The Orioles today announced that they have acquired left-handed pitcher COLE IRVIN and minor league right-handed pitcher KYLE VIRBITSKY from the Oakland Athletics in exchange for minor league infielder DARELL HERNAIZ.  

Irvin, 28, made 30 starts for the A’s in 2022, pitching to a 9-13 record with a career-best 3.98 ERA (80 ER/181.0 IP). He set career highs in innings pitched and strikeouts (128) and tied his career high with 15 quality starts. The southpaw led Oakland in strikeouts, innings pitched, starts, quality starts, and wins, and ranked second among A’s pitchers in fWAR (1.4). His 14.4 pitches per inning were the second fewest in the American League, while his 1.79 BB/9 ratio ranked sixth best among qualified AL hurlers. 

A native of Anaheim, Calif., Irvin was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the fifth round of the 2016 First-Year Player Draft out of the University of Oregon. In 81 career Major League games (65 starts), he has gone 21-30 with a 4.40 ERA (198 ER/404.2 IP) and 288 strikeouts against 92 walks. He made his MLB debut on May 12, 2019 at Kansas City (W, 7.0 IP, 5 H, ER, BB, 5 K). 

Virbitsky, 24, made 23 appearances (22 starts) between High-A Lansing and Low-A Stockton in his first full professional season in 2022, going 7-7 with a 4.63 ERA (65 ER/126.1 IP). He issued just 30 walks and struck out 140 batters, the most among A’s minor leaguers. Baseball America recently ranked him as having the best control in Oakland’s system. The right-hander was originally selected by the Athletics in the 17^th round of the 2021 First-Year Player Draft out of Penn State University. 

Hernaiz, 21, played at three levels in the Orioles organization last year, slashing .273/.341/.438 (111-for-406) with 21 doubles, five triples, 12 home runs, 72 runs scored, 62 RBI, and 32 stolen bases in 105 games between Double-A Bowie, High-A Aberdeen, and Low-A Delmarva. He played 58 games at shortstop, 24 at second base, and 21 at third base between the three teams. The infielder was originally selected by the Orioles in the fifth round of the 2019 First-Year Player Draft out of Americas (TX) High School. 

The Orioles have made the following transaction:

• Agreed to terms with RHP Austin Voth on a one-year contract for the 2023 season, avoiding arbitration. The deal includes a club option for 2024.

A week has passed since the Orioles made their last transaction, signing reliever Reed Garrett to a minor league contract. The 40-man roster hasn’t been impacted since they acquired left-hander Darwinzon Hernandez from the Red Sox for cash considerations on Jan. 11 and designated first baseman Lewin Díaz for assignment.

Pitchers and catchers report to spring training on Feb. 15. The clock on the countdown is ticking louder. Some teams have declared that they’re unlikely to make any other moves, but the Orioles keep trying to find another veteran starting pitcher.

“We’re definitely not going to rest in terms of improving this roster before we leave for Sarasota,” executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias said during Friday’s interview on 105.7 The Fan, “and even after we’re in Sarasota, sometimes things happen.”

They often happen.

Infielder Chris Owings, pitchers Chris Ellis and Conner Greene and catcher Beau Taylor were signed to minor league deals last March after the media arrived in Sarasota. Nothing impactful, as it turned out.

As infielder/outfielder Adam Frazier joins the Orioles this year after signing a one-year deal for $8 million in December, which player on offense will the club be getting? The player that was above average in 2021 when he was a National League All-Star, or the player that was below average last season?

Or maybe the stats meet somewhere in the middle.

In 2021, over 639 plate appearances between Pittsburgh and San Diego, Frazier hit .305/.368/.411/.779 with 36 doubles, five triples, five homers, 43 RBIs, 10 steals and 83 runs scored.

But over 602 plate appearances for Seattle, which made the postseason in 2022, the 31-year-old lefty hitter batted .238/.301/.311/.612 with 22 doubles, four triples, three homers, 42 RBIs, 11 steals and 61 runs.

Big difference in that Frazier’s OPS+ was 114 in 2021 and just 80, or 20 percent below league average, last season. Frazier has a career .728 OPS, which produces an OPS+ of 99, or just about at league average for his career.

Even for a pitcher who looked to be on the cusp of his major league debut, it was stunning stretch of pitching. During a season when top O’s pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez went 6-2 with a 2.62 ERA, he pitched even better in six starts leading up to when he got hurt.

