Orioles News & Notes: Luis Rojas, Ryan Flaherty, Arbitration Projections

Orioles News & Notes: Luis Rojas, Ryan Flaherty, Arbitration Projections

We have learned our first name in the Orioles managerial search process. Could Luis Rojas be the O’s next skipper? We’ll talk about that and much more coming up on this episode of the Locked On Orioles podcast. [Music] You are Locked on Orioles, your daily Baltimore Orioles podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. Hey there, Orioles fans. Today is Wednesday, October 15th, 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’re going to talk a little bit about Luis Rojas as he has reportedly been the first guy who at least it’s been come out that he has interviewed for the Orioles open managerial position. We’ll chat about his history as a coach and a big league manager and where he would potentially fit in in Baltimore. Then we’ll discuss some Orioles news and notes beyond that. A couple of players electing free agency. another interesting managerial name in Ryan Flity coming up and some injury updates on Albert Suarez. And then finally, MLB Trade Rumors last week did their first arbitration projections. We’ll look at the 14 players the O’s have on that list and what decisions they have coming later next month. But 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, again, apologies. This episode coming out a little later here, late afternoon into the evening on Wednesday rather than the usual morning, just because of some scheduling stuff. Um, hopefully we’ll get a Thursday episode out on normal time. There’ll be a Thursday and Friday episode no matter what. There might be little different timings as well, but still want to get you all the five episodes per week here, even into the offseason. And in this one, we’ve got a little Orioles news and notes to get to anyway because as was reported by Andy Martino of SNY and Mark Feinand of MLB.com on Tuesday, the Orioles have reportedly interviewed Luis Rojas for their open managerial position. And this is, you know, besides Tony Manscelino, who we knew, we know as interim managers, at least still a part of the process, this is the first outside name that we have any reporting of a concrete interview. anything outside of speculation and conjecture. Who is Rojos? Who is Luis Rojos? Well, 44year-old who does have big league managerial experience. He managed the New York Mets for two seasons in the COVID year of 2020 and then the full season of 2021. Now, Rojos went 26 and 34 in the COVID season. The Mets missed the expanded playoffs that year. you don’t want to if a manager’s first managerial job is in the COVID year, I’m basically wiping that off the record. So really, we have one full real season to look at. That was him going 77 and 85 with the 2021 New York Mets, who did have the number one payroll in all of baseball that year, finished eight games under 500 and missed the postseason. the Mets declined his club option to stay on as manager in 2022 and that was it for him at least for that point as a big league manager. Now at that point he was also one of the youngest managers in the big leagues. He was you know in his late 30s when he got that job. Now Rojos did have some success with that Mets team for most of the season. They either led the NL East or were at least within one game of first place from April 13th all the way through August 6th of that 2021 season. Now, they didn’t have a huge lead ever, like they never led by more than five games. They were never more than 10 games over 500. So, they weren’t a dominant team. But on August 1st, they were 56 and 48 and they were four games up in the NL East. The Mets went 21 and 37 in the final two months, including a disastrous 9-19 August, lost not only their division chances, but any hopes of the playoffs. They became the first team in MLB history to be in first place in their division for at least a 100red days of the season and still finish the year under 500. And those were the reasons why the Mets decided not to retain Rojos. Now, again, they were never dominant. They were never even 10 games above 500. It was a a pretty bad NL East. Remember that was the year that the Braves were you right around 500 at the deadline. They had lost Ronald Akuno Jr. They rebuilt their outfield at the deadline, went on a run, came back, won the division, and then won the World Series in 2021. But it wasn’t just that the Mets went on that the Braves went on a run. The Mets also kind of collapsed to help Atlanta take over and uh win the NL East that year. Now, most of the money that was in that number one payroll was spent on pitching. Francisco Lindor, I believe it was the first season of his mega deal. He was awful that year. It’s like the worst season of his career. Somehow, they only had two above average hitters on that team despite all the money they spent. There has to be some blame on Rojos. Not like all managerial firings, not all the blame goes on Rojos. It was a ton of underperformance from his team. And it becomes tough to say how