Hello, friends.
You’ve made it! The cursed year 2025 is over and you have survived. 2026 will surely bring its own share of challenges but hopefully at least within the sphere of our favorite baseball team things will go better on the strength of internal and external improvements to the roster that are made this offseason.
There are now 84 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day. The start of spring training is much closer, as if you want to go by the pitchers/catchers report date for WBC participants,
that’s just a month and eight days away from today. It will be here before you know it.
Is there another major Orioles move to be made between now and then? Today could turn out to be a day of big news regarding Japanese pitcher Tatsuya Imai’s signing with an MLB team. The deadline for him to sign is tomorrow and when you consider that there’s still going to be a physical involved, today might be the real day to lock down a framework of an agreement, and that will probably be reported if it happens rather than remain a secret until tomorrow.
I don’t know how much Mike Elias actually wants Imai or whether his want exceeds what other GMs will be willing to offer. I’m not expecting the Orioles to really be in on this, but who knows. It does still feel like there’s a need to be addressed at the top of the rotation, so if it’s not Imai, then pivoting to Ranger Suárez or Framber Valdez, whose markets will probably be impacted by where and for what price Imai signs, could still be in play.
Or maybe another trade? Who knows. With apologies for repeating myself, Elias has surprised me multiple times this offseason and he may yet surprise me again before it’s over. We are certainly living in a different world than we were with the Orioles last offseason.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
Reddit AMA with beat writer Jake Rill (Reddit/Orioles)
This took place yesterday, so you’ve missed the chance to ask a question. Most interesting for me was his assessment that the problem for the 2025 Orioles was 55% injuries, 40% underperformance by key players, 5% bad luck.
Ten New Year’s resolutions for the Orioles heading into 2026 (The Baltimore Sun)
It’s time to stop dwelling on how much last year sucked and instead think about the ways this year could be better.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Nothing of particular note has happened involving the Orioles on the first day of the year. Maybe that will change today! But probably not.
There are a few former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2012 outfielder Xavier Avery, 2006 infielder/outfielder Fernando Tatis, and 1958 infielder Foster Castleman.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: midnight rider Paul Revere (1735), early American flagmaker Betsy Ross (1752), author E. M. Forster (1879), longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (1895), baseball Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg (1911), and DJ Grandmaster Flash (1958).
On this day in history…
In 45 BC, January 1 marked the beginning of a new year for the first time in the Roman Republic as the Julian calendar, named after Julius Caesar, went into effect. The calendar remained in use in areas influenced by Rome for over 1,500 years before it started being replaced by the Gregorian calendar that remains in use today.
In 1808 AD, on the first day this was permitted by the Constitution, the United States banned the importation of enslaved people.
In 1818, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein was first published. At the time of its publication, Shelley chose to remain anonymous.
In 1902, Michigan and Stanford played a college bowl game, which at the time billed itself as the Tournament East-West Football Game and today is known as the Rose Bowl. Michigan was a 49-0 winner in the game. This year’s edition of the Rose Bowl will be played today between Alabama and Indiana as part of the quarterfinal round of the college football playoff.
A random Orioles trivia question
I received a book billing itself as The Big Book of Baltimore Orioles Trivia for Christmas. In it are 100 trivia questions. I’ll include them in my Bird Droppings, skipping stupidly obvious questions like “What year did the Orioles begin play at Memorial Stadium?” and St. Louis Browns-related questions, until we’ve exhausted the list. Here is question 1:
What was the Orioles record in 1970?
The book lists multiple choice answers, but I thought that would make it too easy for people on this site. If you are of an age that you remember the 1970 season, feel free to share a memory with us.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on January 1. Have a safe new year.
