Category Archives: Baltimore Orioles News

Baltimore Orioles sign IF/OF Adam Frazier

The Baltimore Orioles have signed IF/OF Adam Frazier to a one-year contract for the 2023 season. The deal is for a reported $8 million – this accoring to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand. Frazier, 31, is a career .273 hitter. This give the Birds an additional veteran presence on the roster.

Frazier’s primarily a middle infielder, but he’s played in the outfield as well. I suspect that many fans will chide this as just the team being cheap and not wanting to sign top-tier talent. However keep in mind that the current regime has a great track record of plugging average players into the mix and seeing success.

Furthermore, Frazier’s a guy who will bring an aforementioned veteran presence to the team. That means something. The Orioles are still a young team, and that sort of leadership in the clubhouse can be important. Especially considering that the Birds have a young buck named Gunnar Henderson in the pipeline as a future big league middle infielder.

Baltimore Orioles: Election Day

This isn’t about the Baltimore Orioles. At least in truth, it’s not. But today is Election Day in the United States. And this is my Public Service Announcement for people to get out and vote.

Millions of Americans, myself included, have already voted by way of early voting (and mail-in ballots). I always like voting early on Election Day, but for whatever reason I decided to go in two weeks ago and vote in my precinct. I always feel like I’m a part of something grander than just me and my life by casting a ballot.

And that means regardless of what’s on the ballot. The entire U.S House of Representatives, and one third of the U.S. Senate are up for grabs. I remember in my senior High School Civics class my teacher drilled into our minds that all politics is local. It doesn’t matter if your area’s race(‘s) are national or well followed. They all matter. As does your voice. So make it heard.

And look no further than Oriole Park at Camden Yards as evidence of that. Remember the 30-for-30 on the Baltimore Colts Marching Band – The Band That Wouldn’t Die? Remember the scene where the band went down to the statehouse in Annapolis and played the fight song when the General Assembly was voting on stadium funding? It sent a message, right? And a message well-received at that.

But while it’s hinted at in the documentary (which incidentally was incredibly well done), what’s often missed is that this involved the Orioles also. They wanted a new ballpark, and there was resistance in the statehouse to giving funding for new stadiums. This despite the wounds of the Colts leaving town still being fresh.

The image of the Colts band playing the now Ravens fight song put the vote over the top in the way of funding. There were rumors that the O’s would leave also if they didn’t get a new park. That vote may well have kept them in Baltimore.

So again, all politics is local. If you think your voice isn’t important or that your vote doesn’t matter, again look no further than Camden Yards or M & T Bank Stadium to realize that it does. All politics is local. So please folks, regardless of who you vote for or what your views are, make your voice heard. It’s important.

Baltimore Orioles: Honor by virtue of Trey Mancini

The Baltimore Orioles traded Trey Mancini to Houston at the trade deadline. We all know the story, capped off by Mancini hitting a dramatic inside-the-park home run in his final plate appearance in the orange & black at Camden Yards. Trey will always be beloved on the Baltimore sports landscape. And I think that all Orioles fans are thrilled that he’s now a World Series champion.

I would also throw in that I would hope most Orioles fans are happy for Houston manager Dusty Baker. His style and his resume always reminded me of former Orioles manager Buck Showalter. And similarly, he’s one of the game’s good guys and is equally as deserving of being a World Series champion as Trey Mancini. I would also submit that by virtue of winning it all, he’s now a first ballot Hall of Fame manager.

However both Mancini and Baker are now part of a bigger discussion regarding the Houston Astros. Normally I try to stay above the fray in terms of my views on a lot of things. (You might be able to decipher my views if you read hard between the lines, but I digress.) Not in this instance.

The Houston Astros are cheaters. In my mind so long as a core group from their 2017 title run remains in place, there will always be a black mark next to that franchise. Some people will say that’s unfair, but I’m sorry – I don’t think it is.

There’s a certain honor amongst baseball players and within baseball circles. It’s a gentleman’s game. That means that yes, you do everything possible to win. The greatest honor you can show to the game is to win and be successful at playing it.

However the unspoken part of that is that you do everything possible to win…within the rules. It wasn’t just a player or two. It was the entire organization. From the top down. They wanted the glory, and they were willing to cheat the game and it’s fans to get it. That’s not okay.

