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Orioles Rumors

Julio Rodríguez Tops 2023 Pre-Arb Bonus Pool

By Darragh McDonald | December 18, 2023 at 5:59pm CDT

Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez will receive $1,865,349 from the $50MM bonus pool for pre-arbitration players, the highest of the 2023 recipients, per a report from Ronald Blum of the Associated Press. The AP later released a full list of bonus recipients.

A notable new element of the current collective bargaining agreement is that $50MM is to be taken from central revenues annually and distributed to players that have not yet qualified for arbitration. Certain portions of the money are to be based on awards voting:

  • Rookie of the Year: $750K for first place, $500K for second place
  • MVP and Cy Young: $2.5MM for first place, $1.75MM for second place, $1.5MM for third place, $1MM for fourth or fifth place
  • All-MLB: $1MM for being named “First Team,” $500K for being named “Second Team”

As Blum highlights today, a player is eligible to receive the bonus for one of those achievements per year, earning only the highest amount. Rodríguez finished fourth in American League MVP voting, meaning he got $1MM for that, which accounted for the majority of his payout. After the bonuses, the remainder of the pool is divided on a percentage basis among the top 100 players based on the joint MLB/MLBPA-created version of WAR.

Players are still eligible even if they have signed extensions, as long as they would have been pre-arb without signing such a deal. Rodríguez and the Mariners signed a convoluted extension towards the end of his rookie season in 2022 but he’s only at two years of service time now. Since he would have been pre-arb without that extension, he was able to top this year’s pool.

The following 10 players got more than $1MM:

  • Rodríguez: $1,865,349
  • Corbin Carroll: $1,812,337
  • Adley Rutschman: $1,798,439
  • Spencer Strider: $1,692,833
  • Justin Steele: $1,673,331
  • Kyle Bradish: $1,666,786
  • Félix Bautista: $1,467,094
  • Gunnar Henderson: $1,428,001
  • Jonah Heim: $1,060,306
  • Tanner Bibee: $1,016,931

Last year, Dylan Cease got the biggest slice of the 2022 pie, taking home $2,457,426.

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Arizona Diamondbacks Atlanta Braves Baltimore Orioles Chicago Cubs Cleveland Guardians Collective Bargaining Agreement MLBPA Pre-Arbitration Bonus Pool Seattle Mariners Texas Rangers Adley Rutschman Corbin Carroll Felix Bautista Gunnar Henderson Jonah Heim Julio Rodriguez Justin Steele Kyle Bradish Spencer Strider Tanner Bibee

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Orioles Acquire Jonathan Heasley From Royals

By Darragh McDonald | December 18, 2023 at 5:50pm CDT

The Orioles have acquired right-hander Jonathan Heasley from the Royals in exchange for minor league right-hander Cesar Espinal, per announcements from both clubs. This appears to be the corresponding move for right-hander Michael Wacha, whose deal with the Royals was officially announced by that club earlier today. Jeff Passan of ESPN relayed the deal prior to the official announcements. Baltimore’s 40-man count is now at 38.

Heasley, 27 in January, was a 13th-round pick of the Royals in 2018 but seemed to increase his stock with a strong 2021 campaign. That year, he tossed 105 1/3 innings in Double-A with a 3.33 earned run average, striking out 27.7% of batters faced while issuing walks at just a 7.9% clip. He was added to the Kansas City roster in mid-September and went into 2022 with a bit of helium. FanGraphs and Baseball America each ranked him the club’s #13 prospect for 2022.

He hasn’t found much success since then, however, serving as a frequently-optioned depth arm. In his 133 2/3 major league innings to this point, he has a 5.45 ERA and 14.5% strikeout rate. In 134 Triple-A innings over the past two years, he has a 6.11 ERA, though his 22.6% strikeout rate at that level is more encouraging. He still has an option so the O’s can continue to develop him without having to give Heasley a spot on the active roster. He has worked both as a starter and reliever in recent years, though it’s unclear if the O’s have a particular role in mind for him.

