“I’m now 75 years old. It’s unlikely that I’ll be, you know, doing this for 20 more years,” Orioles majority owner David Rubenstein said in a recent interview with NPR (hat tip to Rich Dubroff of Baltimore Baseball). “So I’ve got to speed up the effort to get [to] a World Series a lot sooner than maybe some younger owners would.”
This might be one of the clearer indications yet that the Orioles are in for their busiest offseasons in a long time, especially since the team is now coming off a pair of playoff appearances with nary a single win from five total postseason games. This is Rubenstein’s first winter since his ownership bought the team, and as GM Mike Elias implied during his end-of-season press conference, the O’s will have a lot more to spend than in recent years during the club’s rebuild, when the Angelos family was still in charge.
More from around the AL East….
- Sticking with the Orioles, MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko writes that the O’s “had no interest” in right-hander Domingo German in the past, which runs contrary to a report from the New York Post’s Mark W. Sanchez from last January. German signed with the Pirates on a minors contract last winter and had only a 7.84 ERA in seven appearances and 20 2/3 innings on the big league roster in 2024. Pittsburgh outrighted German off its 40-man roster in September and he elected free agency earlier this week. Given his poor recent results and his troubled off-the-field history, it remains to be seen if any MLB teams will take a flier on German for another minor league deal.
- The top Rays story remains the team’s likely need for a new temporary home to begin the 2025 season, as Tropicana Field sustained heavy damage due to Hurricane Milton. John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times shares some details about the insurance policies attached to the stadium, and the possibility that the city of St. Petersburg (which is funding the repairs) might simply decide that repairing the Trop isn’t worth it since the Rays’ new ballpark is set to open in 2028. “We’re going to try to figure out every avenue, both through insurance and otherwise, to try to make sure the Rays have a place to play in St. Petersburg. But we’re going to make sure that it’s a financially responsible decision,” city council member Copley Gerdes said. Romano opines that Orlando might check off the most boxes as the Rays’ interim home, as the team could play at the 9500-seat stadium on the ESPN Wide World Of Sports complex at Walt Disney World.
- The Red Sox promoted Kyle Boddy to the role of director of baseball science on an interim basis, the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier reports (via X). The position appears to be a newly-created job within the Sox front office, as Brad Alberts is credited in the team’s directory as the “team lead” of baseball sciences, but there is no director position. Boddy founded the data-based Driveline Baseball training facility in 2012, and then moved into an official role with a big league club when he was the Reds’ pitching coordinator for the majority of the 2020-21 seasons. The Red Sox brought Boddy aboard last January as an advisor to chief baseball officer Craig Breslow.
Hey Red Sox spend on a few stars stop the stupidity
What is the point of being 75 years old and mega rich? It’s nice that this guy acknowledges that to some extent but you are still gonna die like everyone else buddy. Some people are in debt their entire life and this guy is hoarding money like he’s gonna find the fountain of youth one day. It’s silly.
I wonder if they would trade Mayo to Pittsburgh for one of our SP depth (outside of Skenes). Jones, Keller, Falter, and Ortiz would be likely names to be thrown out there. Pitching prospects like Chandler, Harrington, Ashcraft, and Solometo could be mentions as well. I am spit balling here and not specifically saying all these names will be needed to make Mayo a Pirate. But Pittsburgh does have pitching depth at the majors and minors that Baltimore could use. I’d be upset if they traded Jarred Jones for Mayo, but that could quickly change if Mayo helps get the Pirates over the offensive hump.
my thought process is the o’s burned up a lot of prospect depth already. i know, i know, they still have too many good young players, but norby mightve helped them down the stretch. at the very least they are gonna try to keep all their options open and mayo specifically has a very high ceiling, and lines up with o’hearn and mountcastle’s fa timelines pretty well. as Rube said, there is no better time to win than now, so maybe he will spend some money
Pirates are trying to compete now. Mayo may or may not be legit. Don’t know. Orioles Mouncastle is a better fit.
LOL
Jeff;
You’ve been trying to get rid of Mountcastle for 2+ years now. Have to admit, I’m following your lead.
O’s are too LH on O. With a bigger budget hope they can resign Santander. He wants to stay.
–
Let me be the first……
The shortcoming is NOT pitching. They gave up 3 runs
in 2 games this postseason and lost both. It’s the other
4 components a baseball team: has to do on the field:
1) hitting; 2) defense; 3) running the bases well: and
4) baseball IQ when making split-second decisions on
the field during games. Part of that’s them being a young team. They need veteran team leaders. McCann, Urías, Mateo, Mullins, O’Hearn; and Santander all need to be retained.