I’ll grant you that lots of teams probably cheat. Houston just got caught. And yes I’m getting caught, they bear the brunt of the scorn for cheating in general. They’re the unfaithful spouse just wanted a moment of pleasure and stepped out of their marriage for a moment. They’re the sales guy who fudges his numbers to take his bonus home. In short, they reap the rewards but they don’t earn them.

I’m not calling the legitimacy of this year’s World Series title into question. But I’m just saying that this franchise will always raise ab eyebrow as a result of what happened in 2017. They’re the team nobody wanted to see win, because now both they and their fans feel the rest of the world should eat some crow for coming after them so viciously.

Well I have news for them; they SHOULD HAVE been gone after with that fervor. THEY CHEATED. They violated the honor that’s so precious in baseball. So no, they weren’t treated unfairly. It’s fine to celebrate this year’s title – I’m all for that, and they and their fans should do that. But don’t get into the you came after us and we STILL won – egg’s on YOUR face territory. Because the legitimacy of your franchise and the honor therein is still very much in question.

In the middle of this fracas remains Trey Mancini. Again, he’ll always be special to Baltimore fans. There’s nothing that I wrote above which applies to him. Same goes for Dusty Baker. In fact, the one thing they got right was bringing such a respected manager in on the heels of the cheating scandal.

Most fans probably were thrilled seeing Mancini get to win a World Series. He’ll always be an Oriole, and needless to say the Orioles had some representation in the winner’s circle last night. Trey Mancini perhaps helped to purify the Houston Astros – in the eyes of Orioles fans. And there’s no more deserving champion than he.

Baltimore Orioles’ manager Brandon Hyde named Manager of the Year by The Sporting News

Baltimore Orioles’ manager Brandon Hyde has been named The Sporting News’ Manager of the Year. American League Manager of the Year, that is. Ironically, the previous Oriole manager (that of course being New York Mets’ manager Buck Showalter) was named the National League Manager of the Year.

For what it’s worth, this isn’t “the big” Manager of the Year award. That’s voted upon by the writers, and the results of that vote will come out after the World Series. But given where the Orioles were expected to finish and where they did finish, the award was well-deserved for Brandon Hyde. The Birds thrilled the fans of Baltimore and baseball fans across the nation all summer long. And as a result, the future is bright in Birdland.

Baltimore Orioles 2022 season recap

The Baltimore Orioles and the rest of Major League Baseball began the 2022 season late, due of course to the lockout over the winter. It was what it was. The Birds unceremoniously began the season getting swept by the Tampa Rays before their home opener against Milwaukee. But that series sweep was far from a harbinger of how the season was about to go.

Opening Day at Camden Yards dawned bright and full of sunshine. And the finally homestanding Orioles didn’t disappoint, defeating the Milwaukee Brewers, 2-0. However April wasn’t easy for the Birds. Several close losses, and an offense that wasn’t clicking. They also lost ace John Means for the season to Tommy John’s surgery. But one month a season doesn’t make.

But once things started clicking, they really clicked. And they clicked incredibly well. This was a team that was predicted to lose 100 games. Suddenly they were getting seven inning outings from no-name starters such as Dean Kremer. Stellar bullpen outings, and contributions at the plate from the likes of Autin Hays, Anthony Santander, and many more. At a certain point, we had a season on our hands.

And I’m not sure when that point was. Just before the All-Star Break they went on a 10-game winning streak. That’s probably what this season will be remembered for. It was during that winning streak that they somehow transformed from a would-be 100 loss team, to a nice story, to a contender. Various national outlets called the O’s the best sports story of the year. The players, and manager Brandon Hyde, ate it up as best as they could. But the fact is that they just kept winning.

At the beginning of August, they traded Trey Mancini, which was a tough moment. It wasn’t as if Mancini wasn’t already cemented into the hearts and minds of Birdland forever. But the fact that he smacked an inside-the-park home run in his final at-bat as an Oriole at Camden Yards didn’t hurt. And it’ll be remembered forever.

There was a brief moment in August where the Orioles were in the final Wild Card spot. For a team that was supposed to lose 100 games, that was an amazing feat. However as the season wound down it was evident that they just didn’t have the horses. And that’s okay. The Orioles finished the season 83-79, and in fourth place in the AL East.

