Only hours after riding through a sea of red-clad fans and then speaking from his heart during the club's World Series celebration parade and rally, Stephen Strasburg opted out of the remainder of his contract with the Nationals and officially became a free agent. The opt-out, first reported by MLB.com and confirmed by a source familiar with the move, had been expected for some time. Strasburg had four years and $100 million ($40 million of which was deferred through 2030) remaining on the...

Several days ago, I posted this entry, gleaned from my interview with new Orioles director of player development Matt Blood. The 34-year-old comes to the Orioles from the Texas Rangers. He's also worked for USA Baseball and was a scout with the St. Louis Cardinals, working in the same front office where the Orioles' Mike Elias and Sig Mejdal once toiled. We covered a lot of ground in that last entry and ended it with a promise to discuss where winning fits in amid all the new data, technology...

The final bus turned the corner and came to a stop behind the stage on 3rd Street NW for the team rally during Saturday's victory parade to celebrate the Nationals' first World Series title. General manager Mike Rizzo got off the double decker bus and met with the media with a cigar in his mouth and a smile from ear to ear. "It's the best feeling I've ever had in professional sports," Rizzo said. "It's just amazing. We talk about a lot of things: chemistry, performance and this and...

It began at 15th Street NW and Constitution Avenue, where more than a dozen buses filled with Nationals players and coaches embarked on a mile-long parade along with plenty of marchers, including front office employees, local Little Leaguers, students from the team's Youth Baseball Academy and more. The final bus held (among others) Ryan Zimmerman, Davey Martinez and Mike Rizzo. Oh, and the Commissioner's Trophy, which was hoisted high in the air to the delight of the tens of thousands who...

Major League Baseball's plan to eliminate one-and-done relievers beginning next season can cause a person to rush for the splits. I almost pulled a hamstring running the 40-yard overreact. The idea is to make relievers face a minimum of three batters instead of just one, or pitch to the end of the half-inning in which they enter. Maybe to reduce mound visits and speed up a game that has proven too stubborn to pick up the pace, no matter how many new rules are implemented. It seems necessary...

To the victors go the spoils, and the Nationals are about to be very spoiled over the next three days. After enjoying one day off at home to recover from their World Series-clinching victory (and subsequent celebration) in Houston, the Nats are about to go into full-scale party mode over the next 72 hours, with a parade, a stop at a Capitals game and then a trip to the White House. It begins today with a parade so many people have waited so long to experience. Here are the pertinent details: *...

The offseason waits for no one, not even the World Series champions. So even as they finalize plans for Saturday's parade and Monday's White House visit, the Nationals still had to make the first of many key baseball decisions that loom this winter. The club declined its portion of a $4 million mutual option for the 2020 season on first baseman Matt Adams, electing instead to pay the veteran slugger a $1 million buyout and thus making him a free agent. The Nationals could still re-sign Adams...

Let's take a look today at some issues the Orioles and their brass will have to deal with - some sooner, some later. We'll even rank them from least important to most. No. 5 - How to continue to satisfy fans during the rebuild?: Yeah, good luck with that strategy because there is no miracle marketing plan or idea that solves this one. I've said numerous times that I am impressed how many fans understand what the Orioles are going through and are showing patience. The percentage I hear or...

In an Orioles season defined in large part by its abundance of oddities, right-hander Gabriel Ynoa offered his own contribution. Tell me if this makes any sense. Ynoa was 1-10 with a 5.61 ERA and 1.373 WHIP in 36 games and 0-9 in 13 starts. He averaged only 5.4 strikeouts per nine innings and surrendered 29 of the club's 305 home runs to tie Dylan Bundy for the team lead. None of this is going to knock the wind out of you, but I was surprised to find that Ynoa held cleanup hitters to a .186...

It's been roughly 32 hours now since the Nationals won the World Series, and I'm not sure it's really sunk in to anyone yet that it actually happened. Everything remains such a blur, the tension of the first six innings of Game 7, the shock of the three-batter sequence that flipped the game in the Nats' favor in the top of the seventh, the nervous energy of waiting for those final nine outs to be recorded and then the celebration that ensued. Really, the entire postseason remains a blur....