Where do the Orioles go from here? | “The Bird’s Nest”

Where do the Orioles go from here? | “The Bird’s Nest”

Outstanding effort again. We’re busting ours to kick yours. That’s big time. 15. Respect all, fear none. Oh, he spelt that one. Intensity is not a perfume. It was a no doubter. 5 4 3 2 1. [Music] We are up in the bird’s nest here at Oriel Park at Camden Yards. I’m Brendon Mortonson alongside Andy Claf. It is officially October, October the 1st as we are doing this podcast, which means there is playoff baseball. Unfortunately, the Orioles are not playing in that playoff baseball. That would make the playoff baseball a little bit more exciting, but it’s still exciting. Andy, real quick, give me your AL and L winners. All right, let’s go with the Cubs for the NL. Okay, NL like it. And you know, I’m a little bit torn. Okay. On the other one because I feel like No, I’m not going to go with the Tigers. Let’s And I I’m not going to root for the Yankees. Well, it’s not a rooting for this is more of a prediction than prediction. Okay, we’re going to go with Don’t let Don’t let your hatred of the Yankees fuel your predictions. Cubs, Blue Jays. Cubs, Blue Jays. Fun. I’m going to go opposite direction. I’ve got Red Sox, Phillies. I think whoever wins this Red Sox, Yankees Wildcard Series is probably your winner in the American League. And I’ve got the Phillies. I don’t know. Whenever you get to October, I just always have the sense that there are certain guys in the playoffs that know how to win and certain guys who just haven’t been there yet. Yeah, that’s why I like, you know, the Yankees, John Carlos Stanton is an outstanding playoff performer. Red Sox, you’ve got Alex Bregman, you’ve got plenty of guys on that roster that can get it done. Phillies, Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, guys who have just been there and done that. That always makes a difference in October. I would like to say Padres’s just because of like Ryan O’Harn trajectory and Raone Lauraniano hopefully coming back soon after the finger injury not playing in this series but hopefully we’ll be back sooner. So for their sake I would like to say them but I think there is a a solid rooting interest in the Padres’s if you are an Orioles fan given the fact that of course they have Manny Machado and then Ryan O’Harn and Raone Lauraniano both there at the trade deadline this year. So, I think probably if you were an Orioles fan watching the playoffs wondering who you should be rooting for, yeah, you’d like to see them do well. Probably the Padres’s. Also, shout out our guys Kevin Brown, Ben McDonald on the call for that Padres’s Cub series. Pretty cool. I turned on the game yesterday and I was like, am I watching an old Orioles? Nope, just Kevin and Ben. With a lot of personnel that could have been Yeah. an Orioles game exactly a year or five ago. A year or five or seven or ago, you know, whatever. All right, Annie, we’ve got a lot to talk about today. We are going to go over what Tony Manelino and Michaelas discussed at their end ofear press conferences. This is an off season that is vital for the future of the Baltimore Orioles. They will be selecting a new manager. They will maybe be selecting a new general manager as well. And of course, there are a lot of roster moves that the Orioles will need to make if they want to get back to being competitive. And we are going to talk about all of those things. But, you know, we’ll just quickly put a bow on the season. We kind of did this on last week’s podcast as well, but the Orioles officially finished 75 and 87 after being swept by the Yankees in the last weekend of the season. That’s last place in the AL East. It’s their fewest number of wins since 2021. I don’t pay too much attention to the record itself. There were a few players who kind of echoed that sentiment as well, being that if your record isn’t good enough to make the playoffs, it’s not good enough to make the playoffs. Your record is kind of either you are in the postseason or you are not in the postseason. Obviously, you would like to stack up as many wins as possible, but the exact number figure is is not something that’s terribly consequential. Yeah, I mean I think that the way that it has gone and the way that the off season that the Orioles have entered the offseason, this offseason is extremely critical for the Orioles and you could argue um more critical than they were going into the 2025 off season because or 2024 offseason because yes, the Orioles last year were in the hunt. They should have been in the hunt this year. Um so the offseason last year was very critical obviously like you’re still in it. you got another chance to make it to the playoffs the third year straight year in a row and it was critical. But I feel like right now where the Orioles are headed into the off season and are in the offseason, it feels ever so more critical than it was last year because you’re at a a lot of these guys primes or what should have been primes and you kind of don’t want to waste that, especially with a year that felt a bit of a waste in 2025. Yeah, it it did feel like you squandered an opportunity a little bit in 2025. Trevor Rogers was your MVO and probably your team’s best player, which nothing against Trevor Rodgers, but I he did have a spectacular season, but if you went into the year thinking that Trevor Rogers was going to be your best player, you would say, “Where’s Gunnar Henderson? Where’s Adley Rutman? Where’s Colton Cowser? Where are those guys?” Gunner had a quote unquote down year. He still had five and a half baseball reference war. It was still a good season out of him, but he was also tied for the team lead with 17 home runs with Jackson Holiday and Jordan Westber. Uh, nobody cracked 20 home runs on this team this year. That’s the first time that’s happened with an Orioles roster since 2001 when the team lead was 15 home runs. Woo. That uh that’s not many homers. Just two regular hitters, Gunnar Henderson and Jordan Westber, finished the season with a 700 OPS or better. That is also not very good. There was only one position player with a baseball reference war over two. That is also not very good. There were clearly issues during the 2025 season. We are going to get into the personnel and roster moves that could potentially be made, but we need to start with the fact that the probably most important search of this off season will be for the manager. Tony Manelino finishes the season with a 60 and 59 record as interim manager. He said he feels strongly that he’s in good standing and that he’s under consideration for the Orioles managerial opening. Michaelas and echoed that sentiment as well, saying that Manso would be a serious contender for that role. Manso said he loves the Orioles. He’s open to all options. When he was asked if he would consider a role that wasn’t the manager, I would be surprised if he comes back in a role that is not the manager of this baseball team. Just because that’s a weird dynamic, right? If Tony Manelino were to come back as the bench coach and then all of a sudden he just spent a 100 plus games managing the team last year, that’s a weird dynamic with whatever manager comes in. So, I’m not sure exactly what that would look like, but he’s confident in his ability to be the manager, whether it’s here, whether it’s somewhere else, whatever state the club is in. In terms of Manscolino’s viability as a manager for this team next season, he proved that he could win and win with a roster that was pretty heavily depleted from what the Orioles thought it would be going into the year. He kind of made the joke that he pretty much had a fourmonlong interview rather than a former formal interview process for this job. And I think he did a great job in that interview. