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...

Time to take a look at a few more free agent starting pitchers. No, we are not looking at the very best, not even close, but diving into the much more shallow end of the pool. It's an attempt to be realistic here and not get too far ahead of ourselves. Will there be a day when the Orioles look to sign or trade for a top starting pitcher? We sure hope so, but we're not there yet. In recent posts here and here, we looked at six pitchers that MLBTradeRumors.com listed in the category of older...

The Arizona Fall League came to a close Saturday night, with several Nationals prospects in the spotlight for the developmental league's championship game. The Surprise Saguaros, who had eight Nats on a roster managed by Single-A Fredericksburg's Mario Lisson, lost the championship to the Mesa Solar Sox, who pitched a combined one-hitter during a 6-0 victory in Scottsdale. Final game results aside, the last month proved valuable for many of the young players the Nationals sent to Arizona,...

One thing that was somewhat noticeable this week when the Cy Young Award winners were announced was that neither pitcher that won had a lot of pitching wins for 2021. Wins for pitchers don't seem to have nearly the value they once did. The American League winner was Toronto's Robbie Ray. He went 13-7 with a 2.84 ERA that ranked first in the league over 193 1/3 innings with a 1.04 WHIP and .210 batting average against. The National League winner was Milwaukee's Corbin Burnes, who was 11-5...

This week of announcements of the Baseball Writers' Association of America annual awards was a disappointing one for the Nationals and their fans. They saw Juan Soto finish runner-up to Bryce Harper for the National League MVP Award, and they saw Max Scherzer finished third behind Corbin Burnes and Zack Wheeler for the NL Cy Young Award. It would've been nice had either Soto or Scherzer won, even nicer if both won. It would've helped make this otherwise miserable season for the Nats feel a...

The Orioles' 40-man roster filled up pretty fast. In a span of a few hours it went from 32 to 39 as the club acquired a player on waivers Friday and later added six of its own from the farm. The Orioles added infielder Lucius Fox on waivers from Kansas City. And then early last night the club announced the addition of six players from its farm system to the 40-man. This ensures those players cannot be taken in next month's Rule 5 draft. The club added five pitchers in DL Hall, Kyle Bradish,...

Questions about Cedric Mullins' 2021 season usually begin with, "Did you ever imagine that ..." That he'd become the first player in Orioles history with 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases in the same season. That he'd make the All-Star team and start. That he'd be a unanimous winner of the Most Valuable Oriole award. Mark me down for no, no and no, and I say this in the comfort that I'm not alone. Finishing in the top 10 in Most Valuable Player voting in the American League is another...

The Orioles are protecting six players again in the Rule 5 draft that's scheduled for next month in Orlando, Fla., placing pitchers DL Hall, Kyle Bradish, Kevin Smith, Félix Bautista and Logan Gillaspie, and infielder Terrin Vavra on the 40-man roster at tonight's deadline. The day began with 32 openings, heavy subtractions made since the last game. The most recent transaction impacting the roster before today was the claiming of pitcher Bryan Baker off waivers from the Blue Jays on Nov....

The Nationals chose to protect two prospects from being selected in next month's scheduled Rule 5 draft, adding both outfielder Donovan Casey and left-hander Evan Lee to their 40-man roster in advance of today's league-wide deadline. Casey and Lee were among the likeliest of the more than three dozen minor leaguers eligible for this year's Rule 5 draft to be protected by the Nationals, who did have room to add one more player to their 40-man roster but opted to leave that spot open for...