Espinal, 18, is not a prospect of note as of right now. He has 53 2/3 innings of minor league experience thus far, pitching in the Dominican Summer League in the past two years. He has a 4.02 ERA in that time, along with a 21.9% strikeout rate and 11% walk rate.

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Baltimore Orioles Kansas City Royals Transactions Jon Heasley Michael Wacha

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Orioles, Maryland Approve New Lease Agreement

By Darragh McDonald | December 18, 2023 at 3:45pm CDT

The Orioles and the state of Maryland have approved a new lease agreement, as reported by multiple outlets and announced by the O’s. “The Baltimore Orioles have agreed to a partnership with the State of Maryland, Governor Wes Moore, and the Maryland Stadium Authority that will keep the Orioles at Camden Yards for thirty years,” the statement begins. It goes on to feature comments from John Angelos, chair and managing partner of the club, as well as Maryland Governor Wes Moore and others. Danielle Allentuck of the Baltimore Banner relayed the full press release for those interested.

Though the club announced they are staying at Camden for 30 years, they are currently only committed for 15, with Pamela Wood of the Baltimore Banner and Rich Dubroff of Baltimore Baseball relaying some of the details. If the club and the state can agree to a development plan for the surrounding area in the next four years, then the lease can be expanded from 15 to 30 years.

The new deal comes just in the nick of time, as the previous lease was set to expire at the end of the year. Back in February, the O’s had a chance to extend the lease for another five years but decided not to do so. The hope was that they could work out a longer deal that would allow them to take advantage of a new Maryland law and borrow $600MM for stadium upgrades. In August, it was reported that Angelos was trying to leverage the stadium negotiations into acquiring public land. He reportedly envisioned developing a mixed-use area with commercial and retail spaces, emulating to The Battery and Truist Park where the Braves play in Georgia.

In September, Angelos and Gov. Moore announced a new 30-year lease between the club and the state, though this was actually misleading. Reporting from the next day revealed that they had merely signed a memorandum of understanding, which was legally non-binding. The talks seemed to hit a speed bump when it was reported that private equity mogel David Rubenstein was in talks to acquire the club, causing State senator Bill Ferguson to express some concern with the agreement. This new deal will keep the club in Baltimore while kicking those development negotiations down the road for another four years. The new agreement was reported on Friday and approved today by the Maryland Stadium Authority and then by the Board of Public Works.

The Orioles have until December 31 of 2027 to win approval for a ground lease and development plan for an area that is believed to include the B&O Warehouse, the vacant Camden Station building and an adjacent parking area between the Warehouse and train tracks. If they don’t get those approved, they can continue with the 30-year agreement or switch to a 15-year pact. The 30-year pact also has four extensions of five years available, meaning the club could potentially stay for 50 years as part of this deal. If the ground lease and development plan are approved, it’s possible to change the terms of the 30-year agreement. The O’s and the stadium authority can now start accessing the $600MM in taxpayer-financed bonds that state lawmakers have authorized for major upgrades to the stadium.

Many details of the full agreement have not been publicly revealed and more will surely come out over time.

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Latest On Felix Bautista

By Nick Deeds | December 16, 2023 at 8:54pm CDT

  • Orioles closer Felix Bautista spoke to reporters this evening, including MLB.com’s Jake Rill and AJ Cassavell, and provided an update on his health after undergoing Tommy John surgery back in October. Bautista told the pair that his recovery from the surgery is going well, and that he’s “doing everything he can” to get back onto the field. That return to the mound won’t occur in 2024, as Bautista is expected to miss the entire campaign while rehabbing. With the right-hander expected back in time for Spring Training 2025, Bautista and the Orioles got together on a two-year extension upon the announcement of his surgery back in September.
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Baltimore Orioles Los Angeles Dodgers New York Mets Tampa Bay Rays Erik Neander Felix Bautista Manuel Margot Tyler Glasnow Yoshinobu Yamamoto

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Tommy Hunter Officially Retires

By Anthony Franco | December 13, 2023 at 9:21pm CDT

Longtime big league reliever Tommy Hunter has officially retired, he tells Britt Ghiroli of the Athletic (X link). Hunter first indicated he was retiring on former teammate Adam Jones’ podcast in October, news that eluded MLBTR at the time.