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and I think when it comes to selecting a new manager for 2026, yes, there’s obviously the argument of, okay, you want someone that has already created veteran big league manager status, uh, to kind of come into this clubhouse and really make an important shift and an important change. But at the same time, you also have to give credit to Tony Mansino, where credit is due, for what he’s done. And yes, it was barely a winning record, but still a winning record after the way that the Orioles had dug themselves a hole in the beginning of 2025. I I think that when it comes to the needs and wants of a a manager, a permanent one for 2026, Mansino does check a number of the boxes. I do think that he does have a clear vision for this team. Yes, he’s still learning and it is still new to him, but I think that that he does know what he wants for this team. And I think that there is a very mutual respect between he and the players. Something that is very valuable when it comes to a manager, interim manager player relationship. And I think that he did very well with that. He also holds accountability for himself moreover than anybody else. But he also knows that it’s important to hold accountability for the players. And I think that the the prime example that comes to my mind with that is that he always says that injuries are not a copout for the way that this season has gone. And I think that that is him him he himself trying to take accountability with yes there was underperformance but you can’t blame injuries. Whether that’s on me, whether that’s on the players, who knows? Yeah. And I think Manscelino’s prospects for this role will really have to do with what the Orioles are looking for in a manager. if they are looking for somebody, you know, Elias did say that they will value somebody with managerial experience, somebody who has, you know, maybe a good track record in the postseason. There are plenty of those guys available. Bob Melvin and Bruce Bochi were relieved of their duties. On the Bruce Bochi topic, I know that there are a lot of Orioles fans that would probably love Bruce Bochi. He kind of led a dynasty in San Francisco and San Francisco has an opening and his star player during that dynasty is now running the show in San Francisco being Buster Posey. I would imagine that Bochi wouldn’t even have to interview for that job if he wanted it. So I I kind of imagine that he fits right back into San Francisco. It’s a bit of a similar story with Skip Schumacher who is currently in the front office for the Rangers. Again, Bochi leaves that managerial role vacant. Skip Schumacher is a former manager of the year who would be a great candidate. If the Orioles were looking in his direction, he’s in the front office for the Rangers. The Rangers have a managerial opening. I would be surprised if Skip Schumacher is not the next manager of the Rangers. But that does leave somebody like Bob Melvin who is available and a veteran. Brian Snitker was, you know, just this morning um I informed the Braves that he would not be returning as the manager. How much that was a mutual decision decision, who knows? But seems like he is going to take an advisory role with the Braves. Whether or not some other team would be able to coax him out of that, who knows? And then there’s the veterans that haven’t managed in a bit, a Joe Gerardi, a Joe Madden. Are you able to maybe coax any of them out of not really a retirement, but just their stretch of not managing here for a while? So, I think if you’re looking the veteran route, those are probably the guys that you would be looking at. And it’s so interesting, too, when you think of like an interview process for a manager because there is kind of just like it’s more of a resume than an an interview process, I would imagine. And I think that Manelino was kind of keen on that avenue as well where he was like, “Okay, I don’t even know if I’m going to have to interview for this role again. You can take a look at my last four and a half months and how that’s gone.” uh and he he even mentioned how the last four and a half months were uh a national and local kind of interview process and it was very invasive he said so I think that it’s very interesting when you also look at guys like those that you mentioned who have such longer tenurs in that role who have a lot more to offer and provide in terms of resume building and resume résumés just in general so it’s very interesting when you kind of think of like an interview process it’s not I don’t know I would be very intrigued to be could fly on the wall on something like that. Um because there’s only so much you can kind of say and and portray with, okay, I’m going to take attack this team, this clubhouse in this manner, but here’s what I’ve done. You can take a look at that. Yeah, it’s kind of funny like what are you going to ask Joe Gerardi or Joe Madden in an interview? What does your resume look like? Everybody knows what their resumes look like. So, if the Orioles go in that veteran direction, I would imagine that names like Melvin and Madden and Gerardi would be at the top of the list. We’ll see with guys like Bochi and Schumacher and Snitker who probably have other things that would make sense in terms of their future alignment. If the Orioles do go the route of somebody younger, a little bit less experienced, I think Manscelino is certainly in that conversation, probably towards the top of that conversation. Of course, a name that gets thrown out a lot is Ryan Flity, who is currently on the coaching staff in Chicago. Of course, he has the Orioles ties. It is somebody who is well respected around baseball. Has not been a manager at that level yet, but would make sense. There are other bench coaches around baseball, somebody like Brad Osmus, who is a former manager, that could make sense as well. But it’s really going to depend on just how much the archetype of manager that the Orioles are going for. Do they want a veteran presence? Do they want a younger, fresh voice in there? If if they want somebody younger with less experience who, you know, is going to come in and Mike Elias brought up somebody challenging them a lot. He he brought it up in the conversation about general manager, which we will get to. And I’m sure the same probably applies for a manager as well, that they want somebody to come in and challenge what they are currently doing because after a season that is as disappointing as it was, you need somebody to come in with some fresh ideas. So perhaps that’s not Tony Manelino. Maybe that’s somebody like a Ryan Flity who has spent a lot of time with other organizations, has ties to the Orioles, but could come back and say, “Hey, other orgs that I’ve been with that are doing well, whether that was San Diego or Chicago for Flarity, are doing this thing and this thing and this thing, and here’s how we can implement it and hopefully win some more ball games here.” Right. And it’s also different too because it’s it’s not like the Orioles are in a very specific okay we need a rebuild type of year like they were when Hyde was first ma brought in. Uh and I think that right now is a very different type of positioning where yes you don’t need a rebuild because that’s not the case. You have very much so a lot of the pieces that are already in place to be able to use and go for another playoff push in 2026. But at the same time, you’re kind of trying to bounce back from such a low year in 2025 and and a year that fell way below expectations so that it doesn’t happen again. So, I can totally see why they would go for a completely different shift, but at the same time, you’re not rebuilding. So, you’re not in the same position you