The High-A Aberdeen IronBirds will operate under different ownership in 2025.

Cal Ripken Jr., 64. has sold his majority stake in the Orioles’ affiliate. However, the Hall of Famer and brother Bill, a former major league infielder and current MLB Network analyst, will remain part of the ownership group.

Attain Sports, led by minor league baseball operator and business leader Greg Baroni, is partnering with the Ripkens by acquiring controlling interest in IB Professional Holdings. The company also owns the Double-A Bowie Baysox and MLB Draft League Frederick Keys.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Attain Sports sent out a press release.

“Bill and I are proud of what we have been able to bring to our hometown,” Ripken said in a statement. “Since 2002, through the IronBirds and our Ripken Experience Aberdeen youth baseball complex, we have been able to provide wonderful experiences for baseball fans of all ages. At this stage of my life, I thought the timing was right to turn over the day-to-day management of the IronBirds to Greg. I am thrilled that we can partner with such well-respected operators like Greg and Attain Sports.”

Now that the Orioles survived a rocky second half, one where they needed to win their final three games to play .500 ball (33-33), manager Brandon Hyde hopes the team gains something from the adversity.

“I’m hoping it makes us tougher honestly,” Hyde said Monday at Camden Yards. “The adversity our guys went through this year, I hope it benefits us this postseason. I think it’s going to benefit guys in the future.

“I think last year’s (playoff) experience, of what that felt like at the end, when we did have that kind of fairytale season and a quick exit. I’m hoping these guys still have that taste in their mouth going into this postseason.”

According to at least one of the guys, the Orioles do.

They lost to the Rangers three straight in the American League Division Series last year by scores of 3-2, 11-8 and 7-1. A long successful season was followed by a quick out in the postseason.

The start of the 2023 postseason for the Orioles included the shocking news that John Means wouldn’t make the Division Series roster due to elbow soreness that followed his appearance in an intrasquad game at Camden Yards. The club didn’t share anything of that magnitude this morning, but the inclusion of Colin Selby in the bullpen came as a surprise.

Selby was chosen over Matt Bowman. Albert Suárez wasn’t going to make it after working six innings Sunday in Minnesota.

Explaining the Selby move, manager Brandon Hyde said, “We just felt Selby in a couple games he’s thrown for us showed really, really good stuff. And just from a matchup standpoint, wanted an extra right-hander in the bullpen. He’s got a 97 mph fastball and a really good slider, so we’re excited to add him.”

The Game 2 starter remains a mystery, and it appears that what happens later today might dictate the choice.

Where is Hyde on the Game 2 starter?

The Orioles are carrying 12 pitchers and 14 position players for the Wild Card series against the Royals that begins this afternoon at soggy Camden Yards.

Albert Suárez threw six innings on Sunday and was dropped from the roster until perhaps getting a start in the Division Series if the Orioles can advance. Rookie Cade Povich made it, giving the Orioles five left-handers in a nine-man bullpen.

The big surprise is Colin Selby making it over Matt Bowman after the Orioles recalled him Sunday. Selby has made three appearances. Bowman made 15, including a start as the opener, and posted a 3.45 ERA in 15 2/3 innings.

The 14 position players who ended the regular season have remained with the club for the first round of the playoffs. The Orioles kept infielder Emmanuel Rivera and outfielder Heston Kjerstad. A 13-13 split likely would have removed one of them.

The Game 2 starter apparently is dependent on the Game 1 outcome. Corbin Burnes is on the mound this afternoon.

In his end-of-season session with reporters, Mike Rizzo lamented the Nationals’ lack of power and need to make significant improvements in that department in the future.

“Slug is something that we’re going to try and either acquire and/or develop,” the longtime general manager said, “to get to a point where you don’t need to get three or four hits in an inning to score a run, and it makes it much more difficult to put up a crooked number.”

Rizzo said this one year ago, at the end of the 2023 season. If you didn’t know that, you’d have every reason to believe he just said it last weekend as the Nats were wrapping up yet another power-starved season at the plate.

The 2024 Nationals were an improved group in many ways. They were not any better at hitting the ball out of the park. In fact, they were worse.

Last season, they ranked 21st in the majors with 700 runs scored. This season, they ranked 25th with only 660 runs scored. Last season, they ranked 29th in home runs with 151. This season, they again ranked 29th with only 135 homers.

History will forever show the Nationals went 71-91 in 2024. Just as they did in 2023. It’s not a won-loss record anyone should remember fondly, and the fact it didn’t change from 12 months prior would suggest the team as a whole didn’t really improve at all from one year to the next. For a franchise three years into a roster rebuild, that could feel quite disheartening.

