Because it’s never too early to wonder about lineup construction, even before Thanksgiving, there’s an instant curiosity over the most ideal spot to bat Taylor Ward.

Ward has hit everywhere during his eight-year career, and before the Orioles acquired him from the Angels this week for starter Grayson Rodriguez in a shocking one-for-one deal.

The breakdown goes as follows:

First: 169 starts
Second: 19
Third: 139
Fourth: 179
Fifth: 37
Sixth: 36
Seventh: 49
Eighth: 32
Ninth: five

Ward hit a career-high 36 home runs this year and 18 of them came from the cleanup spot, where he made 99 starts. He batted third in 30 games and hit nine homers and swatted six among his 22 starts at leadoff. Ward batted fifth in three games (two homers) and second twice (one homer).

With more than two decades of their own history to call back upon now, more and more players from Nationals history are beginning to show up on the Hall of Fame ballot.

This year’s ballot, as a matter of fact, includes three ex-Nats players for the first time: Gio Gonzalez, Howie Kendrick and Daniel Murphy.

OK, so none of those three is likely to garner much (if any) support from BBWAA voters. But it’s a distinct honor simply to make the Hall of Fame ballot, and not too many Nationals have over the years.

This year’s trio brings the grand total of Nats players to appear on the ballot to 19. Only one has earned election to Cooperstown: Ivan Rodriguez who made it in 2017 on his first attempt, receiving 76 percent support. But only four others have ever even received any votes, and none came anywhere close to induction.

Alfonso Soriano got six votes in 2020. Jonathan Papelbon got five votes in 2022. And Liván Hernández (2018) and Adam Dunn (2020) each received one vote. (No, none of those came from yours truly. I have stricter standards than that.)

The decision to non-tender pitcher Albert Suárez didn’t necessarily close the door on his return next year.

The decision to tender first baseman Ryan Mountcastle showed that the Orioles are open to making room for him on the roster.

President of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias explained today’s moves in a video call, as well as the motivation behind trading for Angels outfielder Taylor Ward earlier this week.

“The arbitration system, the tender system, there are price points that are set by the system itself that you have to adapt your decision-making to,” Elias said when asked about Suárez, who pitched in only five games this year due to shoulder and forearm injuries.

“We love Albert. He’s been a tremendous success story for us since our pro scouts and Mike Snyder’s group found him coming out of Asia. What our pitching department did to develop him, and then what he did particularly in 2024. And it was a real bummer and it was a big part of a lot of the struggles we had last (season) that he got hurt.

The first major decision made by Paul Toboni and his new Nationals front office: To retain all of the players currently under club control for now.

The Nats tendered contracts to all of their unsigned 40-man roster players before this evening’s deadline, opting to keep all seven of their arbitration-eligible players. Infielders Luis García Jr. and CJ Abrams, left-hander MacKenzie Gore and right-handers Jake Irvin, Josiah Gray and Cade Cavalli all were tendered, with their salaries to be determined at a later date (either by agreeing to terms with the club or filing for arbitration).

Catcher Riley Adams, meanwhile, not only was tendered a contract but already agreed to terms on his 2026 salary, avoiding arbitration, the team announced. Figures were not revealed, but Adams made $850,000 this season and was projected to receive a raise up to about $1.5 million via arbitration.

Though these moves don’t necessarily guarantee all of the above players will be part of the 2026 roster, they do suggest Toboni and his newly assembled team at least are willing to pay all of them what they could command in arbitration, barring any trades this winter.

That’s particularly notable for García, Irvin and Adams, who appeared to be the most likely of the group who could’ve been non-tendered, essentially getting released and becoming free agents.

The Orioles tendered first baseman Ryan Mountcastle a contract for the 2026 season earlier today but chose to let pitcher Albert Suárez enter free agency.

Suárez was the only non-tender at today’s arbitration deadline.

Closer Félix Bautista, who underwent shoulder surgery to repair his labrum and rotator cuff, agreed to terms on a contract for 2026 that prevents a possible hearing. A source confirmed an MLB.com report that the deal is worth $2.25 million.

Bautista will miss the majority of the upcoming season, but the club is hopeful that he can contribute down the stretch.

Keegan Akin, Kyle Bradish, Yennier Cano, Gunnar Henderson, Dean Kremer, Trevor Rogers, Adley Rutschman, Taylor Ward and Tyler Wells were tendered contracts, along with all pre-arbitration players on the 40-man roster.

The Nationals have avoided salary arbitration and agreed to a one-year contract for 2026 with Riley Adams.

The Nationals have also tendered contracts to all of our other unsigned 40-Man Roster players.

The 40-Man Roster remains at 37.

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• Tendered 2026 contracts to LHP Keegan Akin, RHP Kyle Bradish, RHP Yennier Cano, INF Gunnar Henderson, RHP Dean Kremer, INF Ryan Mountcastle, LHP Trevor Rogers, C Adley Rutschman, OF Taylor Ward, and RHP Tyler Wells, as well as all pre-arbitration 40-man players.
• Agreed to terms with RHP Félix Bautista on a one-year contract for the 2026 season, avoiding arbitration.
• Declined to tender a contract to RHP Albert Suárez, allowing him to become a free agent.