Critics will highlight the fourth place finish. But you have to look at the expectations before passing judgement. They were supposed to lose 100 games. they finished with a winning record for the first time since 2016. THAT’S why Brandon Hyde’s a serious contender to be Manager of the Year. And in my view he should win the honor hands-down.

You also have to look at the division. The top four teams (including the Orioles) in the AL East had records above .500. The lone exception is the Boston Red Sox. In the face of swift competition, the Orioles thrived. I suspect they knocked off 1.5-2 years of their rebuild. And as a result, they’re currently in the hunt for a postseason spot in 2023.

Baltimore Orioles: Stay on course and do things right

We made it through the 2022 regular season, Baltimore Orioles fans! Yes folks, take a step back and pat yourselves on the back! This season was NOTHING like any of us thought it would be. That goes without saying.

And that’s obviously a good thing. Speaking for myself, I always feel like a groundhog peeking his head out of a hole in the ground once the season ends. It’s almost as if I’ve been blind to all of the other things going on in the world since the beginning of Spring Training. And that grind begins again in just a few short months!

But for now, we sit back and take a breath. In the interim, if something newsworthy happens with the O’s, it will be reported here. But again…let’s catch our breaths just a bit! Sometime presumably early next week I’ll provide a formal season recap. And then we’ll go on from there. But the fact is that there’s NOBODY in Birdland who should be complaining today. None of this well they would have made the postseason had they not traded Mancini, or they would have made the postseason had Brandon Hyde done this or that. Let’s not go down that road, folks.

This season was a rousing success. If you want to point at things in games, why are you looking only at things late in the season? The games in April counted just as much as the ones in August and September. Point being, it’s never just one game or one managerial decision in a game. It’s the sum of the parts.

People should also be advised that down the line they’ll thank the likes of Hyde and Mike Elias for sticking to the plan this year. The O’s could have seen that they had a real shot at going somewhere, and traded a litter of prospects to strengthen their lineup. Sure, that would have given them a better shot at the playoffs – this year. But what happens down the line?

I tend to agree with many of the moves made by the Oriole teams of 2012-2016. They were aimed at winning now and competing now. But what none of us understood was that the championship window was very short-lived. The Washington Nationals are in the same boat, only difference being that they actually won a title in the tail end of their window. Once things started busting up (2017-2018), they didn’t have the necessary prospects to bring up and continue the party. Heck, they didn’t even have the prospects to trade for other players to continue the party.

So the roster sort of rotted from within. That’s nobody’s fault per se, but that’s what happened. The philosophy now is different; the current regime has never been about winning now. It’s been about stockpiling prospects and holding onto them. Sure they could have used some of them to get a heavy hitter or a pitcher this year. But for what? To back into the postseason and bow out after one round? I think they can do better. And starting in 2023, they will.

Baltimore Orioles: #RIPFlanny

Baltimore Orioles fans won’t ever forget this day from 2011. It was August 24, 2011 that former Oriole great turned broadcaster, Mike Flanagan, passed away. I swore to myself on that day that so long as I penned a version of this column, I’d commemorate Flanagan’s death.

One year later in 2012, the Orioles were in the midst of a season much like they’re having here in 2022. They came out of nowhere, had a magical season, and thrust their way into the playoffs, and into the hearts and minds of a new generation of fans. For much of that season I remember thinking how proud Mike Flanagan would have been to have seen that.

And the same is still true. This franchise has truly risen from the ashes in a sense – the ashes of 2018-2021. And it’s happened much quicker than anyone would have otherwise thought. But again, my thoughts go back to Flanagan – especially on this day. He loved this franchise. He loved being an Oriole, and he loved Baltimore. He would have loved to have seen the rebirth of the franchise that’s occurring now.

However as Billy Joel sings in TWO THOUSAND YEARS, “time is relentless.” Death is a natural part of life. And nature dictates that Mike Flanagan isn’t here any longer. But we can never forget him, or the imprint that he left on the fans and the city. He’ll never be forgotten – not by a long shot. 11 years later, rest in peace, Mike Flanagan.

