When it comes to players on the Orioles who could come up in trade talks this winter, outfielder Anthony Santander might be on that list - maybe near the top of it. The Orioles are building a nice surplus of young outfielders and the latest group, including players like Kyle Stowers and Robert Neustrom, are closing in on the majors. Their day could be coming and a spot might need to be opened for someone to slide into. Santander has value to other teams. They remember his big 2020 season, one...

The eight players the Nationals traded away during the final days of July all had value to their acquiring clubs, each of them believing those players would help lift them into the postseason and in some cases deep into October. The Nats didn't just deal away anybody. They purposely traded veterans in the final year of their contracts (aside from one notable example who had two years to go until free agency) who would be appealing to contenders and could potentially make a real difference over...

Spenser Watkins didn't have a pre-arranged agreement to stay with the Orioles after they outrighted him to Triple-A Norfolk earlier this month. He was a free agent with the right to join any team that offered him a contract. He never wanted to leave, and the Orioles made certain that he stayed in the organization. Watkins agreed to a minor league deal on Thursday that includes an invitation to spring training, where he'll attempt to again crack the 40-man roster. "Before this happened, there...

Time for you, my very appreciated readers, to take a few minutes today and answer a few more questions I am throwing out and at you today. Not throwing at you like a beanball pitcher, but you get the point. With my (lack of) velocity, the pitch wouldn't hurt anyway. The World Series is over and the team with the fewest regular-season wins to make the playoffs won it. So hey, the Orioles' rebuilding could culminate in a playoff spot with just 88 wins? Yes, it is possible, but this year 88 wins...

Before they can start figuring out who to pursue in an attempt to improve their roster for next season, the Nationals must first take stock of their roster as currently constructed and figure out what they already have in place. That roster went through a whole lot of change this year; only 22 players who were on the 40-man roster at the end of spring training are still on it today. Some were traded, some became free agents, some were released along the way. In their place is a much younger...

On the Orioles farm this season, this lefty had a Minor League Pitcher of the Year kind of season. He led the organization in wins and innings. He was among the best in ERA and had a low walk rate. He pitched well at two levels and ended the year on a roll, pitching well in the Double-A playoffs. But Grayson Rodriguez was better and any O's farm pitcher could have said that after the 2021 season. So, yes, that was a given, but for lefty Drew Rom, 21, it was a banner season. One that began at...

At the end of a week that included the latest over-the-top session between agent Scott Boras and reporters at the general managers' meetings in California, a response from Nationals GM Mike Rizzo, another Silver Slugger Award, the prospect of an MVP award coming in a few more days and previously unfathomable dollar figures being thrown out there to suggest what a Juan Soto contract extension might look like, you can't help but be left with one prevailing thought. Ugh, are we really about to...

Numerous Orioles have won Silver Sluggers since the award debuted in 1980. But before Cedric Mullins, not many - maybe any - came as far with their game as he did to go from the depths to such heights. In his first three seasons in the majors - from 2018 through 2020 - Mullins had a .632 OPS with seven homers in 418 career plate appearances. His OPS+ went from 72 in his career entering this year to 135 during a 2021 season when he became the first Oriole ever with 30 or more homers and steals...

For the second consecutive season, Juan Soto was honored as a Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Award winner for National League outfielders. Louisville Slugger made the announcement Thursday on MLB Network. Soto joins Ian Desmond (2012-14), Anthony Rendon (2014, 2019), Daniel Murphy (2016-17) and Ryan Zimmerman (2009-10) as the only players in Nationals history (2005-pres.) to win more than one Silver Slugger Award. Soto, 23, led all National League outfielders in batting average (.313),...

After producing a .878 OPS and the first 30-30 season in Orioles history, center fielder Cedric Mullins tonight has become the team's first Silver Slugger Award winner since 2016. Mullins began the night among eight finalists for three American League outfield Silver Slugger Awards and Mullins has been named a winner in the AL outfield along with Toronto's Teoscar Hernández and Aaron Judge of New York. The winners were announced in a live broadcast on MLB Network. Mark Trumbo, as a...