Keep McCann, Urias, Mateo, Mullins. I think Tony Taters is gone. And I’d blow up 1st base which means bye to O’Hearn and Mouncastle. To me, Gunnar’s position is hitter. Borderline reckless at SS. Get him a 1b mitt before he permanently disables himself playing short. Can’t hit from IL. Mateo goes back to SS with Holliday getting reps. Urias and Westburg interchange between 3rd and 2nd. Cowser, Mullins and Kjersted in outfield with Beavers (Deavers?) and Bradford (sp?) getting a look. Like to get Hays back if possibke.
“Cowser, Mullins and Kjersted in outfield”
Jeff;
As Tuck pointed out, the O’s are already too LH hitting.
Bradfield Jr. is only 22 and hasn’t played any AAA ball. A speedster. Probably the heir apparent to Mullins in CF. Beavers has speed as well, but not as much as Bradfield Jr. Has more power though. Unless injured, Beavers should be called up sometime in 2025. Unfortunately both hit LH
–
This LH hitting thing is interesting. Lots of teams fall in love with LH hitters, and not just because the percentage of RH pitchers is so much higher than LH pitchers. Part physiology: Most LH hitters take a different (and better) swing path to the ball. Additionally, with the shift outlawed LH batters have much more space to pull a ball on the right side of the infield if a runner is on 1st and the 1B has to stand over the bag until the pitcher releases the pitch. That’s why we see more and more teams moving SS’s over to 2B as opposed to the Gleyber Torres=types that don’t have that much range. I believe the shift taught FO people how beneficial it is for teams to stop LH hitters ground balls and liners getting through as hits with a runner on 1B.
The danger is getting too LH hitting. The Guardians suffered with that for years. This year they brought on RH hitters David Fry, Lane Thomas, and Jhonkensy Noel. It helped some…still a ways to go.
Don’t think Austin comes back anytime soon.
Too much platooning in today’s game for my liking. First time I recall seeing it in Baltimore was when Weaver used the Lowenstein and Renecke (sp?) tandem like that. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it. But I get it. Stats rule today; they tell a story.
LH preference in Baltimore because of LF wall dimensions?
Moving Gunnar to 1B would be absolutely insane, brother. He’s probably never going to be an elite defensive SS, but he is quite solid overall and has a borderline elite arm, so you’d be giving up a ton of his value for no good reason, and you’d be replacing that with a guy in Mateo who simply should not be Plan A for starting SS on a team with World Series aspirations (awesome bench piece though so we should definitely keep him).
If you’re adding Willy Adames to be the new everyday SS, that’s one thing, but moving a guy with Gunnar’s skillset to 1B when he’s fine at his current position and still likely to improve to make room for a guy who struggles to OPS over .600 for months at a time is completely counterproductive atm.
King Floch; hey
Mateo at SS for now to get the Birds to Holliday.
And agree to disagree on Henderson. Get that man a 1st basemen’s mitt. Struggles playing within himself as a SS. He’s gonna hurt himself. And moving him to 1st removes the platoon thing at 1st. Holliday eventually playing everyday at SS removes platooning there as well.
It’s a logical suggestion but I think it makes more sense for the Orioles to keep Mayo and just sign a frontline SP or two. O’Hearn is a FA after 2025 and Mountcastle is a FA after 2026, so Mayo is likely the Orioles’ 1B of the future.
I do think that trading Mountcastle makes a lot of sense for the Orioles though and the Pirates jump out as a team that might have interest in acquiring him.
He’s letting Burnes/Santa know he wants them back, it’s time to win. Get Eovaldi and your favorite reliever too
I like resigning Burnes. Os need that TOR guy.
Eovaldi would be nice but I think FO already has a plan in place for rest of rotation in 2025. It’s Kremer, Suarez, Eflin and unfortunately Rogers bridging the gap until mid season returns of Bradish, Wells and Means. Fingers crossed in Rogers getting things figured out.
From the bullpen. Every year is a bit of a crap shoot for every team. That said; hope Bautista us as nasty as ever. But getting Bradish, Wells and Means back could be huge in getting BP depth from within.
Means is a free agent big dawg.
I wouldn’t refer to Means as a big dawg by no means. Pretty sure he’ll be in black-n-orange in 25.
Means is not coming back. Injury track record is bad, maybe he’s willing to resign for way less on a proven it contract. At best he’s a 4/5 starter now
Agreed. 2 TJ surgeries in quick order. I’m thinking everyone passes on him so he ends up back in Baltimore and more likely in a BP role. But 4/5 is a possibility.
