Baltimore Orioles Free Agent Closer Wish List: Devin Williams, Edwin Diaz, Pete Fairbanks

Baltimore Orioles Free Agent Closer Wish List: Devin Williams, Edwin Diaz, Pete Fairbanks

With Felix Bautista out, the Orioles should be signing a closer at least for 2026. So, let’s talk about who the free agent closers are coming up on this episode of the Locked On Orioles podcast. You are Locked On Orioles, your daily Baltimore Orioles podcast, part of the Locked On Network. your team every day. Hey there Orioles fans. Today is Monday, November 17th, 2025 and welcome back in to the Locked on Orioles podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. As always, I’m your host Connor Nukem. And coming up on today’s episode, we are finally getting to our first free agent wishlist episode of the offseason. And we will start with the closers because the Orioles are going to be without Felix Bautista for most of and potentially all of the 2026 season after he underwent shoulder surgery a couple months ago. And the Orioles, they’re going to need somebody at the back end of the bullpen because not only did they lose Bautista, but they traded away four relievers at the deadline. Now, they did get one back in Andrew Kitridge, but there is still no closer sitting in that Orioles bullpen right now. And Mike Elias, when talking to the media already this off season, has put a closer on his wish list for free agency. It it tells me the O’s are going to be big-time players among the closers. And luckily for them, there are some really good closers hitting the market this off seasonason. So, I’m going to give you my top six free agent closers the Orioles should go after. That’s all coming up on this episode of the Locked On Orioles podcast, which is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. So, the way these wish list episodes will work, I’ll do them throughout the next couple of months here in the offseason as free agency starts to kick into year. We usually have to wait until that first week of December when the winter meetings happen for things to really start. So, November generally a good time to run through these wish lists. I will give you six players, ranking them from number six to number one. Remember, this is not necessarily who I think the six best closers who are free agents this year. It’s a mix of who I think is best, but who I also think the Orioles should go after and would fit in Baltimore and whose projected contract, because we have that kind of stuff, too, would fit the best for what the Orioles are trying to do. And I’ll say it right now, Edwin Diaz might be the best closer in baseball. He is available this offseason. that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to be the number one on my wish list and that is generally how these things work. So, let’s jump into it. Number six on my list, 34year-old right-hander Amelio Pagan, who is projected to get a one-year $10 million contract this off seasonason. A lot of these projections are going to come from the free agent matrix that is put together by John Becker over at Fan Graphs, an awesome resource and spreadsheet that you can look at. He takes into account all the free agency predictions, whether it’s the big ones by like Ben Clemens at Fan Graphs or the big MLB trade rumors list or the big one done at the Athletic and pulls them all together to get an average of all of those predictions and that is what his spreadsheet spits out and I like to just kind of go through all those averages and that be the number where I think this player could sign. So let’s start with Amelio Pagan. Ailio Pagan had a 2.88 88 erra this season with the Cincinnati Reds. It was the lowest erra for him in the big leagues since 2019 in Tampa Bay. Now, Pagan debuted back in 2017 with the Mariners, and he’s always been a guy with this good stuff, but always had a huge home run problem. He’s been an extreme flyball pitcher for his entire career. I think a 40% ground ball rate is by far the highest he’s had in his career. always super fly ball and he’s played in some some pitcher and then some hitter friendly ballparks which have hurt him but he’s always had this good stuff but never had these great eras like he did post a 231 in Tampa in 2019 and then turned around in his next full season had a 483 erra in San Diego in 2021 two years later and a lot of it is just because of the home run so he’s kind of a yo-yo reliever where I mean you just look at his last four years 2022 in Minnesota 4-3 erra 2023 in Minnesota 299. Then 2024 he comes to Cincinnati with a 4550 and then comes back to Cincinnati at age 34 and pose a 288 as their closer. And really this year in Cincinnati for Pagan was just the second year he’s been a closer. You got to go back to 2019 for the Rays when that Rays team did make the postseason was the only other time that Ailio Pagan’s really been seen as a closer. And he didn’t really spend the entire