Hunter, 37, pitched parts of 16 seasons in the majors. The Rangers selected the University of Alabama product in the supplemental first round of the 2007 draft. He got to the big leagues the following August. Operating as a starter for three seasons, Hunter compiled a 4.36 ERA before being dealt alongside future home run champ Chris Davis to the Orioles for Koji Uehara.

While Davis turned out to be the star of that return, Hunter was a very productive player for Baltimore in his own right. He struggled as a starter over the next season and a half but found a new gear upon moving to the bullpen in 2013. The right-hander turned in consecutive sub-3.00 ERA showings while surpassing 60 innings in 2013 and ’14, combining for a 2.88 ERA over that stretch.

Hunter found himself in another deadline trade in 2015. As an impending free agent on an average Baltimore team, he was flipped to the Cubs in a swap for outfielder Junior Lake. Hunter bounced around as a middle reliever from that point forward, suiting up with the Indians, Orioles again, Rays and Phillies through 2020. He saw action with the Mets in each of the past three seasons. Hunter was generally effective for the majority of that time, although he finished with a 6.85 ERA in 23 2/3 innings before New York released him this past June.

In the decade after his move to the bullpen, he allowed 3.33 earned runs per nine in 410 appearances with six franchises. Hunter never posted huge strikeout tallies, but he had consistently strong command and turned in five seasons with 50+ innings and an ERA below 4.00. He was part of the 2010 Texas team that won the American League pennant and started Game 4 of that year’s Fall Classic, allowing two runs over four innings in a 4-0 loss.

For his career, Hunter posted a 4.07 ERA across 917 1/3 frames. He recorded 639 punchouts, won 56 games, picked up 103 holds and collected 22 saves. Baseball Reference calculated his career earnings in the $36MM range. MLBTR congratulates Hunter on his productive, very lengthy run at the highest level and wishes him the best in his post-playing days.

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Latest On Orioles’ Ownership, Lease Situations

By Anthony Franco | December 8, 2023 at 7:27pm CDT

One of yesterday’s top stories was a Bloomberg report that private equity mogul David Rubenstein had been in contact with the Angelos family about purchasing some portion of the Orioles. It comes at a time of ongoing uncertainty about the franchise’s lease at Camden Yards, which runs through December 31.

In late September, the Orioles and the Maryland governor’s office jointly announced a non-binding memorandum of understanding that would, if approved, extend the Camden Yards lease by 30 years. As part of that framework, the O’s would receive a 99-year development rights agreement to build around the stadium with visions of a ballpark village.

That latter aspect has found some pushback in the state legislature. Rubenstein’s reported discussions about the franchise only made the situation more complex. State senator Bill Ferguson released a statement on Friday afternoon expressing opposition to the memorandum.

“Fundamentally, I believe that the long-term lease for the use of the ballpark should not be conditioned on whether or not a private owner receives a 99-year ground lease to develop land owned by Maryland taxpayers. This is more relevant today, as recent news has heightened uncertainties about the future ownership of the team,” Ferguson said (via the Associated Press).

Jeff Barker, Hayes Gardner and Emily Opilo of the Baltimore Sun write that while the governor’s office and the Orioles had reached a tentative 30-year lease agreement, the governor has put that on hold in response to Ferguson’s comments. According to the Sun, the governor’s office had been briefing elected officials about the framework of the lease agreement as recently as this morning. Once Ferguson made his statement in the afternoon, the governor’s office reversed course and halted the deal. Neither the governor nor the Orioles made any public announcement.