much do you put that on a manager versus a coaching staff versus a front office versus the players themselves. Now, Rojos is a guy who’s been around the game for a long, long time. Despite being on the younger side of guys being interviewed, just 44 years old around the game. He’s been around baseball for a long, long time. Was briefly a professional player for one year in rookie ball with the Expose in 2004. Now, he was actually signed by the Orioles in 1999 for $300,000 as a third baseman, but had a ton of injuries. barely got on the field between then and 2004 when he was finally healthy but kind of called it quits on his pro career and was almost immediately hired by the Nationals because remember 2004 was the final year of the Expose. They moved to DC. He was a player in the system. The Nets hired him as a coach on the staff of the Dominican Summer League Nationals in 2006. And apparently he did a good enough job there in one year that the Mets hired him away to coach on their Dominican Summer League team in 2007. And that began Rojas’s ascension through the Mets system. He got moved up to the GF Coast League and into Aball for the next three years from 2008 to 2010 as a coach and then got his first managerial job in 2011 for the GF Coast League Mets, the rookie ball affiliate. Then he just kept moving up the ranks for the next three years 2012 to 2014. Managed in low A, the Savannah Sandats in the Mets system, including winning a leaf championship and manager of the year in 2013. Then the Mets bumped him up to high A St. Lucy for 2015 and 16. He also managed Esco in Lee Dome, the Dominican Winter League for the first time that winter as well. He was then promoted to manage double A, the Bingmpington Rumble ponies for 2017 and 2018. And after the 2018 season, the Mets had him kind of bypass AAA and promoted him to be a coach at the big league level. He was on the Mets major league coaching staff. His position was quality control coach for the 2019 season. I would say his duties were probably closer to like what a Buck Britain did maybe before Hyde got fired and Britain became the third base coach when he was kind of just like a major league coach who was in the dugout. That seemed to be more of the Luis Rojas role because they saw a lot from him as a young coach coming up in their system. Well, Rojos was set to be again a coach on the major league staff for 2020. The Mets had hired a new manager in Carlos Beltron, but they kept Rojas on staff because that was an in-house guy who they really liked. And then something happened with Carlos Beltron because less than two months after the Mets hired him, the story came out about the Astros trash can banging scheme. And it also came out that Carlos Beltron was maybe the number one leader of that scheme in his one year in Houston in 2017 when they won the World Series. And because of all that, and Beltron had lied about it as well, the Mets fired him as manager before he could even get to spring training, let alone manage a game for the Mets. But that left the Mets in a tough spot because we were already deep into the off season. All the other managerial openings had been filled by the best candidates out there. So the Mets really weren’t at a point to hire from the outside. I guess there were some, you know, veterans out there they could have gone and gotten, but it was already January. You’re approaching on spring training. It was just easiest for the Mets to promote from within and then go from there. Now, the one thing they could have done, they could have just promoted from within and named Rohos the interim manager for 2020 and gone from there. But they did fully promote him into the job into that seat. The Mets saw him as a future manager. I don’t think they saw him as early as 2020, but he I guess they felt was their best option, interviewed the best, and he got the job. So, you could argue that Rojos may not have been ready for that role when he got it in 2020. Of course, he managed two disappointing seasons, didn’t get his option picked up, and was out after 2021. And the Mets, as we know, turned to um many other names who didn’t work out for different reasons between then and now. Now, Rojos was immediately hired. He was let go by the Mets after 2021. There were multiple teams immediately interested and he didn’t have to go far to get his next job. The New York Yankees hiring him to be their third base coach on the major league staff to work under Aaron Boon and Brad Osmus to you know veteran MOB guys or at least uh Boone was a little bit closer to that at that point. Osmus had been as well and that’s where Rohos has been for the past four seasons. The third base coach for the New York Yankees. Now Mets fans don’t love the guy and I get it right. He oversaw two disappointing seasons. He was kind of thrown into the mix. He managed the team with the number one payroll in baseball to a 7785 record. Kind of collapsing in the final two months. You’re generally not going to have good opinions of the guy, but I truly believe he got a raw