season in Tampa as their closer. I mean, he did pick up 20 saves that year, but they had a couple of different options they would go to. He saved a career-high 32 games for a Reds team that went to the postseason, got itself to the wild card this year. His stats from this season, 70 appearances, 68 and 2/3 innings. He had a 288 erra with a 3.72 FIP. He ran a 30% strikeout rate to an 8.1% walk rate. Those are really, really good numbers. But again, a 29% ground ball rate makes him an extreme extreme flyball pitcher. Now, again, he’s had some bad seasons with San Diego and Minnesota with those big home run problems, but Cincinnati is one of the best hitters parks in baseball and he pitched there this year and had one of his best seasons. So, that’s something where you say he can still have success even if he’s in a hitters park. And Camden Yards is certainly less of a hitter park than it used to be, but I think it still plays that way, especially for lefties. Now, if you do look at his home and away splits, he had a 36 erra at home and a 188 erra on the road, but that’s pretty typical for any Cincinnati Red’s pitcher because their park is just so conducive to hitters. Now, what was nice is he really further developed what then became maybe his best pitch this year, and that was his splitter. Pagan had a 112 stuff plus overall this season. That was a career best and it was really aided by that splitter. Opponents hit just 121 with a 41% swing and miss rate against the splitter this year. And he really upped the usage. He threw it 20% of the time after throwing it just 15% last year. It jumped his cutter to be his number two pitch behind the four seam fast. And it is only a three- pitch mix. It’s a four seamer at 96. It’s a splitter and it’s a cutter. That’s all he’s going to throw. but he relies on the force seamer a lot. He throw the force seamer 61% of the time. It is a heavy heavy fastball approach for Pagan. And that’s because it’s a weapon. The 95.8 m per hour he uh averaged on that that was the highest velocity of his career at age 34. It’s got 18 and a half inches of induced vertical break which gives it that really kind of rising action that you like to see for a fast ball. It plays up in the zone which makes it good. But a lot of guys who have those riding fast balls, if the fast ball comes down into the middle of the plate, it leads to a lot of homers. And that’s why Pagan has had such a big home run problem throughout his career. But he changed the grip on his splitter. He got it to kind of go less side to side and go more straight down in terms of movement. His hard hit rate overall dropped from 51% last year to 37% this year. And basically it was because he finally had command of a better splitter. That was one of the biggest drops in hard hit rate on the season. The big concern for him is just that he’ll be 35 years old in May. And really 2025 was his only true like beginning to end full year as a closer in the big leagues. Now he was really good and who says he can’t do it again, but he’s had some bad years. He’s been a roller coaster pitcher, right? you look at at just his logs from his seasons, he’s really never had two good seasons in a row. When he’s had a year like this, and he’s had some other years where he’s had a sub3 RA, he’s immediately followed it up every time with a a 45 ERA and a 45 ERA, literally on the dot both times after a sub3 ERA. Not saying that kind of pattern means it’s going to happen again in 2026. But with the way his career has gone, it’s very possible if you know things start to go south, it’s going to be a lot of home runs that he gives up, which hurts you even more in a ninth inning scenario, especially when you’re trying to hold a one-run lead. Pagan for me is the guy that if the Orioles really do whiff on the other big names, he’s a solid guy you can put in in the ninth and if it doesn’t work out, he can still be a good like setup man for you. You have to put someone else in that role. He’s good enough to get on the list, but I don’t know if I’d be super happy if the Orioles landed on Pagan. But if they get into one of the top five, I’d be okay because number five on my list is Ryan Hley, 31-year-old right-hander who the projection from the free agent matrix is for a 2-year, $23 million contract this off seasonason. And when you think about Ryan Hley before 2025, you would be shocked at two years 23 million. You would have thought Hell’s going to get that Edwin Diaz $100 million closer contract cuz that’s how good he was. From 2022 to 24, those three seasons, he was pretty easily a top five relief pitcher in baseball while he was the closer for the Cardinals. Now, he started to falter a little bit this season in St. Louis. And, you know, the Cardinals weren’t very good. His ERA after being, you know, 1.2, 2.4, 2.0 the last three seasons, it was a three RA in 36 innings for St. Louis, but he was still, you know, racking