masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgThe Orioles yesterday began their first homestand since the wave of deadline trades that subtracted Tommy Milone, Mychal Givens and Miguel Castro from the pitching staff and further lowered the average age in the clubhouse.
Players knew that more changes were in store after the earlier deal that sent reliever Richard Bleier to the Marlins. Their baseball worlds aren’t rocked. They can see the big picture. No one needs to sit down with them and explain it.
Say your goodbyes and try to stay…

The Orioles yesterday began their first homestand since the wave of deadline trades that subtracted Tommy Milone, Mychal Givens and Miguel Castro from the pitching staff and further lowered the average age in the clubhouse.

Players knew that more changes were in store after the earlier deal that sent reliever Richard Bleier to the Marlins. Their baseball worlds aren’t rocked. They can see the big picture. No one needs to sit down with them and explain it.

Say your goodbyes and try to stay competitive and convince management that you’re essential to the rebuild process.

“I think everyone understands there’s long-term goals and I think everyone also really wants to be a part of those long-term goals, so even though we’re trading guys who are going to help other organizations, we have guys filling in those roles and coming in right behind those guys who are capable of getting the job done. I think everyone has that mindset of doing what they need to do to win ballgames,” reliever Evan Phillips said during yesterday’s Zoom conference call.

“It’s been a really different vibe this year amongst the players. Everyone’s extremely committed to one goal, and that’s just to win ballgames and get ourselves to the playoffs.”

“It’s kind of just the way it goes,” said Asher Wojciechowski. “It’s the business. It’s part of the game, so you just roll with it. You control what you can control and try to do your part and see what happens.”

Manager Brandon Hyde didn’t sense that players were relieved to get past the trade deadline. That they were burdened or distracted by the rumors.

“I think the majority of the rumors were guys that left,” Hyde said. “The names I was hearing were the names that did get traded. I think there was a possibility of some others. But the next day after the deadline is always a good day. You know what your club’s going to be and you don’t have to listen to it anymore.”

The back end of the bullpen has undergone a dramatic renovation with Givens and Castro gone and Hunter Harvey coming off the injured list. Auditions are being held for the high-leverage situations, with Dillon Tate now in the mix.

“It’s going to be a mix and match and let’s hope guys can do the job at the end of the game,” Hyde said. “You’re going to see guys that I wasn’t typically throwing in the seventh, eighth and ninth, they’re going to be pitching in the seventh, eighth and ninth. So it’s going to be fun to watch these guys and evaluate them and see who can step up.”

Mychal-Givens-Slings-Gray-Sidebar.jpg* The Rockies finally pried Givens from the Orioles in their latest attempt to consummate a trade.

Givens wasn’t on the table a few winters ago and he wasn’t bringing the type of return last summer that motivated executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias to part with him.

If at first you don’t succeed, sweeten the offer and keep trying.

“This isn’t the first time that we’ve actually asked on Mychal Givens over the past few years,” Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich told the media. “What he has done in the past fits into our (plans for) later innings. There’s a lot of experience there, a lot of production.

“The numbers, everybody can see, but the way that he does it is a little bit different in terms of his mechanics, which is intriguing here. We’re excited to bring this caliber of a pitcher into the fold. The fact he is around at least through next year for us was a factor as well in terms of desire for his services.”

While it’s much too early to grade a trade, Elias was thrilled to land infield prospects Tyler Nevin and Terrin Vavra and a player to be named later for a reliever who, while valuable for his work in the seventh and eighth innings, was becoming pricey and approaching his final year of club control.

“I don’t know what the other offers were from other teams,” Bridich said. “I do know that he was popular in terms of this deadline. You add an All-Star type of pitcher, generally you’ve got to pay a high premium.”

* The subject is revisited every spring and summer since the Orioles moved Harvey to the bullpen.

Could he become a starter again?

It’s not going to happen. Not in 2020, not in 2021, not for as long as he is in the organization.

“I think he’s got a reliever mentality and I think that he’d rather be in the bullpen, as well,” Hyde said. “And I think that fits best not only medically but in his personality.”

* José Iglesias made one of the finest defensive players of the season Monday afternoon with his sprint toward the right field line to retrieve Anthony Santander’s throw in the 11th inning and getting the out at the plate to secure a 4-3 win. But it wasn’t the first time in the series that he appeared to be ahead of everyone else by anticipating a situation.

It just worked out on Monday.

Iglesias covered second base in the fourth inning of Friday’s game and got the force, but the ball popped out of his glove and denied the Orioles a chance to perhaps turn the double play. But Iglesias wasn’t thinking about first base.

If you watch the replay again, he wanted to throw home as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. attempted to score on Derek Fisher’s grounder.

“Those are the things that, he sees the game a little bit differently,” Hyde said. “Especially with our inexperience on the field, he sees the game differently than a lot of players.”

Hyde described Iglesias’ cutoff and throw Monday as an “incredible, instinctive, veteran kind of play.” The manager wanted a do-over yesterday.

“I think I kind of understated it postgame,” he said. “It’s not just a veteran move because 90-something percent of veterans don’t make that play. So it’s beyond a veteran move. It’s just an instinctual play by an instinctual, great defensive player.

“It’s one thing about Iggy is he’s always trying to win the games somehow and he plays the game, really, with ease in that the game comes easy to him, especially defensively a lot of times.”

* Santander leads the club with 11 home runs and he’s doing his damage swinging Renato Núñez’s bats.

“How do you know that?,” Núñez asked last night.

Told the MASN broadcast showed it, he grinned and said, “OK, well let me tell you why. I’ve got maybe three or four bats left. He’s been using all my bats, but I always tell him, ‘Just use them. If you’re hitting with those, keep using them and keep helping us win. I don’t mind.’

“I think he got hot with a white bat, maybe like two weeks ago, maybe three, I don’t remember. Since that day he’s just been swinging my bats. I don’t mind. He can keep doing it.”