Want an endorsement for the Orioles trading for a starting pitcher rather than competing in the free agent market?

Michael Wacha received a two-year, $32 million contract from the Royals that included an opt-out clause after the first season. Good for him. And good for Kansas City, which committed a reported $105 million to six free agents.

Wacha can earn $16 million in each season. He’s gone on the injured list nine times in his career, five due to shoulder issues.

The oblique, knee, hamstring and intercostal muscle also are responsible.

Every contract comes with certain risks. Wacha can be really good when able to pitch, but he hasn’t topped 134 1/3 innings since 2017.

The evolution of a baseball season touches a team’s roster, and the Orioles underwent some interesting and important changes in 2023.

James McCann was on the injured list Opening Day with a strained oblique, but he served as a trusted backup to All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman and a veteran leader in the clubhouse. A media favorite for his availability and thoughtful responses, for being a standup guy even while seated at his locker. A manager favorite for his toughness.

The kind of positive influence that organizations appreciate.

Other exclusions from the Opening Day roster had nothing to do with injuries and might be forgotten, considering their impact on the first division title since 2014.

Reliever Yennier Cano appeared in three games in 2022, allowed nine runs and nine hits with five walks in 4 1/3 innings and didn’t make the club out of spring training this year. He allowed four runs over seven exhibition innings, but walked only one batter and struck out 10 after tweaking his delivery and discovering how to repeat his arm slot.

Money remains a determining factor in free agency, with the most lucrative offers usually winning out. The game’s evolution still has its limits. Some things stay the same.

However, the Orioles are finding that they’re a more attractive destination after emerging from the rebuild.

The perception of the organization has shifted, and more dramatically than the left field wall.

It won’t make Shohei Ohtani regret the $700 million he’s getting from the Dodgers, but the selling points are beginning to multiply.

“It’s been really refreshing and it’s such an easy conversation for Brandon Hyde and I to explain why this is a good place to come play,” executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias said at the Winter Meetings.

The Orioles still haven’t announced their coaching staff for the 2024 season, though executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias confirmed at the Winter Meetings the hiring of Drew French as pitching coach. One of the two vacancies filled.

An assistant pitching coach is expected to be named as Darren Holmes’ replacement.

Bench coach Fredi González has received positive feedback on French, who spent the last three years as Atlanta’s bullpen coach.

González said he’s talked to Braves manager Brian Snitker a couple times, “and he raved about him.”

“I’m looking forward to spending the summer with him,” González said this week.

More than two months have passed since the Orioles lost to the Rangers in the Division Series. The first sweep by an opponent since May 2022. The finality knocking the sounds out of the visiting clubhouse at Globe Life Field, leaving players sitting in silence at their lockers.

The hurt lessens for some but the mind can’t forget.

“It hasn't eased for me,” manager Brandon Hyde said at the Winter Meetings.

“I think that there's a lot of disappointment. And I'm really proud of our season, I don't want to take that for granted. To win our division, to win over a hundred games, to have the individual performances and team performances that we had, it says a lot about our roster and our guys and how we have some really good players. But you do that and then you fall short like we did, that takes a while to go away. So, it hasn't gone away for me yet.”

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias called the sweep “a gut punch” during one his media sessions in Nashville.

Fredi González can speak from experience about reliever Craig Kimbrel. About the new Orioles closer whose manager during his 2011 rookie season was the current team’s bench coach.

“I haven’t seen him since ’14,” González warns during an interview yesterday with MASNsports.com, “but those first four years I had him, for being so young, he was a squared-away guy.

“My impression is that he’s the same guy or even better.”

The Orioles would be thrilled if Kimbrel is the same.

They signed him to a $12 million deal during the Winter Meetings with a $1 million buyout on a $13 million club option, the largest free-agent contract under executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias. An aggressive response, which began with negotiations on the first day of the general managers meetings, to Félix Bautista’s reconstructive elbow surgery that will prevent the All-Star from pitching next season.

No matter how the 26-man roster is constructed for Opening Day, the Orioles will depend heavily and utilize to its fullest the versatility and flexibility that provides manager Brandon Hyde with a wealth of lineup options.

Gunnar Henderson seems like he’s going to keep bouncing between shortstop and third base, as Jordan Westburg can do between second and third, with at least a slight possibility of getting his first major league innings at short.

Jackson Holliday, whether in March or later, would play second and short. Third base isn’t in the immediate plans. The utility role demands movement, which can be handled by Ramón Urías, Jorge Mateo or Joey Ortiz. Maybe a combination of two.

Ryan O’Hearn can play first base and the corner outfield. Anthony Santander can play right field and first base.

