Saturday Bird Droppings: No Black Friday deals for the Orioles

Nov 26, 2022 - 2:00 PM

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Good morning, Birdland!

If you’re anything like me, your personal email inbox was an absolute disaster yesterday. Every company I have ever interacted with assumes that I’m interested in whatever leftovers they have in their warehouse.

I guess major league GMs had a similar issue, and thus any free agent or trade inquiries got lost in the shuffle. Do you think Mike Elias has checked his spam? That’s probably where the Scott Boras emails go. After all, the guy has a lot of clients.

There hasn’t been a peep out of the Orioles’ front office this year apart from a few interviews that Elias has done. No real rumors. No reports on negotiations. Nothing but speculation on which players could be a fit.

This has become the norm as this regime is notoriously tight-lipped. It’s not a bad characteristic for an organization to have, provided everything is running well internally. But it is certainly frustrating (or at least a bit boring) from a fan perspective. Give me my baseless, ridiculous conjecture editorials!

It’s starting to feel like MLB, and the Orioles by extension, will be rather quiet until the Winter Meetings. That always seems to be the catalyst that actual ignites the offseason, the professional sports version of Kohl’s Cash.

Links

The young talents are finding their way to the middle of the O’s order | Steve Melewski
The Orioles are in an enviable position with the talented duo of Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson likely to lead the offense for the next half-decade or so. Throw in the chance that Colton Cowser will make an impact in Baltimore sometime this summer, and you see a young core that should make the O’s a contender for quite a while.

Because You Asked – Holiday Heist
Some good free agent-related nuggets in here. Apparently the vibes emitting from the warehouse indicate that the Orioles are going to sign some guys that are better than Mike Elias’ previous winter moves. But we should not expect someone like Trea Turner or even Carlos Rodón. While unsurprising, it is a bummer.

With a focus on his changeup, left-hander Drew Rom hopes to make his case for an Orioles debut | Baltimore Sun
We learned in 2022 just how important pitching depth can be. The Orioles were able to absorb several pitching injuries this past season, including the loss of John Means. That was only possible because guys like Austin Voth exceeded expectations and several younger guys came up big. Drew Rom could be a candidate to do something similar in ‘23.

Orioles birthdays

Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!

• John Parrish turns 45. The lefty appeared in six seasons for the Orioles between 2000 and 2007 in a role that often shifted. His best season was ‘04, when he tossed 78 innings, mostly in relief, and posted a 132 ERA+
• Harold Reynolds is 62 today. The current MLB Network personality spent the 1993 season in Baltimore after a decade with the Mariners. He brought a steady glove at second base for a team that would go 85-77, finishing third in the AL East.

This day in O’s history

This has been a light date in history for the Orioles, according to Baseball Reference. Instead, here are some events from outside of Birdland:

1917 - The National Hockey League is formed with five initial teams.

1922 - Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon enter the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (King Tut), the first people to do so in over 3,000 years.

1942 - Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, premiers in New York City.

1970 - The heaviest rainfall ever recorded occurs in Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe. It is measured as 38 millimeters (1.5 inches) of rain in one minute.

2004 - The Concorde supersonic airliner makes its final flight.

2008 - Queen Elizabeth 2, the last oil-fired passenger steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, is put out of service and retired.