Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias is taking a more general view of the areas that he’s seeking to upgrade during the offseason.

In the past, he’s sought veteran placeholders at shortstop and come away with José Iglesias and Freddy Galvis. He’s tabbed third base as a priority and signed Maikel Franco.

Elias is hoping to add more punch to the lineup after the Orioles finished 20^th in runs scored with 674, in hits with 1,281, in batting average at .236 and in OPS at .695. Their .305 on-base percentage ranked 22^nd. They were shut out 11 times.

Where would the Orioles plug in a bat? That's the burning question.

“I don’t have a specific prediction about which position any major league acquisitions are going to come in,” Elias said last week. “I think one thing that makes this a little bit tricky is that we have very interesting internal candidates for almost every single job, so it’s not necessary that we go target one particular part of the team.

The Orioles made their second roster move since ending the 2022 season, claiming outfielder Jake Cave off waivers from the Twins today and designating reliever Jake Reed for assignment.

An industry source confirmed the waiver claim, which appeared on the major league transactions page.

Cave, 29, appeared in 54 games with the Twins and batted .213/.260/.384 with seven doubles, three triples, five home runs and 20 RBIs in 177 plate appearances. He’s a career .235/.297/.411 hitter in parts of five major league seasons.

The Yankees selected Cave in the sixth round of the 2011 draft out of Kecoughtan High School in Hampton, Va. The Reds chose him in the 2015 Rule 5 draft and returned him on April 5, 2016. The Yankees traded Cave to the Twins on March 16, 2018 for pitcher Luis Gil.

As a rookie in 2018, Cave batted .265/.313/.473 with 16 doubles, two triples, 13 home runs and 45 RBIs in 91 games. He hasn’t played a full season in the majors, with those 91 games representing his career high.

An increase in spending by the Orioles during the offseason leads the imagination directly to the free agent and trade markets. However, the club has seven players eligible for arbitration. Raises are coming to most, if not all, of them.

Outfielder Anthony Santander leads the pack after making $3.15 million this year. He doesn’t reach free agency until after the 2024 season due to his status as a Super Two player.

Santander lost his arbitration hearing during his first year of eligibility and settled for $2.1 million instead of the $2.4 million that he sought. The sides agreed to a $3.15 million deal on Nov. 30, 2021.

MLBTradeRumors.com ran its annual salary projections yesterday and placed Santander’s at $7.5 million after he led the Orioles with 33 home runs, 89 RBIs, a .455 slugging percentage and a .773 OPS, tied Cedric Mullins for first with a .318 on-base percentage and ranked second in walks with 55 and in runs with 78. He played in a career-high 152 games.

The Orioles are building a surplus of outfielders, with Colton Cowser approaching his debut next summer. Kyle Stowers already arrived. Santander has drawn trade interest in the past and his value is at its highest, coming off his finest season and being under team control beyond 2023.

Players arranged flights home, hopped in their cars or weighed their options.

Reliever Keegan Akin normally drives straight through to Michigan, but didn’t know if he’d need to stop somewhere overnight with the Orioles playing a doubleheader on Wednesday. Center fielder Cedric Mullins was heading down to Georgia, with planned visits along the way as if checking them off his list.

Infielder Tyler Nevin needed to repack and get back into baseball mode this week. One season was over, but he committed for the first time to play winter ball in the Dominican Republic.

Nevin wanted to get more at-bats and try to gain an edge before spring training, hoping that the Orioles give him another shot at making the roster while infield prospects keep infiltrating it.

An uneven season for Nevin, with stops in the minors and stretches on the major league bench, left him with a .197 average and .560 OPS in 58 games and 184 plate appearance in his second full season in the organization.

The Orioles played their last games on Wednesday, a doubleheader feeling like a kick in the pants on their way out the door.

A gentle nudge would have sufficed, but the sport can be cruel.

Some of my reflections were shared ahead of the finale. Maybe a bit premature, but rules are made to be broken.

