TAMPA – Less than a week after drafting catcher/outfielder Ike Irish in the first round, the Orioles got his signature on a contract.

Irish, 21, signed earlier today in Baltimore after passing his physical. The Orioles made him the 19^th overall pick Sunday night out of Auburn University.

Irish, a left-handed hitter and Michigan-native climbed draft boards after slashing .364/.469/.710 with 13 doubles, two triples, 19 home runs, 58 RBIs, 33 walks, 37 strikeouts and 11 steals in 12 attempts over 55 games this season. In three college seasons, he slashed .350/.435/.625 with 48 doubles, five triples, 39 homers and 167 RBIs in 160 games.

Adding to the Irish intrigue is how he batted .325/.438/.433 last summer in the Cape Code League.

“First and foremost, we love his bat,” vice president of player development and domestic scouting Matt Blood said late Sunday night. “He’s a very polished bat, both on, really on all aspects of how you would want a hitter to be. Contact, power, swing decisions. Just really, really exciting hitter. He has the ability to catch, he has the ability to play corner outfield, he has the ability to play some first base, and we’re pretty big on defensive versatilities, so we’ll probably explore all those options.”

The Orioles today signed catcher IKE IRISH, the No. 19 overall pick in the 2025 First-Year Player Draft.

Irish, the Hudsonville, Mich. native and Auburn University (AL) product, is the first of 24 Orioles draft picks to sign. The deadline for MLB teams to sign their draft selections is Monday, July 28, at 5 p.m. ET.

The All-Star break is over. The Nationals – along with 29 other major league teams – return to action tonight, and the second half of the 2025 season gets underway.

It’s a second half that doesn’t hold anything close to the same promise it did a few months ago, when it looked like the Nats might at least threaten the .500 mark, maybe even make a surprise cameo appearance in the National League wild card race. Alas, that’s not going to happen now. To finish 81-81, they need to go a ridiculous 43-23 the rest of the way. (That would be the equivalent of a 105-win pace over an entire season. So, yeah, it’s not happening.)

But that doesn’t mean the rest of the season is going to be meaningless. There are storylines worth following over the next 2 1/2 months. Such as these …

THE TRADE DEADLINE
For the fifth straight season, the Nationals figure to be sellers on July 31. That’s not a position anyone wanted to be in this year, but it’s reality now. Interim general manager Mike DeBartolo has no choice but to see what he can get for players who don’t look like part of the long-term plan around here. Anybody on an expiring contract (Kyle Finnegan, Michael Soroka, Josh Bell, Paul DeJong, Amed Rosario, Andrew Chafin) is going to be shopped and likely moved if any kind of substantive offer is made. The bigger question is whether DeBartolo looks to move anybody still under club control in 2026 (or beyond). Nathaniel Lowe would be a potential candidate. And what about (gulp) MacKenzie Gore, who is the same distance away from free agency right as Juan Soto was in July 2022. It would take a gargantuan offer from someone, but would DeBartolo consider doing it?

WOOD’S PERSONAL PURSUITS
He’s not going to be able to do anything on his own to help the Nationals become a winning team this year, but James Wood has plenty to shoot for on a personal level. He’s shooting for 40-plus homers, a number previously reached only by Bryce Harper (42) and Alfonso Soriano (46) in club history. If he gets within shouting distance of Soriano, September could actually be a lot of fun. He could also join Anthony Rendon as the only players in club history to drive in more than 110 runs, though it would take a mammoth surge to threaten Rendon’s team record of 126 RBIs.

Release the pause button. The Orioles are set to resume their season following the All-Star break, beginning a three-game series tonight against the Rays in Tampa.

The Orioles are 22-16 since the start of June after going 21-36 beforehand, which sounds like momentum. But they closed the first half with back-to-back home losses to the Marlins and have split their last 20 games, leaving them nine below .500 at 43-52 and 7 ½ behind for the last Wild Card.

This isn’t the way to convince the front office that buying makes more sense than selling.

