The Orioles were eliminated from the postseason by the Royals yesterday, sending them into offseason mode. General manager Mike Elias spoke to the members of the media today to address various topics related to the club. Most notably, he said that manager Brandon Hyde would return in 2025, though he was noncommittal about the rest of the coaching staff. Additionally, he said that he is “pretty confident” that payroll will be going up next year. Details were relayed by Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner (X link) and Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com (X link).
It was another good season for Baltimore in a sense, as they won 91 games and made the playoffs for a second consecutive year. On the other hand, it was also disappointing for many fans. The O’s won 101 games in 2023 and had a seemingly endless supply of young talent, which set expectations fairly high coming into 2024. The club was strong for much of the 2024 season but limped to the finish line with 10 fewer wins than the year before, settling for a wild card berth. For a second straight year, they were quickly swept out of the postseason.
The disappointment will naturally lead to some finger pointing, though it seems Elias isn’t placing blame at Hyde’s feet. It’s always tough to discern whether a manager deserves credit and/or blame for a team’s performance and there were certainly things that were beyond the skipper’s control this year.
Rotation injuries were a key storyline for the O’s this year, as each of Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells each required UCL surgery in June. The club tried to address the rotation at the deadline by acquiring Zach Eflin and Trevor Rogers. The Eflin pickup worked out well, but Rogers struggled after the jersey swap and waas optioned down to the minors. The rotation issues were further compounded when Grayson Rodriguez hit the shelf with a lat injury in August, which eventually ended his season. Some players also just struggled as the season wore on, with Craig Kimbrel and Adley Rutschman being two prominent examples.
While Hyde’s contributions to the 2024 results can be debated, it seems Elias and the franchise have decided that a new skipper won’t be necessary. The club hasn’t been forthcoming about Hyde’s contractual status. It was reported in April of 2022 that Hyde was under contract beyond that season as part of an extension that was quietly worked out in 2020, but with few details available apart from that. He eventually won American League Manager of the Year honors for the 2023 season and stuck around for 2024. It’s unclear if that 2020 extension is still going or if the two sides have done another deal away from prying eyes, but it seems Hyde will be back in the dugout next year regardless.
Elias and his front office team will be tasked with building a roster that gives Hyde a chance to have a better finish in 2025. There will be some notable subtractions, as the O’s are set to lose ace Corbin Burnes and slugger Anthony Santander to free agency. The departure of Burnes will deprive them of a star who posted a 2.92 ERA over 32 starts, plus eight innings of one-run ball in the playoffs, while Santander’s exit takes a 44-homer bat out of the lineup.
The fact that Elias expects to have more financial resources to supplement the roster is good news, though it’s also not surprising. The Angelos family wasn’t investing much in the club during the final years of their reign. Per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, 2024 was the sixth straight year in which the club ran a bottom five payroll.
New owner David Rubenstein’s purchase of the club was officially approved by the league at the end of March and it’s generally been expected that he would ramp up spending from those recent low points. The aforementioned Eflin trade was perhaps a positive omen in that regard, as the righty is owed $18MM next year. As shown in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, Kimbrel’s $13MM one-year pact is the largest deal given out since Elias took over as GM in November of 2018. Adding $18MM to next year’s budget, plus the roughly one third of Eflin’s $11MM salary in 2024 that was still to be paid out, could have been a signal that Rubenstein had signed off on giving Elias more spending power.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that Elias is going to go out and spend like the proverbial drunken sailor. “We’ll see what happens,” the GM said in regards to the payroll question, per Jake Rill of MLB.com on X. “We’re going to be smart about it. And if it doesn’t happen for some reason, it’s not going to be because the financial support wasn’t there. It’s going to be because the people running this team thought it was the right thing to do from a number of levels on a case-by-case basis. But I want to reiterate that I don’t expect that to be the case.”
