Orioles acquire outfielder Leody Taveras and RHP George Soriano as offseason begins

Orioles acquire outfielder Leody Taveras and RHP George Soriano as offseason begins

Free agency officially opened yesterday and the Orioles are already busy adding Leodyveris to their outfield mix. We’ll talk about that and a couple other Orioles moves 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 Friday, November 7th, 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 will discuss a couple players who the Orioles acquired earlier this week. We’ll talk about the outfielder, Leody Tiveres, who the O’s brought in on a one-year deal, and the right-handed reliever, George Soraniano, who they got on waiverss from the Miami Marlins. We’ll talk about both guys, their scouting reports, and how they fit in with Baltimore, and then give you a little timeline for what is upcoming here in this off season. But that’s all coming up on this episode of the Locked Orioles podcast, which is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Just download the FanDuel app today. So, we start with really the first major league signing of the Orioles off seasonason, but not even the first player that they’ve acquired, right? You know, you go back a couple of days on Tuesday, the Orioles make the trade to get Andrew Kitrich back into their bullpen after trading him away at the deadline. We know they’re going to need to add to that bullpen this off seasonason. So that was step number one. The other thing we knew that they needed was bench outfielders, reserve outfielders, potentially a starting outfielder as well. We’ll see if that happens later in the offseason. But there was a a need for a fourth or fifth outfielder center field type. And while this doesn’t mean this is going to be the guy the Orioles put in that position at the big league level this year, they have certainly begun to address that hole. And that is with Leodyver. Mike Rodriguez, a baseball broadcaster uh who had the news first and it was confirmed by John Haymon and others who covered the Orioles, reported on Wednesday night that the Orioles were signing outfielder Leota Tiveres to a one-year $2 million presumably major league deal. It is still awaiting the physical and the confirmation by the Orioles. But the reason why this news was able to break on Wednesday night, even though free agents weren’t able to be signed until Thursday night, is that Tiverus was a minor league free agent and those guys are eligible to sign really at any time. They don’t have to wait until 5 days after the World Series like the major league free agents do. So, who is Leody? He is a 27-year-old switchhitting center fielder who was again eligible to sign before Thursday because he was a minor league free agent. Tiveres began this year with the Texas Rangers where he had been for all of his career, but just it didn’t go well. 30 games to begin the season with the Rangers. Had just a 66 WRC plus, meaning he was 34% worse than league average as a hitter. And the Rangers just were kind of done with playing him. They had Wyatt Langford, they had an injured, but still an Evan Carter, they had Jock Peterson. They had other guys they’d rather go to in the outfield. And they placed on waiverss on May 4th and he was claimed by the Seattle Mariners. So, a couple days later in early May, he suited up for the Mariners and he had a good first game. I think had the game-winning hit for the Mariners in that first game and then really didn’t do much else after that. 28 games with Seattle for Tavveris. It got much worse. He had a 32 WRC plus and he was DFAD on June 9th after just about a month with the Mariners. Now, he did clear waiverss and that was the first time in his career he had cleared waivers. So the Mariners were able to outright him to AAA Tacoma and he wasn’t able to kind of decline that and become a free agent. And that is where Tivera spent the remainder of the year. Played 81 games in AAA with the Mariners basically half a season and you know was solid. Had a 102 WRC plus hit 280, popped 11 homers, cut his strikeout rate all the way down to 15%. But remember this is a guy who’d been facing big league pitching really since 2020 and now was facing AAA pitchers. You’d expect him to do a lot better, which is what he did. Now, when he went down to AAA, the underlying data actually looked pretty good. He had a 43% hard hit rate, which was nice. Had a low whiff rate, high contact rate. His strikeouts went down. He was hitting fast balls pretty hard, which is good to see. And it’s actually surprising that at one point the Mariners didn’t call him back up, but just I think never really had the need. You know, they went and got some outfielders. Dominic Kzone ended up producing for them. They eventually got Victor Rob back from his injury. Of course, already had Julio Rodriguez out there. And so Tiveres ended up staying down in Triple A. And then when the year ended, he became a minor league free agent in October, which is why the Orioles were able to at least reportedly sign him uh before he officially would have become available elsewhere or otherwise on Thursday. Now, Tiver was a was a prospect at one point. He was an international amateur signing out of the Dominican Republic by the Rangers all the way back in 2016. And