up 21 saves, one of the better closers in baseball. He was a well sought after piece of the deadline because the Cardinals were out of it. And they traded him to the Mets. And and you could tell in St. Louis, right? Like his strikeouts and walked looked good. His, you know, stuff still looked normal, but given up a few more home runs than usual, but no big huge change. He was getting hitten harder. It’s 45% hard hit rate, usually somewhere in the 30s. So that’s a little concerning, but you still thought, hey, he’s a good closer. the Mets go and get him to fortify the bullpen. He’s still going to get a lot of money in free agency. Then he goes to the Mets and everything falls apart. I mean, everything. He threw 20 innings for New York and and wasn’t even a closer. He was like a setup guy, middle reliever. Had a 7.20 RA and a 519 FIP. Strikeout rate fell to 23%. Walk rate jumped to 12%. The barrel rate went up. Like under the hood, nothing was awful. He he wasn’t even getting hit as hard as he used to get hit in St. Louis. the the raw stuff numbers still look good. Like Ryan Helley has the best raw stuff of any of these six relievers if you just look at stuff plus numbers. Like that is that is a big thing for him. His velocity on his fast ball still looked normal in New York, right? It’s a it’s a four pitch mix. Really, it’s a three- pitch mix. He rarely throws his cutter. It’s a slider at 89, a fast ball at 99, and a curveball at 81. But the slider and the four seamer make up more than 90% of the pitches he throws. It’s it’s it’s really a two- pitch mix at the end of the day. He was just giving up way more balls in play. The strikeout rate collapsed with the Mets and all of a sudden all those balls in play were finding grass. Now Ryan Hley has been kind of public and thinking he was tipping his pitches in New York, but the dude threw 20 innings as a reliever and you couldn’t figure out in, you know, 22 outings with the Mets how you were tipping. That is what concerns me. like fastball slider makes up 93% of his pitches. Batters hit 140 against the slider and they hit 422 against the fastball this year. I mean teams destroyed that four seam fast with the Mets. They never swung and missed. It was something with that fast ball that he was tipping and I honestly I believe him that he was tipping. I mean when you have a fast ball at 99 mph, you have a 127 stuff plus which is third in all of baseball this year. You know there’s a really really talented pitcher in there. And if it’s only going to take, you know, two years, $25ish million dollars to get him, that could be a steal for what Ryan Helsley could be and has been in the recent past. But the reason why I have him all the way down at number five is that I’d be okay with him being the choice for the Orioles to be the closer, but he was so bad with the Mets. You worry that like 22 outings in two months with a team he couldn’t figure out what the the pitch tipping thing is, and he has a whole off seasonason now to figure it out. I worry he’s still going to struggle to fix the issue because he knew he was tipping and he couldn’t stop it. And maybe it’s more than pitch tipping. Maybe something else is going on in there. The stuff is electric elite. There is a top five closer in there. But is that guy gone? That’s what you’d have to worry about if you’re going to give him some money. Coming up next at number four and three on the list, we got two guys with some connections to the Orioles. Both those connections in very different ways. We’ll get to four and three right after this. But first, this episode of the Locked Orioles podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team is making that late push. So, right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. Just head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. So, we continue on with our Orioles free agent closer wish list for this off seasonason with presumably Felix Bautista being out for most of 2026. Michael Elias has made it pretty clear the O’s are going to be in the free agent closer market. There’s a lot of good ones out there. Number six on my list was Ailio Pagan. Number five was Ryan Hley. And we move on to number four, a semi-surprising free agent in 31-year-old right-handed pitcher Pete Fairbanks, who is projected to get a two-year, $18 million deal this off seasonason. Now, Fairbanks, when I initially did this list, I actually did it really early in the offseason because I thought I was going to be able to do this episode a lot earlier than the Orioles kept making news with moves and waiver claims and hiring coaches and all that good stuff. But I didn’t even have Fairb Banks on the list because I didn’t think he was going to be a free agent. Fairbanks, who will be 32 in December, had an $11 million team option on his contract with the Rays for 2026. And now I know the Rays are cheap and $11 million is a lot for the Rays