The flurry of deadline trades massively altered the Orioles’ roster, made it much harder to stay competitive but also provided a nice bump to a farm system that slipped in the rankings due to the many promotions and the graduations from eligibility.

They also took away a chunk of the team’s pending free agents, including Ryan O’Hearn, Cedric Mullins, Charlie Morton, Seranthony Domínguez and Gregory Soto. Some players under team control or with options also were dealt, including Bryan Baker, Andrew Kittredge, Ramón Laureano and Ramón Urías.

Three players on the current roster will become free agents five days after the World Series and the Orioles can negotiate to bring them back, though the chances of the entire trio returning are pretty much nil.

Let’s start with the reason why.

Catcher Gary Sánchez

The end-of-season press conference Monday with president of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias and interim manager Tony Mansolino covered such a wide range of topics that it’s going to be referenced for weeks.

The copy during a down period for non-playoff teams is stretched like leftovers. And every sentence gets dissected in the search for clues. 

Here are a few more items: 

* Don’t mistake a desire for veteran leadership for a fractured clubhouse.

The Orioles didn’t quit on Brandon Hyde or Tony Mansolino. They weren’t bickering. They weren’t demanding trades.

The rear view mirror is the best place for the Orioles’ 2025 season to be. 

With a 75-87 record, Baltimore found itself in the cellar of the American League East. Forty-one different O’s threw a pitch, and 35 took a swing. 

Trevor Rogers, the Most Valuable Oriole, was the team’s best player. Gunnar Henderson’s “down” season still resulted in 5.4 bWAR, according to Baseball Reference, but too many core position players followed that troubling, slumping trend. Just two regulars finished the season with an OPS of .700 or better, and nobody cracked 20 home runs. 

Those results are, now, in the past. The road that lies ahead is what’s important. 

That’s what we discussed on this week’s edition of “The Bird’s Nest,” which you can watch and listen to here. 

Paul Toboni liked his situation in Boston. He was a rising star within the Red Sox organization, a strong candidate to be named general manager and work directly underneath chief baseball officer Craig Breslow for a storied franchise currently in the postseason that already owns four World Series trophies secured over the last two decades.

When the Nationals came calling, Toboni was intrigued enough to take the interview. But he was still unsure if he wanted to uproot his young family and take over a Washington franchise that just completed its sixth straight losing season since winning its one and only World Series title.

It was during his repeated conversations with members of the Lerner family that Toboni made up his mind. He knew plenty about the Nationals. He knew very little about their owners. Once he did, the 35-year-old executive came away firmly believing they were ready to commit to his vision, which convinced him he was ready to commit to theirs.

“We were going to hold a pretty high bar if we were going to leave the Boston Red Sox organization,” he said. “And this cleared it because of that: Ownership’s love of baseball, and how competitive they are. And really, how great of people they are. That’s what I really bought into, which made my wife and I think this was the jump we were going to make.”

Thus did Toboni find himself sitting at a dais in the Nationals Park press conference room this morning, surrounded by three of the club’s principal owners (Mark Lerner, Edward Cohen and Robert Tanenbaum), his wife Danielle and their four very young boys (ages 1-6) seated in the front row watching the Nats’ new president of baseball operations introduce himself to the world.

The failures didn’t break Tyler O’Neill, but everything else seemed to try.

O’Neill joined the Orioles over the winter and couldn’t stay away from the injured list, making three trips due to neck inflammation, a left shoulder impingement and right wrist inflammation. He couldn’t get any momentum going in his first season of the three-year, $49.5 million contract signed on Dec. 10.

The opt-out clause isn’t worth mentioning anymore. O’Neill must rebuild his value, and the Orioles are counting on him being a presence in the heart of their lineup and in their clubhouse.

The 54 games played are four more than O'Neill's career low set in the pandemic 2020 season, and he finished with a .199 average, six doubles, nine home runs, 26 RBIs, a .684 OPS and a minus-0.6 bWAR.