The Orioles’ 40-man roster currently has 38 players.

The Orioles have made the following roster move:

OF Pedro León claimed off outright waivers by the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Orioles had a contract decision to make on catcher Alex Jackson. They did it this morning.

It’s passed along to the Minnesota Twins.

Jackson was traded today for minor league infielder Payton Eeles, reducing the number of players on the 40-man roster to 39.

Eeles, who turned 26 earlier this month, signed with the Twins as an undrafted free agent after playing at Coastal Carolina – where he was teammates with Orioles 2025 first-round draft pick Caden Bodine – and in the independent American Association in 2023.

Over 210 minor league games, Eeles has batted .285/.410/.417 with 28 doubles, 10 triples, 16 home runs and 94 RBIs and has stolen 68 bases in 86 attempts. He’s also walked 120 times and struck out 141.

The Orioles have reached the latest important date on the offseason calendar, and this one is worth circling twice.

Teams must decide tonight whether to tender contracts to their arbitration-eligible players. The list grew to 13 with the Taylor Ward trade.

Players with three-to-six years of service time must go through the process. 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, also known as the alliterative file-and-trial, but they make exceptions for contracts that include options and aren’t strictly for the upcoming season.

The offseason began with 14 eligible Orioles, but the Mets claimed reliever José Castillo on waivers earlier this month and outfielder Dylan Carlson chose free agency after clearing waivers.

We’ve reached a potentially important day in the still-nascent stages of the Paul Toboni era of Nationals baseball. It’s non-tender day across the major leagues, which means the new president of baseball operations has some significant decisions to make, probably his most significant roster decisions since taking the job about two months ago.

By this evening, all MLB clubs must tender 2026 contract offers to all arbitration-eligible players. What does that mean? In a nutshell, teams must officially inform all players with at least three but fewer than six years of big league service time whether they are being retained for next season. Their specific salaries will be determined at a later date, with the two sides either agreeing to a figure on their own or filing for arbitration.

Any players who aren’t offered contracts today are “non-tendered,” which serves the same purpose as getting released. They immediately become free agents, allowed to sign with any club.

Toboni’s predecessor, Mike Rizzo, made plenty of news on this day in seasons past. Just one year ago, he surprised most by non-tendering Kyle Finnegan before eventually re-signing the All-Star closer during spring training for a lower salary number than he would have received via arbitration. (Tanner Rainey also was non-tendered last year, a less surprising move.)

The Nationals have seven current players who are arbitration-eligible, including several big names: CJ Abrams, Luis Garcia Jr., MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin, Josiah Gray, Cade Cavalli and Riley Adams. And while the decision to tender contracts to some of these players is obvious, it’s not such an easy call on several others.

The Orioles have acquired minor league INF Payton Eeles from the Minnesota Twins in exchange for C Alex Jackson.

The Orioles' 40-man roster currently has 39 players.

The Orioles are getting closer to completing their coaching staff for the 2026 season.

According to a source, Hank Conger has been hired as bullpen coach under new manager Craig Albernaz.

Conger most recently was Minnesota’s assistant bench coach before finding out earlier this month that he wouldn’t be retained under new manager Derek Shelton. He joined the Twins in 2022 as first base and catching coach.

More youth is added to the staff with the 37-year-old Conger, a former first round draft pick of the Angels who played in the majors for seven seasons. He also gives the Orioles’ another hire with a catching background.

Conger spent five seasons with the Angels and played for the Astros in 2015 and Rays in 2016. Albernaz managed Tampa Bay’s instructional league team that year. Mike Elias was Houston’s director of amateur scouting in ’15.

Simon Mathews’ pitching career ended right as the entire world was shutting down in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The then-24-year-old right-hander with an 89-mph fastball had maxed out his abilities as an undrafted free agent with the Angels, reaching Triple-A but released by that organization shortly after spring training was halted by Major League Baseball.

Still needing money to pay the rent, Mathews used some personal connections to take a job in business development that he despised but allowed him to then pursue the coaching career that now appealed to him. He spent the free time he had in 2020 doing work for a pair of noted pitching labs (Push Performance in Arizona, Driveline Baseball in Seattle) and met Sean Doolittle, who was working to keep his MLB career going.

The next thing he knew, Mathews was hired by the Reds to run the pitching program at their Dominican Academy, then climbed the organizational ladder to work as a roving pitching instructor and ultimately as Cincinnati’s assistant pitching coach this year.

And then last week this previously unknown 30-year-old was named the Nationals’ new pitching coach, a member of Blake Butera’s still-under-construction staff who is even younger than the majors’ youngest manager since 1972.

From washed-out minor leaguer to big league pitching coach in five years? Was this somehow Mathews’ grand plan all along?

