Ramón Urías appeared in 506 games with the Orioles over parts of six seasons. He played every position in the infield. Both of his managers praised his versatility and those stretches when he seemed like the only hot hitter in the lineup.

The trade deadline got him, too. Though under team control through 2026, Urías was dealt to the Astros for Class A pitcher Twine Palmer.

The roster priorities begin with pitching, both the rotation and bullpen, but the Orioles probably will check on infielders who can replicate Urías’ glove work. Jorge Mateo has a $5.5 million option in his contract that they could decline. Luis Vázquez has a great defensive reputation at shortstop but is 9-for-62 in the majors. His biggest contribution came on the mound with four scoreless relief appearances over 4 1/3 innings.

Jeremiah Jackson was head and shoulders above the other two, which got his foot in the door for 2026. He batted .276/.328/.447 with 10 doubles, two triples, five home runs and 21 RBIs in 48 games, but he doesn’t really fit the utility profile because his starts came at third base and in right field. He’s also made starts at shortstop and second base and in left and center field in the minors, but the Orioles don’t envision that kind of movement from him.

If the Orioles can’t make room on the roster for Jackson and a super-utility player, they could bank of the versatility of other infielders for coverage. Interim manager Tony Mansolino didn’t think that Jackson had to play shortstop in order to break camp with the team. They have backups, including Jackson Holliday, who handled the position while Gunnar Henderson was on the injured list.

PLAYER REVIEW: KEIBERT RUIZ

Age on Opening Day 2026: 27

How acquired: Traded with Josiah Gray, Donovan Casey and Gerardo Carrillo from Dodgers for Max Scherzer and Trea Turner, July 2021

MLB service time: 4 years, 64 days

2025 salary: $6 million

PLAYER REVIEW: RILEY ADAMS

Age on Opening Day 2026: 29

How acquired: Acquired from Blue Jays for Brad Hand, July 2021

MLB service time: 3 years, 171 days

2025 salary: $850,000

The Orioles have a full 40-man roster that’s going to experience a significant shuffling of players.

A typical offseason.  

Pitchers Félix Bautista, Grayson Rodriguez and Brandon Young will come off the 60-day injured list. Pitcher Zach Eflin and catcher Gary Sánchez also are on the 60-day but will become free agents after the World Series.

Pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano also is a pending free agent. Infielder Jorge Mateo ($5.5 million) and reliever Dietrich Enns ($3 million) have team options in their contracts that could be declined. Fourteen players are eligible for arbitration and a few are candidates to be non-tendered, including first baseman Ryan Mountcastle, outfielder Dylan Carlson and reliever José Castillo.

Here’s the current 40-man:

The first offseason mailbag filled up quickly and required a second dumping.

Here are some extras from earlier this week. Same rules against obsessive editing and crowing about it. Same weird mix of baseball and anything else.

Given Grayson Rodriguez’s health issues, and Kyle Bradish (and Tyler Wells) coming back from injury, might the Orioles reconsider starting the season with a six-man rotation? If/when someone gets hurt, they could drop down to five if they don't see it as a season-long thing.
The issue with a six-man rotation always has been the added stress it places on a bullpen. You’re a man short. I see your logic, but you’d need relievers to cover those innings. I think Rodriguez is the only one who could be babied at the beginning because he hasn’t pitched since July 31, 2024. We’ll know more about the team’s plans after camp opens, but my expectation is a standard five-man rotation with the possibility of expanding it later in the summer.  

How many former catchers will interview for the manager's job?
Rick Dempsey would love a shot at it. Not happening. But he needs to be on the guest coaching list at spring training. The man only caught in the majors for 24 years and won a couple World Series. But back to your question. The odds are much better for David Ross, Bob Melvin, Brad Ausmus and Mike Matheny.

Does being a former Oriole weigh into the club's decision on a new manager?
The Orioles aren't saying much about the search but that doesn't make much sense. Brandon Hyde had no ties to the Orioles. Ryan Flaherty, as another example, played under Buck Showalter. Why would that matter to the current regime? His playing career ended with Cleveland in 2019. Maybe the Guardians will call if they need another manager. If the Orioles hire Flaherty, it will be because of his coaching background after retirement, his knowledge and implementation of analytics, his intelligence, what he learned as a player.  

PLAYER REVIEW: ROBERT HASSELL III

Age on Opening Day 2026: 24

How acquired: Traded with James Wood, CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, Jarlin Susana and Luke from Padres for Juan Soto and Josh Bell, August 2022

MLB service time: 85 days

2025 salary: $760,000

Orioles pitcher Albert Suárez received a second opinion on his right elbow Tuesday during an examination by Dr. Keith Meister.

