A new week brings the next set of meetings in baseball, with owners gathering in New York on Tuesday.

Don’t expect David Rubenstein to swing any deals.

The Orioles’ last trade brought them reliever Andrew Kittredge from the Cubs on Nov. 4 for cash considerations. What’s next?

I’ve already published a batch of questions, including how the Orioles are going to jam five starters in the rotation, who bats first, who’s in center field, whether Tyler O’Neill can extend his Opening Day home run streak, whether there are innings limits for some starters, what’s next for Albert Suárez, which starters could move to the bullpen, whether Trevor Rogers can maintain his level of excellence, which starter will lead the club in innings, and what’s next for Heston Kjerstad.

Here are two more.

Two more coaches are confirmed for manager Craig Albernaz’s staff.

The Orioles have hired Miguel Cairo as major league infield coach and Joe Singley as major league field coordinator and catching coach, according to sources.

Cairo, 51, most recently was Nationals' bench coach beginning in November 2023 and interim manager on July 7, 2025 after Dave Martinez’s firing. He played 17 seasons in the majors with nine teams, finishing in 2012 with the Reds.

Cairo has experience at every position except center field and catcher.

The Nationals interviewed Cairo for the managing job but chose Rays senior director of player development Blake Butera.

The Orioles made another depth move yesterday, signing reliever Richard Guasch to a minor league contract. He’s expected to receive an invitation to spring training.

Guasch, 27, posted a 2.74 ERA and 1.000 WHIP with 57 strikeouts in 46 innings this year in 28 appearances with Double-A Erie. He also pitched in 13 games with an independent team in Mexico and allowed three earned runs with 25 strikeouts in 14 innings.

The Cuban right-hander has pitched in the Athletics, Nationals and Tigers system beginning in 2018, compiling a 4.02 ERA in 145 games and averaging 5.1 walks, 11.5 strikeouts and 0.6 home runs per nine innings. He’s never risen above Double-A.

The Nationals acquired Guasch, catcher Drew Millas and pitcher Seth Shuman from the Athletics on July 30, 2021 in exchange for catcher Yan Gomes, infielder/outfielder Josh Harrison and cash considerations. The Tigers purchased his contract earlier this year from the Mexican Baseball League.

Guasch’s fastball has touched 99 mph.

While the 2025 season ended long ago for most members of the Nationals organization, eight prospects did continue to take the field throughout October and into the first two weeks of November, participating in the Arizona Fall League.

The AFL is held annually, with prospects from all 30 clubs coming together to face each other over a six-week season and see how everyone performs against their counterparts. It’s often a stepping stone for players on the cusp of the majors, though you’ll also find a number of prospects who are still a few years away.

This fall’s crop of Nats prospects included a recent first-round pick in Seaver King, an even more recent second-round pick in Ethan Petry and an organizational top-10 prospect in Jake Bennett. They were joined on the Scottsdale Scorpions by outfielder Sam Peterson, right-handers Austin Amaral and Sean Paul Linan, plus lefties Pablo Aldonis and Jared Simpson.

King was the most notable and most successful of the group. The 2024 first-round pick from Wake Forest was a force at the plate, batting .359 with a .468 on-base percentage, .563 slugging percentage, eight extra-base hits, 24 RBIs, six stolen bases and a solid 11-to-15 walk-to-strikeout ratio in 18 games played. The versatile defender played exclusively at shortstop and committed only one error while totaling 101 innings in the field.

Petry was the only 2025 draftee to play in the AFL, the second-rounder from South Carolina showing off a good eye (13 walks in 75 plate appearances) but not showing off his noted power swing (one double, one homer). Playing primarily right field, he finished with a .228/.400/.298 slash line, holding his own considering he had only 24 games of professional experience at low Single-A Fredericksburg prior to this.

The Orioles have made the following roster move:

• Agreed to terms on a 2026 minor league contract with RHP Richard Guasch.

In an offseason loaded with major questions, the Nationals have already answered two of the biggest ones: Who will lead baseball operations, and who will manage the big league club?

Among the high-ranking questions still to be answered: How much money will they spend compared to previous years?

That’s the kind of question that comes up every year, and it’s never really answered publicly in words by anyone. The answer only comes through actions, once you see what the team’s payroll is come Opening Day and once you learn what kinds of other investments have been made to strengthen the organization.

But it’s especially notable this winter because it’s widely believed Paul Toboni would not have taken the job as the team’s new president of baseball operations without some kind of understanding from ownership how much he would be allowed to spend.