In case anyone thought the offseason would be a bore, the Orioles stunned the industry with Tuesday night’s Grayson Rodriguez trade – a late one on the East Coast. They broke their own news, which is a rarity in this industry. It froze us like a 12-6 curveball.

And they’re just getting started.

Let’s sift through some leftover thoughts on the one-for-one deal that brings slugging outfielder Taylor Ward to Baltimore.

* Some of the reviews from national media aren’t favorable for the Orioles based on Rodriguez’s potential and controllability. He can’t become a free agent until after the 2029 season. He hasn’t even reached arbitration eligibility. Ward, meanwhile, can test the market after 2026.

The Orioles are living in the moment.

The Orioles had a question mark in the outfield, a query resolved with the acquisition of the slugging Taylor Ward. 

The manner in which they acquired Ward left many with new questions. 

Baltimore sent Grayson Rodriguez, the former top pitching prospect in the game, to Los Angeles in a one-for-one swap for Ward. Rodriguez, the 11th overall pick in the 2018 draft, hasn’t appeared in the big leagues since 2024 after missing all of last season with a laundry list of injuries. 

Something about opening some doors and closing others. 

Let’s start on the Ward side of things, where the O’s have shored up their outfield group for 2026. The 31-year-old, with just one year of team control remaining, has quietly put together a rock-solid stretch of seasons in Los Angeles, averaging over 136 games played with a .783 OPS, .251 batting average, 24.5 home runs, 24.3 doubles and 72.5 runs driven in per year since 2022. 

The Orioles today announced the return of the weekly “Orioles Hot Stove Show” on WBAL NewsRadio, the flagship station of the Orioles Radio Network. Beginning Thursday, December 4, fans can tune into AM 1090, FM 101.5, and WBAL.com each Thursday from 7-8 p.m. ET as Orioles broadcasters BRETT HOLLANDER and BEN WAGNER, and MASN insider ROCH KUBATKO provide Orioles news, analysis, exclusive interviews, and more.

The show will air each Thursday beginning December 4, until the team reports to Spring Training in mid-February, with some exceptions. For more information, including updates on live show dates and locations, visit Orioles.com/HotStove.

Turkeypalooza will distribute 1,100 complete holiday meal kits
at four locations across the region from Nov. 24-26

Washington Nationals Philanthropies, the official charitable arm of the Washington Nationals, will distribute 1,100 turkeys and thousands of pounds of food during Turkeypalooza. The annual event serves families across the region, supporting residents with four pick-up locations from Monday, Nov. 24, through Wednesday, Nov. 26.

Now in its eighth year, Turkeypalooza will provide meal kits, including a turkey, fresh produce, and shelf-stable sides like stuffing and macaroni and cheese, with support from Washington Nationals Community Impact Partner AARP, Giant Food and DoorDash.

“Nationals Philanthropies tackles food insecurity throughout the year through nutrition education, a weekly produce market and grants that improve access to healthy food in the communities with the greatest need,” said Lauren McCarthy, Vice President and Executive Director, Washington Nationals Philanthropies. “We are grateful that we can serve so many families across the region this holiday season with support from partners like AARP, Giant Food and DoorDash.”

Turkeypalooza will distribute Thanksgiving meals at locations throughout the region, which have been selected based on the needs of residents. Each distribution will begin at 3:00 p.m. The four locations include:

As significant as Blake Butera’s hiring was – and, let’s be clear, it’s incredibly significant – there has been just as much interest in learning who will fill out the new Nationals manager’s coaching staff.

Given Butera’s almost unprecedented youth (at 33, he’s the youngest major league manager since 1972) and lack of experience (he never played, coached nor managed above Single-A), conventional wisdom said he would look to surround himself with older, more experienced coaches.

That’s partially the case so far, but not entirely the case.

The Nats are still in the process of hiring several more staff members, so we don’t know what the full makeup will look like yet. But while Butera has hired a more experienced bench coach in 50-year-old Michael Johns, his pitching coach (Simon Mathews) is actually only 30. And while the other three known members of the staff (Bobby Wilson, Sean Doolittle, Tyler Smarslok) all have some big league coaching experience, their ages range between 33 and 42.

“I don’t think we really set out to either hire for or not for experience,” Butera said. “I think what was first and foremost was that we wanted to bring in people who align with our values. We wanted people that would help hold each other accountable, come in with a tremendous amount of work ethic and make sure they were in this thing for the right reasons.”

They didn't get me this time.

The Orioles announce a late trade or signing every offseason that catches me napping. Or sleeping, to be exact.

I still haven't gotten over the James McCann deal in December 2022. I woke up to multiple missed calls and texts.

Anyway, they tried to sneak Taylor Ward past me last night and it didn't work. I was awake - barely. And this was a real shocker because the Orioles dealt Grayson Rodriguez in a one-for-one. 

They couldn't wait any longer for Rodriguez to reach his vast potential. The injuries kept piling up, making him the right-handed version of DL Hall, chosen in the first round one year earlier. Rodriguez hasn't pitched since July 31, 2024. Lat/teres, elbow, triceps, shoulder. The hits just kept coming.