The Orioles can remove some of the questions hovering over them before they convene in Sarasota for spring training. Who else is competing for a spot in the rotation. Is anyone else competing for a bench role. Who could be traded to address their needs if free agency isn’t a solution.

Predicting their future is easier as more time passes, but where’s the challenge?

Here are three more:

Will the Orioles play the rotation hand they’ve been dealt?
Kyle Gibson signed for $10 million in 2023, the most lucrative deal from the Orioles since Mike Elias’ hiring as executive vice president/general manager. He wasn’t viewed as the No. 1 starter, but no one else in the group has better credentials.

The other candidates include Tyler Wells, Kyle Bradish, Dean Kremer, Grayson Rodriguez, DL Hall, Austin Voth, Spenser Watkins and Bruce Zimmermann.

The week between Christmas and New Year's tends to be a dead zone in baseball. Silent nights until after the last champagne cork and aspirin are popped.

The ball drops, jokes are made about teams that can’t field, and the next round of business commences.

Oh sure, there are exceptions.

The Orioles, for example, signed pitcher Kohl Stewart on Dec. 29, 2019. He opted out in 2020, citing underlying conditions that put him at risk during the pandemic, and he didn’t appear in another major league game until 2021 with the Cubs.

Free-agent pitchers Miguel Tejada, Paul Demny, Jon Link and Brooks Kieschnick signed minor league deals on Dec. 28, 2017, Dec. 27, 2015, Dec. 28, 2011 and Dec. 26, 2005, respectively. Small stuff, of course. Dinner didn’t get cold while the media filed stories. But it happened.

The Orioles experienced a quiet Friday in terms of transactions.

There were none.

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias has been in contact with a large number of agents and executives throughout the offseason, and it’s hardly the kind of news that qualifies as “breaking.” This is front office due diligence that we often talk about, even if a player is likely out of its price range.

Doesn’t hurt to check the market unless the cringing causes a headache.

I’ve got some lingering questions, to be expected in the third week of December, that probably are shared by many people in the industry and the team’s fan base. The first one went from a possibility to unlikely to perhaps in the discussion again.

Exactly one week ago, the Winter Meetings reached their busiest scheduled day with a Baseball Writers’ Association of America meeting, followed by Commissioner Rob Manfred’s media session, agent Scott Boras’ traditional lobby scrum, manager Brandon Hyde’s media gathering, executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias’ daily session in his suite, and the first draft lottery.

The Orioles signed outfielder Nomar Mazara and infielder Josh Lester to minor league contracts.

Seems like only yesterday.

Four moves followed, but all of them in the Rule 5 draft – reliever Andrew Politi the lone selection in the major league phase. Others are coming, but at a slow pace rather than a sudden burst.

Two more free-agent pitchers linked to the Orioles have tumbled off the board.

We’ll see how newly signed Baltimore right-hander Kyle Gibson does on the field for the Orioles. The club hopes he’ll provide some quality while on the mound and some leadership while off it. But after his first Zoom press conference with local media, it's clear his interview game is very strong.

And I don’t mean that he is boastful or cocky in any way whatsoever. Quite the opposite was true during his Zoom call Thursday. He was modest and respectful of his previous teams and even to reporters, to the point it seemed he wanted to start to learn our names and get to know some people he will be seeing a lot of during the 2023 season.

But Gibson was impressive.

He said during his talks with the Orioles that he “meshed well” with pitching coaches Chris Holt and Darren Holmes. Pretty apparent he is well versed in the data and analytics in the game now. He is all in there, and so joining a team that feels the same way was something he liked about the club.

He was very high on the Orioles' play in 2022 and talked about joining a good, young team on the rise. He even said that he liked pitching at Camden Yards and playing in Baltimore while on other clubs. He loves Little Italy too.

The dateline has been stripped from stories like an abandoned car in a bad neighborhood. I got a lot of mileage out of baseball’s Winter Meetings, but it was time to come home.

I flew. Just to clear the air.

Some fans may feel that the Orioles were grounded in San Diego because their most visible activity was signing pitcher Ofreidy Gómez, outfielder Nomar Mazara and infielder Josh Lester to minor league contracts and selecting reliever Andrew Politi in the Rule 5 draft.

They also announced the Kyle Gibson signing, which seemed to close the door on Jordan Lyles, though no one is saying it.

Pretty cool to me that Lyles helped to sell Gibson on the Orioles despite knowing that it probably removed his chance to re-sign. Such an unselfish act.

SAN DIEGO – Kyle Gibson reached out almost immediately to Jordan Lyles after hearing from the Orioles, an interesting twist in his free agent journey, since he appears to be replacing the veteran starter in the rotation.

The Orioles already began making their sales pitches to Gibson, which led to the agreement on a one-year, $10 million contract. Now, it was Lyles’ turn – no matter how it would impact his own professional life.

“I value his opinion, I value his friendship,” Gibson said of his former Rangers teammates, “and he only had glowing things to say about Baltimore, and that was one of the reasons why I felt so comfortable making the decision. Just hearing how he’d talk about the approach, why he thought he got better, to me was very interesting. And without going into it because I don’t want to speak for him too much, but that was really cool to hear him give credit where he thought credit was due.