Get ready for more reports that the Orioles are “listening” to offers, which signals that the trade deadline is fast approaching. As I always ask, what exactly is the alternative? Executives call other executives, who listen and can exercise their right to say “no.” It doesn’t indicate progress in trade talks or a willingness to part with a particular player. It’s just the usual conversations intended to gauge whether there might be room to negotiate.

It would be bigger news if contenders weren’t checking whether the Orioles might part with Félix Bautista. They’ve got nothing to lose by asking. And I wouldn’t expect more than a couple of seconds to pass while considering the idea dealing a dominant closer who's getting back into All-Star form and remains under team control through 2027.

At the macro level, it’s impossible to look at the Nationals’ 2025 season to date and deem it a success. The team has been in a tailspin since early June, losing 28 of its last 38 games and plummeting to 20 games under .500. That tailspin cost both Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez their jobs, firings few could have accurately predicted when they closed out May with a respectable 28-30 record.

Now, the strange part. At the micro level, there actually have been a few positive developments through the season’s first half. Several key young players have performed exceptionally well. Several prospects called up to debut amid the turmoil have done a nice job to date.

Those individual positives don’t add up nearly enough to salvage the big picture. But they have created a weird dichotomy to the first 96 games of the season. All is not well around here, but all is not lost, either.

There’s much that still needs to take place in the second half to determine the fate of the 2025 Nationals, and we’ll explore that Friday morning before the guys return from the All-Star break. Today, we’ll look at what already transpired, what went right and what went wrong through a first half that won’t soon be forgotten by anyone who had to experience it. …

RIGHT: JAMES WOOD
This can’t be said enough: Wood is having the best individual season by a National since Juan Soto. The team hasn’t had a qualified hitter finish with a .900 OPS since Soto’s .999 mark in 2021. Wood currently sits at .915, and that’s down 43 points over his last eight games. If he gets that number back to .950, he’d joint an awfully select list of players in club history (Soto, Anthony Rendon, Daniel Murphy, Bryce Harper). That’s it. Oh, he’s also on pace for 41 homers and 116 RBIs. Only Harper (42) and Alfonso Soriano (46) have hit 40-plus homes in club history. Only Rendon (126) has driven in more than 110 runs. If the Nats were a more competitive team, Wood would be in the MVP discussion over the rest of the season.

What started as an innocent car ride home became a deep dive into the Orioles’ roster.

Interim manager Tony Mansolino needed a lift last Thursday with family in town, and new special advisor John Mabry provided taxi service. Mansolino used the one-on-one time with a respected former major league player and coach to discuss the team and everything happening around it.

“What do you think about all this?” Mansolino asked.

And then came his answer –without pause and aimed at the one player who usually gets lost in the crowd.

“Right away, it’s Jordan Westburg,” Mansolino recalled. “He’s like, ‘That’s the guy that nobody talks about. That’s the piece.’”

The Orioles filled one of the two openings on their 40-man roster this afternoon by claiming right-hander Elvin Rodríguez on waivers from the Brewers and optioning him to Triple-A Norfolk.

Rodríguez, 27, registered an 8.68 ERA and 1.607 WHIP in six games (two starts). He allowed 18 runs and 23 hits with seven walks, 17 strikeouts and seven home runs surrendered over 18 2/3 innings.

He also made seven appearances (five starts) with the Tigers in 2022, posting a 10.62 ERA and 1.921 WHIP in 29 2/3 innings, and registered one scoreless and hitless relief appearance covering 3 1/3 innings with the Rays in 2023. He retired all 10 batters.

Rodríguez never faced the Orioles in parts of his three major league seasons.

The Brewers designated Rodríguez for assignment last Wednesday after he signed a split contract with them in January. He had a 4.25 ERA and 1.247 WHIP in 16 games (two starts) with Triple-A Nashville.

The All-Star break doesn’t provide much rest for those of us covering the draft, tracking Ryan O’Hearn and emptying a mailbag.

The last pick in the draft was announced Monday evening. Major League Baseball did something right, getting rid of Day 3. O’Hearn was the designated hitter for the American League, and as I told him would happen, I tuned out the second after he came out.

