This is a bit random today and not related to any recent signings or O’s news at all. But today, just for the heck of it, I take a look at some random individual stats from the 2024 season.

Some may be surprising, many will probably not.

But in a game filled with stats - traditional, advanced and otherwise - here are a few more today.

In most cases the numbers are for only O’s players that had enough plate appearances last year to qualify for league leaders, and in most cases I left out players who during the year had only a couple of dozen plate appearances.

O’s 2024 leaders, pitches per plate appearance:

The Orioles one-year agreement with a club option with right-handed pitcher Andrew Kittredge made the team's strength a bit stronger. The bullpen looks pretty good with a clear eight you would project today to start the year in the bullpen.

That eight includes the club welcoming back All-Star closer Félix Bautista. From the right side, there is also Kittredge, Yennier Cano, Seranthony Domínguez and a long man in Albert Suárez, who right now projects more in the ‘pen than rotation.

From the left side the O’s have Keegan Akin, coming off his big 2024 year, along with Gregory Soto and Cionel Pérez.

The club will clearly be careful and cautious early on with Bautista coming back from Tommy John surgery. If he returns to previous form that would be huge for this team. Remember the guy has a 1.85 ERA, 0.924 WHIP with 14.1 strikeouts per nine in two MLB seasons. At his best, he is among the best closers in the game, a 2023 All-Star when he finished 11^th for the American League Cy Young Award.

But as they work him in slowly and perhaps are wary of using him back-to-back games to start the year, they now have many other options for the late innings.

Having a big season for an MLB player can be a blessing or a curse. Not really a curse, like selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees cursed the Red Sox all those years, but maybe burden is the right word. Now fans and perhaps even team management expect more of the same.

For Orioles center field Cedric Mullins, his magical 2021 season now looks like an outlier. He has not produced similar stats since. He started the All-Star game that year – his only All-Star appearance – won a Silver Slugger and finished ninth in the AL MVP race.

Over 159 games he hit .291/.360/.518/.878 and produced the first season of 30 homers and steals in O’s history with exactly 30 homers and 30 stolen bases.

Mullins’ .878 OPS that year ranked eighth-best in the American League in a season when only five players in the league topped .900. His OPS for the year topped several prominent players, a list that includes Yordan Álvarez, Marcus Semien, Teoscar Hernández, J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts, Salvador Pérez and Carlos Correa.

But since 2022, his OPS numbers, while consistent, have been well behind that one great year. He was at .721 in 2022, .721 in 2023 and .710 last year, producing OPS+ totals of 107, 101 and 107 after putting up 137 for 2021.

To hear new O’s pitcher Charlie Morton tell it, he has essentially had two different careers. One as a pitch-to-contact pitcher and one going for and getting many more strikeouts.

The second stage of this career, which began with his age 33 season with Houston in 2017, was a real turning point.

It has led to more durability, more swing and miss, two All-Star appearances and at age 41, to his sixth team in Baltimore. He signed a one-year deal to join the club’s rotation for $15 million.

Life begins at 33?

He had Tommy John surgery in 2012 and two hip procedures along the way. When he made just four starts due to a torn hamstring that required surgery in 2016 with the Phillies, pitching only four games and 17 innings, he thought he might be done.

Even after making 30 or more starts the last six full seasons and even after having thrown over 2,100 big league innings, before the Orioles could sign him to a one-year contract, right-handed starting pitcher Charlie Morton had to decide if he wanted to sign with any team.

In his first interview with O’s reporters today, via a team Zoom call, he said this was not the first time he had pondered retirement. But he also explained that as last season ended, he seemed to want to keep going.

Morton, 41, went 8-10 with a 4.19 ERA for the Braves and now has signed a one-year deal for $15 million with the Orioles. Over the past two years, he’s thrown 328 2/3 innings to an ERA of 3.92 and a .248 batting average against with 24 quality starts.

“I think I’ve been debating that decision every offseason for the past four or five years frankly,” Morton told the media today. “It was definitely toward the end of last year. We were in a tight race for the Wild Card spot and I felt my year hadn’t gone as I hoped.