I’ve already noted how Matt Harvey never had his contract selected from Triple-A Norfolk, Gunnar Henderson earned a promotion despite his age, Yusniel Diaz stayed only for a cup of coffee, Rougned Odor lasted into September, we never saw Robert Neustrom, DJ Stewart didn’t make it back to the Orioles after three games to begin the season, Jorge Mateo was exclusively a shortstop, Bryan Baker stuck for the entire season, and Nick Vespi will never give up another Triple-A run.

That last one might come back to bite me, but man, he was good.

Dillon Tate can be pleased with his 2022 season. He probably should be ecstatic.

How he led the Orioles in appearances with 67 and also established a career high in innings. How he posted the lowest ERA and walk average in his four years in the majors. How he became a trusted late-inning reliever on a contending team with 16 holds and five saves as a substitute closer.

Pleased, ecstatic … but not satisfied.

I wasn’t expecting Tate to treat the summer in such a casual way when I sought his personal reflections before Wednesday’s doubleheader. But he isn’t ready to relax. He can’t do it and go against his competitive nature.

He must stay true to it.

A tweak of the 40-man roster yesterday was similar to cleansing the palate before the main course. Likely the first and only time that Anthony Bemboom has been compared to a sorbet.

The Orioles can’t really get busy with their offseason until after the World Series. The free agent market opens. Executives discuss potential trades. Decisions are made regarding arbitration-eligible players and who’s protected in the Rule 5 draft.

Bemboom had his contract selected yesterday from Triple-A Norfolk, preventing or delaying his plunge into minor league free agency, depending on whether he stays on a 40-man roster that’s currently full.

Pending free agents Robinson Chirinos, Rougned Odor and Jesús Aguilar will come off the 40-man, and Jordan Lyles would join them if the Orioles don’t pick up his $11 million option. John Means and Chris Ellis must be added from the 60-day injured list, though the latter isn’t guaranteed to stick.

The Orioles could designate Ellis for assignment and try to re-sign him to a minor league deal or cut ties.

The Orioles made an adjustment to their 40-man roster on the first day of their offseason.

Catcher Anthony Bemboom’s contract was selected this afternoon from Triple-A Norfolk, and right-hander Anthony Castro was designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

Bemboom didn’t play for the Orioles after No. 1 prospect Adley Rutschman arrived on May 21. He cleared waivers and was outrighted to Norfolk six days later.

The Orioles signed Bemboom to a minor league contract and he broke camp with the team, beating out Jacob Nottingham as the backup to veteran Robinson Chirinos. He appeared in 22 games and went 6-for-52 (.115) with two doubles and a home run.

Bemboom threw out three of eight runners attempting to steal.

One season after his club lost 110 games and earned the chance to pick first in the draft, the darkness of a rebuild turning another ugly shade, Brandon Hyde is a favorite to win the Manager of the Year award in the American League. Arguments that I heard about him needing to finish above .500 became moot on Sunday afternoon in the Bronx.

Also, I never agreed with them.

Hyde oversaw an unprecedented improvement, which is a solid reason for him to collect votes, but there’s competition from the Guardians’ Terry Francona, the Mariners’ Scott Servais, the Blue Jays’ John Schneider and the Rays’ Kevin Cash – whether based on low expectations or surviving an avalanche of injuries.

Francona has the youngest roster in baseball. The Orioles are tied for fifth, with 38-year-old catcher Robinson Chirinos skewing the numbers, but the lack of experience can’t be measured by age. The untested starters and relievers with long minor league track records and little to show at the major league level before this season.

“I think this is the year that people are noticing what a talented manager that we have in Baltimore, but for me this has been four years,” executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias said yesterday, with Hyde sitting next to him in the auxiliary clubhouse.

Jorge Mateo slapped a ground ball to the right side of the infield in the ninth inning, from mitt to first base to the final out of the 2022 season.