James McCann’s value as the backup catcher includes his ability to play first, where he’s made six career starts and 11 appearances. Adley Rutschman can do it, as proven during his college and minor league days, but the Orioles haven’t tried it.

The major league side of Kyle Stowers’ 2023 season can’t be spun positively.

Breaks camp with the team, is optioned after appearing in only three games and getting one start, is brought back April 30 and optioned again May 15, and doesn’t return.

Receives only 33 plate appearances total over 14 games and goes 2-for-30 with 12 strikeouts.

Can’t shine that season. But the Orioles’ confidence in Stowers hasn’t dulled.

A comment floated to executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias at the Winter Meetings that Stowers had “a lost season” was returned with the following observation:

The first post-Winter Meetings mailbag is here. It got lost at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center.

We sent out a search party and found it. Employees had wrapped it in lights and covered it with poinsettias. Families were posing with it for their holiday cards.

One intoxicated baseball fan tried to buy it a drink. Another took it for a boat ride below the Delta ballroom and tried to dump it like a mafia body.

You’re about to read the latest sequel to the beloved 2008 original. In all its glory.

I’ll admit to a little editing in this mailbag. I deleted a space between the last letter in a sentence and the punctuation mark.

The Orioles have a stated goal of placing a starter at or near the top of their rotation, but they also are prepared to deliver a counter punch. They’re a team that could bob and weave, backpedal and head in the other direction.

A last resort might be to insert a pitcher toward the back end and hope that returnees Kyle Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez can be true aces.

Spending is limited for a franchise that’s more than reluctant to launch the payroll into the upper echelon. An anchor is dropped. The room for movement is limited, small-to-mid-market status cutting off the ring.

Outbidding the many deep-pocketed clubs isn’t a strategy. Offering left-hander Eduardo Rodríguez $80 million over four years, as the Diamondbacks did to sign the former Orioles farmhand, never seemed like a realistic maneuver.

MLBTradeRumors.com projected a nine-year, $225 million contract for Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a seven-year, $200 million deal for Blake Snell and a six-year, $150 million contract for Jordan Montgomery.

Four days in Nashville for baseball’s Winter Meetings allowed media to gather and sometimes break news, like the app downloaded on phones to provide assistance in getting around the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center without taking a wrong turn every 30 seconds, slipping into panic mode and remembering that airport security confiscated my flare gun.

It was the most important discovery of the week. Bigger than the Juan Soto trade talks.

That place is the North Pole at Christmas if José Canseco bought it.

I boarded my flight on Sunday morning filled with questions, which I shared with readers, and wanted to check back for any resolutions. Don't stop me if you've heard these before.

Is there interest in Japanese right-hander Naoyuki Uwasawa?

Craig Kimbrel needed a full minute to unmute himself on this afternoon’s video call with local media, smiling as he worked to solve the issue, the same composure he exhibits with runners on base but minus the stare and distinctive pitching posture.

“There we go,” he finally said. “Perfect start.”

The Orioles are more interested in how he closes.

The pursuit of Kimbrel in free agency was immediate. His representative, David Meter, was the first person by Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias at the general managers meetings in Arizona.  

The cost of doing business was $13 million guaranteed, including the buyout on a $13 million option in 2025. Worth every penny for a team that needed a stopgap while Félix Bautista recovers from Tommy John surgery.

NASHVILLE – Did Craig Kimbrel save the Winter Meetings for the Orioles?

A closer’s work is never done.

News of Kimbrel’s agreement yesterday on a $12 million contract for next season that includes a $1 million buyout on a $13 million club option broke a little over five hours before the Orioles’ ditched their digs at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center.

Much better than dropping it on the media during the Southwest flight home, but still a bit late. The countdown had started. Fan agitation over the failure to make a move was growing in some circles.

If “X” is a circle.

NASHVILLE – The Orioles began negotiations with closer Craig Kimbrel on the first night of the general managers meetings. They reached agreement with him Monday night and signed him earlier today after he passed a physical.

They identified their target and hit the bull's eye.

Kimbrel receives $12 million in 2024 and has a $1 million buyout on a $13 million club option. He’s tabbed as the replacement for Félix Bautista.

“I think he brings what he does to this team,” said executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias. “He is one of the best closers in baseball history at this point. He’s still got a lot in the tank and he had a really solid season (this) year and we see a lot of things from a scouting perspective going forward that has us placing a pretty big bet that this guy’s going to have a really good season for us.”

The first conversation that Elias had at the GM meetings involved Kimbrel’s representative.