to play pay one player even now that they are going to be under new ownership. But I thought at the very least like Fairbanks has been so good. The Rays will probably pick up the option and then trade him because someone would take Pete Fairbanks essentially on a one-year 11 million deal. He’s been a good enough closer that that a lot of teams probably including the Orioles would be interested in a deal like that. So, I thought they’ll pick it up. They’ll trade him. Yeah. Could he be an Orio? Yeah, but via trade, but he wouldn’t be available as a free agent. And then somewhat surprisingly, they declined the contract. I guess they just couldn’t get anybody to take him in a trade. Didn’t want to be saddled with the 11 million. And so, they just sent him on his way. Now, Fairbanks was healthy this year. He threw 60 innings. He had a 2.85 85 ERA. He picked up 27 saves as the Rays closer. Third straight year he’s had at least 23 saves for Tampa Bay. And the 60 and a third innings was by far a careerhigh in innings pitched. It matched his previous high, which was 45 and a third each of the last two years. This is like far and away the healthiest season Fairbanks has had. And pitcher health is unpredictable, but it’s nice to get a guy when he’s coming off his healthiest season. I mean over the last four years he had missed time with a forearm issue, a hip issue, a lat injury, a shoulder issue, he had some nerve damage. Like that is not a good list of injuries, but he was pretty healthy this year. Unfortunately, despite the health, the stuff was down again. And really, it has declined every year since 2022. When you go back to 2022, I mean, he was a 149 stuff plus. Basically had the nastiest stuff in Major League Baseball. Then he went to a 136, then a 116, and then down to a career low 111 this year. Really, a lot of it is the four seam fast. That four seamer from Pete Fairbanks has taken a huge hit over the years on how effective it was. I mean, opponents still hit only 221 and slugged only 319 against it this year. I mean, it is certainly still a good pitch. He still throws at 51% of the time. It’s still sitting at 97 miles per hour on average. That is still a good pitch, but when you look back on what that four seam fast ball used to be, it’s a pretty big difference. I mean, the velocity is down from I mean, just two years ago, he was sitting 99 and now he’s sitting 97. And that induced vertical break on the pitch, remember like 17 seen as good, 18 elite, anything above 18 and you’re like, “Wow, this is one of the best rising fast balls in baseball.” He was at 20 inches of induced vertical break in 2022. He was throwing a pitch 99 miles an hour with 20 inches of IBB. That’s why that year opponents hit 118 against the Pete Fairbanks fastball. He threw it 61% of the time at 99 mph and just dominated guys with that pitch. That’s how good it was. Now you see, you know, you take two ticks off at velocitywise. The IVB is down three in to 17, which is still good, but not in the crazy elite category where he basically had the best fast ball in baseball. And now guys can hit it a little bit. They’re swinging and missing much less at the pitch. They’re having more success. Now his slider is still elite. And that is the pitch that’s going to continue to make him a good closer if he’s going to be 173 average, 31% whiff rate against it. It’s got a very unique movement. It’s more of a death ball curveball than a slider. If you remember from the 2023 postseason, Jordan Montgomery of the Rangers are that death ball kind of just short harder break goes straight down out of nowhere. Kamar Rocker throws it, but Fairbanks probably has the best one out of anybody in baseball. I mean, the O’s have seen him a lot. He’s been the closer for the Rays in division for a while, and it’s elite. He did throw some more change ups this year. It’s something he’s adding in because the fast ball hasn’t been as good. Now, he only threw 5% change ups, but it’s a good change of pace pitch that I think whatever team signs him is going to ask him to throw it more. And he’s still a really good reliever. But, I mean, you look at the stuff going way down. You look at the strikeout rates. I mean, Pete Fairbanks used to be, I thought, the best closer in baseball for a while there. I mean, again, you go back to 2022, these are absurd numbers. He had a 44% strikeout rate and a 3% walk rate. That is unheard of. He had a 86 fib that season. That’s unreal. Now, a 24% K rate and a 7% walk rate. Those are still good numbers in 2025, but that is nothing compared to what he used to be. Again, still good. Would still help any bull. All 30 bullpens in baseball could use Pete Fairbikes, but he’s not the guy I think even Orioles fans think of that he was with the Rays a couple of years ago. he’s a different player and there was just the weird stuff with him. remember late in the year after he hits an injured Samuel Basio