That’s the luxury of “covering” it from home. I was in Texas last year for five Orioles representatives, plus Gunnar Henderson in the Home Run Derby.

Baseball has the best All-Star Game of the major sports, but nothing compares to the Midsummer Classics of my youth, with future Hall of Famers all over the field wearing their teams’ uniforms. (Nice to see that second part come back last night.) And prior to interleague play, which removed the novelty of the American League facing the National League outside of the World Series.

Also, get off my lawn.

Ryan O’Hearn came close to facing future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw tonight in his first career All-Star Game at-bat.

Kershaw was a “Legend Pick” by commissioner Rob Manfred, marking his 11^th All-Star selection. The three-time Cy Young Award winner retired Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, the Home Run Derby champion, on a liner to left and struck out Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

On the verge of a tough left-on-left matchup, O’Hearn instead got Padres right-hander Jason Adam and struck out looking at a 2-2 slider that nicked the outer half of the plate.

O’Hearn pulled a changeup foul on the previous pitch – an almost double.

The American League put runners on the corners against Mets left-hander David Peterson with two outs in the fourth, and O’Hearn grounded a first-pitch slider back to the mound. Peterson jogged to first base and flipped the ball for the out.

Tony Mansolino is carving his own path since the Orioles named him interim manager on May 17. It usually happens twice a day in the auxiliary clubhouse, where he meets with the media before and after games.

Former manager Brandon Hyde would veer to the right, around the rows of metal folding chairs, to reach his seat at the table, and he’d go back out the same way. Reporters knew the routine and how to avoid slowing or bumping into him.

Mansolino paused on his first day to wait for a public relations official and crossed up everyone by walking down the middle of the room. More fullback than halfback, though his build doesn’t offer the same comparison.

In one sense, Mansolino is following in Hyde’s footsteps because of the role unexpectedly thrust upon him. He’s got the office now and usually stands in the same spot at the dugout railing, to the far left. But he’s also figuring out on the fly how to make it job his own, for however long it belongs to him.

“I didn’t ask for this, so that morning when that happened, that was as big of a shock to me as it was you guys,” he said earlier this week. “So I think when you just kind of get thrown into the fire, you’re trying to get your feet settled and adapt.”

The Orioles made 17 selections on the final day of the 2025 First-Year Player Draft, completing rounds 4-20. This year, Baltimore selected 24 players overall: 13 pitchers and 11 position players, with 21 of the selections being college athletes and three from the high school ranks. The Orioles selected eight right-handed pitchers, five left-handed pitchers, four outfielders, five infielders, and two catchers.

The Washington Nationals selected 17 players on the second and final day of Major League Baseball’s 2025 First-Year Player Draft on Monday. Interim General Manager Mike DeBartolo; Vice President, Amateur Scouting Danny Haas; Senior Director, Amateur Scouting Brad Ciolek; and Assistant Director and National Crosschecker, Amateur Scouting Reed Dunn made the joint announcements.

The Nationals opened Day 2 with the selection of right-handed pitcher Miguel Sime Jr. from Poly Prep Country Day School (NY). The 6-foot-4, 235-pounder recorded a 1.47 ERA (8 ER/49.1 IP) with 89 strikeouts and zero home runs allowed in eight outings as a senior on his way to being named the Gatorade High School Player of the Year in the state of New York, a Perfect Game All-American and a second-team ABCA/Rawlings High School All-American.

Sime is rated by MLBPipeline.com as the No. 86 prospect and by Baseball America as the No. 88 prospect in the 2025 First-Year Player Draft. He is the top high school prospect in the state of New York and the No. 6 high school right-handed pitching prospect in the country, according to Perfect Game. Prior to the 2025 Draft, Sime participated in the MLB Draft League, striking out 11 batters and posting a .161 opponents’ average (5-for-31) in 8.2 innings.

In the fifth round, the Nationals selected shortstop Coy James out of Davie High School (N.C.). James, 18, hit .605 with 15 doubles, four triples, nine home runs, 25 RBI, 21 stolen bases, 22 walks, 50 runs scored and just six strikeouts on his way to being named Gatorade North Carolina Player of the Year and 4A Player of the Year by the North Carolina Baseball Coaches Association.