Everything suffered, including the defense of a two-time Gold Glove winner. His minus-1.1 dWAR also was the worst of his career, and Statcast calculated his outs above average (OAA) at minus-4.

News broke exactly one week ago that the Nationals had selected Paul Toboni as their new president of baseball operations, the 35-year-old assistant general manager of the Red Sox beating out a fairly deep field of candidates to replace Mike Rizzo on a permanent basis.

This morning, we’ll finally get the official announcement from the team about the hiring, and we’ll finally hear from Toboni (and, presumably, Nats ownership) about this incredibly important change for an organization that had (for better or worse) become a model of stability over time.

The team has scheduled a 9 a.m. press conference at Nationals Park to introduce Toboni. You can watch it live on MASN and right here on this website (with proper TV provider authentication).

We know a little bit about Toboni. He played baseball at Cal-Berkeley and got an MBA from Notre Dame. He began working for the Red Sox as an intern in 2015 and spent the last decade climbing up the organizational ladder through their scouting department before becoming an assistant GM two years ago. He is well-regarded around baseball, has a background in both scouting and analytics and has a reputation as an excellent communicator.

But we have no idea yet what Toboni thinks about the Nationals, what sold him on this job and what his plans are now that he’s officially taking the reins.

The Washington Nationals have officially reached an agreement with Paul Toboni to join the Club as its President of Baseball Operations.

Widely regarded as one of the best young executives in baseball, Toboni will bring a fresh voice to the organization, providing valuable experience in scouting and player development to build around the Nationals talented core of young star players.

Toboni comes to the Nationals from the Boston Red Sox, where he most recently held the title of Senior Vice President, Assistant General Manager. In his time with Boston, Toboni oversaw player development at the Major and Minor League levels as well as the MLB First-Year Player Draft and was one of the key voices in the organization’s larger baseball operations strategy.

Toboni is credited with modernizing Boston’s Draft and player development process, integrating traditional scouting and coaching with data-informed decision-making. From 2022-23, he served as the Club’s Vice President of Amateur Scouting and Player Development, during which time he oversaw the selection and development of Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer and other top prospects.

Toboni rose rapidly through the ranks in Boston, having joined the Red Sox as a baseball operations intern in 2015 before he moved into the position of area scout in northern Texas and northern Louisiana. He served in the capacity of Assistant Director of Amateur Scouting from 2017-19 and was named Director of Amateur Scouting in 2019 at just 29 years old.

Daylen Lile’s red-hot finish to the season earned him a pair of impressive honors: National League Player of the Month and NL Rookie of the Month.

Those joint awards were announced this morning by Major League Baseball, which handed out all of the sport’s monthly honors for September and declared a double-winner for the Nationals.

Lile closed out his rookie season on an absolute tear, batting .391 with three doubles, seven triples, six homers, 19 RBIs and a 1.212 OPS. The 22-year-old outfielder led the majors in slugging percentage (.772), hits (36), triples (seven) and total bases (71). His seven triples were the most in a single month in franchise history, and he was the first major leaguer with at least seven triples and six homers in a calendar month since Willie Mays in 1957.

Lile is the first Nationals player to win NL Player of the Month honors since Kyle Schwarber in June 2021. Prior to Schwarber, the last National to win the honor was Ryan Zimmerman in April 2017.

Because he won Player of the Month, Lile was a shoo-in for Rookie of the Month as well. The question now is how he’ll finish in voting for NL Rookie of the Year.

Following a month in which he led the National League in OPS, slugging percentage, batting average and triples, outfielder Daylen Lile was named National League Player and Rookie of the Month on Tuesday. The announcement was on MLB Network.

Lile, 22, hit .391 with a .440 on-base percentage and a .772 slugging percentage in 25 games during the month of September. He recorded three doubles, seven triples, six home runs, 19 RBI, eight walks, one stolen base and 20 runs scored to cap his sensational rookie season. He hit safely in 21 of the 25 September games and reached safely in 16 straight from Aug. 31 to Sept. 16.