Do you think it’s fair, though, to evaluate this team primarily on its won-loss record? Presented with that question over the weekend, Davey Martinez had to think long and hard before finally settling on an answer.

“Um … no, I really don’t,” the longtime manager said. “We’ve had a lot of different things happen in the course of the year.”

Martinez went on to detail how much the Nationals’ roster changed from April to September, how the team that ended the season was one of the youngest in baseball, which offered plenty of promise but also lent itself to more losses down the stretch than anyone would have liked.

“I thought a lot this morning about where we’re at,” he said. “We had to make so many transitions.”

MINNEAPOLIS – The Orioles finally know their opponent for the Wild Card series. The preparation will get a lot easier.

The Royals clinched the No. 5 seed and will come to Camden Yards for Tuesday’s Game 1, setting up a rematch of the 2014 Championship Series that began the Orioles' eight-game playoff losing streak. Left-hander Cole Ragans will start. The Tigers did the unthinkable and lost to the White Sox again.

The Orioles must finalize their roster and Albert Suarez’s presumed spot might have closed. He wasn’t shortened today in his start, throwing 71 pitches in six innings in a 6-2 victory over the Twins at Target Field.

Rookie left-hander Cade Povich is making it, according to a source, and Suárez could be held back until the Division Series. The Orioles can wait until Tuesday morning to submit their roster.

Suárez could start Game 1 of the ALDS on an extra day of rest if the Orioles advance. Their plans for him aren’t confirmed but seemed to gain clarity.

The 2024 Nationals wound up being a team of contradictions. They unquestionably showed real signs of progress from a year ago, especially in the pitching department. And yet when you look at the final standings, you’ll find a 71-91 record that looks identical to their 71-91 mark from 2023.

They wound up in this familiar situation after taking a 6-3 loss to the Phillies this afternoon in their season finale. Having already won the previous two days against the division champs, the Nats dug themselves into an early hole created by Jake Irvin and couldn’t quite claw all the way back, despite one last-ditch attempt in the bottom of the ninth.

"We made it interesting," manager Davey Martinez sighed. "Testament to the guys. They fought hard all year long. I'm proud of them. Obviously, nobody wants to go home this time of year. You want to keep playing. But the effort was definitely there this year."

There wasn’t as much intensity on display today as there was Friday and Saturday at Nationals Park, where the young home team seemed extra motivated to beat the Phillies and deny them a shot at home-field advantage throughout the postseason. With nothing at stake anymore, this was a more low-key affair, with the Phillies sitting Bryce Harper and pulling Trea Turner early, though the Nats decided to battle one last time.

Loading the bases with no outs in the ninth, they had three shots to win the game with one swing. But Luis García Jr. struck out, James Wood struck out looking and Juan Yepez drove a ball to the wall in left that left everybody holding their breath until Kody Clemens made a leaping catch to end the game.

The Orioles put a wrap on their 2024 regular season today as they play at Minnesota looking to complete a three-game sweep over the Twins.

The Orioles (90-71) have won by 7-2 and 9-2 in the first two games of their series at Minnesota that they can sweep today. Each game the O’s were scored on in the ninth inning as they failed to complete what would have been their 10^th shutout.

Today the Orioles are looking for their sixth series sweep of three or more games this season and they already have one against Minnesota.

The O’s swept three at Boston from April 9-11 and three at home versus Minnesota from April 15-17. They took three at Cincinnati from May 3-5. Their past two series sweeps are four-game sweeps at the Chicago White Sox May 23-26 and at Tampa Bay from June 7-10.

The O’s just had a chance to sweep the Yankees in New York on Thursday, but they lost 10-1. So today they could get their sweep and conclude a 5-1 road trip.

Neither Keibert Ruiz nor Bryce Harper is in their respective teams’ lineups for today’s season finale, so it doesn’t look like there will be any residual effects of Saturday’s incident between the two, one that prompted both the Nationals and Phillies’ benches and bullpens to empty.

Ruiz figured to be off all along, with Drew Millas getting the start behind the plate after Ruiz caught the previous three games. And with the Phillies no longer having a shot at home-field advantage in the playoffs, manager Rob Thomson decided to give Harper a breather and let him prepare for the National League Division Series later this week.

Saturday’s eighth-inning situation, though, still resonated the following day, an unexpected display of emotion from a couple of prominent players, one of them of course a former Nationals star.