Ultimately, it may be something of a fresh start for Elias and his team. They have seemingly had very little financial resources to work with, which was fine for much of his tenure. He and the club were primarily focused on building a pipeline of young prospects and have succeeded. Just about every outlet has ranked them as having one of the top farm systems in recent years, if not the very top, which has allowed them to fill out their roster with young talent like Rutschman, Bradish, Rodriguez, Gunnar Henderson, Colton Cowser, Jackson Holliday and many more.
Some have argued that Elias should have had more willingness to trade that young talent as the club became competitive in recent years, particularly for more pitching depth that could have helped them overcome their injury woes this season, though perhaps the uncertainty around the club’s future payrolls led to some hesitation to give up cheap and controllable players.
How the new environment will change the club’s behavior will be an interesting offseason storyline. The free agent market will feature a number of big names, with Burnes the top pitcher while star position players like Juan Soto, Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso and others will be available. Suddenly splurging on one of the top names would be a surprise but it should be possible for the O’s if the will is there. Per Cot’s, the club had a payroll as high as $164MM before their recent rebuilding period. They were only at $93MM in 2024 while RosterResource has them committed to just $37MM next year. Arbitration raises and some club options will bring that number up but there should be lots of powder dry if the club decides to be aggressive.
The club still has a fairly strong position player group, even with Santander set to depart, so pitching would be the obvious place to spend. Félix Bautista is expected to return after missing 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery. That will bolster the bullpen, but further reinforcements wouldn’t hurt. The rotation without Burnes could feature Eflin, Rodriguez and Dean Kremer. Young pitchers like Cade Povich and Chayce McDermott could work their way into the mix, while Rogers could get back on track after his disappointing season. Bradish and Wells could get back into the mix by midseason, but Means is slated for free agency.
It seems like Albert Suárez will be an option as well. Though he has far less than six years of service time, players who return from pitching in Japan or Korea often get provisions in their new contracts that allow them to become free agents regardless of service time considerations. That doesn’t appear to be the case with Suárez, even though he pitched in the KBO in 2022 and 2023. Per Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun (X link), Elias said this summer that the O’s would be able to keep him beyond 2024.
There are a number of options there but there’s still an argument for trying to bring back Burnes or another talented starter. Blake Snell is likely to opt out and join Burnes as a former Cy Young winner on the market. Max Fried, Jack Flaherty, Yusei Kikuchi, Luis Severino and plenty of other notable names will be out there as well. As recently as a year ago, the idea of connecting the Orioles to free agents of that caliber would have been a stretch, but it will seemingly be more plausible going forward.
It makes sense that payroll would increase. Gotta spend now that all those low priced prospects were traded away. Though I do think the Orioles have the financial might to sign anyone in this off-season if they choose.
Very Barry – at least if you’re going to troll, get your facts right, idiot. There were only 3 last place finishes in the AL East since they broke the team up in 2018.
Very Jerry is still very bitter about the Winning Ugly team losing to the Orioles.
Yippee, the Orioles are a perennial playoff team! No playoff wins since 2014 but no matter. Playoffs! Minnesota Twins say hi.
Regular season bats are not playoff bats? What does that even mean? You casual fans who think you know anything are really something. Judging a season by two games in the playoffs.
News flash casual every team in the league lost 2 in a row this season in regular season so therefore it could happen to anyone in the playoffs. Doesn’t indicate anything other than the playoffs are a crapshoot
The Cardinals are rebuilding because of “a Faulty Front Office”!!! Not their Star players.
The Orioles could benefit greatly from the Cardinals’ Fire Sale!!!
The Oriole’s have a key player who can benefit the Cardinals in 2 areas!!!!
Just by trading Cardinals favorite Matt Holiday’s son to the Cardinals —- in a package deal for Nolan Arenaldo and All-Star – 49 saves – fireballer Closer —- Ryan Helsley !!
(Possibly even Nolan Gorman).
( That would also help the Cardinals lure Matt Holliday in to fill their opening for their head Hitting Coach!!! )
They lost nearly their entire pitching staff to injuries. I am not an Orioles fan, but even I know the Orioles weren’t going to withstand those amounts of pitching injuries for any length of time and win as much.