Whether Ferguson would have intervened if not for the reported discussions between Rubenstein and the Angelos family isn’t clear. (The Sun notes that Ferguson had expressed opposition to giving the O’s land development rights as far as back as August.) Still, it seems the Bloomberg report played some role in the renewed opposition. Andy Kostka and Pamela Wood of The Baltimore Banner write that Ferguson’s concerns were heightened by the possibility of an ownership change.

To that end, the Angelos family has sought to downplay that possibility. Kostka and Wood report that O’s chairman John Angelos spoke with Maryland governor Wes Moore on Thursday night and reassured him the family had no plans to sell a majority stake in the franchise. The Sun observes that the Angelos family would be subject to notable capital gains taxes if they sell while longtime owner Peter Angelos, 94, remains alive.

The respective reports from The Sun and The Banner contain myriad details about the lease framework that seemed to be in place before the governor’s office’s change of heart. Next steps aren’t entirely clear, but it stands to reason the sides will act quickly to try to modify the agreement to overcome the legislature’s objections before year’s end.

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David Rubenstein Reportedly In Talks To Acquire Baltimore Orioles

By Darragh McDonald | December 7, 2023 at 11:59pm CDT

Carlyle Group founder David Rubenstein is in talks to acquire the Baltimore Orioles, according to a report from Gillian Tan of Bloomberg. The O’s are currently owned by the Angelos family.

It’s unclear at this point what stage the talks are at or if any kind of deal is close at this time. It also doesn’t seem like Rubenstein is the only person pursuing the club, as the report states that he is “among suitors pursuing a transaction.” Whether the Angelos family has pursued this or have merely been approached by prospective buyers isn’t clear, but there has been plenty of uncertainty in recent years about the future of the franchise.

Peter Angelos, now 94, was the principal investor of a group that purchased the franchise in 1993. After he collapsed in 2017 due to the failure of his aortic valve, larger roles were taken up by his wife Georgia and sons John and Lou. In June of 2022, reports emerged of infighting between the family about control of the club, with MLB approving John as the club’s “control person” in 2020. Multiple lawsuits were filed and the reporting of the legal battle revealed that Georgia had hired Goldman Sachs to look into a possible sale of the club. In February of this year, it was reported that the family members had reached an agreement to drop their lawsuits against each other. “I would say that there’s not a plan to change the principal ownership or the managing partnership and there would be no reason to,” John said on the matter in February.

Amid all of the drama over the ownership situation, there has also been an ongoing situation regarding Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The club’s lease on the facility runs through 2023. They had an opportunity to extend that for five years but chose in February not to do so. The hope was that they could work out a longer deal that would allow them to take advantage of a new Maryland law and borrow $600MM for stadium upgrades. Both John and Maryland Governor Wes Moore have made public statements expressing optimism about getting a new deal done.

In August it was reported that John was trying to leverage the stadium negotiations into acquiring public land. He reportedly envisioned developing a mixed-use area with commercial and retail spaces, emulating to The Battery and Truist Park where the Braves play in Georgia.

In September, John and Gov. Moore announced a new 30-year lease between the club and the state, though this was actually misleading. Reporting from the next day revealed that they had merely signed a memorandum of understanding, which was legally non-binding. The lease is still set to expire on December 31 and recent reporting has suggested the two sides may have to sign a short-term extension of a year or perhaps even go month-to-month, per Hayes Gardner of The Baltimore Sun, while working out a longer deal.

In addition to all of that, the club has made almost no long-term investments in any players. The O’s haven’t signed a free agent to a multi-year deal since March of 2018, with was Alex Cobb’s four-year deal. Since then, the only contracts longer than one year the club has given out have been two-year extensions to John Means and Félix Bautista, both players that were already under club control and rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. For much of that time, the club was in rebuilding mode. But even as they have returned to contention in the last two years, including winning the AL East with 101 wins in 2023, they have yet to make any kind of commitment to anything down the road.