Fans stood and cheered the Orioles after a 5-1 loss to the Blue Jays in Game 2 of the doubleheader. The team came back out of the dugout with caps held high in the air. Some players waved and others returned the applause.

Manager Brandon Hyde intended to play everyone today. No one would be left on the bench on the last day, with a makeup doubleheader carrying them to their 162^nd game.

A winning record was intact. Stats could be padded before players scattered for the winter. Go home, rest, and get ready to make a stronger run within the division in 2023.

But first, an emotional send-off.

The Orioles and Blue Jays are taking contrasting approaches to today’s doubleheader, an understandable development considering how only one team is preparing for the wild card round that begins on Friday.

Mike Baumann started Game 1 for the Orioles and worked into the sixth inning. The Jays used five relievers within the first five innings, including closer Jordan Romano, who stranded a pair of runners in the fourth.

No one likes a doubleheader on the final day of the regular season. It’s especially distasteful for Toronto, which led until the eighth inning.

Until rookie Terrin Vavra lined a two-out fastball from Mitch White onto the flag court in right field, his first major league homer a three-run shot that gave the Orioles a 5-4 win in the opener at Camden Yards.

One team suddenly felt a lot better about the doubleheader.

The Orioles were saddled with two games on the final day of the 2022 season, an inconvenient doubleheader born from the club’s fifth rainout. A final jab from the baseball gods.

Nothing really hurt the Orioles this summer beyond their official elimination from the wild card chase. Being in it after national projections of 100-plus losses felt like a huge win.

Many more are expected in the coming years.

“Looking at the entire organization, I think we’re very pleased with everything that happened up and down the organization this year,” executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias said this morning. “First and foremost, the way that this team played and competed at the major league level is something that I think rightfully our players and coaches deserve a lot of credit for. We’re not where we want to be or need to be in the division. It’s very daunting looking at these other four, not only teams but organizations in our division, picturing having to beat them to make it to the playoffs next year, but that’s our goal and we feel that the organization is in a position now to realistically pursue that goal for next year. So that’s going to be my focus this offseason, and I think the focus of our squad when we meet in Sarasota next year.

“It’s not going to be easy, given who we have to compete against and who we have to play against, but as I said in the summer, I feel like this team is officially in the fight in the American League East, and that’s a big achievement. It doesn’t mean we’re going to be complacent about it. We know that we had some relatively good health this season. We had some guys have good seasons. It’s tough to repeat in this league. Players make adjustments against you, we’ve got a lot of young guys. We may have some individual steps back, but we plan to hopefully reinforce this group, keep helping the players improve, and hope that we can take another step forward next season and get into the playoffs that we narrowly missed out on this year.”

The Orioles can’t get away clean. They must play a doubleheader against the Blue Jays today before scattering for the offseason.

Mike Baumann starts Game 1 after yesterday’s rainout. So, to review:

Baumann is making his fourth start and 13^th appearance. He’s completed four innings in his two starts since being plugged into the rotation on Sept. 24, throwing 58 and 74 pitches.

Baumann also started Game 1 of a Sept. 5 doubleheader against the Jays and allowed three runs and eight hits in five innings. He tossed two scoreless relief innings on Sept. 16 in Toronto.

Gunnar Henderson is playing third base and batting fifth. Terrin Vavra is the second baseman and Ryan McKenna is in left field.

The 2022 season has reached its end for teams on the outside of the playoff arena. The doors will be locked after today.

You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.

Last call for the Orioles is a traditional doubleheader against the Blue Jays at Camden Yards, which is attracting rain the way a picnic lures ants. It’s an open jar of marmalade.

(We’ll … wait for it … toast the season later.)

A “traditional” doubleheader for me still conjures images of carrying a cooler of beer into Memorial Stadium. Or screwdrivers for the last Colts game before they moved to Indianapolis, which wasn’t a doubleheader but is in keeping with the theme.

The Orioles will close out the 2022 season by playing a doubleheader on Wednesday.