Jeff;
O’s are putting a lot of confidence in pitching coach Drew French. He got Akin back after a terrible 2023. Brought Kremer along after a slow start. Can’t believe he had Soto pitching well at the end of the season – actually gave up no runs in his last 5 appearances – was a basket case when they got him from the Phillies. No one thought Suárez would be anything more than the 3rd or 4th set-up guy. And he’s slowly bringing along McDermott and Povich, the 2 young starters hope will be starting mainstays in the next few years. Add in that I’m hardly giving up on Rodgers, he’s still only 26. Believe at the very least they can make him into decent LH relief pitcher.
Teams can’t buy pitching for more than a year or so. Pitchers work with their coaching staffs nearly every day of the season. If the coaches can’t develop their own pitchers they sure aren’t going to keep veteran pitchers that are brought in tuned and producing.
Dominguez. Is he worth 8 mil? I’m on the fence.
Jeff;
French squared him away some as well. He’s a very good set-up guy. But is he 10 times better than Yennier Cano? That’s what he’s being paid. He’s not proven as a closer. Maybe this time he can do it. But that’s a lot of money to spend as insurance in the event that Bautista goes down again. Odds are they can trade a prospect or two and find a closer in-season that’s on a struggling team should that happen.
Don’t think he’ll be on the roster opening day if Bautista is anywhere near healthy.
Dominguez and Soto have electric stuff and only require a modest 1 year commitment from the Orioles, so I am hoping we keep both.
I’m not an expert, but couldn’t they make Tropicana structurally safe and play games without the roof until the new stadium is ready? Not sure if the catwalks could stay or not, and They could install tarps for rain days.
No
Turnbuckle—Now that I think of it, the playing field probably has zero drainage capability. Even if the everything else was stable, it wouldn’t work. Like I said, I’m not educated in structural engineering.
That’s exactly the problem. There’s no damage system for the field so with no roof when it rains there’s nowhere for the water to go.
Ken – What is a damage system?
Drainage.
It’s not about structural safety. It’s drainage. There is none. The first rain and the players would be playing in ankle deep water.
There’s no simple way to fix it.
No drainage system and it rains a lot.
A drainage system is probably much cheaper and easier than a new roof system.
Switch to sod field.
Install some drainage to sumps with pumps to remove the water. That’s over simplifying, but, it’s very doable.
GaSox – Trop was built on a concrete slab. Drainage can’t happen.
Sure it can fever, just takes engineering.
For example, you can raise the playing field surface by 2 feet. That gives you space for dirt for the sod field, and ability to run pipes under it for water to taper into, and, perimeter French drains near the OF walls.
Similarly, there would be opportunities to remove the front rows of seats in each section to again, raise the level of the “floor” to the same as the former row number two. Again, piping installed French drain style to catch water cascading down the concrete terraces.
The water collected in those pipes can be routed to tanks, with sump pumps, so on so forth.
Anything can be done. And before poo-pooing about relatively short OF walls, wouldn’t really be shorter than most MiLB parks, so there’s that. Heck, lots of parks have short walls in foul territory, so, it’s not that big a stretch
It’s an imperfect solution, but you’re only talking 3 years of lifespan. And it’d be much faster and I’d wager cheaper than the roof situation which is probably structurally compromised beyond having its surface ripped off
Dig a giant deep hole at second base and don’t tell the Yankees about it?
GASox – And the seating areas?
The concourses?
The dugout?
BTW – All the electronics like the scoreboards aren’t weatherproof either.
Fever, the answer to all those (except the electronics) would remain the same. Much like reno projects I’d done to colonial homes through the years, it’s all about channeling to a sump and pumping, and, french drains to sumps with pumps to divert water to begin with.
Not that I suspect they go that route.
One interesting and more realistic idea would be to have the rays play all road games, and just be designated the “home” team for 81 of them. Could be conflicts with concerts or other alternate use arrangements teams had booked during ‘away’ periods, but, if you made the call to do it early enough some things could be juggled and made work I suspect
Arrange an 80/20 fee split on gate revenue as well, and, I’d bet the rays would see increased revenues over their usual levels to boot.
GASox – How could the answer remain the same as the field? You said add the drainage and cover it with a huge layer of dirt, that can’t be done in the stands or concourses or dugouts.
I know it’s fun to speculate but until we learn how much the insurance company will pay out for a new roof and other repairs, nothing can be decided. If the city doesn’t want to repair the roof, they’ve got to give the Rays enough (or all) of the insurance money to cover their lost revenue. That’s what it boils down to, fix up the Trop or compensate the Rays for their lost revenue … unless there’s some weird clauses in the lease that we are not aware of.