“I really wasn’t thinking about it a whole lot. I was thinking more about trying to take it all in because I thought that might be my last year.

O’s lefty reliever Keegan Akin had a strong 2022 season with a 3.20 ERA and 1.09 WHIP. Then he dealt with lower back issues much of the next season and in 23 2/3 innings had an ERA of 6.85 and 1.78 WHIP. He pitched just two innings after June 28.

So fans might not have known what to expect of him in 2024. At Birdland Caravan last January, Akin told reporters he was finally healthy and feeling good but also was not taking a roster spot for granted. He would have to earn it.

He sure did and pitched better than probably many people gave him credit for.

His season was very solid, especially in the second half and he ranked among the best relievers in the game in some expected stats.

He was good both home and away and against both left and right-handed batters.

In Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson the Orioles have two young, talented players that could be considered faces of this franchise. Two players that were their first two selections in the 2019 MLB Draft. The first two players selected by Mike Elias after he was hired by the Orioles.

In the 2025 season, based off their play last year, the Orioles surely expect improvement from Rutschman after his disappointing second half. Henderson could improve too, but he had a season in 2024 that put him among the very best players in the game.

Can Gunnar find another gear?: Asking more out of Henderson based on his 2024, is asking a lot. He improved his batting line in each stat category, hitting .255/.325/.489/.814 in 2023 and last year that was .281/.364/.529/.893 as his OPS+ increased from 125 to 159.

How good was he in 2024? He was the third-best position player in baseball-reference Wins Above Replacement and ranked fifth in FanGraphs.com's WAR.

Via baseball-reference.com, Aaron Judge led all at 10.8 followed by Bobby Witt Jr. at 9.4 and then Henderson at 9.1. Juan Soto was fifth by the way, behind Jarren Duran at 7.9. Via FanGraphs, it was Judge leading the way at 11.2, Witt at 10.4 and Shohei Ohtani at 9.1 with Soto at 8.1 and Henderson at 8.0.

We could call it a “two tiered” Orioles rotation at this point. They have two at the top right now in right-handers Zack Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez and three that follow that in some order.

As of today, Eflin or Rodriguez could get the Opening Day assignment with the other starting second.

Third through fifth in some combo, is expected to be Dean Kremer, Tomoyuki Sugano and Charlie Morton. That is how I stack it as of today, Kremer, Sugano and Morton fifth. Others may project Morton at No. 3 or Sugano at No. 3. Lot of options here. No lefties in this rotation, but they are in the depth behind this group currently with pitchers like southpaws Cade Povich and Trevor Rogers. Could one of that duo impact the Opening Day five? Of course, it’s baseball, changes and injuries happen. Always write your plans in January in pencil with a big eraser close by.

The Orioles hopes for Eflin are likely big. In 2023 he pitched to an ERA of 3.50 with 16 wins for Tampa Bay and finished sixth for the AL Cy Young award. Traded to the Orioles on July 26 last summer for three minor leaguers, he went 5-2 with a 2.60 ERA over nine starts.

With a combined 3.54 ERA and 1.054 WHIP the past two seasons producing an ERA+ of 115, he will be expected to pitch to that form for the 2025 Orioles.

Let’s get this part straight. Right-hander Charlie Morton is not the replacement for losing Corbin Burnes. Neither is righty Tomoyuki Sugano. No one is saying they are. No one is hinting at it or suggesting it in any way.

The Orioles may still add a pitcher they can slot closer to the top of their rotation and based on comments here, that would be welcome.

Nothing they have done in the last few days precludes that from happening. In my mind, maybe you have a different take, that is just as likely to happen today as it was before the Morton signing.

Where I think some fans slanting toward the negative over the Morton are missing the boat, is this addition could help the 2025 Orioles. No matter who slots at the top of their rotation.

