Good morning Birdland,
There was no major baseball news on Friday, a planned day off for the playoff schedule. But that gets turned on its head today as all four Division Series will get underway.
The day starts at 1 p.m. with White Sox at Guardians on TBS. Braves at Dodgers follows on FOX at 4 p.m. Then it’s Yankees at Rays back on TBS at 6:30. And finally, Padres at Brewers will wrap up the day with first pitch at 8:30 on FOX.
This could be the last day of the year with more than two games on one
day. Another day full of baseball is planned on Wednesday, but these are best-of-five series. The NL side of this schedule could be all wrapped up by the end of the day on Tuesday. So let’s enjoy this while we can.
Non-playoff teams have already turned their eyes towards the uncertain offseason ahead. One of the first major steps there will be arbitration decisions.
MLB Trade Rumors published their annual arbitration projections late on Friday. The Orioles have seven eligible players this year: Leody Taveras, Félix Bautista, Codi Heuer, Gunnar Henderson, Albert Suárez, Jordan Westburg, and Colton Cowser.
These all seem pretty straightforward. Henderson, Westburg, Cowser, and Bautista are going to be offered arbitration. Taveras, Heuer, and Suarez probably will not be.
Usually the Orioles try to avoid arbitration altogether and just get these guys signed to contracts for the upcoming season. That could even be true for the players that they do not want to offer arbitration. Albert Suárez feels like a good example there. Clearly, the organization likes having him around. They DFA’ed and re-signed him about 100 times this season. But maybe they don’t want to lock themselves into a $1.1 million salary for him. They could instead seek a standalone deal.
Arbitration time can also be an opportunity for bigger contract extensions too. Could this be the time that Henderson finally gets his massive deal? Unlikely, particularly coming off of this most recent season. Maybe someone like Cowser would be more open to it, but even that probably won’t happen.
It should be noted that this could all be impacted by the ongoing CBA negotiation. The current CBA expires on December 1 at 11:59 p.m. ET. The non-tender deadline typically falls in late November, so we should know who gets non-tendered before the CBA expires. But then the arbitration process tends to play out in January and February. So, there is plenty of uncertainty here.
Links
Early look at arbitration-eligible Orioles | Roch Kubatko
Roch digs a bit deeper into the Orioles-specific arbitration considerations, including a look back at last year’s decisions. Things have changed quite a bit in the last 365 days.
The final Top 100 Prospects list of the year has a new look | MLB.com
In times of big league disappointment, prospect list like this can be a security blanket for us Orioles fans. You will be pleased to know that there are now six baby Birds on Pipeline’s “Top 100” list. Three of them are in the 92-99 range, including newbie Enddy Azocar. Joseph Dzierwa was one of the biggest risers, he is up to 69 (nice) overall.
Orioles birthdays
Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!
- Adam Plutko turns 35 today. He worked out of the Orioles bullpen for part of the 2021 season, when he had a 6.71 ERA over 56.1 innings.
- Mike Belfiore is 38 years old. The lefty played in one career MLB game, and it came with the Orioles in 2013.
- Mike Johnson celebrates his 51st. The Canadian hurler began his big league career with a 14-game stint on the 1997 Orioles before he was dealt to the Expos midway through his debut season.
This day in O’s history
1970 – Mike Cuellar becomes the first pitcher to hit a home run in the LCS. His grand slam accounts for four of the seven runs the Orioles score in the fourth inning. Cuellar himself doesn’t pitch particularly well, and is yanked before the end of the fifth inning. The Orioles win anyway, beating the Twins 10-6 in Game 1 of the ALCS.
1971 – Dave McNally tosses seven innings, and the Orioles score four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning off of Athletics starter Vida Blue to win 5-3 in Game 1 of the ALCS
1986 – An Orioles loss to the Tigers assures them of their first last-place finish since the franchise moved from St. Louis in 1954.
2014 – An instant classic in Baltimore! The Orioles rough up the Tigers bullpen in the eighth inning of a 7-6 win in Game 2 of the ALDS. The four runs they score in the inning are capped off by a Delmon Young bases loaded double off of Joakim Soria.
2018 – The Orioles dismiss longtime manager Buck Showalter following a disastrous 47-win campaign.