Tonight’s game with the Blue Jays was postponed due to rain. A traditional, single-admission doubleheader has been announced, with the opener set for 12:35 p.m. Game 2 begins approximately 30 minutes after the final out.

Just one more oddity after the lockout delayed spring training and opening day and forced an adjustment to the schedule, which tagged this series at the end of it.

Mike Baumann starts Game 1 and Spenser Watkins starts Game 2.

The Blue Jays are sending Mitch White to the mound for Game 1. Game 2 is undecided.

Gunnar Henderson is the cleanup hitter tonight in the Orioles’ penultimate game of the 2022 season.

The forecast calls for rain all day and night, but that’s the plan.

Jesús Aguilar is the first baseman, with Ryan Mountcastle on the bench. Ryan McKenna is the left fielder and Austin Hays is in right.

Terrin Vavra is starting at second base instead of Rougned Odor.

Mike Baumann is making his fourth start and 13^th appearance. He’s lasted four innings in his two starts since being plugged into the rotation on Sept. 24, throwing 58 and 74 pitches.

Omar’s whistle has been silenced at Camden Yards.

The hype video goes into storage, along with the 100 mph fastball and filthy splitter.

Félix Bautista packed away his jerseys and other items yesterday for shipment home. The big boxes in front of lockers are a sure sign of fall, and the end of a baseball season.

Unfortunately, Bautista’s season reached its conclusion yesterday with three home games remaining on the schedule. The Orioles didn’t want him trying to pitch with some lingering discomfort in his left knee. His work here is done.

Bautista told me yesterday that he felt much better and was available, if the Orioles kept him on the active roster. That’s the competitor in him.

The Orioles had to dig deep for motivation tonight.

They didn’t play in front of 45,000 hostile fans. A home run record didn’t hang in the balance. They had already fallen out of the wild card chase and secured the first winning season since 2016.

The temperature at first pitch was 49 degrees, the coldest in Baltimore at the start in four years, with rain falling throughout the night. Weather that scaled back the crowd.

But the statistics count and the wins matter. They had a chance to claim one more series and perhaps influence where the Blue Jays will begin the playoffs.

Dean Kremer braved the elements and grinded through six innings in his final appearance, but the Orioles didn’t offer much support in a 5-1 loss, in a game delayed and then halted after Yennier Canó allowed a run in the eighth and loaded the bases with two outs.

The Orioles have recalled reliever Yennier Canó from Triple-A Norfolk and placed Félix Bautista on the 15-day injured list with left knee discomfort. Bautista is done for 2022.

The rookie made the 40-man roster and then the opening day roster and finished with a 2.19 ERA and 0.929 WHIP in 65 appearances, which tied for second-most behind Dillon Tate’s 66. He recorded 15 saves, 13 after the Jorge López trade to Minnesota, and he allowed 38 hits and struck out 88 batters in 65 2/3 innings.

Bautista averaged 3.2 walks per nine innings, compared to 5.1 in seven minor league seasons.

“We’re going to shut him down for the rest of the season, unfortunately,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “So happy with the season he had and him going forward. What a great story. Great story for us, great story for him. Love watching him pitch, and looking forward to having him next year.”

Bautista, who received votes on the Most Valuable Oriole ballot, said earlier today that his knee felt better and he could come out of the bullpen if allowed.

The Orioles begin the final series of the 2022 season tonight with the Blue Jays arriving in town.

They won’t have Félix Bautista available in the bullpen. He’s been shut down with lingering soreness in his left knee. A roster move is coming.

Gunnar Henderson is the third baseman tonight and Terrin Vavra is in left field. Kyle Stowers is in right.

Dean Kremer has a 3.17 ERA and 1.257 WHIP in 21 games (20 starts). He’s surrendered only 10 home runs in 119 1/3 innings, though two came in his last start in Boston.

Kremer has allowed six earned runs and seven total in 18 innings against Toronto this season.