Good morning, Camden Chatters.
MLB free agency has been open for three days, but so far, all has been quiet on the hot stove front. As of this writing, no free agent has signed a major league deal with any team. There had been some speculation that November would be a particularly busy month as players scramble to find new teams before the lockout hits, but that hasn’t come to pass as yet. We’ve still got more than three weeks, though, so things could certainly change.
While we wait for some Orioles
news, let’s check in on the O’s prospects currently playing in the Arizona Fall League. Of the eight-player contingent representing the Orioles for the Peoria Javelinas, four of them were selected to the Fall Stars Game for the league’s top performers. Steve Melewski wrote about that quartet, which includes Ike Irish, Vance Honeycutt, Braxton Bragg, and Patrick Reilly.
Those were the four most interesting prospects the Orioles sent to the AFL, so it’s nice to see that they’ve all done well, small sample size notwithstanding. Irish has been red hot with an .896 OPS in 16 games, picking up where he left off during the 2026 minor league season before suffering a torn meniscus in July.
Meanwhile, Honeycutt has continued the late-season surge he enjoyed after being promoted to Double-A Chesapeake, as he’s rocking the AFL to the tune of a 1.075 OPS, three homers, and more walks (18) than strikeouts (16). I’d all but given up on Honeycutt as a prospect after his horrendous 2025 and mostly horrendous 2026, but it’s possible that something has finally clicked for him. Can he salvage his career after all?
Reilly and Bragg, who both had Tommy John surgery in 2025, are back on the mound and pitching well, particularly Reilly, who has a 2.87 ERA and 14.3 K/9. As with Irish, what matters more than the stats is the fact that they seem to be fully healthy. (Of course, the stats are nice, too.)
Of the non-Fall Stars Orioles, infielder Brandon Butterworth is hitting just .217 but has a .400 OBP, thanks to 14 walks in 17 games. The O’s also have three relievers on the squad — Keilen Hamson, Kiefer Lord, and Teddy Sharkey — who aren’t having much luck. Sharkey has been OK, giving up two runs in 5.2 innings, but Hamson has surrendered seven walks in 4.1 innings and Lord has been bombed for nine runs in 8.1 frames.
The Fall Stars Game will air on MLB Network this Sunday at 8:00 pm. In the absence of anything else going on in baseball, it might be worth a watch.
Links
Looking at possible Cardinals trades with the Orioles for a 3B – Viva El Birdos
Our SBNation Cardinals sister site proposes a few possible trades for Orioles infielders. He’s very insistent on trading some guy named Jimmy Crooks to the Orioles.
Alonso named Silver Slugger Award finalist – School of Roch
The Polar Bear is up against Boston first baseman Willson Contreras for the award. Contreras had a nice year and all, but come on, this should be an easy choice.
Would Orioles trade Henderson, Holliday or Cowser? | MAILBAG – BaltimoreBaseball.com
Only if we can get Jimmy Crooks. I will settle for nothing less.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You share your day with two former Orioles infielders: Deivi Cruz (54) and Leo Hernández (67).
On this date in 1969, the Orioles’ Mike Cuellar was voted the co-winner of the AL Cy Young Award along with the Tigers’ Denny McLain. It was the first and only time in major league history that there’s been a tie vote for the Cy Young, as Cuellar and McLain each received 10 votes (unlike today, voters listed only one name instead of ranking their top five). McLain was the better of the two by bWAR (8.1 to Cuellar’s 4.4) and threw a league-leading 325 innings and nine shutouts, but Cuellar had the better ERA (2.38 to McLain’s 2.80) and pitched for a pennant-winning team.
And on this date in 2011, the Orioles reached agreement with Dan Duquette to become their new general manager, an out-of-the-blue hire after he’d been out of baseball for 10 years. Duquette lasted seven years with the Birds and helped build a team that had the best record in the American League from 2012-16, but the Orioles collapsed late in his tenure and he was fired after the disastrous 2018 season.