blowing a kiss to the Orioles dugout at the end of the game and then everybody freaked out that he said in the postgame that he was blowing a kiss to a fan above the dugout and said he loves the Orioles cuz they like Legos too and it was just a very weird sequence with Pete Fairbanks there and even if he was blowing a kiss to a fan above the dugout, you got to have the wherewithal to know you just injured the like upand cominging member of the Orioles who they just gave a long-term contract extension to and they’re going to blow a kiss in the area of the dugout. even if it was to a fan, it’s still just idiotic and zero feel for the situation. You combine that with how down he’s been. I worry about signing Fairbanks. I’m not really on it. The reason why he’s number four on the list is like even with how much how down he is, he was a closer through 60 innings last year and had a 283 RA. Like he would absolutely still help the Orioles bullpen, but there are better options out there. Like option number three. I said these two guys have connections to the Orioles. This one a much more positive connection. That is Robert Suarez. 34y old right-hander who has a three-year 48 million contract projection for this off season. Suarez who will be 35 in March is of course the younger brother of Orioles pitcher Albert Suarez as both of them have had kind of cool paths to getting over to Major League Baseball. Now, Suarez did have a uh 2 years and $16 million remaining on his deal with the Padres’s, but he had the ability to opt out of that this offseason to become a free agent. And he did chose to opt out, meaning he’s going to be seeking more than two years and more than 16 million. Now, he had a 2.88 FIP this season. Did Robert Suarez to go with his 2.97 RA? That was the lowest FIP he’s had since coming back over to the majors. He was a a dominant pitcher, dominant reliever in Japan for a long time. Then he came back over to Major League Baseball with the Padres’s in 2022 and has been here for four years and really despite a little injury aided really just a trip up a bit in 2023. Besides that, been one of the best relievers in baseball in those other three seasons that he’s been over here. Now, he had his lowest walk rate. He upped his strikeout rate by about 5% this year. I mean, these are these are good numbers to have. 28% strikeout rate, 6% walk rate. You’ll take that. He was throwing more strikes. His change up kind of used to be his best pitch. He pulled back on it last year, then he upped it again in 2025. It wasn’t very good this year. Like opponents hit 310. The whiff rate was way down, but he seemed to trust it a little bit more. I mean, it’s a it’s a three pitch mix. It’s a four seamer at 99, is a change up at 91, and it’s a sinker at 99. That’s basically all he throws. It’s no breaking balls. It’s four seamer, sinker, and change up. And it’s it’s just heavy overall fast ball usage. I mean, he throws 60% four seamers and 16% sinkers. It’s kind of a different mix than you see from a lot of other pitchers, but he still hits 99. He still has a, you know, a batting average around 100, you 120 against most of his fast balls. Like, that’s good stuff, but he doesn’t really have a breaking ball. And that’s a little concerning when the change up also struggled this year. Both fast balls are so good, it hasn’t really mattered. But if the change up could come back or, you know, there’s a cutter he’s thrown a few times, maybe the Orioles like that pitch, he kind of feels like the safe option, right? Like he’s been doing it this way for four straight years with success. Hasn’t made a ton of tweaks or changes. If you can get him on a two or threeear deal to just do the same thing, reunite him with Albert, I think he’d be a really good addition. And he’s a guy where like I think he’d be okay moving to the eighth inning if Felix Bautista came back and was really good in 2027 as he begins to age. I think this is like the safer, but I still again is he’s going to be 35 in March. Probably doesn’t have as big of an upside as the next two players do because number one and two on this list not only might be the best two guys out there, they also have the biggest upside to be good for more years if you’re going to give out a multi-year contract to a closer. So, let’s get to the top two on my closer wish list coming up next. But first, this episode of the Lockdown Orioles podcast is also brought to you by Game Time. 