NASHVILLE – Reliever Craig Kimbrel has passed his physical and signed a contract with the Orioles for the 2024 season that also includes an option for 2025.

Multiple reports had the deal done, and an industry source confirmed it to MASNsports.com.

The New York Post reported that Kimbrel will receive $12 million next season and has a $1 million buyout in 2025 on a $13 million club option. The deal guarantees $13 million and will be the largest from the Orioles since Mike Elias became the club's executive vice president/general manager, overtaking the $10 million deal Kyle Gibson got last winter.

A late-inning reliever was a top priority for Elias, with closer Félix Bautista out next season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in October.

Kimbrel, who turns 36 in May, ranks eighth on the all-time saves list with 417 over his 14 seasons. The nine-time All-Star posted a 3.26 ERA, 1.043 WHIP, and .611 OPS against this year with the Phillies, registered 23 saves and averaged 12.3 strikeouts per nine innings.

NASHVILLE – Scott Boras drew the usual massive throng of media this morning to the ballroom area on the Delta side of the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center. Reporters and cameramen camped out, the agent’s representative attempting to clear a path to create room for Boras to reach his designated spot.

A Winter Meetings tradition like no other. The loudest lobby buzz of the week.

Boras usually has little or nothing to say about the Orioles, especially with Chris Davis retired, but representing Gunnar Henderson and Jackson Holliday makes him a must-listen for the local beat crew.

Henderson was named the American League’s Rookie of the Year and finished eighth in Most Valuable Player voting. Holliday, the first-overall selection in the 2022 draft, is ranked as baseball’s No. 1 prospect.

Other teams are signing their young stars to huge contract extensions. Have the Orioles reached out to Boras about their dynamic duo?

NASHVILLE – The Orioles might leave the Winter Meetings later today without a signed contract from a free agent, an agreement with a trade partner or a selection in the Rule 5 draft. However, the quest for a closer appears to be reaching its conclusion.

Stand by.

Multiple reports have the Orioles nearing an agreement with veteran Craig Kimbrel on a contract for the 2024 season. An industry source confirmed that discussions intensified and a deal could get done.

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias arrived in Nashville with pitching as his main priority. He’s in the market for a starter and an “anchor,” as he worded it, for the back end of the bullpen.

Félix Bautista will miss next season while recovering from ligament-reconstructive surgery on his right elbow, leaving a huge void that Kimbrel can at least partially fill.

NASHVILLE – The Winter Meetings conclude later today with the Rule 5 draft. The Orioles hold the 29^th selection in the first round but can move up as teams ahead of them pass.

Probably won't matter.

The Orioles have made a selection every year in the major league phase since pitcher Alfredo Simon in 2006. They traded Simon to the Phillies for catcher Adam Donachie and cash considerations.

Donachie never played in the majors. Simon was returned to the Rangers but later signed with the Orioles as a free agent in 2008 and 2009.

The rest of the club’s Rule 5 picks were as follows:

NASHVILLE – The Orioles weren’t eligible for today’s draft lottery but moved up two spots for next year’s first selection.

They went from holding the 24^th to the 22^nd because of luxury tax penalties imposed on the Yankees and Padres.

“That’s a pretty high pick coming off a 101-win season,” said executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias.

It’s the lowest for the Orioles since pitcher Cody Sedlock was taken 27^th overall out of the University of Illinois in 2016.

They also have the 32^nd selection, a prospect promotion incentive pick for Gunnar Henderson winning the American League’s Rookie of the Year Award, and the 34^th in the Competitive Balance A round.

NASHVILLE – Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias said he’s had a “productive day” of meetings at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center. Can’t get into particulars, but a lot of good conversations with so many attractive free agents remaining on the board and plenty of trade partners.

Jackson Holliday isn’t just untouchable in those discussions. He could be on the roster when the team breaks camp.

“It’s definitely a very strong possibility,” Elias said. “I don’t want to put the cart before the horse, but he had an historic first full season in the minors. You probably have to go back into like the ‘80s or ‘90s to find something similar to that, in my opinion, for an American kid out of high school.

“Got to Triple-A, wasn’t there a huge amount of time, didn’t tear the cover off the ball, but he more than held his own and he did well. He’s now going to be back in spring training. He just turned 20 (yesterday), so to me that’s a big year of development, 19 to 20. You get taller, you get heavier, you get more mature. There’s a lot of good things that happen. So we just want to see what he looks like.”

Holliday was invited to spring training last year and impressed with his skills and attitude before the Orioles assigned him to the minor league side and the Single-A Delmarva Shorebirds. He won’t be on the clock in 2024, waiting to be called into manager Brandon Hyde’s office with the inevitable news.