Lile’s month of September was highlighted by several signature moments, including a go-ahead home run against the Chicago Cubs on Sept. 6 and an 11^th-inning inside-the-park home run that propelled the Nationals to a 5-3 win over the New York Mets on Sept. 20. The previous night, Sept. 19, Lile tied Denard Span (2013) for the most triples in a season by a member of the Washington Nationals with his 11^th of the season.

A candidate for National League Rookie of the Year, Lile paced all National League rookies in triples (11), batting average (.299), slugging percentage (.498) and OPS (.845) and ranked in on-base percentage (4^th, .347), hits (6^th, 96), extra-base hits (6^th, 8) and runs scored (7^th, 51). He added 15 doubles, nine home runs, 41 RBI and 21 walks in 91 games during his rookie season. His 11 triples were the most by a rookie in Nationals history (2005-pres.).

Lile is the 11^th player to win both rookie and player awards in the same calendar month, joining Nick Kurtz (July 2025), Wyatt Langford (Sept. 2024), Aristides Aquino (Aug. 2019), Aaron Judge (June and Sept. 2017), Gary Sánchez (Aug. 2016), José Abreu (April and July 2014), Yasiel Puig (June 2013), Mike Trout (July 2012), Buster Posey (July 2010), and Ryan Braun (July 2007).

The Nationals entered 2025 with visions of winning for the first time in six years. Or, at minimum, showing significant improvement in their won-loss record and coming as close to actually winning as they had since hoisting the World Series trophy in October 2019.

That, of course, never came to be. Not even close. The 2025 Nats regressed, finishing 66-96, five games worse than each of the previous two seasons. And their fate was sealed during an abysmal stretch from early-June through mid-July when they went 8-26, lost 11 in a row at one point and ultimately fired both general manager Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez.

Now, with that ultra-disappointing season behind them, with a new president of baseball operations set to be introduced Wednesday morning and a new manager likely to be named in the coming weeks, it’s natural to start wondering about the answer to an age-old question: Will this team be ready to win at last in 2026?

Within the clubhouse over the weekend, the answer was resoundingly in the affirmative.

“Yeah, no doubt,” outfielder Dylan Crews said. “Every single guy here has tools and has desire to win and to go out there and produce and just have that winning mentality. Obviously, we’re young. … We’ve got some things we need to work on. But I definitely look at these guys and think that we’re a winning-caliber team.”

OK, today really is starting to feel like the offseason for non-playoff teams.

The Orioles don’t have more games on their schedule. They haven’t arranged another press conference. The ballpark is quiet except for employees who still have 9-to-5 jobs and the construction crews. Work on the former press box site already was underway yesterday.

Tony Mansolino can return home and go an entire 24 hours without someone asking him about the experience of serving as interim manager and what it meant to him. Being on the road with the team provided more opportunities for media to pull some reflections out of him, but his audience grew significantly yesterday at Warehouse Bar & Restaurant – which used to be Dempsey’s and then the gambling place where you couldn’t place bets.

I’d bet my house that Mansolino is exhausted from fielding the same questions, but he’s such a good guy that he never shows it. And with his coaching background, he knows all about fielding.

“Just professional development, massive in a lot of ways,” he said about what he gained from his tenure as Brandon Hyde’s replacement. “You just managed a major league team for 4 ½ months under some of the most trying circumstances you can probably have in this position. I was just joking, I think you probably go back 21 days I’ve probably had to answer whether I’m gonna have a job here or not consecutively. That’s not easy to do and I don’t think that’s normal in a lot of ways, but also part of the situation that we’re in here, and that’s fine, that’s part of it.”

With renovations starting in various areas of Camden Yards, today’s season-ending press conference with president of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias and interim manager Tony Mansolino was held at Warehouse Bar & Restaurant on the ground floor of the brick building.

The location had nothing to do with the Orioles finishing on the ground floor of their division.

Confidence runs high through the organization that they’ll rise again in 2026. They might have a new manager, though Tony Mansolino is a candidate to lose the interim tag. A general manager eventually will join the front office with Elias’ promotion, but the hire could be made this winter or much later.