in 2019 when he was getting close to knocking on the door of the big leagues, he was a consensus top 100 prospect in baseball. Now he was no he was not a top 10 guy. He was not a notmiss guy, but pretty much every major list had to vary ranked somewhere in their top 100 at least thinking, hey, this is going to be an impact big leager. And he never really fully, I would say, got to that point in the big leagues. He did debut in the COVID season at 2020. He was only 21 years old, but played 33 of the 60 games in that shortened season for the Rangers. And then came back in 2021 looking for it to be his first full big league season, but he wasn’t very good. He uh in 2021 came out there and he played in just 49 games. He hit 161. He had a 32% strikeout rate. He had a 28 WRC plus. He played great defense in the outfield, but didn’t hit at all. So going into 2022, the Rangers had a few more questions, but Tiverus was able to bounce back a bit. Ended up playing in 99 games, so still was not an everyday player yet in 2022, but was right around a league average hitter. Hit 261, you know, stole 11 bases. Again, played really good defense in the outfield and was kind of a a good reserve player for Texas and by the end of the season had kind of become their starting center fielder. and that opened him up to take over that role in 2023, which is what he did. In the 2023 season, Tiver stepped in to be that starting center fielder for the Texas Rangers. And while his season wasn’t amazing, he played in 143 games for Texas. He hit .266. He had a 101 WRC plus. He was for the first time an above league average hitter. He hit 14 homers. He played good defense. He was worth, you know, almost three wins at baseball reference and fan graphs according to his war. He was a valuable player out there in center field. You know, he hit at the bottom of the Texas lineup. They weren’t expecting a ton from him offensively. That was also one of the best lineups in baseball. So, you have to down there in the eight and n hole as a league average hitter. You’re feeling pretty good. And that’s where he stuck. It was that Rangers team that we know well won the 2023 World Series. Now, Tiveres did go 0 for 16 in that World Series against the Diamondbacks. He didn’t have a great postseason, but he played good defense. They didn’t need to think about who was out there in center field for them a lot of the time. And he gave them some value and and was certainly a piece who helped them to that World Series. And again, like, you know, his hard hit rate was right up there at 43% in that 2023 season. A really good number for a guy in the nine hole. And there was some stuff under the hood that looked really good. He was plus seven outs above average in center field. That’s it’s an elite defender out there. But then 2024 came and it was back to the offensive struggles for Tarveris. Back to an 84 WRC plus, back to a 229 batting average. He did steal a career-high 23 bases that year. He did up his walk rate. His strikeout rate still didn’t get super high, but otherwise just didn’t really produce with the bat in the way that he did the year prior. Although, you know, he did play 151 games and was only still 25 years old and was still the everyday center fielder for a disappointing Texas team that missed the playoffs a year after winning the World Series. So, came back into the season with that center field job, but knowing that with Langford and Carter and others in the mix, he was going to have to hit to keep his job. And as I mentioned, he didn’t hit. He was DF8 a month later and the Rangers kind of went another way in center field. Now, in terms of defense, like he still gives value there. It’s he’s got one of the strongest arms in the league of any player, not just center fielders, in baseball via Statcast. He’s got really good speed. He’s in the top 10 percentile of sprint speed in the league as well. You know, he can steal 20 plus bases. The bat at this point is just the huge question. And he he really in the last couple of years just stopped doing damage against four seam fast balls. In the last two seasons in the big leagues with the Rangers and then the Mariners, he had a negative 17 run value against four seam fast balls via Statcast. That’s one of the worst numbers of any hitter in that two-year span in baseball. Basically, was one of the worst hitters against four seam fast balls. And that’s the pitch you’re generally going to see more than anything else. So, that is a problem if you’re trying to be at least a productive or even at least average hitter in the big leagues. Now, he is a switch hitter, which gives him more versatility. In his career, he has been better from the left side of the plate than he has from the right side of the plate. This year was actually the first season he was better from the right side. But otherwise, like 2023, his best season, he was way better from the left side of the plate than he was righty. For the Orioles, probably looking for a little more righty bats. That doesn’t as much fit for what they’re looking for. But the big question is, okay, why are you, you know, basically day one of the offseason signing Leody Tver to a one-year two million million dollar deal, a guy who spent the majority of last year in TripleA? Well, for the Orioles, he