Happy Friday, Camden Chatters! If you have a long weekend ahead of you, I hope you spend it well.
The Orioles did not take any action yesterday to improve their 2026 team, but there was some news.
First, the Orioles announced their 2026 international signings, and it was a big change from what we’re used to seeing. If you’re looking for the details, Mark Brown has you covered with his story from yesterday. The short version is that the Orioles awarded four contracts exceeding $1 million, including
a team record signing of $2.3 million to Jose Luis Acevedo.
The other exciting tidbit is that they signed highly-ranked players. Four of the signed players ranked in both the top 50 rankings from Baseball America and the top 59 from FanGraphs. MLB.com went on farther, putting five of the players in their top 50.
These players are young. And the older I get, the younger they seem. Of the four players Mark highlighted in his story, three are 17 years old, and one is just 16. It’s strange to think about giving millions of dollars to children, but that is pretty much what is going on. That’s the story of players in Latin America, however it makes you feel. Samuel Basallo was just 16 when the Orioles signed him back in 2021.
It will be a long time before any of these players contributes to the Baltimore Orioles, if they ever do. But for the Orioles to maintain a robust farm system and a talented future Major League team, they need to do this kind of thing every single season. Before Mike Elias came along, the Orioles were barely involved in the international market.
It’s taken Elias and company this long to build that program up to a place where they are making multiple large international signings in a year. Now that the framework is in place, the Orioles will hopefully spend every January making announcements like the ones they did today.
The other news that came out yesterday was less important but also welcome. The Orioles announced that they will broadcast 20 spring training games on MASN, with 12 games on the radio network. 20 games is a lot! We have given the Orioles a hard time over their spring training broadcasts, so now I will give credit where it’s due. The 20 broadcasts are one more than MASN had in 2025 (8), 2024 (7), and 2023 (4) combined. That’s great! It’ll be so nice to keep up with the team this way as we lead into the regular season. Good job, Orioles.
Both the Baltimore Baseball and Baltimore Banner articles alluded to the fact that the Orioles are free to show more games now that the Nationals have left MASN, but I admit to not really getting that. They said the network was obligated to show the same number of games from both teams, but that doesn’t explain why that number had to be so low. At any rate, this year’s increase is a very welcome change.
Of course, they are the Orioles, so they can’t do everything right. It seems that 19 of those 20 televised games will be broadcast remotely from Baltimore. Boo! Let them go to Florida!
In the same announcement about the spring games, the Orioles announced their 2026 broadcast team. The only change is the addition of Josh Lewin, who previously had worked for WBAL back in the 1990s. Lewin will supplement the main radio announcers, Brett Hollander and Ben Wanger.
Links
Orioles claim left-hander José Suárez from Braves – Baltimore Baseball
Did the Orioles accidentally think this was Ranger Suárez? J. Suárez could help the Orioles bullpen this season. And it does need some help.
In franchise first, Orioles sign 4 international prospects with $1 million bonus or more – The Baltimore Banner
Andy Kostka broke down the signings with quotes from new signee Jose Luis Acevedo, international scouting director Koby Perez, and a previous international signing, Samuel Basallo. It’s interesting to me that Perez pointed out that Basallo’s path with the Orioles has made other Latin American players more like to choose them.
A whopping 5 of O’s 10 int’l signees among MLB Pipeline’s Top 50 – MLB.com
MLB.com’s story about the new players signed by the Orioles yesterday includes videos of some of them.
Birthdays and History
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have three Orioles birthday buddies. Mark Trumbo is celebrating his 40th anniversary today. Trumbo came to the Orioles by trade in December 2015 and went on to lead the league in home runs in 2016. The Orioles, perhaps overcompensating for not re-signing Nelson Cruz after the 2014 season, rewarded Trumbo with a three-year contract. Those three years did not work out as well as the first. Trumbo was also blamed for the stopping of the pie celebration, which he later denied. Happy birthday, Trumbo! Sorry about the scapegoating.
Also born on this day in history are 2008 eight-gamer Eider Torres (43) and Stumblin’ Jack Cust (47).
On this day in 2016, news broke that the Orioles had signed Chris Davis to a seven-year, $161 million contract. The contract became official several days later. Dollars-wise, it remains the largest contract the Orioles have ever signed. Because of deferred money, Davis will continue to be paid through 2037. I don’t need to talk about how Davis played after signing his contract. We all know.
