Friday Bird Droppings: Where the Machado deadline has passed and he's still here

Hello, friends.

There are now 97 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day 2018. As the 1997 season was rather good for the team, perhaps this will prove to be an auspicious sign for the day. Not that the Orioles themselves are likely to do anything at all to where they need good luck - but after the Zach Britton injury, we need all the good luck we can get for every player doing offseason workouts.

The artificial Thursday deadline for trading Manny Machado has passed and as you can tell, he's still here. What does that mean for the rest of the offseason? I have no idea! The Orioles don't seem to have noticed there's almost no way to fix the broken rotation. And maybe they haven't closed the door on a Machado trade just yet. But it's probably going to stop being a daily headline now.

While the Orioles continue to twiddle their thumbs, the rest of the AL East remains active. Thursday night, baseball reporters indicated that the Yankees and Pirates have re-engaged on a possible trade for starting pitcher Gerrit Cole. The 27-year-old righty has two years left before becoming a free agent. It wouldn't be as earth-shaking as the Giancarlo Stanton acquisition. It's still another team getting better while the O's spin their wheels.

I would really like to ask Dan Duquette who the hell he thinks is going to be in the Orioles rotation next season, and what expectation he has that those pitchers might actually be good. As our Donovan Moore wrote yesterday, the number of available pitchers is dwindling and the Orioles just don't seem to be doing a dang thing about it.

In fairness, it's not like I would be feeling a whole lot better about next year's team if they had managed to sign Tyler Chatwood and Miles Mikolas, as they were supposedly interested in doing - just not at the price tags they got.

Around the blogO'sphere

Dan Duquette on Manny Machado trade: 'The team has some other priorities' (Baltimore Sun)
For good or ill, this seems to be their decision... for now.

Britton's surgery on Achilles "went really well" (School of Roch)
Everyone involved seems to be going along with the idea that Britton could be back in June.

Answering questions about what the Britton injury means for him and the Orioles (Baltimore Baseball)
Among the questions and answers here, Dan Connolly muses about the possibility of the O’s and Britton coming to a two-year deal, giving the O’s a little savings in 2018 and Britton a little more guaranteed money without having to worry about free agency as he returns from his injury.

Nine observations on a slow offseason (Jon Heyman - FanRag)
Heyman doesn’t think that the Machado trade saga is quite over yet.

Adam Jones: So what would an extension look like? (Camden Depot)
Over at Camden Depot, Jon Shepherd punches through some projections to try to decide what would be a good next contract for Adam Jones. I like the conclusion - hopefully so do the Orioles and Jones himself.

Birthdays and anniversaries

One current Oriole has a birthday today: Zach Britton. He turns 30 today. Well, at least he didn't have to get that surgery on his birthday...

There are, in addition, some former Orioles with birthdays today. They are: 2015 infielder Rey Navarro, 2011 infielder Blake Davis, 2011 swingman Chris "Jack O'Boskie" Jakubauskas, 1993-94 outfielder Lonnie Smith, 1984 reliever Tom Underwood, and 1968-79 catcher and longtime coach Elrod Hendricks.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Along with those current and former Orioles, your birthday buddies for today include: Roman emperor Diocletian (244), Sikh Guru Gobind Singh (1666), opera composer Giacomo Puccini (1858), baseball Hall of Famer Steve Carlton (1944), actor Ralph Fiennes (1962), Swedish DJ Basshunter (1984), American Idol winner Jordin Sparks (1989), and singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor (1993).

On this day in history...

In 856, an earthquake struck Damghan in modern-day Iran, killing an estimated 200,000 people. This is the sixth-deadliest earthquake in history.

In 1808, Ludwig van Beethoven conducted and performed premieres in Vienna for several of his works, including the iconic Fifth Symphony.

In 1944, German forces demanded the surrender of American paratroopers defending Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. General Anthony McAullife sent back this reply: "Nuts!"

In 1989, the Brandenburg Gate re-opened in Berlin, effectively ending the division between East and West Germany.

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And that's the way it is in Birdland on December 22 - or at least, unless something happens later, which I certainly don't expect, because it's past the Machado deadline and the Orioles haven't done anything any other day this offseason yet either. Have a safe Friday.