I woke up yesterday morning feeling quite confident that Brian Graham was staying with the Orioles, whether as director of player development or with an adjusted title and set of duties. His knowledge of the organization, straight down through the farm system, was valued by new executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias. He was doing the heavy lifting before Elias' arrival and continued to take on big responsibilities. Graham woke up yesterday with the same sense, given no...

The Orioles have decided to non-tender infielder Tim Beckham and catcher Caleb Joseph, releasing them into the free agent market and clearing two spots on the 40-man roster. Every other player on the 40-man roster was tendered a contract, including pitchers Dylan Bundy and Mychal Givens and infielder Jonathan Villar, who are eligible for arbitration. The Orioles will try to avoid hearings with the trio. Beckham didn't heat up at the plate until September, when he batted .297/.348/.484 with...

The Nationals finalized a trade tonight that will bring All-Star catcher Yan Gomes to Washington in exchange for right-hander Jefry Rodriguez, minor league outfielder Daniel Johnson and a player to be named, completing a dramatic, 11-day overhaul of their catching corps. Having just signed veteran Kurt Suzuki to a two-year, $10 million deal last week, the Nationals went out and acquired another experienced catcher in Gomes, who had been the subject of trade speculation in recent days, though...

The Nationals aren't ready to part ways with Sammy Solís just yet. Faced with an 8 p.m. EST deadline to tender a contract to the injury plagued and erratic reliever, the Nationals elected not only to bring Solís back in 2019 and give him another chance to right his ship following an especially frustrating season but to sign him right now. The two sides agreed to a one-year, $850,000 deal, according to a source familiar with the terms. The Nationals tendered contracts to all six of their...

The Orioles are continuing to make dramatic changes throughout the organization, removing director of player development Brian Graham this morning, according to a source. Graham returned to the organization in October 2007 after serving as the Pirates' interim general manager and was named director of player development six years later. He had been handling the GM duties for the Orioles on an interim basis after they decided to part ways with executive vice president Dan Duquette. During his...

So the additions of Mike Elias and Sig Mejdal will bring the Orioles up to speed with analytics. The team, over time, will no doubt become one of the top clubs at making data-driven decisions. But while analytics have been used by teams to attempt to make good decisions for the future as they evaluate players, the next area of influence is likely to come on game day. And during the game. This is happening now to some degree, and maybe for some teams to a very large degree. Teams are using the...

The latest deadline in baseball's offseason has arrived tonight with teams needing to tender contracts to their arbitration-eligible players by 8 p.m. I've hit this subject harder than a Chinese food buffet, but hey, let's review it anyway: The Orioles have three obvious decisions regarding Dylan Bundy, Mychal Givens and Jonathan Villar. They aren't candidates to be non-tendered and we'll find out later if executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias is willing to trade them...

The search for a new Orioles manager remains the top priority for executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias. No other task at the moment supersedes it. And while Elias is hesitant to offer too many specifics, he spoke tonight of progress made through the narrowing of his list. Elias, a call-in guest to the "Orioles Hot Stove" radio show on 105.7 The Fan, said the staff has sifted through an impressive number of possibilities. He noted the input from assistant Sig Mejdal and...

It's the final day of November, which means it's another deadline day in baseball's offseason, this one for tendering contracts. By 8 p.m. EST, all clubs must inform players who are eligible for arbitration (those with more than three and fewer than six years of big league service time, plus the top 22 percent of those with two years-plus service time) whether they will be offered a 2019 contract. Teams and players don't have to agree to any particular salary figures yet; there's still...

It wasn't a great season for Bryce Harper defensively, but MLBPipeline.com's Jim Callis cautions to not get too worked up about the phenom's numbers with a gloved hand. "What is a little odd to me is the defensive metrics fluctuate from year to year with the same guys," Callis said. "Like Harper, without looking at it, had horrific numbers (in 2018). I don't know if he will be back. But a couple of years ago, he wasn't bad at all (on defense)." One metric that measures fielding skill...