Whether the Orioles can seamlessly plug The Mountain back in or not, they might need bullpen help.
Hello, friends.
Welcome to December. The proliferation of Christmas decorations before it was even Thanksgiving might have made you think it was already the last month of the year, but no. We’ve arrived at the end of the 2024 calendar only now. There are now three months and 26 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day 2025. In another month from now, I’ll just be able to say Orioles Opening Day, since it will be 2025.
We’re still a week away from the winter meetings, which often, though not always, result in some big news. Last year’s biggest winter meetings news was the Orioles signing Craig Kimbrel, which wasn’t all that big of news and wouldn’t have been big even if the Kimbrel signing had ended up working out better for the Orioles. We’ll see if that changes this year, with the possibility of trades or free agent signings coming up. Or things could happen this week before we even get to the meetings. There’s no reason that they can’t.
Over the last few days, some assorted baseball media types – some more informed than others – have been thinking about the Orioles closer position, as you’ll see below. Is it going to be so easy as to have Félix Bautista dropped right back into his role from 2023? That would be nice! Yet even if that occurs smoothly, there’s probably going to be time where he’ll need some rest, either after pitching two straight days or pitching a number of games in a week, and in that case it seems like the O’s could use some kind of addition from the outside.
Will that end up being the first thing that Mike Elias addresses this offseason? Considering it might be easier to plug in someone on a one-year contract in that role, it could turn out to be the simplest one to tackle. A year ago, the O’s struck fairly quickly in getting Kimbrel and then waited around until a couple of weeks before spring training to complete the trade for Corbin Burnes.
With only a couple of exceptions, the market that there was when the World Series ended is the same market that exists now. Yeah, tough luck for anyone who wanted Yusei Kikuchi from the mid-tier, and for anyone who had convinced themselves that the Orioles could or would sign off the top tier with Blake Snell.
Around the blogO’sphere
Potential Orioles free agent target: Nathan Eovaldi (Steve Melewski)
MASN’s Melewski turns his focus on a pitcher who was on our Alex Church’s wish list last week.
Five candidates to be Orioles Opening Day closer, from Félix Bautista to Ryan Pressly (The Baltimore Sun)
Pressly, who’s been an Astro since the 2018 season, turns 36 years old later this month. There are probably worse choices for short-term veteran additions to the bullpen – if that’s what the bullpen needs.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 1954, the Orioles and Yankees completed a trade that began two weeks earlier and ultimately included 17 players. Among those shipped to New York was Don Larsen, while Baltimore received catcher Gus Triandos and others. This remains the largest trade in MLB history.
In 1998, the Orioles signed Albert Belle to a five-year contract. He only ended up playing two of the five years.
There are a pair of former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2019 pitcher Dan Straily, and 1991-94 catcher Jeff Tackett. Today is Tackett’s 59th birthday, so an extra happy birthday to him.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you as well! Your birthday buddies for today include: wax sculptor Marie Tussaud (1761), Russian WWII general Georgy Zhukov (1896), baseball Hall of Famer Walter Allston (1911), comedian Richard Pryor (1940), musician Bette Midler (1945), baseball Hall of Famer Larry Walker (1966), and musician Janelle Monáe (1985).
On this day in history…
In 1640, Portugal proclaimed João IV as its king, bringing an end to the Iberian Union, in which the Spanish and Portuguese crowns were held as a personal union by a branch of the Habsburgs.
In 1878, the first telephone was installed at the White House under the direction of President Rutherford B. Hayes.
In 1924, the National Hockey League had its first American team, the Boston Bruins, play its first home game, in an arena still in use – though not by the Bruins – today.
In 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus, sparking a boycott that proved to be one of the major events in the struggle for civil rights in America.
In 1991, 92% of voters in Ukraine approved a resolution declaring independence from the Soviet Union.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on December 1. Have a safe Sunday.