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So, let’s jump into the final two closers on my free agent closer wish list for the Orioles. Number two on my list is a guy, again, I admitted he is the best overall closer available, but for the amount of money he might be seeking this off season, that’s kind of why he’s down at number two and not number one. And that is 31-year-old right-handed pitcher Edwin Diaz, who is projected to get a 4-year, $84 million contract this off season. Now, Diaz had three years and $50 million remaining on his contract with the Mets, but had an opportunity to opt out this offseason, and he did opt out, which means he’s going to be looking for more than three years, and he’s going to be looking for more than $50 million. That is a lot of money to pay to a closer. We know the Orioles are willing to pay for a reliever, right? They had an agreement for three years and 40 million with Jeff Hoffman left last offseason before that fell apart. But Diaz is the best closer in baseball. I mean, he had a 1.63 63 erra this season. Did that in 66 and a third innings with 28 saves. Had one of the lowest walk rates of his career. Like he posted an 8% walk rate while still having an elite 38% strikeout rate. I mean he’s not the pitcher maybe that he was in 2022. I mean that was one of the craziest seasons we’ve ever seen from a reliever. He had a 131 erra and a 50% strikeout rate that year. I mean that was absurd. He’s still I think the best closer in baseball. So again, in theory, it’s like he should be number one on the list. If the best closer in baseball is available in free agency, he should probably be number one on the free agent wish list. The issue is I think he’s just going to command so much more money than anyone else. Right? It’s an elite two pitch mix. The four seamer at 97, the slider at 89. It’s really all he throws. But the 110 stuff plus was the lowest of his career. The movement and the VO were a little bit down on his fastball this year. I’m not saying he’s taking a huge step back, but you could see him take a tiny step back in 2025. But it’s still it’s strikeout rates, it’s whiff rates, it’s barrel rates allowed, some of the best in MLB. He’s just going to be I think by far like not even close the most expensive closer out there. And to me, as good as Diaz is, you know, the projections four and 80, I think he could easily get five years and a h 100red plus million dollars like the initial deal he got with the Mets he just opted out of. I I don’t know if I’m comfortable giving that to any relief pitcher, even if it is Edwin Diaz. And that is why he’s number two on that list. Which brings me to number one on my list, and that is a guy who I at least the Orioles fans that I talked to have been very high on getting this guy on a bounceback year. Now, he’s already been in the news connected to a bunch of teams. We haven’t seen the Orioles connected to this name, but it’s going to happen at some point. And that is Devin Williams, the 31-year-old right-handed pitcher who is projected for a three-year, $42 million contract this offseason. Again, pretty much equal to the Jeff Hoffman one from last year. tells me the O’s would be very happy to pay that for a good closer. Now, let’s get it out of the way first. Devin Williams is coming off by far the worst season of his career. Was traded from the Brewers to the Yankees in the offseason last year. And in 62 innings with the Yanks, he posted a 4.79 erra. Here is Devin Williams last four seasons of erra. 333, 2.5, 1 93,53,125, excuse me, last five seasons. and then a 479 in a career-high 62 innings and a career-high 67 appearances. He saved only 18 games for the Yankees because they kind of yo-yoed him in and out of the closer role. Here’s the thing, you look a little deeper. Yes, was it a 479 RA? It was a 307 expected RA. It was a 2.68 FIP. This was, I think, the single pitcher in baseball who had the worst luck and the least amount of help defensively behind him of anyone else in the major leagues. One of the bigger erra to fip gaps of any pitcher this year was Devin Williams. And if you just look at what he still does, it’s still elite. The chase rate 35% top 10 in baseball. The whiff rate 38% top five in baseball. the strikeout rate 34.7% top 10 in baseball. He gets incredible top five extension down the mound which means he’s basically releasing the ball closer to you and makes it harder to hit. Is it just a two- pitch mix? Yeah, it’s the air bender crazy movement change up and it’s a four seam fast ball that sits around 94, right? It’s the VO was was slightly down this year, but opponents still hit only 200 and swung and miss 38% of the time against his four seamer with again 38% swing and miss against that change up which was a little more hitable this season but still and only a 194 batting average against. Now he did miss less bats and that’s basically the reason why the ERA went up. He he dropped from a a 43% strikeout rate to a 35% strikeout rate though that’s still a great number and he dropped his walk rate by 3%. basically had the lowest walk rate of his career in a full season. So, you really like to see that in what is quote unquote a down year. Opponents hit just 196 against him this year, but that was also the highest of his career since his rookie season in 2019. I think it’s just a big-time reliever volatility and small sample size