Hello, friends.
There are now 146 days remaining until the next scheduled Orioles game. In a bit more than a month, the owner lockout will hit and things will be uncertain until a labor agreement is reached.
There will be no more MLB games to divert us in the meantime. The World Series is over as of last night. The Brewers weren’t able to close out the Rays with a sweep on Tuesday night, but they still were plenty able to end the thing before there was much in the way of suspense. Behind their hard-throwing
ace Jacob Misiorowski, Milwaukee finished off a dominant romp through the playoffs by taking Game 5 of the World Series and with it, this season’s championship. It’s the first time in Brewers franchise history that the team has won it all.
The Brewers, in a lot of ways, are a demonstration of the importance of getting as many bites at the postseason apple as you can. They made it into the postseason all but one year going back to the 2018 season. After a hard-fought seven-game NLCS against the Dodgers that year, they had a whole lot of early exits while waiting for a year where everything broke their way. That finally happened in 2026.
It’s not like it was a surprise to have things break Milwaukee’s way. This was not a fluke team that snuck into the postseason. The Brewers had the best regular season record, with more wins even than the two-time defending champion Dodgers. They showed how this year was going to be different by sweeping those Dodgers, the same team that swept them in the NLCS a year ago. They faced the AL’s best regular season team in the World Series and they trashed those guys.
Still, this wasn’t guaranteed. Even regular season success doesn’t guarantee postseason success. The Brewers had to do a lot of things right once they got into October, and for the duration of this month, that’s what they’ve done. They earned this title. And now the Orioles have the fifth-longest championship drought among MLB teams, behind the Guardians, Padres, Mariners, and Pirates.
In the meantime in Birdland, it’s been all new general manager Jared Banner all the time over the course of this week. That’s not so much because Banner is everywhere as it is that Banner had his introductory press conference earlier in the week and there are no other new inputs, so reading the tea leaves from that presser is all that there is to do.
I think it would be better for the Orioles if something like this had happened a year ago, if Mike Elias had recognized his 2025 plan was flawed and he was going to need to make some changes to get better outcomes. To be at least a little fair to Elias, he did try different things last offseason. The signing of Pete Alonso, the trade for Shane Baz, even the trade of Grayson Rodriguez were all breaks from how he’d done things before. It was not enough.
In the waning weeks of the regular season, there were signs that more changes were coming. Front office personnel were shuffled around or out of the organization entirely. We’d heard the story before about the Orioles looking into hiring a general manager and they didn’t do it. This time, they’ve done it.
Banner and Elias both are saying all the right things so far. There’s no guarantee that it’s going to work. I do think that at a minimum, we can say that it will fail while trying something different. In a few more days, we’ll start to see what kind of roster plan they try to put into place in the month of November before the lockout hits.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
New GM brings an added voice and some breathing room for Mike Elias (Baltimore Baseball)
One of the quotes from the presser that sticks with me is highlighted here, where Elias directly said he’s putting Banner in charge of areas where “I think he’s better than me.”
Elias admitted his faults. Can Jared Banner fix them? (The Baltimore Sun)
Elias ate a big serving of humble pie in making this hire. Everybody has nice things to say about Banner. On the other hand, everybody had nice things to say about Craig Albernaz, and look where that got us.
Banner day: Jared Banner aced his first press conference. Now comes the hard part. (Steve on Baseball)
While not making any specific promises about Gunnar Henderson, one thing Banner brought up is how the presumptive NL MVP, Pete Crow-Armstrong, was pretty good last year but still not satisfied, and the Cubs helped him ascend to a new high level. Sounds like a nice concept.
The Orioles must decide if Colton Cowser is their everyday center fielder (The Baltimore Banner)
The outfield free agent market sucks. I have to figure Cowser is the center fielder for 2027 if he is healthy to play. He is another guy who Banner will hopefully be able to help institute some processes that will improve him.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 2013, three Orioles received Gold Glove awards as the winners were announced: Shortstop J.J. Hardy, center fielder Adam Jones, and third baseman Manny Machado. There were three Orioles Gold Glove winners the next year as well, but there hasn’t been multiple winners since then. No Oriole has won a Gold Glove at all since Ramón Urías received one four years ago.
There are a few former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2021 pitcher Shaun Anderson, 2012 pitcher Dana Eveland, 2000/2004 outfielder Karim García, 1973-74 infielder Frank Baker, and 1967-71 pitcher Pete Richert.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: painter Bob Ross (1942), Homer Simpson voice actor Dan Castellaneta (1957), actor Rufus Sewell (1967), and actress Winona Ryder (1971).
On this day in history…
In 1888, a treaty signed in Constantinople proclaimed that passage through the Suez Canal would be guaranteed regardless of war or peace. Egypt, which is home to the canal and was then ruled by the Ottoman Empire, was not party to the treaty talks, nor did it sign the treaty. Today, the effects of this treaty are still in force with one exception: Egypt may forbid passage to ships from countries with which it is at war.
In 1914, the conflict we now know as World War I had another escalation, with the Ottoman Empire joining the war on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Exactly five years later, the empire dissolved with the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey, today known as the Republic of Türkiye.
In 1929, a crash on the New York Stock Exchange became what is now recognized as “Black Tuesday,” triggering the beginning of the Great Depression.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on October 29. Have a safe Thursday.