Staying on the road for every game is also not feasible. Not only would the Rays players be away from home for more than 6 consecutive months, their travel would be insane as they would literally be going from city to city every 2, 3 or 4 games all season. The union would never allow that.,
Fever, read further in when I talked about removing seats in the sections of the stands, running pipe, and creating sumps with pumps.
The biggest issue is ST. PETE only had municipal policies, AND, raised the deductible through the roof with regard to the trop. Meaning payouts need to fix all the other public infrastructure and such as well.
I read somewhere that damage to the trop didn’t even begin to get covered until around 50m deductible hit, which, is an awful lot to come up with.
Nevermind… it was the opposite, payouts get capped around 50m..
50 stuck in my head for some reason.
But read this article, good info on why the roof is likely a problem getting covered to get fixed:
tampabay.com/sports/2024/10/19/tropicana-field-hur…
The last truly “busy” off-season i can remember for the Orioles was following the 1995 season the O’s that winter added Roberto Alomar, B.J. Surhoff, David Wells, Roger McDowell, Kent Mercker, Mike Devereux and Bill Ripken or the Peter-Angelos-last-ditch-effert-to-get-back-to-the-playoffs winter after the ’98 season which saw them sign the ill-fated Albert Belle contract as well as Charles Johnson, Will Clark, Delino DeShields, Mike Timlin and Mike Fetters.
Wonder what they will do this winter if we are trying to speed up the clock…
During the 2003 (IIRC) offseason, the O’s signed Miguel Tejada, Javy Lopez, and Rafael Palmeiro, all of whom were big FA bats at the time, and made a very serious run at Vlad Guerrero as well before he signed with the Angels.
Unfortunately, they finally got Guerrero about nine years too late…
Sammy Sosa too. And Derek Lee….
Yeah, but it was still cool to see a future HOFer in an O’s uniform, even if he was a shell of what he was in his prime.
Just get some plastic drop clothes and a bunch of Flex Seal. That should do the trick.
Yes, Phil Swift could solve the leaky roof problem on a Saturday morning!
Orlando seems such a logical plan B if the decision is made fixing the Trop isn’t worth it. Also playing a few “home series” in Durham along with the majority in Orlando would be another good idea.
Outdoor games in July and August will be brutal. They may have to move the start times to 11 am, as some minor league affiliates do.
No they need to move the whole season to Durham. North Carolina needs MLB games and not just 100 minors teams.
They should play all their home games at whichever park is available/nearest/scheduled against to their next away series. Yeah it would suck for their local fans and the players to not have a home park. They’d make more in gate than any of these options with better clubhouse and at least they’re not playing on turf in a dome that balls get lost in
Players are entitled to some type of home life for parts of the season too….
It’s not ideal. Makes me wonder how many of them lost their own homes in the storms
@ohyeadam
“Yeah it would suck for their [5,000] local fans…”
Utilitarian solutions don’t really value the small handful of faithful fans that attend games at the Trop.
lol
I hope the O’s go nuts this offseason and sign Burnes, Soto and Snell. It’s a great ballpark and a city in need of something good to happen. Let it rip Rubenstein
I don’t think signing all 3 of those guys is realistic, even if Dave plans to go nuts spending this offseason, but 2 of those 3 would likely fit without exceeding our previous record high payroll of around $170 million from the 2010s competitive run.
“So I’ve got to speed up the effort to get [to] a World Series a lot sooner than maybe some younger owners would.”
Rubes is going to re-double the effort !!!!
The Emperor is most displeased!
You can do that by firing
Elias
Ziggy the Super Computer
Hyde
Re-Hire Duquette!!! At least he won some playoff games
Bad take. Elias built this thing. Without him you would still be the fighting Showalters
Duquette created the mess that Elias had to clean up after 2018.
There’s a good reason why DD has not been given an MLB GM gig since he left Baltimore.
Duquette did some good things for us. Hard to compete when your directive from ownership is to dump comp picks w/ underwater contracts and not sign IFA’s.
Elias is way better for sure but nothing too bad to say about Duke.
I don’t think Duquette caused the mess
Showalter wanted Chris Davis
Duquette made a bunch of awful, short-sighted trades that gutted our farm system and his FO was one of the most archaic in the entire sport.
Elias had to basically build a modern FO from scatch when he took over.
Floch – Dan Duquette built championship caliber teams in both Montreal and Boston. The 2004 & 2007 championship teams had a lot more to do with Duquette than Theo.
Dan left after 2018 and we basically had no real analytics department or international presence.