were when you brought in Elias, when you brought in Hyde, to have to restart things basically from scratch. So, I think that with the kind of momentum that they end the 2025 season with Manscolino, like sure, it could make a little bit of sense you’re not rebuilding. Just stick with kind of the momentum that Mansino brought. But at the same time, do you really want to take the risk of okay, we need two changes, not just from leaving Hyde and going to Mansino, but now going from Manselino to an actual guy, a veteran or even someone younger like you mentioned. um which would kind of fall a little bit outside the realm of Brennan Hyde a little bit sits in the middle where you have someone who is a veteran manager who has a lot of experience um like most of those guys that are available to take managerial positions or some of the younger guys like Ryan Flity like you mentioned. So it’s it’s an interesting kind of toss up. Yeah, it’s really just going to depend on what the Orioles feel like they need out of that role, right? There are some other names that have been thrown around as well. Tony Vatello, who is currently the head coach of the University of Tennessee. They just won the College World Series in 2024. Kai Koreah is somebody who whose name has been tossed around a lot. He’s currently on the Guardians coaching staff. David Ross was the manager for Chicago for a while. That’s another name as well. We got a question on YouTube about Buck Shoalter. I would be surprised if Buck Shoalter was a candidate for this position. I suppose it could happen. I I just don’t really see it happening. Yeah, that would be an interesting one. Um that would certainly be interesting. It would be kind of cool, but it would be very interesting to go from like bounce all the way back to that kind of era before the Yeah, a peak rebuild. Certainly. We got a comment about Veritech as well. That would be an interesting pairing. a former AL East rival in in Jason Veretch. We’ll see. There are going to be a ton of names that are tossed out over the next few weeks. We will try to keep you updated here on Mass in the podcast as to what sorts of of things are going on in that managerial search. I do think it is probably going to be a bit until we have an answer to that. We are still playing postseason baseball at this point, but the search is is certainly beginning and and probably has already begun. and a lot of teams that are also in search of a new manager. There are a lot of teams. Pretty sure there’s eight total right now. Um, which is a lot. I think the Braves make eight. Yeah. Yeah. Which is a good thing that there’s a lot of candidates, but yes. Uh, that’s a lot of teams to have to also compete with to find the top best candidate. Good. Good that there are a lot of candidates and also there is going to be competition. But I I really do think among the teams that need a manager, I know the Braves have an outstanding framework. you know that there are certainly appeals to the Giants right now in their roster. I think if you’re a potential manager and you were looking at what the Baltimore Orioles have here, there are not many better situations than Baltimore right now. You have a young core of controllable pieces for a while. Gunnar Henderson is one of the best players in the game. You have Adley Rutman, a catcher who, yes, has struggled offensively for the last year plus or so, but is an outstanding defender. Manelino said yesterday that he’s the kind of catcher you need on your team to win a World Series. He is that good defensively. He can call that good of a game. You have rising stars like a Jackson Holiday, Samuel Poseio, you just extended Dylan Beavers showed some great flashes. Jordan Westbrook, Colton C. Like there are guys up and down this roster where if you are a potential manager coming in, it’s not like you are taking over a rebuild here. This is you know Michaelas who as we are going to get to now the president of baseball operations has said this is a team that we are going to build for 2026 that will compete for the AL East title and thus a World Series title. So a manager that is coming into this role that’s also an important piece of it as well where yeah you could go with somebody like a Ryan Flity with you know a retaining manel somebody that doesn’t have a ton of experience at the helm and that can have a lot of benefits to it but this is also a team that’s ready to compete. This is a team that hopefully after some offse moves and guys getting healthy and whatever it may be, the goal is to compete in the AL East in 2026. So, you need a manager who is ready to hit the ground running and to lead a competitive baseball team immediately. Yeah. And I think that there’s also a lot of circulation too right now of maybe a Buck Britain or somebody that’s already internal like in house for the Orioles that you could bring up. I don’t think that that is going to be the case. If they’re going to bring up someone for the next manager that’s already in house, it would be Manelino. I at least my opinion of that is like I don’t know why you would go out and try and bring somebody else up who definitely doesn’t have any big league manager experience um outside of Manelino for in-house. I would be surprised if guys like Buck Britain and Robinson Trinos didn’t at least get interviews for this role, but how much they are seriously in consideration, I’m not sure. I I think there are guys with managerial experience that that kind of make sense to slot into this role for a win now team, but you know, you never know exactly what’s going on internally with how much, you know, Torinos and Britain maybe guys just really gravitate to those sorts of coaches. We know that they did with Manscolino. So, you never quite know internally just what is going on with those interpersonal relationships. That can mean a lot. Outside of the managerial search, there is also a general manager search going on, which is not something that we were expecting to talk about. But Michaelas, as previously mentioned, is now the president of baseball operations and general manager as listed on the Orioles front office website. Uh, that was a promotion that happened earlier this year. It kind of came out in an odd way. There was essentially a report that the Orioles were looking at a general manager candidate and everybody went what they have a general manager and then it came out that Michaelas had been promoted to the president of baseball operations. He pretty much said this is an agreement that happened towards the beginning of the year. They had a lot going on. They didn’t announce it and then as the season went on and there were just more pressing matters they just didn’t really announce it. So, Michaelas is the president of baseball operations. He has been for a while now. And kind of the trend around Major League Baseball is to have There are plenty of teams that just have a president of baseball operations. There are plenty of teams that just have a general manager. There are a growing number of teams that have both a president of baseball operations and a general manager, which seems to be the goal for the Orioles. Elias did say he wasn’t sure if that GM position would be filled this off season or not. I would imagine they are trying to get that filled as quickly as possible, but obviously they are not going to force the issue, but the Orioles along with a manager search are also conducting a general manager search. Yeah, it was it seems like an interesting timeline because like you mentioned, they are trying to fill that you would imagine as soon as possible, but at the same time he said the manager is the priority. We’re going to kind of We don’t feel as though we need to find a new GM in order to find a new