deal with the Mets in New York just being thrown into that role really before he was ready. Maybe a little bit similar to the the early situation with Tony Manelino this year, but that was an interim tag. So, it’s a lot different than giving a guy the full job. And I think he’s someone who, again, still at only 44 years old, certainly deserves another chance to manage at the big league level. We’ll see if that’s Baltimore or not, but I think he deserves a chance. Now, he does come from a big baseball family. He is the son of Felipe Rojasu, who was a manager. Remember, managed the Expos for 10 years in the 90s, managed the Giants for four years in the 2000s with Barry Bonds on the team. Also had a 17-year big league playing career from 1958 to 74. Three-time all-star, over 2,000 hits. not quite a Hall of Fame level player but was very very good. And of course uh you know Luis is the halfb brotherther of Moises Aloo who had a good MLB career as well. It’s at that big Rojas Aloo family. Filipe Roas Aloo had a lot of kids with multiple different wives and women. So there’s a lot of of half siblings out there in the baseball world from Luis Rojas. Now as John Mioli friend of the show likes to say over the Baltimore Banner baseball show uh you know this is a capital B capital M baseball man. Yes, you know, Rohas a little younger than the guys you put in that category to almost 44, but he’s been around the game. I mean, literally his entire life, he has been around professional baseball and that’s someone you probably want to at least think about here and a guy with although wasn’t successful, two years of big league managerial experience. So, it’s not like he’s going in completely blind if he does get this job. And again, I I think he could be a good manager in this league. people really liked him in that Yankees clubhouse that really thought high of in his four years with the Yanks when he was third base coach. He was thought very highly of when he was moving up the Mets system as a coach before he was kind of thrust into that managerial role. So, still a lot of positive things to be said about him. Now, here’s what I will say. With the way the Orioles have operated under Michael since he took over in November of 2018, they may be the most secretive front office in Major League Baseball. generally when they’re hiring or when they’re looking at free agents or whatever it may be, when a name does leak out to the media like it does to multiple different reporters on Tuesday reporting that Luis Rojas has interviewed, generally that means it has made the rounds enough that Rohos is actually not going to be the Orioles hire. Now, we don’t know that for sure and it’s still absolutely possible because we know he interviewed and we don’t know for sure that anyone else has interviewed besides Luis Rojas. So, you have to say he is a legitimate candidate right now to be the next Orioles manager. But for me, just the way I’ve seen the Orioles operate and heard them operate, I actually, it’s weird because I didn’t talk about Rojos when I did my episode of seven managerial candidates. So, I had him kind of low on the list. Then you immediately see the report and you move him higher up the list. You’re like, okay, they interviewed him. But then you think for a little bit and you move him back down the list a bit because it’s like the way they operate, if that name truly got out, probably means he’s not going to get the job. but it is possible and he is certainly a candidate for the Orioles managerial opening. Now, there is another interesting candidate out there, our old friend in Brian Flity, who I’m sure the O’s are interested in, but the O’s might not be able to get him. We’ll talk about why with some other Orioles news and notes coming up next. But first, this episode of the Lockdown Orioles podcast is brought to you by Game Time. 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So, the Orioles we know now have interviewed Luis Rojos. Another name wouldn’t surprise me that they interview that I put in my kind of top seven best candidates for the job is former Orio Ryan Flareity who’s been a coach with the Padres’s then was their bench coach has now been the bench coach for the Cubs for the past two years of course with the Cubs being eliminated losing in five games in the NLDS to the Brewers. Their coaches can now officially have that time to interview for other jobs and I would not be surprised if the Orioles have already interviewed Ryan Flity for that job. got not amazing reporting, but John Haymon did report that Tony Manscelino is still in the Orioles mix for manager. That seems to be the case until they make a decision. He also reported that Ryan Flity could be in the mix. It was unsure whether that was looking into things whether you had heard there had been an interview, whether he heard there is interest or he was just kind of connecting the dots of the connections there. But again, now with the Cubs out of the playoffs, he can interview. But we’ll see what happens. However, even if the Orioles