In 2018.
That’s why what Mike Elias has done is so impressive, because he essentially had to build an entire modern FO from scratch, and had almost nothing on the MLB roster to trade for prospects and a very poor farm system.
Duquette left him a complete mess of an organization.
Well it’s nice to see Redsox bringing another advisor.. what’s the old saying?? To many Chiefs not enough…Guardians….
Olm – It’s like having 3 jockeys on one horse. Eventually the horse is gonna say enough of all the whipping and ignore it all.
Speaking of.. breeders cup coming up!! Went to two of them when at Churchill downs … great time.. for true horse players.. to your example.. Dave Feldman( old sun times) horse racing handicapper many years ago gave great quote on jockey- horse …. Said in all my years of racing I’ve yet to see a jockey carry a horse across the finish line…lol…
On baseball note don’t you think redsox give O Neil a qualified offer?? Seems like a no brainer??
Olm – Tough call because Sox would be banking on Boras being greedy by rejecting it. MLB executive said he’d probably get $36M/3yrs so he’d be better off with the $21M prove it year. I wouldn’t bet either way on this one.
I think there’s three good reasons *not* to give the QO:
1) the diamond sports saga depressing spending, making the 21m in a single season more attractive to hit FA the following year when more suitors should have more money as the situation should be sorted out by then;
2) the OF is already crowded, and Anthony isn’t just knocking, he’s breaking the door down;
3) I suspect Henry will still be relatively tight fisted on spending and that money would be better spent on pitching.
He was productive, and he hits from the needed side, but, health was and will continue to be a concern. Take refsnyder for the $2m option, and work on an answer to be a #1 ace for the rotation. Do that, work some kind of trade magic to move Yoshida and Casas, find a RH 3B masher while you slide Raffy across the diamond and make space on the wall for another pennant.
wish the article explained what the hell a director of baseball science actually does
dasit;
I believe the Director of Baseball Science will be advising advisors who in turn will advise other advisors who in turn advise low-level coaches who in turn advise upper-level coaches who in turn discusses it with the bench coach who in turn discusses it with the manager who in turn discusses it with the GM who in turn asks the PoBO if it’s OK to advise the player who then calls the players agent and asks if the player would have any objections and if there are none it goes back down the hierarchy and then a coach the player gets along with talks to him about the advice.
Clear as mud.
makes sense! hope he remembers to attach a cover sheet to the TPS reports
dasit – I’m hoping he’s the next manager!! When Cora screws up yet again, they have an extra guy not really doing anything and is already on the payroll. One can dream!!!
dasit – The Sox need “The Professor” to go along with Alex “Gilligan” Cora and John “Mr. Howell III.” Henry.
LFG O’s, Big Dave is ready to open the wallet!
Obviously it wouldn’t keep the team in Florida, but why does it seem nobody is giving any thought to playing in San Antonio at the Alamodome?
Jack Ruby’s brother owns the O’s? Theirs a rabbit hole.
No relation as far as I can tell, but yeah, the JFK vs. Israel rabbit hole is pretty deep and isn’t talked about enough. None of the other potential suspects gained more from his death.
The roof at the Trop could cost as much as $250 million and the city doesn’t have insurance to cover more than $47 million in damages. It’s doubtful that the Rays play another game there.
Life – Interesting if true, link please.
It was linked in one of the articles on this site. Tampa Bay Times. I think this is the one,
but easy enough to search Tb Times.
tampabay.com/sports/2024/10/19/tropicana-field-hur…
Life – Thank you, I did see this article yesterday. The thing is, it references several insurance policies – only 2 of which are detailed.
It also references a $39M max cost of replacing the roof, something I had also read shortly after the hurricane.
I think we just have to wait and see what happens, too early to predict.
Why should he be different than any owner in Americas’ legacy media?
The legacy media is like those that work in DC. They’re trying to hold on, but the Internet / Crypto cuts out the middleman. People communicate on their phone and computer. We know what’s going on in everything our lives touch.
Bigger than the Industrial Revolution. Happening NOW!
10,000 Bees;
You sound like the people 20 years ago that said:
“All Amazon does is sell books”.
We need to think out of the box for Tampa. How many out of commission former air craft carriers would it take to construct a Baseball Stadium on the water? Think of the marketing that could be done to sell this once in a lifetime location!!!
You just need a harbor deep enough to accommodate the ship(s)!!
Sag – You sound like Lt. Dan, the guy who rode Helene and Milton in a small boat. LOL!
I feel like a promotion to “interim director of baseball science” doesn’t qualify as an MLB trade.