“The manager search has its own timetable,” Elias said.

Elias spoke for the first time about the change in his title and its impact on his duties. The news broke earlier this month, long after the switch.

The Orioles are ready to begin an extensive managerial search at an accelerated pace, with the goal of making a decision as soon as possible, said president of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias.

Perhaps the hire comes before a GM is chosen for the front office. The possibility exists, according to Elias. And interim manager Tony Mansolino is going to be counted among the many candidates.

“First of all, understanding the timing, the manner, the context around how Tony got that assignment, and everything that he needed to do and was in front of him and worked through, we think he did a terrific job as the interim manager with that particular assignment in 2025 with where the players were, with where the organization was,” Elias said during today’s press conference.

“I thought he added a lot of value and did a great job with that assignment and I got the chance to work with him much more closely during this and I'm very impressed with him as I've gotten to know him more, and I think he's a very talented guy and has a lot of skills that would add up to a great major league manager now or in the future. I've told him that we are going to utilize the opportunity of having the permanent chair vacant to talk to other people and learn and see who is available, who's interested and figure out who the right fit is for this team for 2026. That process is going to include him and he will be a real candidate, but I expect we are going to talk to other people and we're initiating that process imminently.”

Mansolino took over for Brandon Hyde on May 17 and the Orioles went 60-59, which demonstrated improvement but didn’t get them out of last place. Some jobs are just too big.

Was 2025 the most disappointing season in Nationals history? There’s a compelling argument it was.

Though four previous versions of this club (2008, 2009, 2021, 2022) produced worse records, this current group’s final mark of 66-96 might have been tougher to accept because there was genuine optimism entering this season, both from inside and outside the organization.

To see it all come crashing down in such spectacular fashion, with the final three months serving as a prolonged lame duck stretch after the July 6 firings of longtime general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez, was a bitter pill to swallow.

“It’s always tough when you go through a lot of adversity. There was a lot this year,” said Miguel Cairo, who began the year as bench coach and ended it as interim manager. “But they fought through it, they played hard and they’re fighting to the end.”

The Nationals did play better in September than they did in any of the previous three months, going 13-13 down the stretch and playing a major role in keeping the star-studded Mets from reaching October. But their brand of baseball remained unappealing throughout the majority of the 162-game marathon.

NEW YORK – The real work begins today.

Games are done until spring training and they won’t become official until March 26, when the Orioles play the Twins at Camden Yards. But the team must be rebuilt and rebooted. A repeat of 2025 won’t suffice. Anything close to it could spark an overhaul.

The Orioles will reach important dates in the offseason, including the GM and winter meetings, the start of free agency, exercising or declining options, and the non-tender and Rule 5 deadlines. Busy hands will reshape the roster.

This could be the most active offseason in a while. What just transpired was too traumatic to tweak.

Players will trust the process, as usual.

NEW YORK – Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino is celebrating his 43^rd birthday, joking with media earlier today about being old but mostly somber over the finality of the season.

“It’s always a weird feeling,” he said. “There’s certainly a strange feeling of unfinished business in a lot of ways because our fate is to go home and we’re not gonna have a workout day tomorrow and then kind of prep ourselves for a hopeful playoff run that we’ve had the last couple years. That feeling we’ve had. It’s very different, it’s a little sad is probably the right word that we’re at this point.

“Just sad in some ways.”

Joy was missing again in the Bronx today. The Orioles were swept. 

Game 162 concluded with the Orioles losing 3-2 to the Yankees before an announced crowd of 45,004. They went 60-59 under Mansolino after he replaced Brandon Hyde, who was 15-28 prior to his dismissal.

Few individual baseball games carry the kind of emotions that come with Game 162. For those involving teams still fighting for the chance to play in October, it’s the ultimate blood-pressure test. For everyone else, it’s the ultimate feel-good day, a chance to chase some personal milestones and say goodbye to those who aren’t returning the following spring.

