The Nationals raced out to a big lead in the National League East and secured the division with outstanding starting pitching throughout the season. The leaders in the starting rotation for the Nats were Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg. The pair has been rewarded as finalists for the NL Cy Young Award, announced tonight by the Baseball Writers' Association of America on MLB Network. But Dusty Baker was left out of the top three for NL Manager of the Year. Scherzer won the Cy Young last...

With Aaron Judge a lock to be named American League Rookie of the Year, cracking the top three finalists can be viewed as a nice consolation prize. Trey Mancini will take it. Mancini, Judge and Red Sox's outfielder Andrew Benintendi were revealed as finalists tonight on MLB Network. The winner will be announced on Nov. 13. Judge, the Yankees' baseball-crushing right fielder, should gather all of the first-place votes from members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Benintendi...

As part of his "10 questions for fans" series, my MASNsports.com colleague Steve Melewski recently asked his readers who is their all-time favorite Oriole, and I thought to myself, "Hey, this would also be a good question to pose to Nationals fans, too!" There is obviously a major historical difference in terms of longevity between the two franchises - the Orioles have called Baltimore home since 1954 and the Nationals have only called Washington, D.C., home since 2005 - but I think that...

Outfielder Victor Robles continues to impress in different settings, demonstrating his advanced skill set during the Arizona Fall League Fall Stars Game in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Saturday night Robles won MVP honors in lifting the East past the West All-Stars 4-2 at Salt River Fields. He went 1-for-3 with a walk, stolen base, two runs scored and an RBI. Robles opened the game in the bottom of the first with a walk and a stolen base. Down 2-1, his RBI single in the eighth brought home the tying...

The Orioles are supposed to find out by 5 p.m. today whether catcher Welington Castillo will exercise or decline his $7 million option for next season. I checked around yesterday and no one had received official word. The expectation remains that Castillo will enter the free agent market. Meanwhile, the hype machine gets revved up tonight as we enter the awards portion of our offseason. Finalists will be revealed on MLB Network beginning at 6 p.m. for Most Valuable Player, Cy Young Award,...

It seems hard to believe when you look at the Orioles and a last-place finish in 2017, but as the calendar turned from August to September, the team was a couple of games over .500 and very close to a playoff berth. On the night of Aug. 30, the Orioles won their seventh straight game. They were 1 1/2 games behind the Twins for the second wild card and 2 1/2 behind the Yankees for the first wild card. But in going 75-87, the Orioles finished 10 games behind the Twins. Only the White Sox and...

Matt Wieters will remain with the Nationals for a second season. The veteran catcher has exercised his $10.5 million player option, a source familiar with the decision confirmed, ensuring he'll remain a member of the Nationals for 2018 on the heels of a disappointing debut season in Washington. Wieters' decision, which had to be made over the weekend, had become expected in recent weeks. When he initially signed with the Nationals a week into spring training, he was hoping to re-establish his...

Left-hander Tanner Scott allowed one hit and struck out four batters last night over two scoreless innings in the Arizona Fall League's Fall Stars Game. Ryan Mountcastle, batting third and playing third base, doubled and drove in a run. Meanwhile, the news that the Orioles were inviting back all of their coaches for the 2018 season drew mixed reactions on this blog and Twitter, which is exactly what should be expected. You can't get everyone on the same page. That would be boring - and a...

As we look back at the last week of blog entries in this space, today we welcome more comments on some of those said entries. Monday we reviewed another three free agent pitchers in this space, taking a looking at Tyler Chatwood, Andrew Casher and Miguel González. Chatwood is a right-hander that will be 28 on opening day. While he went 8-15 with a 4.69 ERA for Colorado, he posted much better numbers on the road. That provides hope that a team signing him and getting him out of Coors Field...

Catcher Welington Castillo severed his ties to the Orioles today, as expected, by declining the $7 million player option on his contract. They could reconnect later this winter, with both sides leaving the door open, but it's unlikely to happen. Today was the deadline for Castillo to inform the club, which I'm told he still hadn't done this morning. It seemed to be a formality. Castillo immediately becomes one of the top catchers on the free agent market, rivaled only by Jonathan Lucroy and...