manager. So yeah, which is also not strange, but you would you would have to imagine that you would want your general manager and your manager to be in some way aligned. You would want your general manager to have a say in who is running the ball club day in those onfield decisions. But which is definitely interesting, but I think like you could also make the argument, okay, Elias has been acting as the GM all season long, so you don’t necessarily need somebody else’s opinion when seeking out someone that you’ve probably been searching for since Hyde was fired. Probably ideally, you’d like to have it, but if you don’t, you don’t. Yeah. But I think that that is definitely going to be an interesting search, especially just with how the tasks are delegated. Mike Elias mentioned that there will be a shift in tasks and very different um kind of areas of day-to-day basises for what Mike Elias does and when he’s full um president of business operations as opposed to baseball operations or yeah what did I say business operations Katy Griggs um yeah that is Katie Griggs but who he also did say Katie Griggs would be a part of the decision so it seems like it is a very much whole in-house kind of decision it’s not just Elias is going to be making the decision on GM and manager. But um there will for those wondering myself included was what kind of differences in tasks and delegations will will there be that Elias is doing in a new role as opposed to what he has already been doing as GM. So apparently there will be but we will find out what it is once they find a new guy. Yeah, if you’re going to hop in the comments section and say why don’t we know more about this general manager search it was a long press conference with Michaelas. We did ask the media did ask hey what is this role going to look like you know and the answer that we got was which was a truthful one it’s just hey it’s going to depend on on who we get in terms of what the role exactly is going to look like this is somebody that is going to work with Michaelas obviously directly this is somebody who is just going to expand the baseball operations team that the Orioles have. It is not a massive front office in Baltimore right now. So, they are trying to bring in a different voice. They are trying to bring in somebody who can challenge their philosophies, somebody who will hopefully come in with some new and fresh ideas because a lot of what the Orioles have been doing has worked. Obviously, they made the playoffs for, you know, two of the past three seasons. It was a down season in 2025, but they have had success in the past. So, they are trying to get back to that. They are trying to find somebody who can help lead them in I don’t know if it’s an entirely new direction, but it’s a a direction that is certainly different from what it was in 2025. Yeah. Cuz it worked in 23 and 24. You won the AL East. You made the playoffs two times in a row, but obviously something went wrong last year. So, you need to do a full evaluation of that. You need to bring in other front office personnel that are going to help you be able to shake that. Yeah. And personnel is a very kind of broad term I think to use because you can look at the player personnel, the roster itself, which is still very much intact. Yes, you dealt a lot a lot of guys away at the trade deadline, something you weren’t expecting to do. So, there is a lot of changes to be made, most notably the bullpen, which I’m sure we’ll discuss, of how you can make changes to that in the offseason. But like you mentioned, there was still success with the player personnel that you’ve seen the last number of years, three years at least since the rebuild with the core still intact. Yes, there were off and down seasons for a number of those guys and that was very apparent at least to Michaelas and Tony Manelino. Um both of them kind of noting that we got to figure out what went wrong in a sense for some of these guys why they underperformed. So, I think when it comes to player personnel, you do still have a lot of those pieces intact. There’s going to be a lot of offseason moves. Like I mentioned, right off the jump, I think that this offseason is the most critical it will have been under Mike Elias because of the kind of expectations not only that you set in 2024 when you made it to the postseason going into 2025, but also the expectations for 2026 um are even more heightened after a down year. So, I think that when it comes to player personnel, you have a lot of pieces intact, but you want to go out into the offseason and do bigger and better than you have in previous years. And in terms of front office, like maybe the general manager role could be filled inhouse and just different kind of uh philosophy is brought in, new ideas are brought in maybe whether that’s in-house or not. And then same with manager role as well, whether that’s Manscelino or a new guy. Um there will be many discussions had on both the philosophy end of things and also just kind of stats and what happens. Yeah. I mean this is the most critical offse of the Orioles recent history. I mean this is the most critical offseason since you brought in Michaelas and Brandon Hyde. who could argue even more so because at that time you had just traded away what was then the core of the team guys like Manny Machado, Jonathan Scope, Kevin Gosman, and you were starting fresh. You were starting a new. This was a rebuild. Michaelas came in to lead that rebuild. And you can make the argument that this off season is more critical than that because yes, you are looking for a new manager. you are looking for a general manager just like you were when Elias and Hyde were brought in, but you also need to win right now because yes, you have this young core of players, but you’re not going to have all of them forever. So, you cannot squander the opportunity that you have right now. This is a team that is capable of winning 90 plus games. We have seen it over the past few seasons, and you need to be able to build a roster around those guys that is capable of doing that. They didn’t do it in 2025. They need to be able to do it in 2026 with whoever is at the helm as manager. And if they bring in a general manager this off season, that is the task that they are trying to fulfill at this point. They need to make the playoffs again in 2026 because the roster and the core of it is too talented not to. Before we get into, you know, a bit of a preview of what the player needs are this off seasonason, did want to quickly talk about H Kirststad because we have gotten a lot of questions about Kirststad throughout the season and we didn’t have any updates for you because we were told, hey, when there is an update on H Kirststad, we will tell you about H Kirstad. It was clearly a a kind of a sensitive topic in terms of what Kirstad was dealing with. What we got from Michaelas is that Kerstad has been dealing with a medical condition. We didn’t hear details of what that condition was, what his timeline looks like, what exactly he is dealing with, anything like that. There was a follow-up question about whether or not it had to do with the time that Kirstad previously missed with some medical issues. Elias did not comment on that. So, in terms of the specifics, we are not really sure on what is going on with H Kerstad, but they did say that they are expecting to see him at spring training. So, at this point, there’s not really a ton to say about H Kirststad in terms of his outlook for 2026, other than the fact that we are just wishing the best for him in whatever he is dealing with. We would love to see him in spring training in 2026. We talked about it this season when he went back down to AAA. Obviously, he struggled at the big leagues. He really