Hello, friends.
There are now 158 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day 2026. We are running out of postseason to entertain us in the meantime. One playoff game is set to be played today, as the Mariners
and Blue Jays return to Toronto, with Seattle holding a 3-2 lead, to settle the ALCS. Whatever happens today and tomorrow, the World Series does not begin until Friday. I don’t understand baseball postseason scheduling. Logan Gilbert and Trey Yesavage are the expected starting pitchers for the potential series-ender.
Another domino in the league-wide managerial search may be close to falling. The Athletic reported on Saturday that the Giants are looking to hire current University of Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello as their next manager. It’s not a done deal yet. If completed, that would certainly be an outside-the-box kind of hire. This is not a common career path in the baseball world, to go from coaching a major college program to managing a major league team.
From an Orioles standpoint, what is interesting about this is that it’s filling one of the open jobs without depleting the pool of candidates who the Orioles might have wanted to hire. I don’t think Mike Elias had any Division I college coaches on his interview list for the manager. The Giants settling on Vitello would leave seven teams, including the Orioles, with managerial vacancies.
As I have written in this space before, I am curious to see when the Orioles make and announce their decision. Not many of the other teams that ended up with openings this offseason have taken care of their business yet, so the Orioles aren’t dragging their feet relative to other teams. If this week brings a flurry of other hires while the Orioles still have not made their decision, that would be a different story. I think that if they can’t strike decisively to hire a good manager, that’s going to bode poorly for their ability to act to solve problems with the roster over this coming offseason.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
Folks, there was, as far as I could find, absolutely nothing new Orioles-related written between the posting of yesterday’s Bird Droppings and today. Sorry! These are a couple you might have already seen yesterday.
The Orioles bullpen will need attention, but there are internal options who may get a longer look (The Baltimore Banner)
Three of the four names listed here pitched well enough to deserve a penciled-in spot to next year’s bullpen. Just not like… a penciled in late-inning high-leverage spot.
Orioles should bring back Austin Hays (Baltimore Baseball)
I remain categorically against bringing back any Oriole who has been traded away or who left as a free agent. Perhaps some day a player will come along where I will make an exception. Austin Hays isn’t that guy. In this specific case I don’t imagine either the player or the team wants the reunion.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
There are several former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2017-24 outfielder Anthony Santander, 2022 pitcher Jordan Lyles, 2004 outfielder José Bautista, 1988 pitcher Oswaldo Peraza, and 1966-67 catcher Vic Roznovsky.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: baseball Hall of Famer Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown (1876), spy/author John le Carré (1931), actor John Lithgow (1945), South Park co-creator Trey Parker (1969), and actress Rebecca Ferguson (1983).
On this day in history…
In 1469, the Kingdom of Aragon’s Ferdinand II married the Queen of Castile, Isabella I. The marriage led to the unification of these two separate thrones into one: Spain.
In 1781, the British surrendered at Yorktown, effectively ending the American quest for independence with victory.
In 1812, Napoleon began a retreat from Moscow. It was too late to avoid the winter.
In 1953, the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury was first published. In the intervening years, the novel has sold at least 10 million copies, according to one estimate.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on October 19. Have a safe Sunday.