Here’s what managing principal owner Mark Lerner said when asked that question Oct. 1 during Toboni’s introductory press conference:

Judging from the opinions of outsiders in the industry, the Orioles will be the biggest spenders this winter, aim for one big strike and make a series of lesser moves, or spread out their money more evenly.

That should just about cover it.

Scouts, agents and others in the business agree on the shopping list and how, of course, the Orioles are buyers. An impact starting pitcher at near the top of the rotation should be the priority. The bullpen isn’t near complete, and not just because it’s missing a closer. The lineup needs a big bat. Leadership was lacking in 2025.

Otherwise, the perceptions about how the Orioles will operate are scattered and based too much on the past – whether previous payroll constraints or how a last-place finish in 2025 will motivate.

The qualifying offer won’t necessarily deter the Orioles from pursuing a free agent. And according to president of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias, the expiration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement in December 2026 isn’t influencing how he conducts business.

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• RHP Carson Ragsdale and LHP Josh Walker claimed off outright waivers by the Atlanta Braves.

The general manager meetings in Las Vegas are over, and Orioles president of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias is flying back to Baltimore. He didn’t bring any new players but he’s gained some clarity on the trade and free agent markets.

The daily sessions have served their purpose.

Elias sat down with executives from other teams, agents and some players who showed up at the Cosmopolitan hotel.

“A lot of information gathering and a lot of meetings,” Elias said this afternoon.

“Overall it was really good. I can’t say anything happened, but this is how the offseason starts to develop usually is the conversations that initiate at the GM meetings.”

Nationals open home schedule Friday, April 3, at 1:05 p.m. ET vs. Dodgers 

The Washington Nationals today announced first pitch times for the team’s 2026 regular-season home schedule, opening next year’s Nationals Park slate on Friday, April 3, at 1:05 p.m. against the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Fans can guarantee access to Opening Day tickets by purchasing a 2026 Full, Half or Partial Season Package. Visit nats.com/Tickets for more information.

Fans can get an early look at the 2026 squad on Monday, March 23, as the Nationals host the Baltimore Orioles for an exhibition contest. The game is part of a multi-year agreement with the Beltway rivals, which places one game at Nationals Park and another at Oriole Park at Camden Yards each year through 2029. Following this year’s exhibition game in Washington, D.C., Nationals Philanthropies hosts its annual Homecoming Gala at The Anthem, featuring red carpet arrivals and special activities for fans.

For the 14th consecutive season, the Nationals will kickstart MLB’s slate of Fourth of July games, hosting the Pittsburgh Pirates for a 11:05 a.m. first pitch. A special showcase of the national pastime in our nation’s capital, the game will offer plenty of pageantry and patriotism leading into a slate of special events around the District in celebration of America’s 250th birthday.

Washington Nationals home start times will remain consistent with the previous two years, as evening games begin at 6:45 p.m.; Saturday afternoon games start at 4:05 p.m.; Sunday games at 1:35 p.m.; and most weekday afternoon games at 12:05 or 1:05 p.m.

Trevor Rogers received some well-deserved recognition last night with the unveiling of the American League Cy Young ballots.

I didn’t think I’d be solely responsible for it.

Rogers tied the Rays’ Drew Rasmussen for ninth place, with both pitchers receiving a fifth-place vote from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

The Tigers’ Tarik Skubal is a back-to-back winner, followed by the Red Sox’s Garrett Crochet, the Astros’ Hunter Brown, the Yankees’ Max Fried and the Mariners’ Bryan Woo. Skubal received 26 first-place votes and Crochet the other four.

I put Skubal first, Crochet second, Brown third and Fried fourth, keeping me in line with the majority. The last spot came down to Rogers or Woo. I didn’t want to be viewed as a homer if I selected Rogers or a jerk if omitting him because I cover the team.

Baseball’s annual GM Meetings wrap up this morning in Las Vegas, and as is always the case, there hasn’t been a whole lot of hard news coming out of the event. This isn’t the Winter Meetings (which are coming up Dec. 7-10 in Orlando), where the rumors fly fast and furious and we often get major news breaking at all hours of the day and night.

The process, though, begins at the GM Meetings, with executives starting to get a sense of what other teams are looking to do, who they might want to sign and who they might be willing to trade. And surely Paul Toboni has spent the last three days talking to as many people as possible as he prepares to embark on his first Hot Stove League as a major league president of baseball operations.