are going to interview Flity and see him as one of their top candidates, which I think is certainly a possibility and maybe even a probability here, I think from what we learned earlier this week, there is a much lower chance that Ryan Flity actually becomes the next Orioles manager. And that is because Mike Schilt, who’s managed the Padres’s for the past couple of years, just retired and left the Padres’s job open. They can get the ninth managerial opening. I believe that’s the most ever in one off season. And I also personally think the Padres’s becomes the number one opening. Remember, I ranked the Braves number one and the Orioles number two among managerial jobs open this off season. I’m bumping the Padres’s to number one, moving the Braves to two and the Orioles to three. That team is in win now mode, has so much talent, still some money they’re willing to spend and moves they’re always willing to make with AJ Prowler. I think that could be the number one job out there. And while that’s generally bad news for the Orioles because there’s now another opening that I think most would agree is a for for most people, not for all people, but for a lot of people, especially with the living in San Diego, is probably a better job than the Orioles. That’s not good for the O’s if you’re looking for a manager because you just had another opening with a better, more talented team at this moment in a more advantageous spot to be ownership GM place to live. It It’s a better job. that flat out is a better job than the Orioles job. That makes your candidate pool lower because if you thought you had a chance to get the best candidate that’s out there, now you have less of that chance because there’s another better job open. The other part where it hurts is that if Yuros really are targeting Ryan Flareity, which is possible as one of their top guys, I would think the Padres’s are doing the same. Not just because he’s one of the better upand cominging managerial candidates at this point, but because remember before his last two years when he was the bench coach for the Cubs, he was on staff with the Padres’s, including being the bench coach there for a couple years right at the end of his time. And you have to think San Diego, they kind of kicked off his coaching career for Flareity. They gave him some big-time roles when he was pretty young in the game. You’d have to think that Padres’s front office really likes having and working with Ryan Flity. And with that job open, I mean, you can almost guarantee the Padres’s are going to interview and consider Flity for that job. And if both the Orioles and the Padres’s offer Flity, he’s probably taken the San Diego job because it’s a better job and one he’s been on the coaching staff with before. Yes, he has the connection to the Orioles, but Flity never crossed paths with Mike Elias or anyone in this new front office. He was here in the Buck Shoalter, Dan Duket area. He’s got much more of a connection to San Diego, and it’s a better job. He’s going to take that. So maybe that might take another candidate off the board for the Orioles. Couple more pieces of Orioles news and notes to get to. Albert Suarez is expected to avoid surgery, at least for now, which is a good sign. Remember Suarez missed most of the year with a shoulder injury. Came back in September, pitched a few games, then went back on the injured list with an elbow issue and missed the remainder of the season. Got an MRI, didn’t love it, got a second opinion, but luckily the MRIs came back clean enough where he’s It’s not a serious elbow injury. It’s not going to require Tommy John surgery, at least for now. They’re calling it a mild flexor strain in his right forearm. He’s going to begin a throwing program at some point this month to see how he feels. He is arbitration eligible for the first time. He is also 36 years old now with basically a full year missed via multiple arm injuries. It was an amazing, spectacular 2024 season for Suarez in Baltimore. I do think it’s more than likely he’s mostly done. I I hope it’s not for his sake, and I hope he can come back from all of this. This is all in all good injury news from what we thought it could be when he went back on the IIL, but the odds are against Albert Suarez at this point. The odds have been against him for a while and he still pulled through with the season he had in 2024, but we’ll see if he can get over this hump. And then two Orioles uh did elect minor league free agency. One of them is David Bonos, who’s been with the Orioles as their kind of number four catcher the last couple of years. 