Monday Bird Droppings: The non-tender deadline day edition

Hello, friends.

There are now 115 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day 2020. This particular day is also the deadline for teams to decide whether or not to tender 2020 contracts to their arbitration-eligible players. That deadline awaits at 8pm Eastern.

That could mean some action for the Orioles. Just before Thanksgiving, they signaled that they would probably be parting ways with Jonathan Villar by placing him on waivers. The Orioles were also reported on Wednesday to be working towards trading Dylan Bundy. It’s possible the pending tender deadline was what was inspiring those conversations.

Whether these are decisions that end up being good for the Orioles in the future is something that we will only know in the future. What’s certain is that if the 2020 team has neither Villar nor Bundy on it, there will be a lot of potential for the Orioles to be even worse than they were this season.

Maybe it’s necessary, but it’s not much fun to think about. There has been a lot of bad baseball already and a lot more awaits before the Orioles are good again. The Orioles have lost a lot more than they’ve won in the 21st century, so I guess one thing you can say is that we’ve all had plenty of time to get used to it.

Around the blogO’sphere

Is another O’s first-round pick going to be moved? (Steve Melewski)
Steve wonders how Orioles fans will feel if Dylan Bundy is traded. If you are hoping for new information on the trade rumor mill about Bundy, it’s not here.

Mancini hopes Villar remains an Oriole (Baltimore Baseball)
You and me both, Trey. He spoke to reporters on Sunday while continuing the Purple Tailgate tradition begun by Adam Jones.

The 2010s: The Ravens three acts and the see-saw ride for the Orioles (The Athletic)
Decade retrospectives are all the rage right now. Here’s one on the two local Baltimore professional sports teams this decade, one of whom has much better immediate hopes than the other.

Rogers determined to pitch next season (School of Roch)
Josh Rogers is basically already out of any future Orioles rotation picture, which is probably why they dumped him from the 40-man roster as he recovered from a UCL revision surgery, basically a second Tommy John. It’d be nice for both him and the O’s if he can pitch his way back into it.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Today in 1978, Mark Belanger was named a Gold Glove winner for the eighth time, including six straight going back to 1973. This was his final win in his career.

In 2013, the Orioles traded closer Jim Johnson, then coming off back-to-back 50 save seasons, to the Athletics in exchange for Jemile Weeks. This was an irritating trade at the time, though then-GM Dan Duquette ultimately got some vindication as Johnson fell apart and posted a 7.09 ERA for the 2014 season. It also opened up the closer role for Zack Britton to eventually take it.

Of all of the players to ever play for the Orioles, not a single one was born on December 2.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: circus co-founder Charles Edward Ringling (1863), actress Lucy Liu (1968), tennis legend Monica Seles (1973), singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado (1978), and singer-songwriter Britney Spears (1981).

On this day in history...

In 1763, the Touro Synagogue was dedicated in Newport, Rhode Island. This was the first synagogue to be built in the British Colonies. It still stands today, having been designated a National Historic Site in 1946.

In 1823, President James Monroe delivered a State of the Union message to Congress in which he articulated that America would stay neutral in any European conflicts, and that European powers must not interfere with any North or South American countries. You might have read about it in your high school history textbook, though they didn’t start calling it the Monroe Doctrine until 1850.

In 1845, President James K. Polk delivered a State of the Union message to Congress in which he proclaimed that America should expand aggressively into the west. The concept behind it, manifest destiny, is also from your high school history textbook; the policy in action rather quickly sparked the Mexican-American War.

In 1942, during World War II, a team of Manhattan Project scientists led by Enrico Fermi generated the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on December 2 - or at least, until something happens later when the non-tender deadline arrives. Have a safe Monday.