The players were out over the weekend ahead of spring training
Happy Monday, Camden Chatters. I hope you were able to have a restful weekend. There’s a lot going on out there in the world right now, so do your best to stay safe and sane. If you need a distraction, you’ll soon have one as the Orioles will hold their first pitchers and catchers full workout on February 13th.
Speaking of our guys, there are a lot of quotes from Orioles about how excited they are for the season to begin and how good they’ll be. The media finally got a chance to talk to players thanks to the three-day Birdland Caravan that saw some of the team’s young stars making stops around Maryland to hype up the fans.
One thing that was focused on was how players feel about the change in the left-field wall dimensions. The consensus answer was that they’re looking forward to it. Probably no one is looking more forward to it than Ryan Mountcastle. He lost more home runs to the wall than any other player.
Mountcastle has always been a player with a middling OBP, which makes the loss of his power even more of an issue. In the ongoing quest to improve the team, his spot in the lineup stands out as a place that could be upgraded. Will the shorter wall fix that? Not entirely. But it could help.
I like Mountcastle. I’d much rather him be a productive member of a great Orioles team than see him leave. He already helped himself with improved defense last year, so a revved up offensive season from him would be fantastic.
Links
Holliday: “I understand pretty much what happened last year” – MASN Sports
Roch Kubatko has notes from Jackson Holliday’s media session during the Birdland Caravan. Holliday is confident it’ll be better this year. Weirdly, I am too. He’s good!
It’s been a year of change since David Rubenstein’s Orioles takeover – The Baltimore Banner
David Rubenstein’s honeymoon phase is over. Many fans have been disappointed with the path of the team over this off-season, but Jon Meoli says not so fast.
The potential breakout star of each MLB division in 2025 – MLB.com
Speaking of Jackson Holliday, this MLB story names him as the possible breakout star this year. I would not object to that.
Birthdays and History
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have seven Orioles birthday buddies! The longest-tenured of those is Fred Lynn, celebrating his 73rd birthday today. Lynn played seven seasons with the Red Sox and four with the Angels before signing with the Orioles in December 1984. He put up 3.5 decent seasons for the Orioles before they traded him at the 1988 trade deadline for catcher Chris Hoiles. Pretty good deal for the Orioles, there.
Also born on this day in history are Rougned Odor (31), Brooks Kriske (31), Scott Klingenbeck (54), Don Welchel (68), Jim Dyck (b. 1922, d. 1999), and Harry Byrd (b. 1925, d. 1985).
On this day in 2015, the Orioles re-signed Nolan Reimold, who had played in Baltimore from 2009-13. He appeared in 165 games with the team from 2015-16.
In 2021, the Orioles signed pitching great Félix Hernández to a minor-league deal. He hadn’t pitched in the majors since 2019. It was a fun idea, but nothing came of it. King Félix opted out of his deal in late March.