Yes, he turned 41 in November and was the fourth-oldest pitcher in the majors last year. He’s also pitched to a 3.92 ERA since 2023, throwing 328 2/3 innings. No O’s pitcher on the team in those seasons, pitched that many innings. Even those in their 20s. His ERA for those seasons tops that of Dean Kremer and Grayson Rodriguez, both at 4.11 for the 2023-2024 seasons.

In this space yesterday I noted that Ryan Mountcastle would be expected to hit more home runs in 2025 as the Orioles are moving the left field fence closer to home plate at Camden Yards. This is after three years after they had moved the wall back nearly 30 feet from its original position.

Mountcastle hit 22 home runs in Baltimore during the 2021 season, the last one with the previous dimensions. He averaged a homer at Camden Yards every 12.77 at-bats that year. But then he hit just 28 total home homers from 2022 through 2024, hitting one every 24.86 at-bats.

I wondered how the entire team was impacted by the year-to-year home homer numbers.

Here are the stats on that from 2021 on:

Actually, the O’s got closer to their 2021 home stats each year, almost equaling them last season when the team hit 235 homers for the season, second-most in the major leagues to the Yankees' 237.

Today a look at a few more notes and items we can expect to see during the 2025 season.

The return of this pitcher: The No. 11 overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft, right-hander Grayson Rodriguez should return as a full-time member of the Baltimore rotation.

In 2024, he made what turned out to be his last start on July 31. He was scheduled to pitch Aug. 6 in the series opener at Rogers Centre in Toronto but was scratched just minutes before first pitch with what was later described as right lat/teres discomfort.

Getting this now 25-year-old right-hander back is a big lift for the rotation, which loses ace righty Corbin Burnes. Rodriguez went 13-4 with a 3.86 ERA over 20 starts and the Orioles went 14-6 in those games.

He gave up two earned runs or less 14 times. And if you could take away his two worst starts last year, where he allowed seven runs each time, he would have finished the season with an ERA of 3.02.

Now that 2025 has arrived on the calendar, can the baseball season be that far behind?

It will be here sooner than we think, with spring training arriving next month, the first spring game set for Feb. 22 and Opening Day 2025 scheduled for March 27 with the Orioles at Rogers Centre in Toronto.

Here are a few things to ponder and look forward to during this coming season.

The filling out of the roster: Will the O’s add a front-line starting pitcher? If they add someone or more than one, does that happen via free agency or via a trade?

Last season it was not until Feb. 1 that the deal for Corbin Burnes was announced.

With right-hander Corbin Burnes off to Arizona and no ace pitchers still to be had via free agency, the Orioles may have pivoted toward a pitcher who made nine appearances for them in the 2023 season and one more in that postseason.

That is 29-year-old right-hander Jack Flaherty, coming off a strong 2024 season that began with Detroit and ended with him getting a ring with the Los Angeles Dodgers, his hometown team.

Per The Athletic, “both sides would be open to a reunion after Flaherty’s bounce-back season.”

Between the two clubs last year, he made 28 starts throwing 162 innings – the second-most of his career. He went 13-7 with a 3.17 ERA and 1.068 WHIP. He posted strong walk and strikeout numbers, walking 2.1 per every nine innings (a 5.9 percent walk rate) and fanning 10.8 (29.9 percent).

Among qualified pitchers last year (the 58 that had 162 or more innings) he finished third in the majors in strikeouts/nine, tied for eighth in WHIP, tied for 13^th in batting average against (.223) and 13^th in MLB in ERA.

Some projections when free agency was just beginning had outfielder Anthony Santander getting $100 million and maybe more whenever he signs his next contract.

Free to sign with any team, Santander is still out there for any club to sign, but maybe some recent deals provide a framework for his next one.

As free agency opened up, MLBTradeRumors.com projected that Santander, ranked as its No. 9 free agent, would get a four-year deal for $80 million. ESPN projected he would sign for three years and $69 million. FanGraphs.com predicted five years for $100 million and The Athletic put it at five years and $105 million.

An Oriole since the 2016 Rule 5 draft and for parts of eight big league seasons, Santander is expected to sign elsewhere, especially after the Orioles added outfielder Tyler O’Neill via free agency.