Rubenstein, 74, is the co-founder and co-chairman of the Carlyle Group, a private equity company. He was born in Baltimore and Bloomberg estimates his net worth as $4.6 billion, though Forbes comes in below that at $3.6 billion. Forbes also currently values the Orioles franchise at $1.713 billion, about 10 times more than the $173MM price point when it was purchased in 1993.

To this point, it’s unclear if Rubenstein actually has a chance of acquiring the club or if he would approach any of the aforementioned issues differently. But if he were able to seal the deal and change the way the club operates, that would obviously be a franchise-altering development. It could also have ripple effects outside the O’s since they have an ongoing dispute with the Nationals over MASN and rights fees dating back to the Nats moving from Montreal to Washington in 2005. The Lerner family has been trying to sell the Nats in recent years but that MASN dispute has reportedly been a significant obstacle in doing so.

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Orioles Interested In Extensions For Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday

By Darragh McDonald | December 7, 2023 at 5:17pm CDT

Agent Scott Boras spoke to the media at the Winter Meetings yesterday and was asked if the Orioles had reached out about extension talks with his clients Gunnar Henderson and Jackson Holliday. “Only once or twice a day,” Boras quipped, with Andy Kostka of The Baltimore Banner among those who passed his comments along. “Those kinds of things, obviously we listen, and Mike [Elias] and I talk a lot. Obviously, our job is to filter those phone calls and relay them to the player, and kind of discuss it and see if it’s something that the player himself is interested in.”

Boras and his clients have a reputation of generally being averse to extensions, though that’s not to say they never happen. MLBTR’s Contract Tracker shows that Boras has negotiated extensions for clients such as Xander Bogaerts, Stephen Strasburg, Lance McCullers Jr. and more.

Both Henderson and Holliday are fairly inexperienced but extensions for players at this stage of their careers are becoming more common. Henderson has 184 games under his belt, but has thrived in those, winning American League Rookie of the Year here in 2023. Holliday has yet to make his major league debut but is the consensus top prospect in the sport.

In recent years, players like Luis Robert Jr. and Eloy Jiménez have received notable extensions prior to even making it to the big leagues. Jackson Chourio, who currently falls just behind Holliday on those prospect lists, recently set a new benchmark for players with zero service time. He and the Brewers agreed to an eight-year, $82MM extension with performance bonuses and a pair of club options. There have also been notable deals given to players with a small amount of major league experience, with each of Corbin Carroll, Wander Franco and Julio Rodríguez getting nine-figure guarantees.

For the Orioles, they would have to change strategy to get a deal done with either player. Since Mike Elias was hired as general manager in November of 2018, the largest guarantee they have given to anyone is the one-year, $13MM deal they gave to Craig Kimbrel this week. The only extensions they have signed were two-year deals for John Means and Félix Bautista. In both cases, the player was rehabbing Tommy John surgery and was already under club control for the two seasons covered by the contract.

To be fair, the O’s have been aggressively rebuilding for much of the Elias tenure, so big spending wasn’t warranted. But they won 83 games in 2022 and still kept this modest last winter. The current offseason is still ramping up, so maybe there’s a bold move or two to come, but there’s been nothing too out-of-character just yet.

Due to that lack of spending, the club has the financial means to theoretically do anything it wants. The only commitments on the books for 2025 are $1MM owed to Bautista and another $1MM for the buyout on Kimbrel’s option. There’s nothing committed for 2026. Per the data of Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the O’s had a payroll as high as $164MM in 2017, which put them in the top 10 league-wide. But much has changed since then.

Owner Peter Angelos collapsed in 2017 due to the failure of his aortic valve and his son John Angelos later was named “control person” for the club. Since then, the club has been rebuilding and keeping player costs to a minimum. Beyond that, they haven’t been able to agree to a new lease for their home ballpark, with the current agreement set to expire at the end of this month. It was reported earlier today that David Rubenstein is attempting to purchase the club, though it’s unclear if he has a chance of succeeding or how long that would take.