When the 23-year-old right-hander took the mound at Triple-A Norfolk’s Harbor Park on June 1 versus Jacksonville, a call to Baltimore seemed almost at hand. I was writing at the time that, in my humble opinion, Rodriguez was very ready to debut with the Orioles.

That night he pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings but then walked off the mound and didn’t return. We would later learn he had suffered a Grade 2 right lat strain. He would not pitch again on the farm for three months. On Sept. 1 he returned with a rehab outing for High-A Aberdeen.

In those last six outings at Triple-A, counting the night he got hurt, his ERA was 0.79. Over 34 1/3 innings he gave up three earned runs on 16 hits with nine walks and 47 strikeouts. In four of the games he threw scoreless outings.

It was a stunning stretch of pitching, even for one of the top pitching prospects in baseball. Rodriguez is No. 6 on Baseball America’s new listing of the top 100 prospects. When he talked with reporters ahead of his game return in that Aberdeen outing, he noted that his pitching and stats were eye-popping in May for Norfolk.

It was a real strength of the much-improved 2022 Orioles – the Baltimore bullpen. Will it be a team strength again this year? It will likely need to be for the Orioles to keeping trending upward toward an American League playoff berth.

In 2021, the O’s bullpen ERA of 5.70 ranked last in the majors. The final season bullpen ERA of 3.49 from last year ranked as seventh-best in the American League and ninth-best in MLB.

On Aug. 16, the Baltimore bullpen ERA of 3.05 was among the best in the majors. That would not hold up and there was some falloff late in the season. But the final mark was over two runs better than the previous season.  

That can help a team improve from 110 losses to 79.

Bullpen pitchers can be volatile in performance with much variation from year-to-year. Lefty Cionel Pérez, who pitched to an ERA of 1.40 averaging 3.3 walks per game with the Orioles, had an ERA of 6.04 and allowed 6.2 walks per nine innings over 50 2/3 innings in parts of season between 2018 and 2021.

How does a player batting .206 with an OPS of .596 at the end of June last year at Double-A end up several months later ranked among Baseball America’s top 100 national prospects?

For Orioles shortstop prospect Joey Ortiz, it took a lot of hard work, a few swing adjustments and belief in self.

He went from a player that had left labrum surgery end his 2021 season in June to one struggling a year later on the farm. And then to one that was tearing up the sport in the last half of last year. His second half tear meant he would rise from No. 28 on Baseball America's O’s top 30 preseason last year to their No. 8 prospect at the end of the year, and now he’s top 100 at No. 95 on the list released last week.

When I talked to a pair of O’s minor league skippers about the club getting eight prospects ranked in Baseball America's top 100, it was clear that Ortiz’s rise may have meant the most to a few people in the Baltimore organization.

“I love this kid and can’t say enough good things about him,” said Double-A Bowie manager Kyle Moore. “He overcame the injury. That could have been it for him. He went through surgery and rehab just to get back to the field and have a chance in ’22 and he worked so hard and put himself in such a position to play with guys like Westy (Jordan Westburg) and Gunnar (Henderson). And then he breaks out. It almost makes you emotional. He was behind the eight ball a few times.”

For a team looking to build an elite pipeline and support and grow its organization with quality home-grown talent, the last week or so have been good days for the Orioles.

It began a week ago today, when the club announced an international signing class of 27 players, headed up by 16-year-old shortstop Luis Ayden Almeyda. He got a $2.3 million signing bonus, the largest ever handed out by the Orioles to an international amateur. 

The O's class featured 13 players signing for $100,000 or more, and Koby Perez, the club's senior director of international scouting, told reporters the club has about $500,000 remaining from its pool allotment of $5,825,500. They could sign more players through Dec. 15. 

MLBPipeline.com, which ranked Almeyda as its No. 20 international prospect, gave him tool grades of 50 for hitting, running and fielding and 55 grades for power and arm. 

“I’m very excited and blessed,” Almeyda told MASNsports.com in his first one-on-one interview as an Oriole prospect. “I am ecstatic to start out with this organization and develop as a ballplayer and a man as well.

The 2023 Major League Baseball season will be unique in a few ways with some new rules coming to the majors for the first time. Such as the use of the pitch clock.

Will Orioles pitchers have any issues adjusting to the clock? We can’t know this answer yet, obviously, but I am going to guess any issues will be minimal.