Jose A. Ferrer had just surrendered a game-tying homer to Trea Turner when Harper stepped to the plate in what was now a 2-2 game. Ferrer’s second pitch of that at-bat was a 98 mph sinker right on the outer edge of the zone, and Ruiz held his mitt there for an extra second hoping to get the strike call from plate umpire Nic Lentz. (He didn’t get the call.)

Harper immediately said something to Ruiz, who later told reporters the Philly slugger appeared to be bothered by his attempt to frame the pitch.

We have reached the finish line. It’s Game 162, and while this one doesn’t officially matter for either team, there are still some personal achievements on the line. And for the Nationals, a chance to close out the year with a surprising sweep of the playoff-bound Phillies and to top last year’s win total with No. 72.

It’ll be Jake Irvin on the mound one last time. And as was the case Saturday with MacKenzie Gore, he’ll be looking for win No. 11, a number no Nats starter has reached since 2019. Unlike Gore, Irvin can’t get his ERA down below the 4.00 mark – unless he can go 10 2/3 scoreless innings – but he can finish on a high note. And if he can complete 6 2/3 innings, he’ll reach the 190 mark for the season, no small accomplishment.

At the plate, James Wood needs another homer to reach 10 in his rookie season. Dylan Crews needs a good day to get his batting average over .200. Oh, and in the bullpen, Derek Law needs to record one more out to get to 90 innings for the season.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 3:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Chance of rain, 74 degrees, wind 7 mph in from center field

NATIONALS
2B Luis García Jr.
LF James Wood
DH Juan Yepez
3B José Tena
RF Dylan Crews
1B Joey Gallo
C Drew Millas
CF Jacob Young
SS Nasim Nuñez

MINNEAPOLIS – The Orioles recalled reliever Colin Selby this morning and designated left-hander Tucker Davidson for assignment after he tossed 4 2/3 scoreless innings last night.

Selby is another fresh arm for the bullpen, with manager Brandon Hyde prepping his other relievers for availability in Game 1 of Tuesday’s Wild Card game.

Selby appeared in two games with the Orioles in August and didn’t allow a run or hit in three innings. He struck out four batters.

The Orioles haven’t committed to their Game 2 starter.

Albert Suárez gets today’s start, with uncertainty over how long he’ll pitch. Hyde was non-committal yesterday about possibly shortening Suárez.

With their 9-2 win over the Minnesota Twins Saturday night, the Orioles improved their record to 90-71 with one game to play.

The Birds have won four of five and six of the last nine games as they are playing better with the playoffs starting Tuesday.

A win today and they would finish 33-33 in the second half.

By securing win No. 90, this O’s team is now tied for the 20^th-most wins in team history with the 1975 and 1978 teams. So 22 O’s teams have won 90 or more.

If they get win No. 91 today, the O’s will tie for the 18^th-most wins in club history with teams from 1968 and 1974.

MINNEAPOLIS – Another Wild Card roster meeting will be held when the Orioles return home. They must decide whether to carry 12 pitchers again, as they did in last year’s Division Series.

“I think everything’s on the table right now,” said manager Brandon Hyde.

The Orioles will host the Tigers or Royals. The seedings will be set later today. And they finally can begin clearing the table.

By optioning reliever Bryan Baker yesterday to the spring complex, the Orioles won’t have him available unless they reach the Championship Series. That’s one of the differences from last fall’s ALDS roster.

Baker was added to it after finishing his season with Triple-A Norfolk. Among the omitted were Cole Irvin, Shintaro Fujinami and Mike Baumann. Baker made one appearance against the Rangers, walked the bases loaded in the third inning of Game 2 and was charged with three runs when Mitch Garver homered off Jacob Webb.

MINNEAPOLIS – Matt Bowman jogged from the bullpen to the mound to begin warming tonight, keeping him in a familiar routine except for the inning. He isn’t accustomed to pitching in the first. He doesn’t normally face a leadoff hitter.

The Orioles used an opener. Tucker Davidson arrived for bulk relief work. They batted Jackson Holliday atop the order and started him at shortstop. A handful of regulars rested on the bench, only the third time for Gunnar Henderson. The perks of clinching a playoff seeding were flaunted.

Bowman struck out two batters in 1 1/3 scoreless innings and Davidson shut out the Twins over 4 2/3. Ryan O’Hearn and Emmanuel Rivera belted two-run homers off rookie Zebby Matthews and Rivera launched a solo shot off reliever Louie Varland. The Orioles secured the home Wild Card but they didn’t fold, powering past the sagging Twins 9-2 before an announced crowd of 30,558 brave souls at Target Field.

Bowman allowed one hit and threw 19 pitches in his first major league start, and first at any level since 2015 with Triple-A Las Vegas. Davidson, whose contract was selected earlier today, followed him and surrendered four ground ball hits.