This season went exactly as well as team leadership allowed it to go at the trade deadline. A healthy staff? They win about 100 again.
It wasn’t the pitching(for the most part) that let them down, it was the offense and injuries to Westburg and Urias.
His point still stands though. Imagine if they hadn’t lost Bradish, Wells and Felix for the season and GRod had stayed healthy all year. Then the bullpen doesn’t get exposed which puts less pressure on the hitters.
They’ve had a great opportunity to make deep runs into October the last two seasons but when you have deep pockets & short arms you watch the games on TV. Ahahaha!
They didn’t have deep pockets until this season started. We’ll see if they actually spend this offseason.
Is there really no chance they can re-sign Burnes? Even with all the young guys I’d think you’d want a workhorse ace veteran during this championship window.
Burnes will get wooed by the Dodgers, Cubs and Giants among other teams. I doubt the O’s will go that far in. Baltimore’s plan should be to get a couple of 2/3 starters through FA or trade.
I highly doubt the Dodgers are in on the top pitchers this offseason given they have a rotation led by Yamamoto, Glasnow and Ohtani. Plus, they will need to pay to keep Teoscar and would probably be better focused on addressing SS (e.g. Kim or Adames) if they do spend.
Cubs and Giants definitely make sense. I think the Mets, if they miss on Soto, likely are heavily in on one of Snell or Burnes too. Watch out for teams like the Nationals, Tigers or Red Sox too if they decide to increase payroll.
However, the Orioles should be in a great spot to keep Burnes. If they raise to a $120M payroll, which is still bottom 10, they’d have plenty of room as between guaranteed contracts, arb and minimum salaries they are currently only around $75M. Therefore, they should be able to competitive with something like a 6yr/$170M type deal. If they don’t raise payroll, I’d be very upset as an O’s fan because their time is now (and the clock is beginning to tick on Rutschman and Henderson getting expensive).
Rutschman better find his confidence, bat and arm.
Burnes is a work horse, a stud pitcher, keeps the ball in the park, and is unflappable. He is everything you want in a starter. Every team wants Burnes. Who can afford him is the matter at hand. He just turned in another great season. O’s will spend big to try to keep him, or lose and ace with a staff that will have 4 injured starters returning to it.
His strikeout totals have declined a lot in 3 years and he had a terrible August, but he’s still the best starter in the free agent market other than perhaps Snell.
Cubs. There’s strong familiarity there,…. Burnes / Counsell.
Cubs will spend like drunken sailors for pitching.
If I were the PBO/GM, I’d do everything possible to resign Burnes. Super solid top of the rotation guy and you both know each other. If he likes the org, pay him like one of the top starters in the game. Then go after another #3 starter, get a reliable closer, and beef up the bullpen.
Bautista is the closer.
He’ll get 6 years. Can’t see small market Baltimore going there.
Sonny Gray. Yes?! Current deal is not long in years. True, a high annual, but…. Grumbling in St Louis they want to move him.
He might get more. Is there any reason to believe he won’t be going for the Cole contract? They’re both Boras clients.
Gray is an interesting benchmark for the SP free agency class. His deal was heavily backloaded, so it’s $25M next year and $35M in 2026 and a $30M 2027 option with $5M buyout. If the Cardinals don’t eat a substantial portion of the contract, I wouldn’t expect them to get much, if anything, back in the trade given that I’d put him behind Snell, Burnes, Fried and Flaherty. For smaller markets, the limited risk of $60M over two years could definitely be preferable to the 5+ deals they top 4 likely end up with.
The trade market for SPs would otherwise be pretty limited. Crochet is the top option, but outside of him, the likely sellers (other than the Blue Jays who don’t see keen to start a rebuild) don’t have much in the way of starting pitching to deal from. I could maybe see Alcantara.
Incredibly unlikely for several reasons, but if the M’s offered Castillo, I am curious what interest he’d get. He likely is behind the top 4 in talent, but has a pretty team friendly contract (3yrs/$66M) which is likely what someone like Severino ends up with.
