. The Orioles have five players who will have to come back onto the roster.
The team acted on Saturday to clear space on the 40-man, with a variety of moves announced. They officially declined the Robert option. They announced that the one of the 60-day guys, Colin Selby has cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment. So has non-injured pitcher Codi Heuer. Two more players cleared waivers – José Barrero and Albert Suárez – though they had the option to take free agency rather than an assignment to Norfolk, and that’s what they did. These all leave the roster at 33 players. Plenty of room to add back the four guys remaining on the 60-day injured list.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
Orioles re-sign Rece Hinds (MLB Trade Rumors)
This is news from Friday, but it’s still relatively fresh and this is my first opportunity to rant about it, so here you go. This is a classic case of a Mike Elias galaxy brain where he thinks he’s doing something smart and it’s actually just a stupid waste of time. This article details how the “advantage” here is that this contract is to be for slightly more than whatever negotiated major league minimum comes out of the new CBA – literally $4,700 more – and therefore this makes it less likely that some other team will claim him if he is designated for assignment.
Here’s the thing. Why does it matter if the Orioles retain the rights to Rece Hinds? Did they not see enough of this player in the 12 games that he played for the team this past season? Was that not enough of a negative to convince them? Apparently not! They were the worse for having Hinds on the roster! He couldn’t hit for anything and he was bad at fielding too. They should have just called up Enrique Bradfield Jr. rather than try to reclaim this player who has never been good for any substantial length of time at the major league level. He should have been an easy 40-man roster cut right here to make room for players returning from the 60-day injured list, and instead they’ve gone out of their way to keep him.
True, yes, it’s almost certain that Elias does not intend for Hinds to remain on the 40-man roster for long. I’m not too worried about Hinds losing games for the 2027 Orioles. Just, what is the point? Why bother? Why jump through hoops to keep this guy?
Coby Mayo’s history of offseason improvement bodes well for the Orioles (The Baltimore Banner)
Look, I want to believe in Mayo more than most people do, but like, he stunk until July. This idea of offseason improvement is not guaranteed to hit at the start of next season, whenever that ends up being.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 1960, the first Oriole to win the Rookie of the Year award was announced, with shortstop Ron Hansen getting 22 of the 24 votes for the award. The other two votes went to teammates Chuck Estrada and Jim Gentile.
In 1979, the Orioles were sold to Edward Bennett Williams for $12.3 million. In today’s money, that’s around $55 million. David Rubenstein and partners purchased the team two years ago at a valuation of about $1.725 billion.
There are a few former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2021 pitcher Eric Hanhold, 2012 infielder Steven Tolleson, 1993 pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, and 1955-57 outfielder Jim Pyburn.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: Frankish king Louis the Stammerer (846), Revolutionary War admiral Toussaint-Guillame Picquet de la Motte (1720), baseball Hall of Famer Bid McPhee (1859), and actress Toni Collette (1962).
On this day in history…
In 1512, Michelangelo’s painting of the ceiling of Rome’s Sistine Chapel was first unveiled to the public after four years of work.
In 1765, the Parliament of Britain passed the Stamp Act, intended to raise additional taxes from the North American colonists. The colonists rather famously did not enjoy being taxed without having representation in the body.
In 1938, Baltimore’s own Pimlico race course played host to a match race between the previous year’s Triple Crown winner, War Admiral, and a lesser-known horse named Seabiscuit. The underdog triumphed in the head-to-head race.
In 1997, Titanic premiered at a Tokyo festival. Its wide release in the United States did not occur until December 19. The film went on to become the highest-grossing movie in history for the next 12 years and when adjusting for inflation is still the third-highest-grossing movie of all time, behind Gone with the Wind and Avatar.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on November 1. Have a safe Sunday. Don’t forget the clocks turned back!
