The Nationals finished the 2020 season with the seventh-largest payroll in Major League Baseball, down three slots from their position during their World Series run the previous year but still leaving them among the sport's biggest spenders. The Nats paid out a grand total of $76.2 million to all players on their 40-man roster this season, according to figures obtained and published by the Associated Press on Saturday evening. That ranked seventh in the majors, behind the World Series champion...

Today, I'm revisiting some recent articles that appeared in this space. We're taking another look at two players. I enjoyed my recent interview with 27-year-old Chris Shaw for this article. He's probably facing an uphill battle to make the Orioles' opening day roster. Several players, now including him, will compete this spring for outfield corner spots, along with first base and DH. But Shaw had quite a season on the farm in 2019. Between Double-A and Triple-A for the San Francisco Giants,...

The Nationals are building outfield talent at the lower levels of their organization. The club boasts a good amount of quality prospects that are a couple of years away from making an impact at the major league level. The highest-rated of these outfielders is Jeremy De La Rosa, who is No. 13 on the list of MLBPipeline.com Nats prospects. The 18-year-old played 26 games with the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League Nationals in 2019. Former major league outfielder Gary Thurman has been the...

As Aug. 31 arrived earlier this year, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo faced a dilemma he never wanted to face. Rizzo's team had just completed an abysmal month of baseball, albeit during the unprecedented circumstances of the 2020 season. Now, as trade deadline day arrived, the Nats were 12-19, three games out of the final wild card position in the National League and staring up at six teams ahead of them in the standings for that last-ditch ticket to October. If they felt they still had...

With spring training set to start in about two months - if it does start on time - the Orioles have a host of questions without answers and issues to address. Nothing new here. Baseball rosters are always changing and few teams have most of their key questions resolved before Christmas in any given year. So here are a few O's questions out there where we wait on answers. Who plays shortstop?: After the trade of José Iglesias, the Orioles have a bit of a hole in an infield in transition....

I'm not sure how manager Brandon Hyde will readjust to a normal baseball season, if one becomes available to him, after devoting so much of his energy to detailing the protocols set up at Camden Yards and on the road and how his players adhered to them. How the Orioles kept everyone safe, taking no chances if someone reported to the ballpark with the sniffles or a headache. How the sport survived outside of a bubble and completed a 60-game regular season, the playoffs and World Series. What it...

Sig Mejdal hasn't seen a baseball game in person in months. The Orioles were careful to limit the number of non-uniformed personnel at both Camden Yards and the alternate site in Bowie this summer, so Mejdal worked from home, like most Americans. But Mejdal stayed in the loop, thanks in part to the latest gadgets in the game - body sensors, bat trackers, force pads and more. A bit more advanced than Zoom. "Beyond the fact that there were fewer games, no minor league games in the parks, ... we...

The Orioles today announced their promotional schedule and 5-Game Flex Plan for the 2021 Spring Training season, the club's 12th spring season at Ed Smith Stadium. Beginning today, fans can purchase 5-Game Flex Plans for the Spring Training season. Starting at just $95, fans can create their own ticket package by selecting up to two prime games and three non-prime games. Each plan is protected by O'surance, a new, free fan assurance benefit that guarantees the investment in Orioles baseball....

Had you asked anyone affiliated with the Nationals on opening day which rookie would garner the most big league plate appearances in 2020, the answer would've been Carter Kieboom every single time. Luis García? Well, perhaps the 20-year-old would make his debut at some point, but he wouldn't see significant action. Certainly not more than Kieboom, who had been touted as the club's everyday third baseman from the first day of spring training. A quick glance at the Nationals' season-ending...

Over the years, we've seen organizations like the Orioles handle young pitchers on the farm in a similar fashion when it came to bumping up their innings totals each season as they approach the majors. But without minor league games in 2020, now the math has been altered. A pitcher slated to throw 100 innings this summer didn't get those innings in. At least not in a minor league game. But maybe he got in half that many - perhaps even more - at an alternate site or on his own throwing to...