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Good morning, Camden Chatters.
MLB’s free agent season has begun, but you sure wouldn’t know it from the collective yawn that has come from teams and players alike so far. Although Saturday marked the first day that free agents could sign with any team, not a single player has signed with a new club since then.
Granted, it’s only been two days. There’s almost an entire offseason ahead of us, so it’s a good bet that a bunch of teams will start wheeling and dealing in the coming weeks and months.
Don’t look for the Orioles to be one of those teams, though. They don’t have a new front office in place yet, and even when they do, there’s no reason for them to be active in free agency. This is a rebuilding, payroll-cutting ballclub, one that’s not going to shell out any significant money for a name player. Heck, even when the Orioles were good, they rarely made a peep on the free agent market for most of the winter. That’s not going to change now, no matter who ends up in charge.
Links
Updating the 40-man roster and pending decisions - School of Roch
Roch Kubatko offers a list of Orioles who could be in danger of losing their 40-man roster spots, and somehow Mike Wright isn’t on it. What am I missing that a guy with a 5.75 career ERA always seems to be guaranteed a spot on the team?
Orioles Need To Hire People Of Power And Bring Back Jones - Forbes
Jeff Seidel makes the case for the Orioles to re-sign Adam Jones as a veteran mentor. I wouldn’t be opposed to that, but I think that ship has sailed.
Baltimore Orioles: How to Approach the Offseason and 2019? - Eutaw Street Report
This story ends with the line, “Give it three to five years and a World Series berth could be a realistic objective if everything goes to plan.” I’m not so optimistic the Orioles will get there in that time span, but if I turn out to be wrong, please be sure to let me know in three to five years.
Red Sox, Braves top Gold Gloves; Nolan Arenado continues streak - ESPN
The Orioles, of course, had no Gold Glove winners or even finalists, on account of their horrible defense. But ex-Oriole Nick Markakis, who won the award twice in Baltimore, took home the hardware again as a Brave this year. Congratulations, Nick!
Are Machado and Harper looking at a possible $400 million each? - Steve Melewski
In other ex-Orioles news, Manny Machado is projected to make a ridiculous amount of money in free agency, and the Phillies are pegged as the favorites to sign him.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Your lone Orioles birthday buddy is Javy Lopez (48), the slugging catcher who played for the O’s from 2004-06 and was the inspiration for Stacey’s first Camden Chat username, “javylicious.” Well, it’s not like my first CC username of “BiffFoil” was any better.
Nov. 5 has been a pretty busy day in Orioles history. In 1958, Paul Richards shifted from the Orioles’ GM to the manager, with Hall of Famer Lee MacPhail replacing him in the front office. In 1976, Jim Palmer won the AL Cy Young award for the third time in his career (and second in as many years) after going 22-13 with a 2.51 ERA, 23 complete games, and a league-leading 315 innings pitched.
And perhaps most notably, in 1997, Orioles skipper Davey Johnson, following a spat with owner Peter Angelos, announced his resignation — on the same day he was named AL Manager of the Year. Not the finest moment in Orioles history, that one.