For the Nationals, Game 162 this afternoon fell squarely in the latter category. They had nothing to play for. Neither did the White Sox.

That didn’t mean there wasn’t still plenty of emotion inside Nationals Park, where a crowd of 22,473 honored the retiring Bob Carpenter and Michael A. Taylor while interim manager Miguel Cairo and his coaching staff worked through what was likely their final game in their current positions.

Throw in the brief scare of a perfect game being thrown by Chicago starter Shane Smith, and there was plenty to care about in an otherwise insignificant game.

The Nationals avoided that ignominy, but barely did so. They managed one baserunner in nine innings during an 8-0 shutout loss to wrap up a 66-96 season that represented a five-game drop-off from back-to-back 71-win seasons in 2023 and 2024.

Miguel Cairo said he has not yet been told anything about his future with the Nationals, leaving the interim manager to guide his team through one more game this afternoon and then wait to learn his fate from a new front office that is about to take over.

“Today, I’ve got a game to manage, and I’m going to do my best to get a W. And tomorrow, we don’t know,” he said in advance of the season finale against the White Sox. “Whatever is coming next, we’re not in control. There’s only one in control, and that’s the man upstairs.”

Cairo took over for good friend Davey Martinez when the latter was fired July 6, reluctant to accept the job until Martinez gave him his blessing. He enters today’s finale with a 29-42 record after Martinez went 37-53, with a chance to secure a winning September if the Nats are victorious today.

The 51-year-old slowly began managing in his own style over the season’s final three months, making lineup and bullpen decisions that likely differed from what Martinez would have done. He also made sure his position players took full infield and outfield defense prior to batting practice every day, though the Nationals continued to rank among the majors’ worst defensive units regardless of the amount of work they put in.

With Paul Toboni set to be officially announced as the organization’s new president of baseball operations this week, Cairo and his entire coaching staff should learn their fates relatively soon. The expectation is that Toboni will hire a new manager, who in turn will hire a new coaching staff. But until told otherwise, Cairo remains a candidate.

NEW YORK – The Orioles finish their disappointing season this afternoon with Ryan Mountcastle as the designated hitter, possibly in his last game with the team, depending whether they tender him a contract in his last year of arbitration eligibility.

Coby Mayo is at first base. Dylan Beavers is in left field and Tyler O’Neill is in right.

Mayo is slashing .410/.521/.769 (16-for-39) with two doubles, four home runs, six RBIs, seven walks and nine runs scored in 14 games since Sept. 13.

Kyle Bradish makes his sixth start, with seven runs and 18 hits allowed in 28 innings. He’s walked 10, struck out 39 and surrendered two home runs.

The Yankees see Bradish again after he held them to one run and two hits with nine strikeouts in six innings. He owns a 2.90 ERA and 1.419 WHIP in six career starts against New York.

For the last time in 2025, hello from Nationals Park. It hasn’t been a season to remember for the home team, which enters this finale with a 66-95 record (third-worst in the majors). But we know major change is on the way, and hopefully better days to come in 2026.

What’s at stake in Game 162? Nothing, really, from a team standpoint. On an individual level, James Wood looks to continue his great final week (while also hoping to avoid five strikeouts to tie Mark Reynolds’ major league record of 223). Daylen Lile looks for one more triple to break Denard Span’s single-season club record of 11, and to bolster his Rookie of the Year case. CJ Abrams seeks his 20th homer to go with 31 stolen bases.

On the mound, Brad Lord looks to cap a really impressive rookie season in style. The right-hander enters with a 4.12 ERA and has an outside shot at getting that number under 4.00 if he tosses five or more innings of scoreless ball. Jose A. Ferrer won’t be pitching today after appearing each of the last two nights. So if there’s one final save opportunity this season, someone out of the ordinary is going to get the opportunity to convert it.

And, of course, this is Bob Carpenter’s final game behind the mic. No matter the score, the ninth inning will be must-watch TV on MASN2.

CHICAGO WHITE SOX at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 3:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 81 degrees, wind 5 mph in from left field