Good morning, Camden Chatters.
MLB awards season has arrived, and the disappointing Orioles, of course, will not be involved. The top three vote-getters for each award were announced a week ago and included
no Orioles. And don’t expect to see any Orioles receive even a single down-ballot vote for any award, other than AL Cy Young, where Trevor Rogers should finish somewhere in the top 10.
The Rookie of the Year winners were crowned yesterday, and as expected, slugging Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz was the unanimous winner in the American League. (What, you were expecting Yaramil Hiraldo?) Braves catcher Drake Baldwin won in the NL. Voters’ ballots went five deep, and 15 different AL players received at least one top-5 vote. Unsurprisingly, none were Orioles.
By FanGraphs WAR, the Birds’ best rookie this season was Jeremiah Jackson (1.0 WAR), and their best rookie pitcher was Dietrich Enns (0.5). So, yeah, 2025 was not a standout season for Orioles rookies. They should stand a much better chance next year, when both Samuel Basallo and Dylan Beavers will still qualify as rookies, something that the Orioles took great pains to ensure.
Tonight will come the announcement of the Manager of the Year awards, and again you won’t find any Orioles mentioned, unless any voter was especially impressed by the one-game-over-.500 interim stint of the already-jettisoned Tony Mansolino.
In other news, the Orioles continued filling out their coaching staff under new manager Craig Albernaz. They’ve hired former MLB outfielder Jason Bourgeois as their first base coach, replacing Anthony Sanders, who left for the Tigers. In my decades as a baseball fan I’ve still never quite gleaned what a first base coach actually does, so, sure, Bourgeois should be fine, just as Sanders was fine. He’s the second new coach to join the staff along with hitting coach Dustin Lind.
Links
The Orioles have added another journeyman righty relief candidate to the pile. It’s why “Enoli Paredes” is an anagram of “neared O’s pile.”
Taking a look at three more free agent pitchers available this winter – Steve Melewski
Do any of these three arms interest you, Camden Chatters? I like the idea of Brandon Woodruff but he’s not exactly a guy you can count on for durability.
Why was Orioles’ defense so poor in 2025? | MAILBAG – BaltimoreBaseball.com
Rich Dubroff points out that some of the Orioles’ best defenders, including Adley Rutschman and Colton Cowser, missed a lot of time due to injury. But I also think defense is a quality that the Orioles tend to overlook when they’re bringing in new players (see O’Neill, Tyler).
Great! …How, exactly?
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Three former Orioles were born on this day: catcher J.R. House (46) and righties Vinny Nittoli (35) and the late Ike Delock (b. 1929, d. 2022).
Nov. 11 has been a busy day for Orioles managers. On this date in 1953, veteran manager Jimmy Dykes was hired as the first skipper in O’s franchise history, taking over for Marty Marion, who’d been the last manager of the St. Louis Browns before they relocated to Baltimore. Dykes had 16 previous years of managerial experience with the White Sox and Athletics, but his stint with the Orioles lasted just one, a 54-100 season in 1954.
On this day in 1982, the Orioles hired Joe Altobelli as their replacement for Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver, who retired at the end of the season. Altobelli had the most successful debut season possible, guiding the Orioles to a World Series championship in 1983, but he was out of a job by 1985, replaced by an out-of-retirement Weaver.
In 2014, Buck Showalter won AL Manager of the Year honors after leading the Orioles to a 96-66 record and AL East title. It was his third career Manager of the Year Award, each coming 10 years apart — 1994, 2004, and 2014 — and he would later win a fourth with the Mets in 2022 (alas, not 2024).
And in non-manager news, on this date in 1970, Orioles slugger Boog Powell was named AL Most Valuable Player. Boog mashed 35 home runs, drove in 114 runs, and posted a .962 OPS as the O’s ultimately won their second World Series.