29-year-old played in one big league game this year and one last year when he made his major league debut with the O’s had initially come in on a minor league deal. Played just 21 games in AAA this season hitting 107. The reason why I only played 21 games, he is kind of the Orio’s main taxi squad catcher. He is the catcher who travels with the team when they go on the road and a lot of times it’s with the team at home. Teams travel with a taxi squad catcher who’s not on the official roster, is generally there to be another bullpen catcher and help with game planning and things like that. But if a catcher gets injured either right before a game or gets injured during a long road trip and it’s tough to get another catcher out there, you always want to have a backup catcher with you on the taxi squad that you can just activate to the roster if you need to. And again, that happened once to Baneos or actually a couple times to Ben Wos in 2024. Happened once for him in 2025. He seems to be just incredibly well-liked in that Orioles clubhouse. They really, really like that guy. They brought him back. I would not be surprised. Can’t hit. Good defensive catcher. good in the clubhouse. I would not be surprised if the Orioles bring him back on another minor league deal and just use him as kind of that made taxi squad catcher. And the other guy is Emanuel Rivera who also elected free agency. Remember he was DFA again by the Orioles late in the season, cleared waiverss, stuck in the system for a couple of weeks, and now elects free agency for now. He’s 29 years old, 43 games in the big leagues this year, had a 64 WRC plus, hit for some average, but zero power at all. was basically a league average hitter in 58 games in AAA Norfol this year. Of course, the O’s brought him back after he filled in nicely at the end of last season. Again, this year, filled in a bunch for injuries in the infield. Had that awesome moment with the walk-off hit in the ninth inning comeback against the Dodgers. That’s a moment that we’ll never forget and very much involves Emanuel Rivera. Overall, he’s nothing special as a player, but Michael certainly loved to have him as depth. So, I bet they do offer him back on a minor league deal with a big league spring training invite. We probably see him in Norfol next year and whenever the O’s need an infielder, I wouldn’t be surprised for Vera at least plays a couple of games for the Orioles in 2026. That’s the news and notes. Last thing to get to is arbitration. MLB trade rumors came out with their arbitration projections for the offseason. We’re going to do a fuller episode on this when it gets closer to that non-tender deadline in late November, but they’re out there. Might as well react to a few of the numbers. Uh some pay raises, some guys who could be released. That’s coming up next to finish off the show. [Music] But first, this episode of the Locked On Orioles podcast is also brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season is here and FanDuel has an offer you don’t want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. That’s right. Just pick a bet, put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. and FanDuel. It gives you so many ways to play. You can build parlays. You can try player props. You can even follow live lines during the games. It makes watching football even more exciting when you got a little something and writing on the action. And you can avoid watching the Ravens at all costs. So whether you’re a casual fan or love diving into the stats, FanDuel makes the game day experience so much better. So what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. So, I wanted to finish up here with the MLB trade rumors arbitration projections for this offseason. If you’re unfamiliar with how the salary arbitration system works in Major League Baseball, this is the quick explainer. When players get promoted to the big leagues, they essentially, in rough terms, you know, sometimes it can be a little shorter, a little longer than this depending on when in the year they’re promoted, how many days they spend on the roster, things like that. But generally on average a player gets three years of pre-arbitration. That’s three years in the big leagues where they’re making at or maybe a little bit more than the big league minimum. They’re very cheap players. Then once they’re in the offseason between that third and fourth year, they hit arbitration for the first time. The players start to get raises year after year based on their performance from the previous season. You can’t make any less than you did the year before. You can certainly make more. It never really gets crazy except for when the elite players reach that sixth and final year of arbitration. Otherwise, guys are generally the good players still making less than they are worth in the arbitration process, but they make a lot more comparatively. You know, millions instead of hundreds of thousands in years four, five, and six. Now, if a guy does go to arbitration, the team and the player basically try to agree on a salary figure for 2026 based on their performance of 2025. If they can’t agree to a number, it goes to a neutral third party. The team submits a number, the player submits a number, that neutral third party selects which number is more fair, and that is what the player makes for the next season. So, if you’re watching here on the Locked on Orioles YouTube channel, make sure to like, comment, and subscribe. This is from lbtrader rumors.com, a great website. They do this every offseason. They do from the model. They have the arbitration projections for what each player is going to make in 2026 in arbitration. So, the Orioles have 14 players. I believe the Rays lead the way with 16. 