Toboni’s primary focus since taking the job in late-September has been overhauling the Nationals’ front office, then hiring a manager (Blake Butera, whose introductory press conference is now set for 1:30 p.m. Monday, by the way) and filling out his coaching staff. But the attention will shift to improving the roster soon enough, and there is no shortage of work that needs to be done in that regard.

Toboni inherits a roster that won only 66 games but lost only three veterans to free agency in Josh Bell, Paul DeJong and Derek Law (who was hurt the entire season). Pretty much all of the regulars return, but that doesn’t mean the 2026 Opening Day roster is anywhere close to set. The Nats are going to want to improve at a number of positions, and that can’t come solely from within the organization.

Though he hasn’t publicly stated his wish list yet, Toboni should be looking at three positions in particular that need upgrading no matter what: First base, starting pitching, relief pitching.

The Orioles’ coaching staff for the 2026 season has three confirmed outside hires and three likely holdovers.

A source confirmed tonight that Buck Britton, Drew French and Ryan Klimek are expected to remain with the Orioles.

Britton finished as third base coach and infield instructor after Tony Mansolino was named interim manager. French completed his second season as pitching coach. Klimek has served as pitching strategy coach since 2023.

Another source said earlier today that Britton might remain at third base but details had to be worked out and nothing was official. The team definitely had shown interest in retaining him.

Britton was promoted from Triple-A manager to major league coach prior to the 2025 season, but Orioles manager Brandon Hyde was fired on May 17, which led to a reshuffling of the staff.

New Orioles manager Craig Albernaz is dipping into his past again with the hiring of Donnie Ecker as bench coach, which a source confirmed this afternoon.

Ecker, 39, served as Rangers' bench coach and offensive coordinator from 2022-24. They removed his bench coach duties prior to the 2025 season and fired him on May 4.

The shakeup included the hiring of former All-Star second baseman Bret Boone as hitting coach.

Ecker was on the Rangers’ staff when they swept the Orioles in the 2023 Division Series and won the World Series.

The Giants hired Ecker as one of their two major league hitting coaches prior to the 2020 season, which is where his career intersected with Albernaz, the team’s bullpen and catching coach from 2020-23.

The general manager meetings in Las Vegas probably won’t produce any trades for the Orioles. They tend to function more as a way to lay the groundwork for future discussions at the Winter Meetings, which are held next month in Orlando.

Of course, there are exceptions throughout the league. Not everyone comes home empty-handed.  

The Padres traded future Orioles closer Craig Kimbrel to the Red Sox on Nov. 13, 2015. A day earlier, shortstop Andrelton Simmons went from the Braves to the Angels in exchange for shortstop Erick Aybar and pitcher Sean Newcomb.

The Twins traded future Orioles outfielder Aaron Hicks to the Yankees at those same meetings, among the busiest in recent memory.

Reliever Andrew Kittredge came back to the Orioles in a Nov. 4 deal with the Cubs for cash considerations, the club’s only trade this month. President of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias has done a lot more claiming and selecting than trading in November since his hiring in 2018.

The youngest major league manager in five decades is going to have a pitching coach even younger than him. One with a significant D.C. connection and a pedigree in modern baseball philosophy.

The Nationals have hired 30-year-old Simon Mathews as their new pitching coach, luring the up-and-comer from the Reds to work for 33-year-old manager Blake Butera.

Mathews, who first made a name for himself as one of the best pitchers in Georgetown history, spent this past season as Cincinnati’s assistant pitching coach, working underneath the highly regarded Derek Johnson. That’s his lone season on a major league staff, but that actually makes him more experienced than Butera, who has never played, coached nor managed above Single-A.

Mathews worked in the Reds organization for five seasons, the first four in the minors. He began in 2021 by implementing the club’s pitching program at its Dominican academy, then was rehab pitching coordinator in 2022. He served as assistant coordinator of rehabilitation and pitching initiatives from 2023-24, then earned his first promotion to the big leagues in 2025 as assistant pitching coach.

Cincinnati’s pitching staff has lowered its ERA and WHIP each of the last four seasons, from a 4.86 ERA that ranked 28th in the majors in 2022 to a 3.86 ERA that ranked 12th this year, and from a 1.389 WHIP that ranked 26th in 2022 to a 1.222 WHIP that ranked seventh this year. The Reds earned a wild card berth this season behind a pitching staff anchored by three homegrown starters in their 20s (Hunter Greene, Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo) who each finished with an ERA under 3.35 and a WHIP under 1.150.

The Washington Nationals officially named Simon Mathews the team’s pitching coach on Tuesday. The announcement was made by Nationals President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni and Manager Blake Butera.