I think they could but they may not want to go with as many years that Burnes will likely want.
love to see them sign Burnes but it seems a low probability, however who’s to know with Rubenstein not getting younger and the solid fit and consistency that Burnes seemed to show this year (less a few starts in August). I love how he goes about his cerebral approach and tweaks.
Please, shock me David.
that having been said, Fried seems like a great target. love to see him in Black and Orange.
So you really expect the orioles to pony up 30M a year over 6 or 7 years for burnes? They’re better suited using some of that money to sign the young position players long term. Burnes is long gone come Dec
Burnes’ off season home is in Arizona…he’s heading west. Guaranteed. I’d love to bring him back to Baltimore, but it ain’t happening.
Yes! We’re gonna re-sign Anthony “.308 OBP” Santander and pick up rotation stalwarts like Jordan Lyles and Kyle Gibson! 4th place here we come!
sn33
MLBTR’s chatroom is full of trolls. They take one of two statistics and slam player, managers, FO people, and other posters.
Look at the kids handle.
“What a pathetic existence”
Sir you are the one getting mad about comments on Major League Baseball Trade Rumors
You’ll be even more mad when you buy in 2025 season tickets for your 4th place Orioles
Trade Mayo for Crochet. Perhaps go get another bat and get a late inning reliever.
Just pay Burnes.
Mayo’s right-handed power at 1B/DH is needed for futute post-Mountcastle lineups (preferably starting next year after Mountcastle is traded for prospects).
If Mountcastle isn’t good enough for the Orioles why would someone else want him? And Basallo is replacing Mountcastle anyways. Orioles need a top of the rotation lefty starter Crochet makes a ton of sense for them. The Orioles need to make some moves with a sense of urgency.
Mountcastle has value and would be an upgrade at 1B for a number of teams, but the Orioles can better allocate his arb salary since we have Mayo ready and waiting (and most likely better).
And then where is Basallo playing?
Basallo is a catcher. His arm is better than Adley’s. His receiving skills are unproven, but he just turned 20. He’ll probably be 1B/DH for a while, but he’s 6 years younger than Adley, so he’ll replace him sooner than you think.
Basallo is at best a backup catcher. He’s not replacing Rutschman.
Absolutely no one uses a guy 6 years younger as a back up for long. Ever. If he isn’t the regular catcher for someone, he won’t be in the majors at all. And the Os just used two of their Top 5 picks for catchers. Adley’s going to be too expensive for a 30 year old C when he reaches 30.
Backup catcher and 1b and gets some time at DH too. That’s what he is. Basallo is not the catcher of the future.
Allocating MLB playing time for Basallo is a 2026/2027 problem, and Adley is a free after 2027, so it will like most likely resolve itself.
Coby Mayo isn’t fetching Crochet after swinging a wet pool noodle in the big leagues
I said it more than a month ago. Stowers, Hays, Mayo and Holliday are going to make GMs hesitate a bit if the O’s want to discuss a team’s top player. I don’t think I have ever seen, in nearly 60 years of following MLB, such a large gaggle of supposed can’t-miss “superstars” who have disappointed. Granted, most of them have time to turn it around but a lot of people expected more.
Stowers and Hays aren’t top can’t miss prospects. Holliday and Mayo have barely played in the bigs. The problem is not all prospects play well right away and the Orioles are in win now mode they can’t afford too much learning on the job. This is why contenders trade prospects for proven players.
Most of those guys don’t have enough plate appearances to label a disappointment.
C’mon Holliday is 20.
Here’s a line from another 20 year old once brought up by a contending team: 39 AB, 5 singles (.128). 1 walk and 8 K’s. He came back the next year to win ROY and didn’t miss a game for 16+ years. I think that worked out well.
Mayo too small a sample size. Stowers has some maturing to do.
Hays? We all knew what Hays was 2 years ago. You’ll get half a season of decent production, a slump, and an injury. If we knew that, no GM should have been surprised.
Hey! I know you. You’re tall and fat.
They should have done that already. Instead, they got Trevor Rogers.
