DALLAS—What happened? The Orioles concluded the third day of the Winter Meetings on Wednesday by not taking a player in the Rule 5 draft for the second straight year. They had taken at least one player in every draft from 2006-2022.
They lost right-handed pitcher Juan Nuñez, whom they acquired in August 2022 in the trade that sent reliever Jorge López to Minnesota, to San Diego.
Nuñez has never pitched above High-A and appeared in only seven games for Aberdeen in 2024.
The Orioles and Texas Rangers were the only teams that didn’t take a player in the Rule 5 draft.
Former Orioles right-hander Jacob Webb signed a one-year contract with the Rangers.
On Tuesday, the Orioles made the signings of outfielder Tyler O’Neill and catcher Gary Sánchez official.
The Orioles promoted special assignment scout Will Robertson to director of player personnel.
Longtime Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell was voted the winner of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s Career Excellence Award. Cleveland Guardians broadcaster Tom Hamilton is the winner of the Ford Frick Award. Boswell and Hamilton will receive their awards in Cooperstown, New York during Hall of Fame weekend in late July.
The Orioles announced their Birdland Caravan will return January 30th-February 1st.
What does 2025 look like for Kjerstad? With the departure of rightfielder Anthony Santander, Heston Kjerstad should get substantial playing time in 2025.
“I think this is lining up to be a really good opportunity for him this season,” executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias said. “I think that’s something that we were hoping to do for him.”
Kjerstad, who was the second overall pick in 2020, has 129 major league at-bats with a .248 average and .746 OPS. He’s hit six home runs and driven in 17 runs.
“You look at his major league numbers, and they’re pretty good,” Elias said. “I think we’ve got a scenario now where he’s got opportunity, but we’re not going to have to overexpose him. If there’s a tough lefty that day whether it’s him or Cedric [Mullins] or Colton [Cowser], we can give somebody a break.
“Our Tyler O’Neill signing is something where we were keeping Heston in mind.”
Where will the Orioles play Mayo? All 10 infielders on the Orioles’ 40-man roster have major league experience. If the Orioles carry seven, including first basemen Ryan Mountcastle and Ryan O’Hearn, shortstop Gunnar Henderson, second baseman Jackson Holliday and three players who play multiple positions — Jorge Mateo, Ramón Urías and Jordan Westburg — that leaves Coby Mayo on the outside.
“Coby can play third. He can play first. He can DH. I think there’s a lot of opportunity for him,” Elias said. “He’s still a young guy. He’s yet to really establish himself in the majors. He’s not somebody that we want to put too much of a burden on right out of the chute, but there’s so many ways for him to fit into this lineup.
“His bat could explode this year or at least take a step forward from his debut, and if that happens, we’ll be sure to get him into the lineup.”
Even with the Orioles having only O’Neill and Daz Cameron on the 40-man roster as right-handed hitting outfielders, they’re reluctant to try Mayo in the outfield.
“It’s something we talked about here and there,” Elias said. “I think with his lack of experience out there, with how big and tall he is and with his infield skills and with our outfield, it’s not something we made any plans to advance.”
Will Holliday be Opening Day second baseman? Elias is counting on Jackson Holliday to make his first Opening Day start in 2025.
“It’s going to depend on a lot of things,” Elias said. “On the lineup, who’s healthy, who’s pitching, who’s in that Opening Day lineup. I think we’re going to see a big step forward from Jackson this year.
“I think he did a really good job of being called into duty last year with all the injuries, being thrust into an everyday role at such a young age in a playoff chase with tons of infielders down and not an ability for Brandon [Hyde] to match him up or give him off days as much as you would like.
“Such a young kid, such a great hitter. I think we’ll see a big step forward for him. This whole team, this whole roster, there are so many guys that deserve to be in the lineup and we’ll have the ability to mix-and-match and it’s hard for me to designate anyone as an everyday player versus a role player. I just think there’s a group of 13 really talented guys on the roster, and we’ll get them all in there with a lot of playing time.
“That’s what tends to happen with good players. Not everyone is going to stay healthy all year as we saw last year.”
What does it mean? While the Orioles continue to search for pitching, they solidified their pool of position players. With free agents Santander and James McCann leaving, they found replacements and have no obvious needs among catchers, infielders and outfielders.
What’s the word? “He is athletic enough to do it. He’s a good enough baseball player to do it, but it’s not something we’re planning on pushing real heavily at this time.”-Elias on the possibility of Mayo playing the outfield.
What’s the stat of the day? 6. The Orioles lost six players in the Triple-A Rule 5 draft — right-handed pitchers Tyler Burch, Dan Hammer, Zach Peek and Jean Pinto and outfielders Elio Prado and John Rhodes. They did not select any players.
What’s next? The Orioles will continue their search for starting pitching. Now that Garrett Crochet has been traded to the Boston Red Sox, San Diego Padres right-hander Dylan Cease is reportedly available on the trade market.
Call for questions: I answer Orioles questions most weekdays. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com.