14 guys is a lot to be hitting arbitration. That’s when you have a semi young roster who’s all been in the big leagues for a little while. This is generally what’s going to happen for your team. And these are these projected numbers for these players. Now, the question is for the Orioles, Mo, a lot of these guys are going to be guys who, yeah, you’re bringing them back no matter what. you’re paying them that money and they’re going to be on the team next year. For some of these guys, you can do what is called a non-tender. If you non-tender a player, you basically look at this projected number of what they’re going to make. You think about how what they mean to the team and you say, you know what, it’s not worth it for us to guarantee this much money to this player here in November when we don’t even know if they’re going to be on the team next year or we’re pretty sure they’re not going to be on the team. you just non-tender them, which means you basically release them, send them into free agency, sometimes a year, two, or even three years earlier than they were set to become a free agent. Then they’re not on your team. You can always renegotiate a cheaper deal, but they won’t be under arbitration. They’re not on your roster, and you’re not paying them that guaranteed money. So, let’s just run down the list here as not really sure what the order they have it in here. It is Oh, it’s in the order of service time. That makes sense. It is in the order of service time on this list. Let’s start with Ryan Mount Castle. Projected to make $7.8 million next year in his final year before free agency. Mount Castle, he’s going to get a longer conversation later this off season before we fully get to the time when these decisions need to be made. But I think the Orioles are going to do everything they can to not have him on the team next year. Whether that is trying to trade him, see if they can get anything back for him or they might just non-tender him because of the low production. He’s not really worth $8 million for next year when he can only play first base. and the bat is not nearly what it used to be. You can get a more productive hitter as a first baseman for $8 million or less on the free agent market or just use Kobe Mayo right there as a possibility if he has turned the corner. Use Samuel O Bio there. He is definitely a non-tender candidate, but the O’s are going to do everything they can to try and trade him before they would make that decision. Keegan Aken at $3 million projected for next year is also heading into his final year before free agency. A while there where I would have said like, yeah, no doubt 3 million’s nothing. Keegan Akens at least a solid middle reliever for you. Keegan Aken was quietly, especially down the stretch, really bad. Now, some of that is because he was put in the closer role. That is not where he’s meant to be. He was over his skis in terms of where he was being used. I still think he can be a good middle reliever for this team, but man, his walks got out of control. I would not be shocked if the Orioles non-tendered him. I still think three million is cheap. They’ll probably bring him back to see if he can kind of pull back together his skills, but he’s definitely a possible non-tender. Dylan Carlson at $ 1.5 million also in his final year before hitting free agency I think. Now 1.5 is cheap so they could just bring him back to have him be depped. He would still have minor league options. That’s nice to have. But he’s also a serious non-tender candidate. Dylan Carlson did play a lot this year for the Orioles but that was because they were so injured. He didn’t really produce a lot when he was out there. He’s solid defensively but the swing just doesn’t look good. He kind of looks broken at the plate at times. I know it’s only 1.5 million, but I don’t think he really has a spot on this roster next year. I think he’s a non-tender guy. Trevor Rogers at $6 million last year before free agency. Uh yeah, they’re bringing him back at $6 million. That’s super cheap for anything close to what the Orioles got from him this year. Same thing. Tyler Wells at $2.7 million. That’s an easy one. That’s a yes, he’ll be back. We’ll see reliever or starter, but he’ll certainly be on this roster. Jose Castillo, left-handed reliever the Orioles brought in on waiverss in September. He is due $1.7 million. We saw some outings from him. It was up and down. I don’t think they’re going to be guaranteeing him 1.7 million, especially because he’s out of options, so he’s not as flexible as a roster reliever. I think he’s probably the number one non-tender candidate on this lease to list to get released. Dean Kramer, 5.1 million. That’s an easy one. Going to be an important part of this pitching staff, whether as a starter or reliever. He’ll