For his 2024 season on offense, Santander hit .235/.308/.506/.814 with 25 doubles, two triples, 44 homers, 91 runs and 102 RBIs.

After a few days away, we’re back today with a new blog and hopefully some fresh thoughts and takes to lead us into the New Year.

For now, a few facts and opinions.

Fact: O’s 2024 ace pitcher Corbin Burnes is headed to Arizona to pitch for the 2025 season.

Opinion: The Orioles' current rotation, even minus Burnes, could be solid but is now missing the pitcher who finished fifth for the American League Cy Young Award. So how will the O’s make up for this loss? For me, it’s never a one-for-one type thing in that they add this player to replace that player. All players they use in 2025 could partially help replace those not back.

There are no longer any aces left via the free agent market but perhaps the team could deal for a top pitcher, as it did with Burnes last Feb. 1.

On Christmas Day 2024, if I could give something to every person alive, it would be the abilities to be humble, nice and respectful to each other every day in every way.

As I traveled recently, a big smile on my face in going through another adventure, I noticed so many people just look unhappy. Many probably are unhappy.

So many seem to think of themselves first often and seldom those around them. Too bad. We never know what someone else is dealing with or what burdens they carry.

I once told Jim Palmer it warms my heart that Hall of Fame Orioles like him and Brooks Robinson were always so very nice to the fans.

“Steve, it doesn’t take much to be nice,” he told me.

Baseball America recently wrote about the findings of Major League Baseball’s study on pitching injuries and what it meant for amateur youth pitchers.

The study found – to no real surprise – that youth pitchers are throwing too much, too hard, and too often. This is leading to long-term injuries. Again, no one should be surprised.

They are chasing the dollars of MLB and before that the scholarships from top Div. I schools that lead them to get drafted that lead them to pro ball and possibly one day to the big dollars of the majors.

How big?

Price tags are going up.

Sure the Orioles, like most teams that don’t have one, could use an ace pitcher. They still hope to add one before the start of the 2025 season. 

But their current rotation has the makings of being a good one.

Here is how it looks today:

Zach Eflin: He is the probable Opening Day starter. After the trade to the Orioles, over nine starts, he went 5-2 with a 2.60 ERA. Only nine pitchers, including the Orioles' Corbin Burnes, that qualified, posted season-long ERAs under 3.00. To do it even for nine starts was impressive.

Eflin finished sixth for the 2023 American League Cy Young Award and has been among the best pitchers in the American League. Over the last two years, while Burnes posted a 3.15 ERA and 1.083 WHIP, Eflin was at 3.54 and 1.085.

Today, it’s another edition, our pre-Holiday edition, of several questions for O’s fans. Per usual, answer one question or all of them. Respond to other readers' answers with your takes on their takes. 

On to the questions:

1) Where does right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano slot into the O’s rotation? And after going 15-3 with a 1.67 ERA in Japan, how well will he do for the 2025 Orioles?

2) Which player will bat leadoff the most next season?

3) Which player will lead the 2025 O’s in home runs and hit how many?

When the Orioles begin the 2025 season, there is a pretty good chance right-hander Dean Kremer will be in their rotation. As he has been for the last few seasons.

Kremer posted an ERA of 3.23, a career best, in 21 starts in 2022. But he had a 4.12 ERA the next season, and last season it was 4.10.

That ERA was essentially league average: an ERA+ of 99 in 2023 and his ERA+ was 92 last year. His career mark is 4.28, so the O’s appreciate Kremer’s efforts, of course, but must wonder if he can find a higher gear.

Kremer, who turns 29 on Jan. 7, has just over three years of service time and is arbitration-eligible for the first time. He could get around $3.5 million via arbitration, per MLBTradeRumors.com. He cannot be a free agent until after the 2027 season.

In 2023, Kremer made 32 starts and the O’s had an outstanding 24-8 record in those games. They went 10-14 in his 24 starts this past season.