I think there is a good chance Crochet gets traded this offseason but it will take 3-4 top prospects to get him. Maybe swap out 2 ready to go MLB players. Maybe some international $
Mayo is a top 10 overall prospect. Nobody can or more importantly will beat that offer.
Coby Mayo is not a top 10 prospect. They certainly can with multiple prospects MLB-ready or not.
Top 10 on MLB website. Any rebuilding team would love to have him.
Bautista should be huge. Need a starter (preferably 2) & some RH bats to give us options there.
Hoping my Mets sign Burnes, Soto (or Santander), and add to the bullpen, the Mets have between $100-$150 mil coming off the books. Than make a trade for Skubal ( Jett Williams, Baty, Megill and a minor leaguer ).
2025 rotation of Skubal, Burnes, Manaea, Senga and Peterson. Let Alonso, Bader, Quintana and Severino walk, Vientos plays 1b, Mauricio and Iglesias 3b, Acuna 2b, trade McNeil so Acuna plays full time.
What makes you think the Tigers would even consider trading Skubal? He and Skenes are probably the least likely candidates for trades in all of MLB.
Skubal if he were available would absolutely empty the Mets minor league system to acquire. Not for Jett Williams and Brett Baty lol
Let’s hope that this postseason run will make the Tigers spenders in the offseason and they get Soto, 2-3 starting pitchers, some additional bats, and Skubal is off limits and signed to an extension.
Soto (or Santander)
Have to admit I got a chuckle out of the implication that these two are basically interchangeable.
Surprised to see you let Alonso walk given what an iconic Met he is. McNeil as a utility guy and Acuna insurance is honestly a pretty good value too.
I definitely see them as the main ones holding up the market though. They will either get Soto for $600M+ or lose the bidding to the Yankees and pivot to reallocating that money across several players (e.g. $180M for Burnes or Snell, $150M for Alonso, Flaherty $100M and Scott $50M).
For the NYM I’d just trade or sign for 2 top SP’s (B- or better), 2 setup RP and 1 veteran OF
I agree with the comments who say NO WAY is Skubal or Skenes getting traded. NO WAY.
BAL Needs pitching, pitching and more pitching.
3 SP and at least 2 RPs . They can survive losing Burnes and Santander and still be a WS contender.
@jvent
Maybe Ohtani can be had for some quad A players too. And David Wright can get some zombie juice and make his return.
Everybody has a dream. You do you, Boo.
Payroll going up slightly just not enough for Corbin Burnes
Soto to the orioles. Get it done
That would be so 1996, it would be pretty awesome ngl.
But it ain’t happening in a million years, nor should it really. He’s probably going to be a $50+ million dollar a year DH by 30.
His defense already sucks,but he can definitely hit and get on base.
Like “That would be so 1996”
And he’ll be worth it. If he stays with the Yankees, 600 homers is definitely a possibility.
The ’96 squad was fun! I sat behind the assistant GM in the stands in Milwaukee (Kevin Towers?) right behind the dugout as our tickets came from the Orioles 8/8/96. Told him thanks for making the team interesting again, and getting Eddie Murray back will get you in the playoffs this year. They were 59-54 at the time.
Hyde has no feel for the game, pinch hits the wrong people in big spots, either goes too long or not long enough with starters. Sad to see he’s coming back.
Meh. He had a stretch in the 2nd half where seemingly none of the moves he made worked. Other than that, he’s been a great in game manager, move wise since ‘22 when the team started turning it around.
BaseballBrian;
Brandon Hyde was a part of building that team from nothing. He was the AL’s Manager of the Year last year and finished 2nd in
2022.
You on the other hand, know nothing about the game.
Stop being a douchebag. I’ve been following the O’s for 40 years. He ran Kimbrel out several times this year when he had no business being there. He pinch hit multiple times this year with weaker matchups, or cold hitters making key outs to quell rallies. He mismanaged the staff from pillar to post. Easily 8 or 10 games were lost because of his foolishness.