be back. Adley Rutman, same thing. You know, he’s getting a raise up to $6.8 million, but he’s going to be back. He is the Orio starting catcher. You can stop with the trade stuff unless they’re finding a deal with Adley where they’re getting some amazing number one starting pitcher. And even that’s probably not going to happen. It’s not going to happen. He and and Basio can coexist wonderfully on this team. Adley’s going to be back at 6.8. Felix Bautista at 2.1 million. It’s unfortunate he’s going to miss most if not all of next year with shoulder surgery, but he has another year on his contract in 2027 before he hits free agency. So the O’s are going to bring him back to make sure they can have him in 2027. They’ll pay him the 2.1. Kyle Bradish $2.8 million. Nob brainer. He’ll be back. Year Canó is maybe a conversation. Although the number is only 1.8 million. That is super super cheap. Even though the Orioles declined Jacob Webb at that number last year, Keno has a much better history of being good than Jacob Webb did. And Yenir Cano will still have minor league options next year with Jacob Webb did not. So even with Canó, if he is still struggling a bit, the stuff is still there. The ground balls are still there. You can stick him freely in triple AAA for a bit if you want. I think there’s still just too much promise in that arm to let him go over $1.8 million when he doesn’t he doesn’t have to take up a roster spot, right? He has options. He can begin the year in AAA if you have to. Gunnar Henderson’s hitting arbitration for the first time, projected to make 6.6 million. That is still way less than he is worth. Obviously, he’ll be back. And then two really interesting ones to finish it off. The first one is Alex Jackson at a projected $1.8 million. That’s pretty cheap. The question is going to be, do the Orioles want to carry three catchers? If they do, because they think they’re going to be playing Adley and Bisio in the lineup a lot at the same time, which I think will be the case, I think it’s important to have a third catcher on the roster because if you’re dhinging one of your catchers, somebody gets hurt. You don’t have to burn the DH, have a pitcher hit to make a swap in the game. Always nice to have a third catcher on the roster in that scenario. And Alex Jackson, the Orioles got him in a trade from the Yankees this year because they were desperate for catchers. Every single catcher they put on the field except for Alex Jackson got hurt at some point this year. But Jackson looked really good both behind the dish and he hit some homers, slashed some power, looked good at the plate. Former top prospect, former first round pick. He’s out of options. It’s 1.8 million. He might not even make the team, but I think it’s worth it to guarantee him that 1.8 million and at least get to spring training and see, all right, how does Adley look? How does Bisayo look? Jackson maybe we keep as a third cash catcher. And if it doesn’t work out, it’s 1.8 million. It’s it’s not a lot of money. And the final one is Albert Suarez hitting ARB for the first time. Only due $900,000. I think the Orioles will probably guarantee him that. Listen, it’s a guy who was great for you two years ago. It’s less than a million dollars. That is nothing to David Rubenstein. Even if he is done like I just talked about, I think it’s worth it to just guarantee him the 900,000 for now. Keep him in the org. See how his rehab goes in the offseason and see if he can at least help you eat some innings in 2026. But let me know here in the locked royals YouTube comments section where you would differ from my selections on those arbitration guys. We’ll kind of dive a little bit deeper into that later in the offseason. That non-tender deadline is usually mid to late November. That’s when they have to make all those decisions. We’ll talk about it a little further in an episode when we get closer to then about a month or so from now. We will be back tomorrow back into the Orioles player season review series. Tomorrow’s episode, we’re going to take a look at Dean Kramer. Terrible April, rebounded and was really good the rest of the year. Splitter was awesome. Little arm issue in September, but came back to look good. Is he more than a number five starter moving forward for this team. And then Friday, we’ll talk about Jordan Westber. Another injury riddled season, but when he’s been healthy, he’s been great. Talk about why the Orioles need health from Westber in 2026. That’s on the rest of the week, including tomorrow when we are back. Until then, I’m Connor Nukem and this has been the Lockdown Orioles podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

Luis Rojas has reportedly interviewed with the Baltimore Orioles for the open Managerial position. Host Connor Newcomb runs through Rojas’ resumé and background. Then, Connor discusses why Ryan Flaherty may not be coming home, the injury update on Albert Suarez, and the potential arbitration decisions for the Orioles.

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