struggled in Triple A as well, which told me, okay, there’s something going on at that point. Didn’t know if it was medical, if it was, you know, some sort of physical whatever it was. But H Kristad has dominated at AAA before. He has shown really good flashes at the big league level. When he went back down to Norfol and struggled, there was obviously something wrong. Yeah. And so, yeah, this isn’t like a quad A player that, oh, he’s great in AAA, he’s great in the M. There was something going on. So, that’s all we know at this point and we’re just wishing the best for H. Yeah, definitely. And I think that the lack of clarity is probably to a benefit to him because I doubt that they really kind of know what’s going on right now. So, I I think that, like you mentioned, we will know when we know kind of thing and I think that that will be a uh universal approach for what’s going on with H Kersad. So, definitely wishing him the best. uh like you said, hope that we can see him in spring training because when he’s good and when he’s healthy, he’s good and he’s a big contributor. So, hope everything goes well for him. Yeah. And you know, that that doesn’t really work into our player conversation for the off season because I think at this point, you know, you’re not counting on H Kerstad for 2026. He’s a great dude and we’re just hoping that everything is okay. But we are going to have a discussion about, you know, do you need to bring in a bat in the outfield? And H Kerstad is not really a part of that conversation. You would love it if he is. Once we get to spring training and once we get closer to the season, if we start talking about H Kerstad in that outfield conversation, that would just be a really good development from a personal standpoint. Yeah, definitely. So, we will get more into the weeds of roster construction and the potential specific moves that the Orioles could make once we get into November because the off season does not begin until the World Series ends, which means we’ve got some time before there are going to be serious discussions about roster construction, about what this team needs to do going into next season. But since this is going to be our last podcast here for a while, just wanted to give a brief overview of from a roster standpoint what the Orioles need to do. And you touched on it a little bit, Annie, but priority number one is figuring out the core position players here because all of them had a down year in one way or another. There is just there’s no way around that. Gunnar Henderson had kind of joked that yeah, he still had a five and a half baseball reference war and we consider that a down year, but we do, especially when the power production dips from 37 homers a year ago to 17 home runs. Adley Rutman played 90 games with a 673 OPS. Colton Cowser 92 games, fighting through injuries with a 196 batting average and a 655 OPS. Jordan Westber had a 770 OPS, which is a good number, but he also played in 85 games. That is the core four of position players that are going to need to lead this team to the playoffs next season. All of them, one way or another, would tell you that they had a down season in at least some aspect of the game, whether that is performance on the field or just their ability to be on that field to begin with. You can include Jackson Holiday in that group if you want to. He, you know, debuted much later than those guys, but he had a 690 OPS. Kobe Mayo played in 85 games. He had a great September. He finishes with a 687 OPS. Tyler O’Neal is is not really the young position player core, but he just hit 199 with a 684 OPS and hit nine home runs in the games that he was able to play this season. He is more than likely going to be back next year picking up that player option. Manelino and Elias have noted that he is going to be an important piece of the team next year. You can’t have those seven guys struggle in the way that they did this season. That is not rocket science. I do not be need to be in that front office to tell you that. I also don’t need to be in the front office to tell you that those are all really talented players. Yeah. And there is no reason that they should all simultaneously struggle in the ways that they did. How much injuries had to play into their underperformance. That is something we talked about a lot last week. But you need those guys to play good baseball in 2026 or else all of the other roster moves that we can talk about. Whether that’s free agency, whether that’s trades, whatever it may be, none of that matters because those seven guys are going to be in the lineup more often than not and you need them to play good baseball. Yeah. And I think that when it comes down to hiring a new manager or extending Tony Mancelino going from a temporary role to a permanent role, I think that the biggest task that will have to be faced is how do you get this core back on track, especially offensively because you look at a year in 2024 with Adley Rutman hitting 19 home runs. Very different this year. Obviously, injuries played a huge uh component to that, but Gunner Henderson, 37 home runs, like you mentioned earlier on in the podcast, a 9.1 war. Colton Cowser is a big one that I think flies under the radar a little bit because you think of the Gunner and the Adley. And then Colton Cowser is a little bit Colton Cowser is a part of the tier, but or a part of that core, but I feel like he he is slightly lesser degree. We were expecting him to take a step up this season. We both had him pencil in as an all-star candidate. Yeah, I I mean he was almost AL rookie of the year arguably should have been in 2024 with 24 home runs a and then goes to a season with yes also had some injuries as well but it fell below expectations. Uh a and not to mention you had when you said that three that the team leading home runs for 2025 was all tied at 17. very different from when your top two in 2024 had 44 home runs and uh 37 home runs. Yep. That is a very big difference. Or 31. Sorry, where am I? I’m looking at the 37 and 44 for Anthony Santandere. So very big difference. The offense needs to get back on track. You have different personnel that you did in 2024. But regardless, it’s going to have to get back on track and that’s going to be the number one task for whoever they bring in. And we’re not talking about a roster that doesn’t have it. Every single one of the guys that we mentioned would say that they need to get better in this aspect or this aspect and they are all capable of it. We’re saying getting back on track because we have seen every single one of those guys play better baseball. Jackson Holiday and Kobe Mayo I I think are emissions from the we’ve seen it before conversation because they are both super super young figuring it out at the big league level. But we still kind of count them in the core just because they are important pieces. I guess you could throw Bio and Dylan Beavers into that conversation now too as well. But Gunnar, Adley, Cowser, Westber, we have seen them play better baseball, whether that is just staying on the field more often or literally the numbers that they are putting up. So this isn’t a conversation of man, how can you get more out of this group? How can you push them to another level? No, this it’s in there. We’ve seen them play really, really good baseball and you just need to figure out why they didn’t do it to that extent last year and how you get them back there. So, this isn’t a reinventing the wheel. This is just figuring out where you lost the wheel. Yeah. And even in Guys with Gunner and Adley, you’ve seen it in different ways. In 2025, as a whole, the seasons were low for both of those two players, but Gunner at least was making strides in various aspects of the game that he