According to a team spokesperson, Suárez suffered a mild forearm flexor strain in his last appearance on Sept. 14 in Toronto.

Suárez is continuing his rehabilitation into the offseason and is expected to begin a throwing progression in the coming weeks, which is a positive development following concerns over the severity of his injury. Second opinions often lead to bad news. 

The club will provide a further update when it has more information to share.

Suárez made his lone start of the season at Rogers Centre and allowed one run and two hits in three innings before being shut down. He couldn’t undergo an MRI until the swelling subsided.

PLAYER REVIEW: JACOB YOUNG

Age on Opening Day 2026: 26

How acquired: Seventh round pick, 2021 Draft

MLB service time: 2 years, 37 days

2025 salary: $768,700

Samuel Basallo played in only 31 games with the Orioles and already began to blend with his teammates and understand how life works in a major league clubhouse.

What you see and hear in there stays in there.

Basallo might have taken it to the extreme, but he had an impressive response to a question at Yankee Stadium about a team meeting to discuss how the Orioles could avoid a repeat of their disappointing 2025 season.

“I don’t want to talk about specific things, but I think we’ve talked about a number of different topics and things that we need to do better, things that we need to get better at,” he said through interpreter Brandon Quinones.

“I don’t think it’s the smart thing to talk about it on camera, but we’ve spoken about a few different things and we know what we need to do.”

PLAYER REVIEW: DAYLEN LILE

Age on Opening Day 2026: 23

How acquired: Second round pick, 2021 Draft

MLB service time: 119 days

2025 salary: $760,000

A team’s offseason business usually includes deciding which arbitration-eligible players should be tendered contracts and which ones are allowed to walk into free agency. Or given a shove.

The deadline to grab or let go is Nov. 21.

Players with three-to-six years of service time are eligible, and most fans know every step of the dance. The sides exchange figures if an agreement isn’t reached, and a three-person panel chooses a winner in hearings that run between late January and early February.

The Orioles prefer the file-and-go approach (and I prefer calling it file-and-trial), but they make exceptions for contracts that include options and aren’t just for the upcoming season.

Arbitration contributes to the hikes in payroll. Players don’t take cuts. And some raises are more extreme than others.

PLAYER REVIEW: DYLAN CREWS

Age on Opening Day 2026: 24

How acquired: First round pick, 2023 Draft

MLB service time: 1 year, 35 days

2025 salary: $761,800

Among the 16 minor leaguers that the Orioles acquired at this year’s trade deadline, five of them can be found among Baltimore’s top 30 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline. Slater de Brun, selected with the draft pick acquired by sending Bryan Baker to the Rays, makes six. 

de Brun and Boston Bateman, the headliner of the trade that sent Ryan O’Hearn and Ramón Laureano to the Padres, are both ranked in the top 10. Juaron Watts-Brown joins a group of excellent starting pitching prospects in Double-A. 

But it’s three unranked deadline acquisitions, Anthony Nunez, Tyson Neighbors and Cameron Foster, that could make the biggest impacts in Baltimore next season. 

Why, then, are the three pitching prospects relatively unheralded?

Typically, in prospect rankings, more stock is put into arms with a starter’s upside than those that are already coming out of the bullpen in the minor leagues. If the starter fails to reach his potential, the “fallback” is in the bullpen. 

As we’ve learned through years and years of testing and experimentation, you can’t have an offseason mailbag without an offseason. It’s literally in the name.

Let’s break out the first one here, the latest sequel to the beloved and often celebrated 2008 original.

As you’d expect, many of the questions pertained to the pending managerial and GM hirings and specifics about the roster. And as you’d expect, I can’t provide many definitive answers because it’s too early or the club hasn’t shared the necessary information.

It’s hard to see clearly in the dark.

What’s much more obvious is that my mailbag sacks quarterbacks and your mailbag wants its quarter back after tipping a waiter.

Orioles' reliever Yennier Cano will bring an unheralded streak into the 2026 season, as long as he’s with the club.

We can’t make assumptions after Cano labored through most of 2025 and still has minor league options.

Cano has led the club in appearances for three consecutive seasons, topping the pitching staff with 72 in 2023 while also compiling a 2.11 ERA and making the American League’s All-Star team, 70 in 2024 and 65 in 2025 to edge out Keegan Akin (64).

The next five were traded or injured: Gregory Soto (45), Seranthony Domínguez (43), Bryan Baker (42), Félix Bautista (35) and Andrew Kittredge (31). Dean Kremer tied Kittredge.

