The Washington Nationals agreed to terms on a two-year contract with infielder/outfielder Howie Kendrick on Thursday. Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement. Kendrick, 34, returns to Washington after hitting .293 with eight doubles, two triples, seven home runs, 25 RBI, 11 walks and 24 runs scored in 52 games for the Nationals. He was acquired from Philadelphia on July 28, just days before the 2017 non-waiver trade deadline. He hit .315...

Individual game tickets for the 2018 season at Oriole Park at Camden Yards will go on sale Thursday, January 25, at 2:00 p.m. ET. Tickets will be available online at www.orioles.com/tickets, by phone at 1-888-848-BIRD, and on-site at Oriole Park and the Orioles Official Team Store at the York Galleria in York, Pa. The box office at Oriole Park will be open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5:00 p.m. The Orioles Official Team Store at the York Galleria...

It's the offseason, and even though players try their best to rest and decompress, they don't get too far away from baseball. Take Orioles second baseman Jonathan Schoop, for example. Coming off a career year in which he slashed .293/.338/.503 with career highs of 32 home runs and 105 RBIs, Schoop has been busy readying himself for next season in his native Curaçao. But there's only so much time for workouts and preparation. And part of Schoop's offseason has been spent in his native...

Continuing insight from Arizona Fall League play and the impact that experience will have on some of the top prospects in the Nationals organization, we turn to a couple of the position players, third baseman Kelvin Gutierrez and center fielder Daniel Johnson. Mesa Solar Sox pitching coach Michael Tejera said Gutierrez bounced back from getting his hand spiked early on in AFL play to finish strong. "Kelvin had his routine and he was working very hard on it," Tejera said. "His hand got...

It may be tough to envision right now, what with white stuff coating the ground and wind chills still in the teens this morning, but spring training is fast approaching. In fact, it's only four weeks away. Yes, in a mere 29 days there will be actual Nationals pitchers and actual Nationals catchers wearing actual practice uniforms and participating in actual drills in West Palm Beach, Fla., the first official workout of 2018. I'll be there, obviously. But I know some of you plan to be there as...

The column published Tuesday by Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports was interesting and thought-provoking. It was about the economic system in place in baseball due to the brutally slow-to-move free agent market right now in the game. Click here to read the column. It is worth your time. I applaud the effort, research and time that went into this, but I will say that I don't see the system as broken or in need of a major overhaul. To me, baseball seems rather financially healthy with revenues in the...

The annual Orioles minicamp gives manager Buck Showalter an opportunity to become more familiar with some of the minor league pitchers and the media a chance to figure out which ones grabbed his attention, intrigued him and can be viewed as potential contributors over the summer. Certain names come up without prompting, sometimes on multiple occasions during a single interview. Rule 5 pick Nestor Cortes Jr. was the hottest topic for three days, a scorching subject due to his ability to "spin...

What more can be said about the season Gio Gonzalez had in 2017? The Nationals left-hander posted one of the best seasons of his career and one of the most consistent in all of baseball last year. He finished the year 15-9 with a 2.96 ERA (the second-best of his career) and continued to prove his durability by amassing 201 innings in 32 starts. The thing about Gonzalez last year is that while he was not as flashy as Max Scherzer or Stephen Strasburg, he got the job done on a nightly basis....

Tim Beckham became a welcome addition to the Orioles lineup when he joined the team at the 2017 trade deadline and immediately impressed fans in his first week with the club. He started things off with a 12-game hitting streak from Aug. 1-12, which led to him earning his first American League Player of the Week honor (for July 31-Aug. 6). Beckham became the third player since 1954 to have a hitting streak of at least 12 games to begin their O's career. In those first 12 games with Baltimore,...

MASNsports.com Nationals beat writer Mark Zuckerman has been named as the Sportswriter of the Year for Washington, D.C., by the National Sports Media Association. Zuckerman, who joined MASNsports.com in 2016, will be honored at the 59th annual NSMA Awards Weekend in Winston-Salem, N.C., from June 23-25. He's a first-time winner of the award, which is voted on by other D.C.-based sportswriters. "This is definitely unexpected," Zuckerman said. "There are tons of really talented sportswriters...