We'll reach a point, if the 2020 season is to be played, when rosters no longer will be frozen. The Orioles can chip away at their 50. How much chipping is the question. Take a 30-man roster with a 20-man taxi squad and you've got 50. The math is indisputable. But the taxi squad could include pitchers and position players who were optioned prior to camp shutting down or shortly after it happened. We are waiting for the rules and the plan to be explained to us. People in the organization...

So is the latest development in the talks between Major League Baseball players and owners going to lead toward an actual season? We'll see about that and time continues to be short. The owners side yesterday proposed a 50-60 game season, which would be followed by a postseason with seven teams in each league making it. The seven-team scenario was in play before the pandemic. The owners have said they will pay the full prorated rate for the shorter season. Ironically, or maybe not, the players...

One day after learning their own major league players had pledged to cover the pay cuts the organization was imposing on minor leaguers, Nationals ownership reversed course and elected to continue making full weekly stipend payments to their players, a source familiar with the decision confirmed. The Nationals' intention to reduce the stipends given to minor leaguers from $400 per week to $300 per week throughout June was immediately met with a harsh reaction from the franchise's own big...

While owners and players keep digging in their heels and the threat remains that the 2020 season is going to be buried, I wonder about its structure if it can be salvaged. I'm waiting for clarification on the taxi squad beyond the expectation that it would hold 20 players. I'm waiting for clarification on the trade deadline. As in, will one exist? Major League Baseball eliminated the Aug. 31 waiver deadline last year. The July 31 deadline could be pushed back due to the season's late start...

One of the great things about highlighting rebroadcasts of games from a team with a tradition that stretches back to 1954 is the variety of choices you get in the film library. This week's collection of "Orioles Classics" on MASN stretches all the way back to 1987 and a day when a trio from the same family made headlines. It includes the last game at Memorial Stadium in 1991 and the first game at Camden Yards in 1992. And it includes some memorable moments from the 2012 season that saw the...

Was any postseason retrospective ever more aptly titled than "Improbable"? The look back at the Nationals' 2019 playoff run re-aired on MASN recently, reminding us just how odds-defying the team's climb to the top was. Battling back to a playoff berth after teetering on the edge of oblivion in May, the Nats then had to come back against a dominant closer to win the wild card, survive two elimination games in the National League Division Series - coming back from a three-run deficit late in...

If the Nationals go for hurlers in the five rounds of the June 10 First-Year Player draft, it will be from a lot filled with quality pitching depth. MLBPipeline.com senior writer Jim Callis said the 2020 draft has a more quality pitchers than last year's draft, and may be the best he has seen in quite some time. As I wrote last week, the Nats have favored stockpiling pitchers for their system and fortifying need at the major league level through trade. General manager Mike Rizzo, assistant...

Nationals players, after learning Sunday the organization is cutting minor leaguers' weekly pay this month, have collectively pledged to cover the difference on their own. The club, which by Major League Baseball mandate had been paying all minor leaguers $400 per week throughout April and May, will reduce that amount to $300 per week in June, a source familiar with the decision confirmed. The reductions come as the organization also released more than two dozen minor league players, a trend...

It produced an abrupt and loud ending. Bat connected with ball and the contact was very loud. Moments later, the crowd would be very loud, too. Edwin Encarnación hit one 440 feet to left center. It was a first-pitch, three-run homer off Ubaldo Jiménez and Toronto beat the Orioles 5-2 in 11 innings in the 2016 American League wild card game. When the night began, it featured Chris Tillman (16-6, 3.77 ERA) facing Toronto right-hander Marcus Stroman (9-10, 4.37 ERA) in a matchup of 89-win...

The length of baseball's shutdown is allowing players to heal and get deeper into their rehabs after sustaining injuries in spring training. It isn't much of a silver lining, but let's try to stay positive today. I've heard that reliever Evan Phillips, sidelined in early March due to a sore right elbow, is feeling much better. The long layoff and rehab process have brought positive results. Phillips could progress to bullpen sessions in a few more weeks. He was a certainty to begin the...