@brian
When your FO has poured that kind of money for a likely HOF closer (even if he isn’t still at that level)… it’s hard for a mgr to just sit him and not try to let him figure it out 20/20 hindsight. Plus, sitting a guy means another guy has to do better… the pen was very short of trustworthy high lev guys all season.
It’s easy to make the calls when you don’t have to consider any of the other factors and assume the manager is 100% in charge of every call.
Stop being so arrogant to make such judgments when you’ve never had to deal with what any major league manager has to.
Pay Burnes, buy a couple of solid relievers to reinforce the bullpen, and sign or trade for a reliable lefty masher to fit in somewhere.
Who goes? Non tender Soto and decline Dominguez’s option? Not a lot of open pen slots with Bautista’s return. No flexibility to option guys either.
We need to draft/IFA sign and develop optionable arms.
I don’t get it. If payroll is INCREASING, shouldn’t they just be able to re-sign Burnes? I think they’re stupid to not lock down some of these young players long term, and they should’ve went a little more crazy during the deadline. There was a pretty easy shot at the World Series. They just had to get through the Bankee$, and since their lineup is about even strength with them, a top prospect traded for one or two of the top tier pitching guys (Skubal, Crochet) could’ve changed a lot. Perhaps winning the division and not playing in a risky Wild Card series where a bad game followed by a nail-biter that you were on the bad end of can send you home. Those elite arms would’ve carried them past NY and into the World Series where I feel like that team would stack up against any NL team. Orioles front office did this to themselves.
Burnes is going to go back west. He’s from CA and lives in AZ now.
Dodgers will throw a brinks truck at him and he’ll go there. Maybe SF or SD will be in on him too.
I guess that makes sense. The Bankee$ couldn’t get Nolan Ryan in ‘88 off-season because he wanted to be close to TX.
SF… I hadn’t considered that. If not NYC, SF seems as likely a landing spot. Unless he wants to win. lol
Orioles pinch hitters were near the top in the MLB
I like the Os make up. BUT look who thumped but real good in the playoffs last year and this one. Two teams that invested heavy through the FA market. Owner Rubenstein sees this. Excited to see what he let’s Elias and crew do here this off season.
If it’s not enough to resign Burnes then who cares. I’d let Santander go.
The Orioles just finished their third straight winning year since the tank, and they’ve now been bounced twice from the postseason without a single win. They finished second in a division they were expected to crush. Certainly overall these are good days for O’s fans, but windows close quickly. The Orioles management has to step up to the next level with increased spending and more impactful trades; otherwise, they may find themselves slipping in an unforgiving division.
@sn33
Well put:
“On top of the fact that the Oriole were hit by injuries worse than any team the dumbest thing they can do is panic over a season they just won 91 games haha”
But armchair managers want to DO something “great”. Trade all the youngsters making adjustments to the Big Leagues and get some over the hill overpriced FO. Maybe sign Alonzo and Goldschmidt to 5 yr deals and trade Jackson, Silent J and Mayo for Verlander too.
How about we all calm down and see what new ownership’s philosophy is going to be? Deep breath O’s fans. There is a lot to be thankful for.
There are holes on the team, obviously, that injuries exposed. Mainly a lack of quality starting pitching. That led to guys like Irvin and Kremer and a fried bullpen.
I had them winning 94 in my preseason guess, primarily because so much went right in 2023 and its very hard to win 100 games 2 years in a row. They won 91.
They have a lot of cheap young talent that needs to mature and stop swinging for the fences on all those low and away sliders.
I’m giving this offseason to see what the new ownership group is willing to do to fill these holes before I pass judgement. I expect an ace caliber and/or 2 Eflin level SP, maybe retool some of the parts for the future e.g. Mountcastle gone to free room for Mayo, etc.
Gonna be a disappointment if I see highlights in March and there are guys like Mateo and Irvin landing spots.
I’d be fine with 4 years and ace dollars/year for Burnes. But I think someone (the Dodgers) will offer 7 and eat the 3 worthless back end years. If they don’t resign Burnes they need someone in the Cy discussion. It was great knowing every time he was on the mound except for the August slump they were in a position to win.