hadn’t before. career season in doubles and stolen bases with uh 34 and 30 respectively. Huge strides defensively too. Huge strides defensively. Adley Rutman major strides defensively. He was always going to be a solid defensive catcher. But this year was the year where above above all else, this was the year that you discovered the potential that Adley really has as a defensive catcher, which was receiving credits from pitchers like Trevor Rogers. Every pitcher that threw to Adley behind the dish was giving him credit. Tony Manscelino was uh loads of people were and he’s going to be the perfect example for Samuel Bisayio for the next season and them working together and even Michaelas said when there’s been lots of rumors with okay trade Adley or whatever or is Adley going to be the backup catcher now that you have Messiah. We have been saying that that wasn’t going to be the case. Michaelas even confirmed it saying he is your number one catcher. Yeah, because duh. Yes, obviously we saying it. Um, but you have that reassurance in Adley. It’s going to bounce back. It’s going to get better defensively and it’s going to bounce back offensively uh for both of those two guys. I have all the confidence that those four players are going to be better in 2026 than they were in 2025. Yeah, I I am completely confident in that. I think Jackson Holiday and Kobe Mayo both take a step up. Samuel Bio is going to take a step up. Who knows if there’s another step up for Dylan Beavers, but I think he is going to continue to play good baseball and hopefully you get a healthier season out of Tyler O’Neal. I think those guys are going to play good baseball in 2026. A because I have the confidence in them because we have seen it before and B because they have to, right? There’s no other choice. And I’m glad that you brought up Bisayio and Beavers as well too because when I said that this off season is even more critical now you also have to factor into account that now you have four of your top prospects from the last two years up at the big league level already. You just you cannot waste that opportunity. You have the core that was already intact with Adley Gunnar West and uh Colton Cowser. Now you also have guys like Jackson Holiday, Kobe Mayo, Samuel Basio, and Dylan Beavers all at the big league level all together. You can’t waste that opportunity with how good that they were even without a a peak Jackson Holiday, a peak Kobe Mayo, peak or we haven’t even seen peak Bio and Beavers yet, but uh you saw what they had in 2024 and 2023. You’ve got to be able to utilize what you have now in using your top prospects of the last two years. Yeah, this is the time not to put more pressure on the 2026 2026 season than we already have, but this is the time that the core is here. The complimentary pieces are here. You are hopefully going to see more steps up from young players. This is the time to get it done. So, in terms of free agency, in terms of potential trades, we’ll just go through the position groups here. We’ll start with starting pitching. Trevor Rogers and Kyle Bradshish. I think you feel confident that both of those guys are front end of the rotation pieces. How many innings you are able to get out of Kyle Bradish in 2026 after not pitching that many in 2025 or in 2024 remains to be seen. I don’t think you can count on Kyle Bradish giving you, you know, hundreds of innings, but you can count on Kyle Bradish to be a dude. Like you know that when he is on the field, he is going to be great. Whether he gets to an innings mark where he’s given you 175 innings, I’m not super confident in that coming back from Tommy John, but who knows? He will have a fully healthy off season. He’ll be able to get ramped up. We will see what the plan for him is next season. Dean Kramer, I think, is going to be back as a solid back end of the rotation piece. Once again, we’ve kind of always said it with Kramer, but if he is your number four or number five starter, you feel really good about where your rotation is at because that is a good fourth, fifth starter in this league. How much can you count on from Grayson Rodriguez? Not sure. Michaelas did say that they expect him to be ready to go for spring training and they are hopeful that he is going to be an important piece in 2026, but again, he did not pitch any innings in 2025. How many innings can he give you next year remains to be seen. Is Tyler Wells a starter next season? He was really good towards the end of this season in that starting role. Where will his value come from? You know, it’s going to come from somewhere. Could be the rotation, could be the bullpen. And Elias said yesterday or Monday rather that they pretty much see him as a starter until things change. Yeah, why not, right? He pitched very well in that role this year. Lias did also say that he wants to end a front add a frontline guy whether that is a number one or a number two or a number three and how those guys work in with Rogers and Bradish who knows but I do anticipate that that is still going to be something that the Orioles pursue it is still a need in terms of free agents that would fit that bill you’re looking at guys like Valdez Ranger Suarez Dylan CE and Zack Gallon I think those are the guys that profile as a number one number two or number three. CE and Gallon are interesting because they both had kind of down seasons, but we have seen the upside from them in the past. Frer Valdez is an interesting one because he put together another good year, but there were some interesting storylines happening with Framber Valdez in Houston this season in terms of his communication or lack thereof or too much thereof with his catcher, however you want to uh classify those interactions there. And then Ranger Suarez just put together a heck of a season, 320 RA in 26 starts. I think those for me are the four guys that profile as a frontline rotation piece that are available in free agency this year. I think that for me at least like early rankings of offseason needs because obviously we’re going to dive into this plenty throughout the offseason. But I think for me early rankings would kind of be uh front end of the rotation number one and then maybe number two closer and then uh back end of the rotation and then maybe another bullpen arm. Yeah, you I mean you need bullpen arm. I don’t know where you would slot in hitter into the I don’t think very high and we’ll we’ll get to that probably here in a minute because the the second position group I think we do need to talk about is is the bullpen, right? The starting pitching I think we’re in agreement that the Orioles will go after a frontline guy. Whether or not they have success in that, who knows? They clearly tried to go after a frontline guy last year reportedly with Corbin Burns. That didn’t end up working out. They go and get depth pieces anyway. I would anticipate the Orioles get a front line guy or at least try their best to get a front line guy and that they will also continue to go after the the depth pieces because the depth going into 26 is not even where it was going into 25 when you had guys like Chase McDermott, Albert Suarez. McDermott seems like a bullpen piece at this point. Albert Suarez, who knows what his 2026 will look like. So, you need to add more depth as well and I think the Orioles will do that. Also, especially with the way that the farm system looks right now too with pitching depth this year than last year. There could be some dudes. Whether or not the Orioles think that they factor into the beginning of 2026 pitching depth remains to be seen, but there are guys in AAA like Trey Gibson. There are guys in double A like Michael Ferrett, Don Watts Brown, you know, any number of of names there that you could look at