The addition of players to be named later keep rolling in for the Orioles. The players always had names, of course, but now we know them as Orioles. Yesterday, the Orioles completed the trade of lefty Tommy Milone to Atlanta on Aug. 31 when they got 23-year-old infielders AJ Graffanino and Greg Cullen from the Braves. The O's are owed one more PTNL for sending pitcher Hector Velázquez to Houston on July 29. Graffanino, the son of former big leaguer Tony Graffanino, was rated as Atlanta's...

Juan Soto's massive offensive numbers in a shortened season weren't enough to earn the Nationals star left fielder a top-three finish in the MVP race, but they were enough to earn him a Silver Slugger Award. Soto's victory was revealed tonight, the first of a career that figures to include plenty more of these awards and perhaps an MVP or two as well. He was one of three National League outfielders to win the honor, joining the Dodgers' Mookie Betts and the Braves' Ronald Acuña Jr. atop...

Juan Soto was honored as a Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Award winner for National League outfielders on Thursday night. Louisville Slugger made the announcement on MLB Network. Soto, 22, paced all of Major League Baseball in on-base percentage (.490), slugging percentage (.695) and OPS (1.185). According to FanGraphs.com, he also led Major League Baseball in weighted runs created plus (200) and weighted on-base average (.478). Despite missing 13 games, Soto also ranked in the National...

The Orioles revealed the identities of the two players to be named later in the Tommy Milone trade with the Braves. The team announced this afternoon that it's receiving infielders AJ Graffanino and Greg Cullen to complete the deadline deal. Graffanino, 23, was chosen by the Braves in the eighth round of the 2018 First-Year Player Draft out of the University of Washington and rose to No. 23 among the organization's prospects in the MLBPipeline.com rankings. He's batted .316/.342/.380 in two...

Here is a rundown of some of the outfielders that got in significant work during fall instructional league, which wrapped up last week in West Palm Beach, Fla. Nationals assistant general manager of player development Mark Scialabba detailed the play of three outfielders from the roster that worked out in October at the spring training facility. "There is really a group of three young Latin American outfielders that had really good camps," Scialabba said. "Roismar Quintana was set back a...

Three mainstays in the Nationals organization will be back for another spring training with the club. Aaron Barrett, Adrián Sanchez and Brandon Snyder are among the group of players who will receive non-roster invitations to West Palm Beach next spring, a source confirmed. All figure to face long odds of making the big league roster, but that's never been a deterrent for any of these veterans. Barrett, who turns 33 in January, has participated in every Nationals spring training since 2011,...

The polls are closed, the votes are counted and the winners are Orioles fans who wanted some news and notes this morning. For example: * With Chris Holt moving to the dugout as pitching coach/director of pitching, the Orioles are going to recreate the position of minor league roving pitching coordinator. It's on the organizational need list, from what I'm told. That may not be the exact title, but the duties will be similar to what Holt did prior to becoming director of pitching this season....

It's perhaps not their No. 1 need this winter, but the Nationals absolutely need to add another catcher this winter. Unless they're willing to enter 2021 with Yan Gomes as the clear-cut starter and either Raudy Read or Tres Barrera as his backup, the Nats are going to have to acquire somebody. That somebody could be a frontline starter who relegates Gomes to the bench. Or it could be somebody who shares the job with Gomes, much as Kurt Suzuki did the last two seasons. The good news: There's...

In June 2012, the Orioles selected him fourth overall in the First-Year Player Draft. The expectations were high and they included hopes he would pitch at or near the top of their rotation for years. And for years, right-hander Kevin Gausman pitched for the Orioles. He sometimes showed flashes of brilliance, but never lived up to the first-round hype. Now, just over two years after the O's traded Gausman, he is about to come into some money. The San Francisco Giants recently made him the...

Trey Mancini has experienced the move from first base to left field and the shift to right. He's taken all the ground balls and shagged flies on back fields and in batting practice. And he's never cared where the Orioles put him. The indifference is more pronounced, if that makes sense, with Mancini coming back from colon cancer surgery and a six-month period of chemotherapy treatments. He missed the 2020 season, but baseball wasn't a priority. Mancini was fighting for his life. Do you think...