Ideally, an ace and a 2/3 guy. If not, DEFINITELY need 2 x 2/3 type of guys at the Eflin level to join him. Bradish is ASB return at the earliest. Rodriguez hasn’t put together a full season yet. Means is done. No one else is better than average. If Suarez is the #5 going in, I’m ok with that.
Someone is going to overpay for Santander. Replace with Kjerstad.
They’ll hold onto Mullins and pay the ~8.7M projected in arb because (gasp) “his speed!”. Even though he hits .230 and won’t top 20 HR. Give Kjerstad/O’Hearn the role.
I’d be fine moving on from Mountcastle and his .308 OBP and many K’s. The wall moving back was the end of his prospects as a full time power hitting stalwart. 13 HR this year? If someone wants him and it helps bring a #2/#3 guy, sure.
Henderson, Westburg, Cowser, Holliday, Mayo – all 5 need to sit down and take a course in maturing as a hitter…stop the free swinging, be more patient, don’t go for HR or nothing every AB (I’ve listed in order of relative maturity).
Let’s stop with being hopeful they are good enough or for a bit of luck. Look what happened when they were unlucky. Get guys who are more than good enough.
Don’t need “Hi, I occupy a roster spot” guys like Slater, Rivera. Certainly can non tender Mateo and his .267 OBP. Can’t continue to carry space occupiers, every roster spot has to be maximized for runs/preventing runs and wins.
Thornton Mellon;
How did your rotisserie league team make out this year?
I gave up on that 25 years ago. Managed to put together a team that would have been swept by the White Sox this year. If a good player got hurt or suddenly forgot how to play that year, it was a good bet they were on my squad that year..
Your rotisserie league comment would be a lot more funny if the Orioles didn’t overhaul about 25% of their roster at the trade deadline this year.
Totally whiffed at the deadline. That’s the reason they ended on a dud
Eflin was a win. Did well. And he’s with Os next year.
I agree with this. People go: “What about Skubal and Crochet?” Well they didn’t move at all, so no one knows what it would have taken to get them. Of those that moved, especially for the cost, could be the best deadline acquisition anyone had.
Then there’s Rogers.
@WV
“Totally”? Eflin was an undeniable success and he isn’t just a partial yr rental either.
There is no evidence that they are prepared to part with Santander. Tony has been open about his desire to return and the team has said it is indeed a possibility. Not saying he will stay but this is written as if he’s definitely gone.
I really enjoy watching Santander crush balls over the fence. But someone will pay a massive contract for him, and hopefully the O’s will offer and his camp will decline a QO.
He’s got to be one of the biggest Rule 5 successes. If you only consider this year’s performance and frame it as a Rule 5 claim for a comp draft pick… holy smokes.
I’ll def miss him. We may also lose some British fans but I’m glad to see Tony get paid.
Santander? He gone.
It’ll be the game…
Orioles: Issue QO
Santander’s camp: Decline.
Another team: overpay. (my money’s on the Mets)
I’m not saying Santander’s not valuable, but I think someone will shell out big bucks for too many years. He had his best year at the best time and he deserves to cash in.
Craig clearly did not earn his $12 million
Damn…. good thing the orange birds didn’t trade for Skubal. What a mess that would have been. What excuse would they have now?
Would Skubal have helped the 1-0 and 2-1 offensive futility we watched? Didn’t realize he could produce at the plate.
Why’d the heck the Tigers hold onto Skubal? They were clearly out of the race!
I’m not sure I understand
Clearly they held onto Skubal because he was going to be a Cy Young winner… who rightfully would command a king’s ransom…. i bet Holliday and Mayo would have moved that needle.
I was being sarcastic in return, doesn’t come across well!
In all seriousness, I never saw anything come out from the Tigers saying they would have taken X and Y for Skubal. Usually either the guy gets traded or you hear something. So not sure what it would have taken.
Ngl they say this every year☠️
I hope they re-sign Burnes, if they’re gonna spend. Maybe Santander, too.