and think that at some point in 26 they could find their way into the rotation. Right. And I don’t think that they should factor the farm the strengthened farm system into the equation for offseason moves right now because it’s an added benefit. Yeah, it’s an added benefit because right now you have a little bit extra cushion to prevent injuries and injury issues like you had in 2025 and 2024 because of your farm system. But I wouldn’t necessarily go and into the offseason and say, “Oh, we have Trey Gibson, Michael Ferrett, uh a relief relief arms even like Tyson Neighbors, whatever you name it.” So because of those guys, we’re not going to get some offseason acquisitions. I don’t think that they should do that and I don’t think that they will because of the way that this the story has gone with injuries the last two years. I will say though I do think the bullpen is a little different in that conversation. I think in the starting rotation you don’t want to count on Trey Gibson and Michael Ferrett and Nester Hermman and Levi Wells and whoever else works their way into that conversation. Watts Brown as well. In the bullpen though, Neighbors could be an opening day. Tyson Neighbors and Anthony Nunees, two guys that the Orioles acquired at the deadline. I think there are other names in that conversation as well, but those are the two big ones that jump out to me where I think, yeah, they might be able to crack this opening day roster. Tyson Neighbors, I know, is still in double A, so that would that would be a big jump. We need to see how he performs against AAA competition, but he was a dominant college reliever, too. Anthony Nunees already up at AAA looks good. I think there are names there that could factor into the bullpen in 2026, but that’s more so how a modern bullpen is constructed as we get into the bullpen conversation here. You want guys that are optionable in the bullpen because a lot of the time, you know, if you have a bullpen arm that throws 30 pitches and he’s not going to be available for two or three days, you bring somebody else up, they come in, give you a few innings. That’s something the Orioles didn’t really have last year flexibility-wise because you had eight guys that were veterans that didn’t have minor league options left. And when somebody didn’t perform well or there were roster moves to be made, there wasn’t much flexibility in the bullpen to say, “Oh, we can just option this guy.” No, he was going to get claimed because you would have to designate him for assignment. You didn’t have a minor league option to move him back down. you couldn’t just make roster moves with much flexibility in that bullpen last year. I do think in 2026, I would anticipate the Orioles having a little bit more flexibility there. That being said, there are still a lot of bullpen vacancies that they need to fill. There are five important pieces gone. Felix Bautista, Andrew Kitridge, and Brian Baker, who you would have had team control of in 2026, who you know, Batista goes down with injury. You trade Kitridge, you trade Baker, and then Sir Anthony Dominguez and Gregory Sto. You knew you weren’t going to have them in 2026, but you had them for the first half of 2025. So, it still feels like a vacancy. You saw some good performances from Cade Strad, from Dietrich Ens, from Rico Garcia. I think Grant Wolfrram showed some flashes like it’s a 67 lefty who throws 97 98. If he can figure some things out, I think he could stick around. Keegan Aken was good. He should be back. Yander Canó was not good. He has been good in the past. It’s a bullpen with a lot of question marks. It’s a bullpen with a lot of needs. You need a closer. You need some high leverage guys. You need a lot of stuff in this bullpen to fill in the bullpen. You need a lot whether that comes internally from guys like Straoud that had nice seasons. I I do think a lot of it needs to come externally. Yeah. You need to fill the closer role. guys like Robert Suarez, Kenley Jansen, Ryan Helley potentially available, maybe Edwin Diaz if the option is not picked up in New York. You need to figure out that spot and you need to figure out a few other spots in the bullpen as well. Yeah. No, I definitely agree. And when it comes to like offseason need rankings because there are so many in the bullpen specifically, you could slot that into the number one ranking if you’re going to break it up by group where you could say, okay, I don’t know, just because of the uncertainty in the bullpen, the bullpen sits number one as opposed to starting rotation. But at the same time, the starting the weight that the starting rotation pieces hold it is very, very critical. I agree with you. I think the one frontline starter that you are probably going after is probably the top off season need. If you are going position group need, I think the bullpen is number one, but the starting pitching rotation has so much importance. It’s hard to put the bullpen number one, but there’s so many vacancies in the pen right now. Yeah. And and there’s going to be a lot of work that needs to be done for uh the bullpen starting rotation, front end and back end of the rotation. hitter is a very interesting discussion because you had your struggles offensively that that’s a no-brainer. Nobody would argue with that that the offense was very down this season compared to last and the year before that. So that is a top need in terms of getting back on track. But do you find that externally? And is that a a higher need than starting rotation piece, bullpen piece? Certainly not. No, I would say no. And the other conversation with a hitter that you could potentially bring in is where do they go? Yeah. Because looking at this 2026 roster, assuming that Tyler O’Neal picks up his player option and is back for next season, you have your catching situation figured out with Adie Rutman and Samuel Bio and probably a third catcher on the roster, too. First base, Kobe Mayo. Who knows what Ryan Mount Castle’s future holds at this point. The rest of the infield is set. You have Jackson Holiday at second base. It’s Gunnar Henderson at shortstop. Jordan Westber at third base. The outfield, Colton Cowser, I know had a down 2025, but I think you still, you know, he is your center fielder for 2026. Although, do you you know what was the evaluation of Colton Cowser’s center field defense in 2026? I thought he in 2025, excuse me. I thought he looked pretty good there. how much the Orioles see him as a future center fielder versus, you know, maybe they just value his defense more in a corner outfield where he was outstanding in 2024. Who knows? Maybe they target a center fielder and push Colton Cowser to a corner outfield. But in those corner outfield spots, you have Tyler O’Neal and you have Dylan Beavers. Dylan Beavers worked his way into that potential opening day starter conversation, getting close to an everyday player. So your outfield, you have Dylan Beavers, you have Colton Cowser, you have Tyler O’Neal. There is probably room for a fourth outfielder in that rotation, especially given some of the injury histories that we we know about to this point. Maybe you could say there’s room at at first base or at designated hitter depending on what the future of Ryan Mount Castle holds. But is there really because you have Sam Oasis who is going to be getting a lot of starts next year at first base and at designated hitter along with occasionally being a catcher backing up Adley Rutman as well. So this always feels a little bit silly because we go into a year and saying man there’s a log jam here and a log jam here and a log jam here and then the Orioles use 75 gosh darn players and the log jam doesn’t matter. Yeah. So it always feels a little silly to say hey they don’t have