"That was nice," manager Brandon Hyde said of Davidson. "He’s pitched in some big games in his career, and had a nice year in Triple-A. Awesome to see him get an opportunity and take full advantage of it tonight.”

The Nationals want MacKenzie Gore to be the ace of their next winning team. MacKenzie Gore wants to be the ace of the Nationals’ next winning team.

To get there, the left-hander knows he needs to find a level of consistency that has heretofore eluded him in two full big league seasons. But if he can bottle up what he did over the last six weeks of this season – and especially what he did in the last of his six scoreless innings today – he’s got an awfully good chance of realizing his full potential.

With strikeouts of Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner and Bryce Harper, Gore concluded his 32nd and final start of 2024 with a flourish. And though the final innings of today’s 6-3 win over the Phillies would feature plenty more drama – Turner’s game-tying homer off Jose A. Ferrer, a jawing match between Harper and Ferrer that prompted benches and bullpens to empty, Keibert Ruiz’s go-ahead single scoring James Wood, Joey Gallo’s three-run homer for good measure – none of that should overshadow the significance of Gore’s performance.

"Here's a guy who can win 18-20 games for us," said manager Davey Martinez, whose team matched last year's total with its 71st win. "When he's in the strike zone, he's really good. Today, he proved that."

The last two innings of this game, played before a bipartisan, sellout crowd of 38,135, had plenty of action (and offense) after a classic pitchers’ duel between Gore and Zack Wheeler.

The Orioles have two games remaining in the 2024 regular season and they are two games that won’t change much for the club in that they have a playoff berth secured and after last night, the top American League Wild Card spot secured too.

The Orioles will host either Detroit or Kansas City next week, beginning Tuesday in Baltimore in a best-of-three series.

The Orioles (89-71) beat Minnesota 7-2 Friday to lock down the No. 4 playoff seed and by losing, Minnesota was eliminated from postseason contention.

Friday’s win improved the Orioles to 4-0 this year against Minnesota by a 29-11 score. They have scored seven, 11, four and seven runs in wins over Minnesota. The Orioles have produced 47 hits in the season series with 11 homers, batting .320 and with a team OPS of .922.

The Orioles have now won eight games in a row over Minnesota, outscoring the Twins 55-17 in those games.

MINNEAPOLIS – Orioles manager Brandon Hyde has made it official. Corbin Burnes will start Game 1 of the Wild Card game Tuesday at Camden Yards.

Burnes was the logical choice, of course,  and Hyde already talked about shortening his outing at Yankee Stadium because he’d be on regular rest on his next turn. Burnes was ticketed for Opening Day and Game 1 starts as soon as the Orioles acquired him from the Brewers over the winter for DL Hall and Joey Ortiz.

The rest of the playoff rotation wasn’t shared today. Hyde said he’d only announce Burnes, but Zach Eflin is expected to pitch Wednesday and Dean Kremer in Game 3 if necessary.

The opponent and times aren’t determined. The Tigers lost today and hold a half-game lead over the Royals for the fifth seeding. Kansas City owns the tie-breaker.

Burnes made playoff appearances with the Brewers but only two starts. He’s allowed six runs and 11 hits with six walks and 22 strikeouts in 19 innings.

MINNEAPOLIS – Jackson Holliday is making his first major league start at shortstop tonight against the Twins.

This is the “already clinched” lineup.

Gunnar Henderson, Colton Cowser, Cedric Mullins and Jordan Westburg are sitting.

Ramón Urías is playing second base. Emmanuel Rivera is at third. Austin Slater is the center fielder.

Adley Rutschman is catching Matt Bowman, who’s the opener.

The Nationals’ decision in mid-August to re-sign their entire coaching staff caught most outside observers by surprise. Yes, the team had shown signs of progress, but not so much progress that the decision to bring everyone back was a no-brainer.

If nothing else, conventional wisdom suggested the front office would wait until season’s end to evaluate coaches’ performance and then make decisions about everyone’s fate heading into 2025.

The early decision, prompted by manager Davey Martinez’s desire to let all of his coaches have peace of mind and not have to sweat out the season’s final month-and-a-half, was approved by general manager Mike Rizzo and ultimately by club ownership.

The Nationals owned a 55-65 record on Aug. 14 when Martinez announced the decision. They’ve gone 15-25 since and are now 20 games under .500 in the season’s final weekend. They need to win their final two games to surpass last year’s win total of 71.

Rizzo, who met with beat reporters Friday for the first time since the coaching decision, was asked both about the timing of the move and the rationale for retaining the whole staff.