The 6-foot, 185-pound right-handed hitter was named a First Team All-American by ABCA/Rawlings this season. He was ranked the No. 15 overall player and No. 9 shortstop, according to Perfect Game, while being named to their All-American Game in 2024. He was also ranked the No. 49 overall draft prospect by Baseball America and the No. 94 prospect by MLBPipe.com.

The No. 1 pick was always going to dominate the conversation about the Nationals’ 2025 draft class, no matter who they selected. And a front office that experienced major change just one week ago desperately wants and needs Eli Willits to become everything they believe he can be, putting to rest any doubts about their somewhat-surprising decision to draft him.

But the Nats also know this draft can’t be considered a success if only their first round pick pans out. Among the reasons ownership decided to make a change of general managers was the organization’s lack of development of later round picks over the last decade.

There have been some strides made in that area more recently, with the likes of Cole Henry (second round, 2020), Daylen Lile (second round, 2021), Jake Irvin (fourth round, 2018), Mitchell Parker (fifth round, 2020), Jacob Young (seventh round, 2021) and Brad Lord (18th round, 2022) all reaching the big leagues and becoming contributors of varying degrees. But it’s still not enough. The Nationals know they need to develop more quality players out of picks beyond the first round.

It will be some time before we know if they were successful in that regard this year, but it’s clear they took a different approach with several of their down-ballot draft picks over the last two days: They went for more high-upside high schoolers than has typically been the case.

“They’re such talented guys,” vice president of amateur scouting Danny Haas said. “Big arms. Big power. Athletes. Just the value of where you get them with every round, we were very excited about that.”

James Wood seemed to set the bar high enough when he kicked off tonight’s Home Run Derby with a solid number and several jaw-dropping blasts.

Little did the Nationals’ young slugger realize just how impressive the competition would be on this night.

Despite launching 16 home runs as the first contestant at Atlanta’s Truist Park, Wood wound up being the first one eliminated when the four batters who followed – Brent Rooker, Junior Caminero, Oneil Cruz and Byron Buxton – each surpassed that number.

Wood drew the short straw and had to bat first, leaving the 22-year-old with no way of knowing how many home runs it would take to advance to the semifinals. And he got off to a slow start, with only one of his first eight batted balls clearing the fence.

But the young man known for hitting baseballs as hard as anyone in the sport put forth a mighty swing at that point that got him going at last. His 486-foot blast off the roof of the restaurant in right-center field was longer than any ball hit during last summer’s derby in Texas.

Here’s the latest with the Orioles from Day 2 of the draft:

Fourth round (124^th): Colin Yeaman, shortstop. University of California-Irvine.

Yeaman, 21, was the Big West Player of the Year after batting .336/.447/.591 with 16 doubles, four triples, 13 home runs, 56 RBIs, 38 walks and 53 strikeouts in 60 games. He played two seasons at the College of the Canyons, batting .405 and .443 in a combined 56 games. He also underwent two surgeries on his left shoulder.

A lack of quickness and range, and average arm strength, could lead to a change in positions.

MLB Pipeline ranked Yeaman as the No. 97 prospect in the draft. His best tool is his bat, with a 55-grade hitting.

The gentlemen in charge of the Nationals’ draft war room Sunday night all made the same point, in their own various words, about the ultimate decision to use the No. 1 pick on Eli Willits. They all were adamant he was the choice, no dissension in the room.

Vice president of amateur scouting Danny Haas: “I think there was general consensus for a while, and it solidified into unanimous toward the end of our process.”

Assistant scouting director/national crosschecker Reed Dunn: “I’m really proud of the work everybody did to come together. And, as Danny said, to make a unanimous decision on somebody we truly believe in.”

Senior director of amateur scouting Brad Ciolek: “We scouted the entire class. We were prepared. And then ultimately when we ended up winning the lottery, we knew exactly who we needed to hone in on, who we needed to do more work on.”

