The Orioles are holding onto left-hander Dietrich Enns as part of their offseason business that’s gaining momentum after the World Series.

Rather than exercise a $3 million option on Enns’ contract, the club reached an agreement on a one-year deal with another option for 2027.

Enns, 34, was involved in the last of nine deadline trades this summer, coming to the Orioles in a cash transaction with the Tigers. He made 17 appearances and posted a 3.14 ERA and 1.326 WHIP over 28 2/3 innings. He also recorded two saves.

High-leverage situations kept falling to Enns with the bullpen depleted from four earlier trades and Félix Bautista’s shoulder injury that required surgery on his labrum and rotator cuff. He’s out of minor league options and seemingly in the team’s plans for next season.

It wasn’t easy to predict.

Enns debuted with the Twins in 2017, didn’t pitch in the majors again until 2021 with the Rays and made stops in Japan and Korea before signing with the Tigers in January.

Enns made seven appearances with the Tigers, including a pair of starts, and posted a 5.60 ERA in 17 2/3 innings. Fourteen starts with Triple-A Toledo resulted in a 2.89 ERA in 62 1/3 innings. He walked 15 batters, struck out 71 and surrendered only four home runs.

* A source confirmed that the Orioles are declining the $5.5 million option on infielder/outfielder Jorge Mateo’s contract, as expected.

Mateo appeared in only 42 games due to injuries and batted .177/.217/.266. The Orioles selected him on waivers from the Padres in August 2021, adding a former Top 100 prospect with elite speed, and he stole 35 and 32 bases over the next two seasons. Mateo also won a Fielding Bible Award at shortstop, but poor health and offensive production made the cost too high to keep him on the roster.

The possibility exists that the Orioles try to re-sign Mateo to a more team-friendly contract, since they’re in the market for a utility infielder.

MLB writer Francys Romero first reported that Mateo’s option was declined. The Orioles haven’t announced it.

* Outfielder Tyler O’Neill could have opted out of the last two seasons of his three-year, $49.5 million contract and reentered free agency, but he’s made the obvious choice to remain with the Orioles. A source confirmed it earlier today.

O’Neill will be paid $33 million over his final two years.

Three trips to the injured list, raising his career total to 17, and a .199/.292/.392 line in 54 games assured O’Neill’s return. He homered on Opening Day for the sixth year in a row to extend his record but finished with only nine – 22 fewer than his 2024 total with the Red Sox.

“I know the player that I am,” he said in late September in the visiting clubhouse at Yankee Stadium. “I know the way that I can produce on a day-to-day basis. The guys around me know what I can do, how I can produce, so that’s always there. I always have confidence in myself, and even when things are not going good and it’s a grind, going 0-for-4 and things suck, you’ve just got to keep going.

“I always feel like in those deep stretches, I’m only one swing away, and that’s all it takes. It takes one barrel to find the timing again and find that click. It’s kind of how I view things, again just very confident in my skill set.”

O’Neill received the first multi-year contract handed out by president of baseball operations/ general manager Mike Elias. 

"From what I see as an evaluator, the talent is there," Elias said at the season-ending press conference. "I mean, the power, the swing, the way he moves in the outfield, that player is in there. He wasn't able to express the type of production that he's done in his best years this year because he wasn't available that much. That's been part of his history, and we know that.

"I think he's a tremendous roster fit for our group when he's up and running and going good, and he's a guy that can carry a lineup when he's doing that. It's really high impact, middle-of-the-order threat when he's on a roll. Just talked to him extensively. He's frustrated, too, and now that we've had him for a year, we're talking with him and trying to plan out ways to do as best as we can to keep him in tip-top form for as much as possible next year, because I do think he can really raise the ceiling of this team, and I'm optimistic about it."

* Other post-World Series business included pitchers Zach Eflin and Tomoyuki Sugano and catcher Gary Sánchez becoming free agents over the weekend.

The Orioles released Florida Complex League right-hander Pedro Figueroa, per the minor league transactions page.