Under the new rules, pitchers will have 15 seconds to pitch with no one on base and 20 seconds with a runner or runners on. The timer starts when the pitcher catches the return throw from the catcher, and to beat the clock the pitcher must start his motion before the clock runs out. The ball doesn't need to touch the plate before the clock expires, but the pitcher's motion must have started. Pitchers can step off the rubber and reset the clock, but this year can do that just twice per plate appearance.

MLB is trying, it seems, both to improve pace of play and improve time of game. In the minor league games using the clock last season, the average time of game was about 26 minutes shorter. Major league games moved past the three-hour mark on average in 2014. In 2021 big league games took an average of three hours, 10 minutes. The average last year was three hours and four minutes.

On Statcast they actually have a “pitch tempo” leaderboard. It tracks the amount of time from one pitch to the next for hurlers. Among the Orioles, when no one was on base, lefty Keegan Akin was the fastest worker with an average of 14.4 seconds between delivering pitches.

The 2016 season was a good year for the Orioles. They won 89 games and they made the playoffs before one swing in the American League wild-card game ended their season in Toronto. But the calendar year began with the Baseball America release of its top 100 prospects list. There were no Orioles among the top 100. Zero.

The year before, only two were ranked, with Dylan Bundy at No. 48 and Hunter Harvey at No. 68. The year after, 2017, the O’s had just Chance Sisco on the list at No. 57.

So maybe now, looking back, that was insight into the mounting losses that were ahead for the club. But now things are vastly different on the Baltimore farm. The Orioles led all clubs, with eight players on the new Baseball America top 100 prospects list this week. Evaluators see others who could be on the list.

Three players in three years and eight in one year. The Orioles never before had more than five on this offseason Baseball America listing of the best young talent in the sport. Now they show the way.

What happened to make this so?

The Baltimore Orioles have teamed up with Levy, the market leader in creating unforgettable hospitality experiences at sports and entertainment venues, to craft an elevated food and beverage experience for fans visiting Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The partnership will kick off with the 2023 season, when Levy’s team will welcome fans with new signature offerings highlighting the iconic tastes of Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay, upgraded technology to allow faster and frictionless check-out options, and new culinary training opportunities for up-and-coming hospitality talent.

“Oriole Park has been a first-class destination for sports and music entertainment fans for over three decades, and as we look to the future to enhance the footprint and impact of Camden Yards, we are excited to welcome Levy onboard,” said JOHN ANGELOS, Orioles Chairman and CEO. “Together with Levy, we will provide world-class hospitality, food, and beverage experiences, to further develop Camden Yards as a top destination for sports, entertainment, and community service.”

“We’re so proud to partner with the Orioles at the truly iconic Camden Yards and build upon their vision for the ballpark,” said ANDY LANSING, CEO of Levy. “Camden Yards is a truly special place, and it sparked the evolutionary thinking that brought the fan experience to the forefront. With this inspiration, we look forward to collaborating with the Orioles and their fans to bring forward a hospitality experience that creates long-lasting memories on game day and throughout the Baltimore community.”

“We are thrilled to embark on a new partnership with Levy and bring exciting and innovative options to our ballpark,” said GREG BADER, Orioles Senior Vice President Administration and Experience. “We will work seamlessly with Levy to elevate the fan experience at Oriole Park from the concession stands to the Club Level suites, all while providing further opportunities to Strengthen Our Community and Empower Our Youth.”

Core to the partnership with Levy will be creating opportunities for up-and-coming chefs, restaurateurs, and food and beverage tastemakers in the Baltimore area. Hospitality enrichment and training programs will also be created to provide hospitality career advancement opportunities at the ballpark. Fans can also expect a food and beverage experience with local twists, as well as frictionless experiences that provide faster, more convenient ways to access food and beverage.

The competition for bullpen spots on the Orioles roster got a little deeper this morning.

The club announced that it signed right-hander Reed Garrett to a minor league contract, which could put him on the list of spring training invites.

Pitchers and catchers report to the Ed Smith Stadium complex on Feb. 15, with the first workout held the following day.

Garrett, 30, made seven relief appearances with the Nationals last season and allowed seven earned runs (eight total) with 13 hits, eight walks and six strikeouts in 9 1/3 innings. The Richmond native had his contract selected on June 14 after a three-year absence from the majors.

The Nationals used Garrett in three June games and three more in July. He served as the 29^th man in an Oct. 4 doubleheader and tossed 1 2/3 scoreless innings against the Mets.

Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias has said the current O’s top 10 prospects list is about as deep as he’s ever seen. And this is a man that worked for talent-rich organizations in St. Louis and Houston. 

That is quite a statement and it was pretty much proven sound when eight of those 10 were ranked among the Baseball America top 100 prospects list released Wednesday. The magazine has been producing top 100 lists early every year since 1990, and until yesterday the Orioles had never had more than five players ranked in the initial list of the year.

It was great news for an organization that stated a clear intention of building an elite talent pipeline and one that is going to have to thrive using a lot of its homegrown talent. Right now the Orioles have the deepest prospect pool in baseball, and that was not news before yesterday. Numerous outlets have ranked their farm No. 1, even before yesterday.

But a haul of eight is indeed a haul. Cleveland had the second-most with seven, while the Dodgers, Mets and Rays had six each. The Orioles never had more than five on this initial list until now. 

The O’s began the 2022 season with five and ended it with six on the Baseball America ranking of their players this way: Gunnar Henderson (No. 1), Grayson Rodriguez (No. 4), Jackson Holliday (No. 38), DL Hall (No. 55), Colton Cowser (No. 88) and Jordan Westburg (No. 89).

The Orioles have made the following roster move:

INF Lewin Díaz has cleared outright waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Norfolk.

The Orioles have made the following roster move:

• Agreed to terms on a 2023 Minor League contract with RHP Reed Garrett.

We didn’t really need a reminder this week but we got one. The Orioles' Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall are two of the best pitching prospects in baseball. And during the 2023 season there could be times they pitch in the same Orioles rotation for the first time.

Rodriguez, the club’s top draft pick in 2018, is ranked as the club’s No. 2 prospect behind Gunnar Henderson, and No. 4 nationally in top 100s by both Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com. Hall, the club’s top pick in 2017, is ranked as the O’s No. 5 prospect by Baseball America and No. 55 in their latest top 100. Via MLBPipeline.com he is No. 6 on the team's top 30 and was No. 87 in the site's last top 100. Both outlets should be releasing new top 100 lists soon.

The reminder this week that Hall and Rodriguez are among the best pitching prospects in the sport came when MLBPipeline.com released its listing of the current 10 best right-handed and left-handed pitching prospects in the sport. Rodriguez got knocked off the top perch by the Phillies' Andrew Painter and is now the No. 2 right-hander. Hall came in at No. 4 among the lefties.

The drafting of Hall as their top pick in 2017 and Rodriguez as their top selection a year later represents the only time the Orioles have ever taken high school pitchers in back-to-back years with their highest pick. Some over the years question taking high school pitchers so high in the draft, so if the O’s get both in the same rotation, and if they have any success, they will be beating some odds in one sense.

Both Hall and Rodriguez reached 100 mph with their fastballs during the 2022 season. But beyond the sheer velocity, both also show plus offerings with sliders and changeups, and Rodriguez added a cutter last year. Right now they both have plus stuff in abundance and their potential is high.

The automated balls and strikes system, known as ABS, is reportedly coming to all of Triple-A Baseball for the 2023 season. It is fair to assume this means the next stop could be the Major Leagues for the ABS system.

This is not necessarily a “robo-ump” system as some have called it and there will still be an umpire behind the plate on every pitch. But on pitches where a batter doesn’t swing, the ABS system and not the plate ump will determine whether the pitch was a ball or strike. My understand is the umpire wears an earpiece and gets the call. If it’s a strike he raises his arm as plate umpires have always done and a strike is called, although it would be the ABS system that determined that and not the ump.

The home plate umpire is still there to make those ABS calls known and also for checked swing calls and plays at the plate, etc.

According to this Jan. 12 story reported by ESPN (subscription may be required), the electronic strikezone will be used in all 30 Triple-A parks this season to include, of course Norfolk’s Harbor Park, the home of the Orioles’ Triple-A Norfolk Tides club. The report indicated half the Triple-A games will use the full ABS system for every pitch and half will use a challenge system that MLB also could implement one day. Under that system teams get three challenges a game, for pitchers and hitters. They can challenge a called pitch and ABS will determine ball or strike. If the challenging team is correct, they retain that challenge. If not, they lose it and are down to two remaining.

A twitter question I got raised an interesting point – will Harbor Park use the ABS system or the challenge system? Well, my understanding is it is likely all parks will use both, so all 30 Triple-A teams at home play about half the games with full ABS and half using the challenge system.