case. Like it’s hard to imagine how his erra got that high when the VOS are pretty much the same. The stuff numbers look the same. The command was better. He just got hit a little harder than he ever did before and gave up a little more contact because the strikeout rate while still elite went down a little bit. Like the change up still moves like the air bender, but it got a little bit less swing and miss this year. And a little bit harder contact against the four seamer is a little concerning, but the change up is just so so good. I I don’t think a lot of teams are going to be scared away, especially with the amount of teams we’ve seen already reported interest in Devin Williams. You two weeks into the offseason at this point. It’s going to be an interesting market because he is again coming off by far his worst season if you just look at the surface level stats, but every team maybe minus the Colorado Rockies at this point knows to look below just the RA of a reliever and see how good Devin Williams still was and and still honestly projects to be, right? He’s he’s 31 years old. He’s not the same Devin Williams he was a couple years ago when he really did look like the best reliever in baseball when he was with the Brewers, but he still to me can be one of the best closers in the majors. And even if that 47 RA scares teams off just enough to make it, you know, a three-year deal instead of a four-year deal, make him cost 40 million instead of 55 or 60 million, that is where the Orioles should be able to pounce, maybe give him a little more money and just go get Devin Williams, right? The Orioles should be willing to jump on this reliever market. Francis Romero had a report on Friday that the reliever market seems to be moving really quickly and they might be kind of the first players to sign this off seasonason. That would kind of be interesting because sometimes those guys have to wait longer than anyone else. But it’s a lot of good closers out there. I think the best thing for the O’s to do is just identify which of these six that I talked about is their favorite. Hopefully it’s Devin Williams. And just go get him. Like give them a big contract. You know, the projection was three years 42. like go right to Devin Williams right now and offer him three years 55 million and just say boom there’s our offer if it’s probably the best offer he’d have on the table right now and force him to turn it down and go somewhere else and then if that doesn’t work you can reassess you can stay in contact with Williams you can start talking you know with the other guys like Fairbanks or Suarez or Diaz that’s what I would do if I were the Orioles just get him in there lock down the closer spot know you have Kitridge in the setup man spot and then you can kind of build the bullpen around that and you don’t have to worry about that closer thing that what you know the starting pitching probably still the more important thing for this team but if you don’t get that closer it’s always going to hang over you as you’re talking to the starting pitchers I’d be good just getting the closer out of the way especially if the market is moving fast and then moving on from that but that is my closer free agent wish list let me know in the comments like where did I go wrong with my rankings there’s a couple guys that didn’t even put in here right rice glaciius and Kenley Jansen are two veteran closers that are also free agents I kind of toiled found with either of those guys being on this list as well. You know, they’re they’re guys who have racked up saves in their careers. They’ve their stuff and everything is way way down, which is why they’re not on the list, but they could certainly be possibilities for the Orioles as well. Let me know. Like, comment, and subscribe to the Lock on Orioles YouTube channel. You know, if you’re a listener, make sure to subscribe and follow wherever you listen. Apple Podcast, Spotify, really helps out the show. And if you have any Orioles thoughts, feedback on the show, whatever it may be, questions for me, you can always email me [email protected]. I will be back tomorrow if we get any more Orioles coaching news. Remember, we got a couple of more names to get filled out on the staff. We’ll get to those and if not, we’ll continue on throughout the rest of the week with some of these free agent wish lists and continue to look back on the seasons of some of these Orioles players in 2025. But I’m back tomorrow. Until then, I’m Connor Nukem and this has been the Locked Orioles podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day.

The Baltimore Orioles are going to need to spend this offseason, and probably spend on a closer with Felix Bautista out for most of year. Host Connor Newcomb ranks his top six free closers that the Orioles should pursue, including Devin Williams, Robert Suarez, and Edwin Diaz.

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