Interim general manager Mike DeBartolo: “It was one of those nice things where the scouts and the analysts see things the exact same way and saw him as the best hitter in the draft, the best fielder in the draft, with just great makeup, great work ethic and all the intangibles. Everything came together, and it was a really collaborative and great process.”

Day 2 of the draft begins later this morning and should move rapidly from rounds four to 20.

The Orioles paused late last night to admire their bounty after making seven selections.

Matt Blood, vice president of player development and domestic scouting, said he was thrilled with the level of talent that began with catchers Ike Irish and Caden Bodine and continued with shortstop Wehiwa Aloy, outfielder Slater de Brun, left-hander Joseph Dzierwa, right-hander JT Quinn and outfielder RJ Austin. Only de Brun, who committed to Vanderbilt, is a prep player.

“Just having that many picks on Day 1 gives you the ability to capitalize whenever these things happen,” Blood said. “We’re just really over the moon with the haul we were able to get today.”

(Cowser seemed most likely to jump over it, but I digress …)

The Washington Nationals selected right-handed pitcher Landon Harmon out of East Union Attendance Center High School (Miss.) in the third round with the No. 80 overall pick in the 2025 MLB First-Year Player Draft on Sunday. Interim General Manager Mike DeBartolo; Vice President, Amateur Scouting Danny Haas; Senior Director, Amateur Scouting Brad Ciolek; and Assistant Director and National Crosschecker, Amateur Scouting Reed Dunn made the joint announcement.

Harmon, 18, pitched to a 1.09 ERA with 131 strikeouts in 66.1 innings of work this season. He was named MHSAA's Class 2A Mr. Baseball for the second year in a row, an All-State first-team selection and to the 2025 Clarion Ledger's Dandy Dozen, a collection of Mississippi's top high school baseball prospects.

The 6-foot-5, 190-pound righty was the MLBPipeline.com No. 48 prospect in the draft and Baseball America’s No. 65 draft prospect. He was named an All-American, the No. 26 overall player and the No. 2 right-handed pitcher by Perfect Game. He was also named a second-team All-American by Baseball America.

In the end, the Nationals went with the other talented shortstop from Oklahoma whose father played in the big leagues.

The Nats selected Eli Willits with the No. 1 pick in tonight’s Major League Baseball Draft, a choice that may have surprised some but became increasingly possible over the last week both because of the 17-year-old’s all-around skills and the suspicion he might command a lower signing bonus than either Ethan Holliday or Kade Anderson, possibly opening the door for the club to go over slot on later-round picks.

Owners of the top selection in the draft for the third time in club history, the Nationals faced a much tougher decision this time than they did when last they found themselves in this position. Stephen Strasburg (2009) and Bryce Harper (2010) were no-brainers, two of the most highly touted prospects in the history of the sport.

The list of viable options was much longer this year, with Willits joined by fellow Oklahoma high school infielder Holliday, LSU left-hander Anderson, Tennessee lefty Liam Doyle and California high school right-hander Seth Hernandez all meriting consideration down to the wire, according to a source familiar with the club’s deliberations.

Willits, who admitted he made it his personal goal to be drafted No. 1 overall two years ago, was optimistic about his chances after he visited Nationals Park last month and got a chance to meet team executives and coaches. That didn't diminish his emotions when he officially got the call today.

The Orioles didn’t stray from their preference for college bats in the first round of the 2025 draft. Only their season can be described as unpredictable.

With the 19^th overall pick tonight, the Orioles selected Auburn catcher Ike Irish.

Irish, a 21-year-old left-handed hitter and Michigan-native, homered six times in his last eight games. He slashed .364/.469/.710 with 13 doubles, two triples, 19 homers, 58 RBIs, 33 walks, 37 strikeouts and 11 steals in 12 attempts over 55 games this season.

In three college seasons, Irish hit .350/.435/.625 with 48 doubles, five triples, 39 homers and 167 RBIs in 160 games. He batted .325/.438/.433 in the Cape Code League last summer.

Irish, listed at 6 foot 2 and 210 pounds, also plays the outfield. He caught in only 12 games this year, compared to playing 41 in right and four in left.