Baltimore Orioles’ game against Toronto postponed

The Baltimore Orioles were supposed to complete the current home stand and series against Toronto this evening. But that’s not happening now, as the game was officially postponed. It will be made up as part of a September 5th doubleheader.

September 5th happens to be Labor Day, for the record. The O’s were previously scheduled to take on Toronto in a 1:30 PM matinee at Camden Yards. But now it’ll be a single-admission doubleheader, with game one starting at 1 PM. So you read that right, folks. Two games for the price of one on Labor Day!

The O’s now head to Boston for a one-game makeup tomorrow night at Fenway Park tomorrow night. Austin Voth was the previously scheduled starter, but it’s unclear if it’ll be him of tonight’s scheduled starter (Dean Kremer) on the mound tomorrow. Whomever pitches, he’ll be opposed by Boston’s Josh Winchkowski. Game time is set for just after 7 PM at Fenway Park.

Baltimore Orioles trading Jorge Lopez to Minnesota

According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the Baltimore Orioles are trading closer Jorge Lopez to Minnesota. This in exchange for LHP Cade Povich, RHP Yennier Cano, RHP Juan Nuñez and LHP Juan Rojas. I’ll admit that it’s a bit ironic given that Lopez hit a bit of a skid while in Minnesota last month. But history makes for strange bedfellows at times.

The guys the Orioles are getting back aren’t by any means top prospects. However as good as Lopez has been, I would remind fans that he’s basically a one-inning pitcher. Will any of the four prospects make it to the big leagues? Tough to say. Right now they have highish ERA’s. But could they help the Orioles at the big league level? Absolutely.

They way you have to look at it (regarding this Lopez trade as well as the Mancini trade yesterday) is that the Orioles aren’t necessarily looking to contend this year. Now if they back into a playoff spot, great. However they’re already ahead of schedule. Next year the expectations might be a totally different story.

So the more prospects, even low-level prospects, you have in your system, the better. Because those prospects could be flipped to another team in exchange for a big league player in future years. This when the window to win is in the here and now, and for a player who could help the Orioles compete. Point being that “the plan” has never been just to rebuild the big league roster as a winner. But also to rebuild the minor league system.

In order to do that, you want all the prospects you can get. Obviously depending on the player being acquired (by the Orioles in the future), certain top prospects might be off the table. But the more prospects in your system overall, the more chances you’ll have at packaging a few together to net a return of a great player. Nevertheless, yesterday it was Mancini; today the news du jour is Jorge Lopez to Minnesota.

Baltimore Orioles: Trey Mancini reportedly heading to Houston (updated)

The Baltimore Orioles did it. They made the tough decision to trade Trey Mancini this afternoon, with a little over a day left before the deadline. Mancini’s now headed to Houston where he’ll join his new team, the Houston Astros.

Word on the street is that the Birds are getting multiple pitching prospects in return for Mancini. So this article will be updated once the players’ names are released. However unless the O’s got peanuts in return, this was the right move to make, at the right time.

I assume that Mike Elias had exhausted his options, and was in essence made aware by Mancini’s representation that he (Mancini) wouldn’t be picking up his side of the mutual $10 million option next year. This meaning that he’s going to test the free agent market. So why risk losing him and not getting anything back?

Certainly it’s a tough pill to swallow for everyone involved – especially Orioles fans. Mancini was a fan favorite from day one, and he truly embraced the spirit of the Orioles and the city of Baltimore. He became a clubhouse leader, respected by just about everyone. And that was before he had cancer. Following that situation he further cemented his legacy in Baltimore and with the O’s.

Keep in mind that assuming he remains consistent and in fact doesn’t opt to pick up the mutual option (with Houston), he’ll become a free agent after the World Series. That means the Orioles will have as much a shot as anyone to sign him. Whether that fits into their long term plan remains to be seen. But it’s a possibility.

Needless to say, Trey was only here for a short time. But his impact will never be forgotten in Birdland. And I know that all Orioles fans will follow him on the side, and wish him well with Dusty Baker and the Houston Astros. As will this writer.

Update: According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, it was a three-team trade, also involving Tampa. The Birds got RHP Seth Johnson and Chayce McDermott from both Houston and Tampa, Mancini goes to Houston, and CF Jose Siri goes to Tampa.