space for this guy. I am always on the side of just bring in good baseball players and figure out where they play later on because injuries just always seem to have those situations figure themselves out. But if you are looking at a a hypothetical world where everybody is healthy and plays a majority of the season, a that’s a world I’d love to live in and b I don’t know where a free agent hitter plays. Yeah. And that was the good thing about Dylan Carlson in the offseason last year as well. I mean, yes, he wasn’t he didn’t bring that all that much thump offensively, but he had three options that you could bring up and down when you needed him. And a guy like that, I don’t know if you’re going to find free agent wise for to be able to be flexible like that up and down. But, uh, someone that you could bring in just for extra stability and extra depth that has that kind of flexibility between the minors and the majors would be good just to be able to prevent injuries like it did this year. And it’s the conversation we keep having about this Orioles roster, which is if you are going to bring in veterans, which you can make an argument that they should, you are taking playing time away from other guys like Pete Alonzo is a name that has gotten tossed around a lot. Pete Alonzo, there is no debate about it, would bring a ton of value to this baseball team. That is a middle-ofthe-art bat who would be outstanding. That is your first baseman, your designated hitter. Okay, great. You are now taking at bats away from Kobe Mayo, who hit over 300 with a 940 OPS in September. You are now taking away at bats from Samuel Bisayio, who you just extended. You can make an argument that winning just takes priority over those guys continuing to develop and get better at the big league level. You can also make the argument that the money that would be spent on Pete Alonzo would be better served elsewhere because you have Kobe Mayo and you have Samuel Papio that you are confident will take steps forward in 2026. Like I hear the names of Pete Alonzo and Kyle Schwarber. Okay, where do they play? Kyle Schwarber is a designated hitter. He is purely a designated hitter. You are taking at bats away from Bisayio, from Mayo, from potentially Adley Rutman as well. Maybe that’s fine because Kyle Schwarber is just that good and he will add that much to this baseball team. But how do you weigh those two things? There are also outfield options. Kyle Tucker, he’s going to cost half a billion dollars probably. I think there’s names like Harrison Bader that make sense as a potential rotational outfield piece. Cody Bellinger is going to be expensive as well. There are not a ton of great outfield options available in free agency this year. Like, yeah, obviously Kyle Tucker and Pete Alonzo and Kyle Schwarber are going to make this baseball team better. How much are you going to invest in those guys when you have needs in the starting rotation when you have so many needs in the bullpen? Yeah. And I also think like veteran character and and kind of experience. Yeah. You put Kyle Schwarber in this building and that building changes immediately. leadership wise too. I mean, even when James McCann left, you lost a huge clubhouse guy, which you could get back hypothetically and be your third catching off, but um I I think that that is going to be a huge need as well when you kind of just zoom out, look at offseason needs, uh someone with veteran leadership, we said this last year, that you needed veteran leadership when you lose Santandere and and other guys on the roster. uh where you need that kind of leadership in the clubhouse and just be a good clubhouse guy. So I think that if you zoom out why if you zoom out you can still factor that into the equation of okay you need to bring in someone that can work alongside this young core who are should be filling in leadership roles. Yeah those veteran guys are important playoff experience. Yep. It’s something that we have talked about in the past with somebody like Aaron Hicks, who was an important piece of this roster when the Orioles were making a playoff push. It’s like, yeah, on the surface, Aaron Hicks wasn’t a massive addition baseball-wise, although he did play very well in Baltimore, but it is somebody that you brought in because he had so much experience in New York playing winning baseball, even in Minnesota before that playing winning baseball. and he comes in in 2023, puts up an OPS over 800 and is a crucial part to this team’s success because they get to the playoffs and he knows what he’s doing there. That is a different animal. And you know who comes up with a clutch hit in the 2023 playoffs? I know they didn’t win that game, but it was Aaron Hicks. Those are the kinds of players that are going to be important for this team to add going into next season. Yeah. Whether that is a position player, whe whether that is somebody in the starting rotation, it remains to be seen. But as we mentioned, this is perhaps the most critical offse in the Orioles recent history. Yeah, they need a manager. They potentially need a general manager. They need to figure out how to get their position player core back on track. They probably need a high-end starting pitcher. They need a closer. They need other bullpen arms. And perhaps they need to bring in a veteran hitter as well. And it might be costly. And it could be costly to do all of those things. But those are the things that they need to do. And hopefully here on the Birds Nest, we have given you a a good preview of what this off season will entail. But of course, that off season does not begin until after the World Series. So, we are going to take a break here on the podcast until then. If over the next month or so there is news about a new manager, about a new general manager because those are offseason moves that happen before roster moves happen once the World Series ends. We will be back with that news. We will break down anything that does happen. But unless there is breaking news, this is going to be it for about a month or so. Yeah, we will be back after the World Series once the off season officially begins. We need a little bit of a break. It’s been a long 162. You need a break listening to us certainly. But if you did listen to us, thank you so much for tuning in all season long. I know it was not the fun season that we hoped to be covering here on the Birds Nest that you hoped to be watching in Birdland in 2025, but we still had a lot of fun interacting with you every Wednesday on YouTube and Facebook at 11:00 a.m. as you were watching as you were commenting along live. Sorry if I ranted at you. Maybe you deserved it, maybe you didn’t. Maybe I was grumpy that day. Who’s to say? It’s always deserved. Well, sometimes. Sometimes. Sometimes. Sorry, guys. But thank you for tuning in all season long. It was still a pleasure to bring you this season of Orioles baseball, even if it was not the season that we hoped for. And we hope that you will be back with us once we are back in November as we go fully into our offseason conversations. The offseason is also super fun for us because we get to dive deep into the bag. When there are not games going on, we can talk about 45 minutes of absolute nonsense and we love doing that. So follow along with us live then on YouTube and Facebook. We will be back Wednesdays at 11:00 a.m. Or if not, you can catch us after the fact on any of your favorite podcast platforms. Big thank you to Amy Jennings behind the scenes for producing this one for Annie Claf. I am Brendon Mortonson and we’ll catch you next time.

After a 75-87 year, a crucial offseason is ahead for the Orioles.

“The Bird’s Nest” discusses Baltimore’s path forward.

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