becomes a very similar player to Dylan Carlson and a guy who could take on a very similar role. You actually look at Carlson and Tiver, right? They’re both the same age. They’ve been around for a while because both guys debuted at like 21. So, they’re a lot younger than you think, even though they’ve been in the big leagues for a while. They’re switch-hitting outfielders. Now, Tiverus is a better center fielder, but switch-hitting outfielders who can play all three positions. They have the tools. They’ve shown sparks offensively. They’re good defenders, but they’ve seen their offense really tank over the last year or so. That’s pretty much the exact situation in which the Orioles signed Dylan Carlson to a cheap deal last off season. And they’re doing the same thing here with Leody. Now the big differences are Carlson was a much better hitter. He he was a switch hitter as well, but he was a much better hitter from the right side, whereas Tiveres much better hitter from the left side. Second big difference is Carlson’s a good defensive outfielder. Tiveres is a great to outstanding defensive outfielder and and you know although Carlson can play center field, Tiveres like is a true elite defensive center fielder. So that gives him a little more value if he’s coming off your bench. And the biggest difference was that Dylan Carlson was signed even though he signed to a major league deal for one year 1 million last year. He still had minor league options and the Orioles utilized that, right? They signed him, but Carlson actually began the year last year in AAA Norfol because he had those options. The Orioles really signed him to be depth. Now, kind of unfortunately, not for Carlson, but for the O’s. Dylan Carlson actually played a lot for the O’s last year because they just had so many injuries to deal with between Kerstad and Cowser and O’Neal and the likes going down in that outfield and Lauriano and a Hearn being and Mullins being traded. There was a lot more playing time it ended up being for Dylan Carlson than I think the Orioles planned for when they signed him as depth last offseason. And Carlson didn’t really hit much. It was it was not a great offensive season for him. It’s a similar bat from Tiveras, just as a better defensive outfielder. But Tiveres does not have those minor league options. So, he doesn’t give you that same kind of roster flexibility. Now, however, since they signed him to a one-year $2 million deal, I don’t think any team, any other team would have truly given Tiveres anything above $2 million. And what that does for the Orioles is a similar thing we’ve talked about over the past week or so. these kind of upped contracts they’ve given to Rico Garcia and Luis Vasquez and Josh Walker over the past week or so. guys who could be on the roster bubble at any point between now and, you know, midway through the 2026 season where if you up their salary a little bit, it makes it less likely that another team would claim them on waiverss if you do have to DFA them, right? And for Tiver with a salary up at 2 million if he is having some struggles or he’s not going to make the team, right, you DFA him in spring training, a lot of teams aren’t just going to jump on giving a fifth outfielder $2 million. But if the Orioles are fine doing it, they can keep him as depth. If he does clear waiverss, if he chooses free agency, he forfeits that $2 million. Nobody else he would sign with is going to pay him that much money. So, it makes it a lot more likely he would just be okay with sticking in Norfol being depth and the O’s would have a chance to call him back up if they needed him later in the season. All all that to say is despite this being a major league deal for $2 million, this does not guarantee that Leota Tiveres is on the Orioles opening day roster. Does it make it, you know, more likely for him than someone like Jud Fabian to be in that spot? Absolutely. But the O’s are going to still be looking for outfielders. In no way does this mean the Orioles are done looking for outfielders. You know, hey, they already have Beavers, Cowser, and O’Neal. They’ve signed their bench guy in Tiveras and they’re done. That is absolutely not going to be the case. I would be stunned if they do not add another better outfielder in either either free agency or via trade because it’s not like Tiver is taking a starting spot, right? If he’s on this team, and that’s a big if, he is the fourth, fifth outfielder, plays a little bit, pinch runner, defensive replacement type guy. If Colton Cowser ends up being the main center fielder on this team, you really want a good defensive center fielder to be on your bench because although Cowser has shown he’s gotten better and better in center, we know he’s a much better corner outfielder than he is center fielder. And you may get to a point where you want to have a true center fielder on that roster. That is not someone like Jorge Matteo. And I don’t know if the Orioles think Jud Fabian’s bat can even play anywhere near the big league level. Tiveres just gives you a higher floor in that part of the roster. He could absolutely be on the opening day roster in that fifth outfield spot. If he is, I think he’s really nice depth for those to have on their bench. He also could be in AAA or with some other