There’s plenty of long-term uncertainty around the franchise so it’s an open question as to how much latitude Elias even has to commit future dollars to either of these players or any of the other on the roster. The aggressive tanking of a few years ago helped them load up their farm system, which has led to their current club being filled with talented youngsters like Adley Rutschman, Kyle Bradish, Grayson Rodriguez, Jordan Westburg and more. Getting one or more of those players to put pen to paper and stay in Baltimore for a long time would be a sensible strategy, but the likelihood of such a deal actually happening isn’t obvious at the moment.

In the short term, Elias will have to think about putting the best possible team on the field for 2024 and recently spoke to Rich Dubroff of Baltimore Baseball about that. They are set to have an outfield of Cedric Mullins, Austin Hays and Anthony Santander, though there are some different options for a fourth outfielder, with Elias naming Heston Kjerstad, Colton Cowser, Kyle Stowers and Ryan McKenna as suitors for such a gig.

Kjerstad had a solid showing last year, tearing through Double-A and Triple-A before getting into 13 major league contests. The club probably wants to find him regular playing time somewhere, and he has played some first base before, but Elias shot down the notion of him moving there on a regular basis. “I don’t have designs on him becoming a full-time first baseman,” he said. “I think it’s something more that we’re trying to get it to a point where it’s in his back pocket and we can tap into it a couple of days a week.” The club has Ryan Mountcastle and Ryan O’Hearn as options for first base and designated hitter, so it’s not even a guarantee that there’s a cleaner path to playing time for Kjerstad there.

Despite all the crowding, the O’s have some openness to bringing in another outfielder, though it seems the odds of that happening are low. “I still see a ton of playing time and a lot of at-bats outside of our three primary outfielders,” Elias said. “Right now, this is up for grabs. These guys, I don’t think any of them have really proven it yet over a long period of time in the majors, so we’re cognizant of that. If we can find external insurance or external help in this department, it’s not going to close the doors for those guys, and it wouldn’t be unwelcome from our end, either. Competition is good. Depth is good. These seasons are so unpredictable. Odds are you’ll get some injuries, so we have to prepare for all that. We’ll talk to free agents that might be a fit for joining our outfield mix, but we have high hopes for the names that I mentioned.”

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Baltimore Orioles Gunnar Henderson Heston Kjerstad Jackson Holliday

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Orioles Sign Craig Kimbrel

By Steve Adams and Darragh McDonald | December 7, 2023 at 1:20pm CDT

December 7: Kimbrel can increase the value of the buyout based on game and games finished in 2024, per Jon Heyman of The New York Post. It will be an extra $100K for pitching in 35, 40, 45, 50 and 55 games, as well as another $100K for finishing the same amounts. If Kimbrel were to max out all of those, the buyout would jump to $2MM.

December 6: The Orioles announced the signing of closer Craig Kimbrel to a one-year deal with a club option for the 2025 season. It’s a reported $13M guarantee for the SportsMeter client. Kimbrel will make $12MM in 2024 with a $1MM buyout on a $13MM option for ’25.

Baltimore has been looking to fortify the back of their bullpen this winter, with Félix Bautista set to miss the 2024 campaign recovering from Tommy John surgery. In that search, they have been connected in rumors to just about every notable reliever, including Josh Hader, Robert Stephenson and Jordan Hicks, though those guys are set for multi-year deals.

Details of this deal between the O’s and Kimbrel aren’t known but it’s possible it’s a one-year deal, since he settled for a one-year pact last offseason and is now going into his age-36 campaign. In that case, Kimbrel could act as a bridge, covering the closing role in Baltimore for one season and then relinquishing it to Bautista for 2025.

Kimbrel has a lengthy track record of having been one of the most dominant relievers in the game, having racked up 417 saves since debuting with Atlanta back in 2010. Recent years have been a bit more rocky but he’s coming off a generally solid season.