The long-term commitment to the city of Baltimore that Orioles ownership has preached and promised throughout rumors of a potential sale or relocation was reiterated this morning via a sizeable financial donation to a local nonprofit organization.

The point was driven home in tones ranging from mostly celebratory to somewhat heated during a 25-minute news conference.

Orioles chairman and CEO John Angelos, in a rare public appearance, and Mayor Brandon Scott gathered on the sixth floor of the B&O warehouse to announce a $5 million commitment to CollegeBound Foundation in support of “the next Baltimore renaissance.”

The CollegeBound Foundation, in existence for 35 years, is a multi-year support network dedicated to leading Baltimore City public school graduates through college by offering academic and personal guidance, empowering these students to successfully pursue and complete a college degree or other post-secondary options.

The Orioles also are providing paid internships to former city students and current College Completion Program scholars.

Orioles Chairman and CEO JOHN ANGELOS, alongside Baltimore Mayor BRANDON M. SCOTT, today announced a $5 million commitment to CollegeBound Foundation in support of the next Baltimore renaissance. The CollegeBound Foundation empowers Baltimore City Schools’ students to successfully pursue and complete a college degree or other post-secondary option. As part of the initiative and in addition to the College Completion Program and scholarships, the Orioles will provide paid internships to former Baltimore City students and current College Completion Program scholars.

“We are thrilled to announce our pledge to support the CollegeBound Foundation and its College Completion Program, which is just a catalyst to further support Baltimore City youth, leading to the development and retention of invaluable local talent,” said Angelos. “After being introduced to the program by Mayor Scott, a former CollegeBound Foundation scholar, it quickly became a top priority for myself and the Orioles to get involved and find the most impactful avenue of support. This significant pledge is a testament to the club’s commitment to the City of Baltimore, the State of Maryland, and its youth. We hope our contribution acts as a kickstart, and now challenges other Baltimore City businesses to support the CollegeBound Foundation and its mission.”

By providing paid internships to College Completion Program scholars, the Orioles will expose local students to the vast career opportunities existing within the club and help develop the local talent pipeline, with a goal of ultimately offering those students positions within the organization and retaining talent in our region.

"As someone who has lived his entire life in Baltimore and has been a lifelong fan of the Baltimore Orioles, it warms my heart to see this franchise understand and once again embrace its commitment to serving the people of Baltimore – especially Baltimore’s youth," said Mayor Scott. "Today's announcement shows that the Orioles are committed to making a major investment into the future of Baltimore and playing a very active role in the renaissance that is taking place here."

Since being founded in 2017, the CollegeBound College Completion Program, a multi-year support network dedicated to guiding Baltimore City public school graduates through college by offering academic and personal guidance, has made a significant difference in the college graduation rate of Baltimore City public school graduates. The inaugural class, which matriculated in 2017, is on track for a 75 percent graduation rate, and the 2018 scholars are on track for a 78 percent graduation rate, nearly double the college graduation rate of Baltimore City public school graduates attending a four-year college.

The announcement of 27 international signees by the Orioles Sunday represents their fourth international class under executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias and the club’s senior director, international scouting Koby Perez.

Each year their highest signing bonus has exceeded the previous year. On July 2, 2019, the club’s top signee, in the first Elias/Perez international class, was outfielder Luis Gonzalez at $475,000. Then due to COVID-19, the signing dates were pushed back. On Jan. 15, 2021, the top signee was catcher Samuel Basallo at $1.3 million. That was topped last January by outfielder Braylin Tavera at $1.7 million.

Yesterday the O’s handed out their biggest international bonus yet, adding 16-year-old, right-handed hitting shortstop Luis Almeyda, known to his family by Ayden his middle name, for $2.3 million.

Born in the United States in Patterson, New Jersey, Almeyda’s dad Hector was a firefighter for 25 years. His mother and grandparents were born in the Dominican Republic. Almeyda’s family moved to the Dominican in 2021 and he then qualified as an international signing. His family moved to the DR in part to care for his grandmother, who has Alzheimer’s disease.

At one point he appeared headed for Tampa’s Jesuit High School, but instead of moving to Florida, his family went to the DR. Had he ended up there his entry to pro ball would not have come before the 2025 MLB Draft. Now he gets his bonus and start toward the majors sooner.