The swings that show how Orioles outfielder Austin Hays is making a successful recovery from core surgery also can be done with a hammer. Hays apologized yesterday for being late for a phone interview because he was busy working on the construction of a batting cage at his home in Orange City, Fla., which sits in the middle between Orlando and Daytona Beach. "I have a warehouse at my house that I bought last offseason," Hays said, "and we put a net up in here and I got the turf put in two...

If you glanced at the 2022 Hall of Fame ballot that was released Monday hoping to find some prominent Nationals representation, you were sorely disappointed. Sure, Jonathan Papelbon made the list, but you probably aren't going to find too many Nats fans excited to relive those regrettable 12 months in club history. You'll just have to wait another year, because among the players eligible to make the 2023 ballot is none other than Jayson Werth. We'll have some fun with that one when the time...

It all made sense at the time of the trade on July 31, 2014. The Orioles had a chance to win the American League East for the first time since 1997. At the time of that deal, the Orioles had not reached as far as the AL Championship Series since 1997. But after the deal, they would both win the AL East and advance to the ALCS. The price was steep, though, to get lefty reliever Andrew Miller. The Orioles had to part with their No. 3 prospect and a top 100 pitcher who was then at Double-A Bowie,...

Major League Baseball today announced that Trey Mancini has been named the recipient of the 2021 American League Comeback Player of the Year Award. Mancini becomes the first Orioles player to take home this award. The Comeback Player of the Year Awards are officially sanctioned by Major League Baseball and have been presented annually since 2005 to one player in each league who has re-emerged on the field during the season. The 30 club beat reporters from MLB.com, the official website of Major...

The offseason has left enough room for Trey Mancini to receive another honor. Mancini is the recipient of the American League's Comeback Player of the Year Award, with Major League Baseball making the announcement tonight. The award has been presented annually since 2005, with the 30 club beat reporters from MLB.com choosing the winners in each league from an original list of 30 candidates. Mancini, 27, is the first Orioles player to be honored and he was the obvious selection. Again. Coming...

Thirteen new candidates appear on this year's Hall of Fame ballot, which was released yesterday, but none have ties to the Orioles. Unless, of course, you want to count how fans assumed that Severna Park resident and Mount St. Joseph graduate Mark Teixeira would sign with the Orioles the minute after he became a free agent. Other newbies are infielders Álex Rodríguez, Justin Morneau, Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, and Prince Fielder; pitchers Tim Lincecum, Jake Peavy, Joe Nathan and...

Cedric Mullins' 2021 season was one of the best by an Orioles hitter in recent memory. Mullins, who won a Silver Slugger Award and finished ninth in the American League Most Valuable Player voting, failed to reach base 64 percent of the time and did not record a hit in 71 percent of his at-bats. Pretty great, right? It's easy to forget just how often the best hitters in the game fail to record a hit. That was the outcome in 63.4 percent of the at-bats of Ty Cobb, the all-time leader in career...

By now, the turkey may be in the oven, your kitchen may smell wonderful and you're looking at the timer counting down the hours and minutes before your Thanksgiving feast can commence. In a few hours, you'll be stuffed, thankful for the expanding or flexible waistband on your pants and settling into your comfiest chair for the rest of the day. Whatever is on your post-Thanksgiving meal menu - pumpkin pie, a turkey sandwich trimmed with dressing and cranberry sauce, a nip of your favorite...

If you took a stroll around town on Nov. 3, 2019, and asked a random sampling of 100 people on the streets who the most popular professional team in D.C. was at that moment, there's a good chance more people would've said the Nationals than anyone else. The fact they had just held a parade for the World Series champs 24 hours earlier probably would've played a role in that, but that championship really was the culmination of something that had been building for some time. After two decades...

Seconds after filing my story on Friday's additions to the 40-man roster that protected players in the Rule 5 draft, I did a quick search on Logan Gillaspie to make certain that I didn't completely dismiss his chances. That I didn't write something like, "He's in the Arizona Fall League and out of this discussion." I typed his name as "Conner Gillaspie" the next morning while trying to look up his statistics, then slapped myself and got it right. This guy deserves better. I've never...