Over 2019 and 2020 with the Cubs, Kimbrel had an earned run average of 6.00 in 36 innings, a noticeable slide since his previous nine seasons only once resulted in an ERA over 2.74. He got back on track in 2021 with an ERA of 2.26 between the Cubs and White Sox, though he was far better before being traded than after. His ERA was a ridiculous 0.49 before the deal but 5.09 after. He was traded to the Dodgers for the 2022 season and posted a respectable 3.75 ERA, but he was shaky enough that year to get removed from the closer’s role in September and then left off that club’s playoff roster.

Kimbrel signed with the Phillies for 2023, a one-year deal with a $10MM guarantee. He tossed 69 innings for the Phils over 71 appearances this year, finishing with a 3.26 ERA, 33.8% strikeout rate and 10.1% walk rate. He earned 23 saves and seven holds in the process. He didn’t fare so well in the postseason, allowing four earned runs in six innings, but that’s a tiny sample of work relative to the season overall.

That won’t quite live up to Bautista’s recent performance, but there are few pitchers in the world who could. His first two seasons in the big leagues resulted in a 1.85 ERA and 40.4% strikeout rate. Only Edwin Díaz, who missed 2023 due to knee surgery, had a higher strikeout percentage in that time. But Kimbrel will nonetheless strengthen the bullpen relative to where it was a few days ago, joining other high-leverage relievers such as Yennier Cano and Danny Coulombe.

Assuming Kimbrel is in the closer’s role, he will have a chance to continue climbing the all-time saves leaderboard. Kenley Jansen currently sits seventh on that list with 420 while Kimbrel is eighth with 417. Both of those closers will have a chance to jump three more spots in 2024. Billy Wagner is currently sixth with 422, John Franco is fifth with 424 and Francisco Rodríguez is fourth with 437. That means each of Jansen and Kimbrel could be in the top five by the end of next year.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported that the O’s and Kimbrel were in serious discussions. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal first reported the sides were nearing and then in agreement on a deal. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reported the financial terms.

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Orioles “Seriously Engaged” On Craig Kimbrel

By Anthony Franco | December 5, 2023 at 11:55pm CDT

The Orioles are “seriously engaged” on free agent reliever Craig Kimbrel, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post (X link). Baltimore has been involved on a number of late-game bullpen arms as they look to compensate for the loss of Félix Bautista to Tommy John surgery.

Kimbrel wouldn’t be as notable a pickup as Josh Hader or Jordan Hicks, in whom Baltimore reportedly also expressed interest. Kimbrel would be a far more affordable acquisition, though. That’s more a reflection of his age (36 in May) than performance, as the nine-time All-Star turned in a generally solid showing for the Phillies.

After inking a $10MM free agent contract with Philadelphia last winter, Kimbrel operated in his customary closing role. He picked up 23 saves with seven more holds while blowing only five leads in the regular season. The right-hander worked to a 3.26 ERA through 69 innings, striking out a little over a third of opponents in the process. Kimbrel’s fastball sat in the customary 96 MPH range, while he picked up a whiff on nearly 14% of his offerings.

It was a good season overall, even if it ended on a less resounding note. Kimbrel allowed four runs with five strikeouts and walks apiece over six innings in the postseason. It was the second consecutive season that didn’t end as he’d hoped; Kimbrel had been left off the Dodgers’ playoff roster in 2022. Yet his overall body of work over the past three years — a 3.10 ERA with a 34.4% strikeout percentage across 188 2/3 innings — is quite strong.

With the possible exception of Hader, no pitcher could reasonably be expected to rival what the O’s would’ve anticipated from a healthy Bautista. Kimbrel remains an above-average reliever, though, one who clearly has no qualms handling the ninth inning. If the O’s plugged him in as closer for a season, they’d be able to keep Yennier Cano and Danny Coulombe in a setup capacity.

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Baltimore Orioles Craig Kimbrel

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