team by then. Because again, the other nice part about David Rubenstein taking over is that a one-year $2 million deal does not impact the Orioles payroll in the way that it did when John Angelos was in charge. You can give a guy 2 million and be like, eh, he might not even play a single game for us next year. And that is okay. That is the nice part about this. Again, similar thing with Dylan Carlson. He only played that much because there were so many injuries. Remember, he wasn’t on the opening day roster. If the Ozman stayed healthy, Carlson may have been in Norfol all year despite getting a guaranteed major league contract. And again, like Leo Tver has been around for a while, but he’s 27. He’s younger than Adley Rutman. There’s still time for him to develop into his prime and get some of that offense back. And again, like the O’s like the defensive floor. Maybe they see some promise back in the bat from the numbers he put up in Triple A with Seattle this year after he was DFA. But really again, whether he’s on the opening day roster or not, you get some depth. You’re not investing a whole lot here. And again, even if he’s on the roster, that’s still Leotaa Tver, Dylan Beavers, Colton Cowser, Tyler O’Neal, you still have space for a fifth outfielder on the roster. Even if you want to roster someone like Jeremiah Jackson, you would still have space for a bigger hitting kind of corner outfield guy to be there as well. For the people who want to freak out about the Orioles making a depth signing, it’s one of the crazier things I see. Like, why are you mad that the Orioles are improving their depth? We’ve seen over the last two years, you need as much depth as possible. You get major league type players in Leota Tiveres. This doesn’t change anything. Doesn’t block anybody. I just it’s let’s take a deep breath, people. It’s a nice little signing to open up the off season for the Orioles. And speaking of that depth, they added some on the pitching side as well this week. We’ll talk a little bit about who George Soraniano is. That’s coming up next. But first, this episode of the Lockdown Orioles podcast is brought to you by Prize Picks. You and I make decisions every day, but on Prize Picks, being right can actually get you paid. Don’t miss any of the excitement of this sports season. Whether you are following the NFL, the NBA, or both, there’s no better time to jump in on the action. And if you haven’t tried it yet, like prize picks is the simplest way truly to play. You just pick more or less on at least two player stats. And if you get them right, boom, you win. It takes less than 60 seconds to make your lineup and you can play anywhere prize picks operates, including California, Texas, and Georgia. And you know, for me, I’ve been using prize picks on football Sundays. It’s, you know, maybe a little NBA tip off action. And if your one of your players leaves via injury, the injury reboot saves your lineup from a loss if they leave early. So download the prize picks app today and use code locked on MLB to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code locked on MLB for $50 in lineups after your first $5 lineup. That’s a prize picks. It’s good to be right. So, Leodyiver was added by the Orioles for depth and another guy was to this week. That was back on Wednesday as well as the Orioles claimed George Soraniano, a 26-year-old right-handed pitcher off waiverss from the Miami Marlins. Now, who is George Soraniano? Well, first of all, he was kind of quietly placed on waiverss by the Marlins. The Orioles didn’t have space on the 40man roster, so they did DFA outfielder Daniel Johnson to make room for Sorano. Johnson was going to be one of the first guys DFA this offseason anyway. He was never going to survive the offseason. I’m sure the O’s would love to have him back on a minor league deal as depth, but um Daniel Johnson is off the 40man. So again, who is Sorata? Well, 26-year-old right-handed relief pitcher who will be 27 in March, just two days before opening day. He was a 2015 international signing by the Marlins out of the Dominican Republic and was never any kind of, you know, big heralded top 100 prospect, but was always a ranked prospect in the Marlins system and a guy they intended to get to the big leagues fairly quickly. Now, it took him a little longer than they thought, but he was added to the 40man roster after the 2022 season to protect him from the rule five draft. And he didn’t make the opening day roster, but he made his major league debut called up in early April of 2023 for the Marlins. And he was pretty good that year. He pitched in 52 games out of the Miami bullpen in 2023. He posted a 3.81 erra, solid strikeout rate, not a super high walk rate, and that was on a Marlins team that kind of shocked everyone and made the postseason back in 2023. Now, unfortunately for Sorano, he was really good early, kind of tired out down the stretch. He had a 6.91 erra in the month of September that year after what was really a great season. still did make the Marlins playoff roster in the wild card round against the Phillies. They were swept in two games. Didn’t see much from Sorano. He may have kind of run out of gas at the end of that season. His fastball vo was down to 94 miles an hour in September, but still was good