“Talked about the makeup of the team, talked about even things like pitching to (Adley) Rutschman. Just the things that stood out to him. I look forward to hopefully being an extension of Jordan because I feel like we’re fairly similar when it comes to how we approach people.”

Similar but not identical.

SAN DIEGO – Orioles manager Brandon Hyde took his turn in front of the media this afternoon at the Winter Meetings, talking about new starter Kyle Gibson, the desire for more pitching depth, the process of recruiting free agents to Baltimore, veteran leader replacements and Jorge Mateo’s snub in Gold Glove voting. He also fielded premature questions about the message he'll send to the team and positions on opening day.

Where to begin?

Gibson signed a one-year, $10 million contract yesterday to give the Orioles an experienced starter, though they aren’t done negotiating with others.

“I’m excited to add Kyle,” Hyde said. “Talked to him a couple times and traded texts last night. Excited to bring somebody with the career he’s had and playing on a World Series club. Somebody with his veteran aspects that he brings, it’s going to be huge for us.”

Hyde has participated in the video calls with pitchers on the market, a manager who also works in sales, highlighting the advantages of joining the Orioles while trying to build an early connection.

SAN DIEGO – For Orioles media gathered at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, the most important 20 minutes of yesterday’s Winter Meetings unfolded in Mike Elias’ suite.

Unlike the 20 minutes that passed later at the packed hotel bar before a drink could be ordered.

The club’s executive vice president/general manager shared the details of pitcher Kyle Gibson’s one-year, $10 million contract. An amount deemed too steep for Jordan Lyles at the time of the deadline for exercising options.  

Elias expressed hope that another starter could be signed or traded for, without the caveat that it must be an opening day arm. And multi-year offers have been floated, which keeps the Orioles in play for the top pitchers on the second tier.

They won’t avoid pitchers who received a qualifying offer. They won’t narrow their focus to only left-handers.

SAN DIEGO – Veteran pitcher Kyle Gibson passed a physical and signed his contract today with the Orioles that pays $10 million in 2023.

The deal was made after the Orioles declined Jordan Lyles’ $11 million option and gave him a $1 million buyout.

“I think that we targeted Kyle. He was a priority for us,” executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias said today in his suite at the Manchester Grand Hyatt.

“Our jobs as front office evaluators is to look at what we think is going to happen in the future, and not what somebody’s baseball card numbers were last season, and we saw a lot of things to us that project well into the future for Kyle. I think he’s going to have a really nice season for us and is a really good fit, and it puts us in a position of security with our rotation, our pitching staff, as we proceed through the rest of the offseason.

“It’s nice for us to have him in the fold already in this early juncture.”

As the MLB Winter Meetings begin a three-day run today in San Diego, the Orioles continue their search for starting pitching. The weekend agreement with right-hander Kyle Gibson is expected to be a starting point but not the end point. They are not done.

Now we await the next rumor and/or dispatch from San Diego that could give us a clue which free agent pitchers the Orioles are truly “in on” and how high they may be aiming in bolstering their starting rotation.

Is it possible that Gibson will not make the Orioles rotation and will pitch out of their bullpen? I would say yes possible, but it seems unlikely. Just as now former Oriole Jordan Lyles was for Baltimore, Gibson is an innings eater and 98 percent of his career MLB appearances have come as a starter. He has thrown 150 or more innings seven times and 180 or more three times. His career-best is 196 2/3 in 2018.

Gibson went 10-8 with a 5.05 ERA last year for the Phillies and actually pitched better at home despite pitching in such a hitter-friendly park. His ERA was 4.57 at home and 5.79 on the road in 2022.

If Gibson is essentially a replacement for Lyles, he could also be, as Lyles was, a clubhouse leader. He was said to be that for the Phillies last season and was the team’s nominee for the prestigious Roberto Clemente Award. Gibson was involved with several charities in the Philly area, raising $108,000 thousand dollars during his time with the club.

SAN DIEGO – Baseball executives and media are flowing into the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego today for the start of the Winter Meetings that were held virtually two years ago due to the pandemic and canceled in 2021 during the lockout.

The Orioles haven’t announced the signing of veteran pitcher Kyle Gibson to a one-year contract because he must pass his physical before the deal is official.   

Other business is conducted that extends beyond the major league and minor league roster.

The club is operating behind the scenes to promote and hire members of the scouting and analytics departments.

Kevin Carter and Will Roberston have been promoted from Pro Scouting Analyst to Senior Pro Scouting Analyst. Ben Reed is promoted from Pro Scouting Fellow to Pro Scouting Analyst.

The Orioles have made a flurry of moves leading into the Winter Meetings that begin Sunday, with today’s news pertaining to the signing of a veteran starting pitcher who's a year removed from his selection to the All-Star team.

Right-hander Kyle Gibson has agreed to a one-year contract pending a physical, as first reported by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.

Gibson isn’t the elite starter that the club is seeking, but he can slot near the back end of the rotation and perhaps serve as Jordan Lyles' replacement. The Orioles declined Lyles’ $11 million option.

The 40-man roster will grow to 38 players after Gibson signs.

Gibson, 35, is a former first-round pick in the 2009 draft out of the University of Missouri who has registered a 4.52 ERA and 1.385 WHIP in 10 seasons. He spent the first seven with the Twins, parts of the next two with the Rangers and parts of the last two with the Phillies.