Mathews, 30, joins the Nationals after five seasons with the Cincinnati Reds, most recently as their assistant pitching coach in 2025. He spent four seasons in Cincinnati’s Minor League system, serving as their assistant coordinator of rehabilitation and pitching initiatives (2023-24), rehab pitching coordinator (2022) and, in his first season in 2021, implemented the club’s pitching program at its academy in the Dominican Republic.

“Simon brings a tremendous amount of knowledge and a wide range of experience to our staff,” said Butera. “He is grounded, has great perspective on pitching and connects incredibly well with players at all levels. He is widely respected throughout the game and the type of coach that makes everyone around him better. Simon is a tireless worker and is uniquely equipped to help our pitchers reach their full potential.”

Mathews was the director of pitching at Push Performance in Tempe, Ariz. and an online trainer at Driveline Baseball prior to joining the Reds organization in 2021. In those roles, he designed throwing programs for pitchers, with an emphasis on improving movement patterns and velocity and promoted arm health.

Mathews signed with the Los Angeles Angels as a non-drafted free agent following the 2017 First-Year Player Draft and went on to pitch three seasons (2017-19) in their system. He appeared in 71 professional games, advancing as high as Triple-A Salt Lake in 2018 and 2019.

Blake Butera’s right-hand man in the dugout will be a familiar face to the Nationals’ new manager, not to mention one with more experience at the sport’s higher levels.

Butera has selected Michael Johns as his bench coach, the club officially announced Monday evening, tabbing his longtime Rays colleague to work alongside him in D.C.

Johns, 50, has worked in various capacities for the Rays since 2008, including nine seasons as a minor league manager, culminating with an 88-62 record and league finals appearance with Triple-A Durham in 2023. He spent the last two seasons as Tampa Bay’s first base coach, his lone experience in the major leagues.

A former infielder in the Rockies’ farm system in the late ’90s, Johns has since made a name for himself as an instructor for a franchise known for having one of the sport’s best player development pipelines. He served five seasons (2018-22) as Tampa Bay’s minor league field coordinator, tasked with establishing a consistent program for all the organization’s affiliates.

Johns and Butera overlapped nine seasons with the Rays, forming a connection that led to their current reunion with the Nationals. Butera, 33, is 17 years younger than his new bench coach and figures to lean heavily on Johns’ expertise both in establishing pregame routines and in-game decision-making.

The agreement with reliever Enoli Paredes yesterday on a minor league deal is the latest piece of business that’s so prevalent in the weeks following the World Series. Common throughout baseball and lacking in pizazz. More routine than riveting.

The last transaction from the Orioles was listed Friday, with pitcher Carson Ragsdale designated for assignment, though the club confirmed it the previous night while making several changes to the 40-man roster.

The moves this month aren’t generating much excitement among fans, but that’s typical for November. Depth signings and claims are easier to consummate and necessary to supply minor league teams and perhaps increase competitions in spring training.

Go back a year ago.

The Orioles signed right-hander Rodolfo Martinez to a minor league contract on Nov. 1, 2024. Three days later, they claimed right-hander Thaddeus Ward and catcher René Pinto on waivers and declined reliever Danny Coulombe’s $4 million option, all of it unfolding while I underwent open heart aortic valve replacement surgery, which made me a little late in reporting it.

Just to be clear from the outset: Daylen Lile will not be named National League Rookie of the Year tonight. We already know the 22-year-old outfielder didn’t finish among the top three vote getters. Either Braves catcher Drake Baldwin, Cubs right-hander Cade Horton or Brewers third baseman Caleb Durbin will receive the award when the results are announced this evening.

But Lile’s name will show up somewhere on the ballot below those three. He actually far outperformed both Baldwin and Durbin in batting average (.299), slugging percentage (.845) and triples (11).

The two reasons Lile didn’t at least finish in the top three: 1) He wasn’t in the majors as long as those other guys, with 95 fewer plate appearances than Baldwin and 155 fewer than Durbin, and 2) His poor defensive play left him trailing everyone else in WAR by a healthy margin.

In the end, it’s a shame Lile didn’t spend more time with the Nationals than he did, because who knows how much more he could’ve produced at the plate with, say, 451 big league plate appearances than 351. We do know nobody in the league was better down the stretch, because Lile won not only NL Rookie of the Month for September but NL Player of the Month as well.

The fact Lile will even appear on the ballot tonight is noteworthy on its own. Because it’s been a while since anybody in a Nationals uniform accomplished that.