Eddie Watt (1967-70) and Stu Miller (1963-66) are tied for the club record with four straight seasons with the most appearances, per STATS. Cano, Jim Johnson (2011-13), Jesse Orosco (1995-97), Tippy Martinez (1981-83) and George Zuverink (1956-58) are next with three.

PLAYER REVIEW: JAMES WOOD

Age on Opening Day 2026: 23

How acquired: Traded with CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, Robert Hassell III, Jarlin Susana and Luke Voit from Padres for Juan Soto and Josh Bell, August 2022

MLB service time: 1 year, 91 days

2025 salary: $764,600

The needs of a 75-87, last-place team that should have contended for a third straight playoff appearance and challenged for the organization’s first World Series title in 42 years are so long and varied that it’s hard to agree on a starting point.

Finding a new manager is a top priority, but the front office can conduct its roster business without him. He’ll play the hand that he’s dealt.

His life will be easier if the Orioles give him a veteran bat for the lineup.

Make sure that it’s gripped by a leader.

The Orioles are counting on the young core, as it’s called, to step up in 2026. They also counted on it in 2025 and results were mixed at best. Mostly below expectations.

OK, it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. No, not the naming of the Nationals’ new president of baseball operations. Not the hiring of a new manager. And certainly not the signing of any core young player to a long-term extension. It’s the revisiting of our annual Opening Day predictions!

For 16 years now, my colleagues on the Nats beat have been gracious enough to join me in making all sorts of predictions about the upcoming season. And for 16 years now, we’ve all mostly been embarrassed to look back at all the predictions we got wrong, with an occasional celebration over something one of us actually got right.

The 2025 season did not play out how anyone expected, I think that’s safe to say. But within the big picture, we did come close to getting a few smaller items correct. Right or wrong, it’s not only tradition to publish these traditions on Opening Day. It’s also tradition to republish them at the end of the season, which we now present behind covered eyes and ears …

WHICH NATIONALS WILL BE SELECTED FOR THE ALL-STAR GAME?
Bobby Blanco (MASNsports.com) – MacKenzie Gore, James Wood
Jessica Camerato (MLB.com) – Luis García Jr., James Wood
Al Galdi (Nats Chat Podcast) – MacKenzie Gore, James Wood
Andrew Golden (Washington Post) – Michael Soroka, James Wood
Craig Heist (106.7 The Fan) – CJ Abrams, James Wood
Chelsea Janes (Washington Post) – Luis García Jr., MacKenzie Gore
Bill Ladson (MLB.com honorary) – MacKenzie Gore, James Wood
Tim Shovers (Nats Chat Podcast) – MacKenzie Gore
Spencer Nusbaum (Washington Post) – Luis García Jr., James Wood
Mark Zuckerman (MASNsports.com) – CJ Abrams, James Wood

Correct answer: MacKenzie Gore and James Wood each earned the first All-Star selections of their careers thanks to dominant first halves … which they could not sustain over the second half.

When the Orioles vow to hire a new manager “as soon as possible,” it’s a good bet to get done faster than in past years under previous ownership.

Peter Angelos often handled his baseball business as he would in court, with the lawyer coming out of him. You couldn’t rush him. Efforts to gain approval on anything, including possible trades, might stall as if having transmission trouble. Past general managers just learned to deal with it. Some candidates for various jobs lost patience with the indecisiveness of the organization. 

The Orioles will operate with a greater sense of urgency in their search for a full-time manager, though they’ve got more time on their side than in 2018. The Winter Meetings are two months away. News probably won’t break and appear on an MLB Network scroll while Mike Elias meets with the media in his suite in Orlando.

Every outlet is going to post lists of possible hires and every name at this point is a hunch or guess, unlike in 2018, when six finalists were confirmed – Brandon Hyde, Manny Acta, Mike Bell, Pedro Grifol, Chip Hale and Mike Redmond.

The White Sox hired Grifol in November 2022 and fired him in August. 2024.

Welcome to the offseason, everybody. Though if you were expecting a quiet October, you're probably going to be disappointed. The Nationals should be very active during this opening month, and that began with Wednesday's introductory press conference for new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni.

There's a lot still on Toboni's plate. Will he hire a general manager to work underneath him? Will he retain the Nationals' current front office or bring in new people from outside the organization? What will the managerial search look like, and when will it be resolved? Who will be on the eventual manager's coaching staff? Oh yeah, and then: What about the roster?

We'll be here to chronicle it every step of the way. But before we hit the ground running, let's take this opportunity today to answer your questions about the state of the Nats and what's still to come. As always, enter your submissions in the comments section below, then check back for my responses over the course of the morning ...