experience for him in that first season. Came back in 2024. Marlins figured, hey, this guy’s a pretty much a shoein to be in our bullpen this season. Well, as we know, the Marlins kind of fell apart in 2024, as did Sorato. He pitched in just 22 games, 29 and a3 innings. A 6.75 erra ballooned from the 381 the previous season. The previous year like he was basically exclusively used as a multi-ining guy. They used him more as a one-inninging guy in 2024 out of the bullpen. And really the home runs started to get to him. He started to have a home run problem. A lot of his stuff under the hood didn’t look super super different, but he was very much an up down guy, you know, going back and forth between AAA and the majors. and he found himself in that same role for a a better non-playoff but better Marlins team in 2025. Very much an up- down season for Soraniano, who was used as mostly like a low-lever multi-inninging mop-up guy for the Marlins this year. But at age 26, he pitched in 24 games. He threw 36 and two/3s innings. Did record one save. He has three of them in his career. And he ended up with an 8.35 RA. Yes, it ballooned even more. It was a 21% strikeout rate, career low, 11% walk rate, careerhigh. Opponents hit 303 overall against Sorano this year after it was around 230 the previous two seasons, it was not a good year for George Sorano in 2025. And although he survived the whole season, this offseason was the first time he became out of minor league options and the Marlins tried to quietly sneak him through waiverss, but the Orioles put a claim in on him earlier this week. Now, he did pitch really well in AAA in 2025. While he was terrible in the big leagues, you look at his AAA stats and it was oh, 43 innings, a 232 erra, you know, 29% K rate to a 9% walk rate with a 178 batting average against. That’s a really good AAA relief season. He went back and forth between AAA and the big leagues multiple times. That success just never translated back up to the big leagues like it did two years prior. But the, you know, he’s still 26. The stuff is still in there. still was getting out AAA hitters at a really high rate and is still flashing some better stuff. Like the stuff numbers ticked up. He went from a 90 to a 99. His four seam fastball saw a huge jump. He added a new sinker this year which was nice to see. The issue was his home run problem got even bigger. The home run issues were just massive. And that’s why you look at his erra, right? That is incredibly ballooned erra at 8.35. It’s hard to see the positives of anyone with an 8.35 ERA. I think that is um pretty clear. Like if you look at ERA rankings among guys who threw at least 30 innings this season, 8.35 was the third highest ERA in baseball. The only two pitchers who threw at least 30 innings this year with higher ERAs both pitched for the Rockies, Bradley Bllelock and Carson Palmquist, both had higher eras. That doesn’t even really count. Soraniano had, in my brain, the highest ERA of anyone who threw 30 major league innings. So, you don’t love to see that. However, here’s the flip side. Soriat’s XFIP, expected FIP, was 4.36, four runs lower than his RA. Basically had the biggest erra to X-IP gap of any pitcher in Major League Baseball. XFIP. A lot that goes into it, but it does kind of explain like, hey, what would your ERA be closer to if you had a a normal defense behind you and a normal home run rate? Well, Soriana’s home run rate was so just inflamed that it bounced that RA up. It seemed like every ball that was hit in the air against him was hit for a home run. He had a 28.6 home runto-fly ball rate. That means almost a third of the fly balls he he allowed became home runs. That’s insane. That was the highest home run to fly ball rate of any major league reliever who threw at least 30 innings in the big leagues this season. And if you go back all the way to 2020, so the past six seasons, it’s the third highest home runto-fly ball rate in a single season by any reliever who threw at least 30 innings. I go back to 2020 because 2019 was the juiced ball. Home runs everywhere. You don’t really want to look at that data, but that’s crazy. Now, the one thing that makes you a little bit better is you can make changes to get the home run rate down. The highest home run rate in that span, remember Soraniano’s third was last year for Blue Jays left-handed reliever Brendan Little. And Brendan Little turned things around to be maybe the Blue Jays most trusted lefty in a bullpen that went to the World Series this year. I know he had a couple of bad moments in the playoffs, but overall had a great season. you can turn things around and you can have that home run luck come back on your side at any time. And the other nice thing about Sorano, like he hasn’t really had injury issues. That doesn’t mean he won’t have them in the future. He’s a professional pitcher, but he hasn’t really had him between TripleA and the majors. He threw 79 and a third innings of relief last year, so that’s nice to see. He’s kind of fully built up without injuries. You always like to see that. He debuted that new sinker, which is good. It became kind of his number one fast ball early in the year. He threw it less and less as the season went on though. Went back to his four seamer, but the two fast balls do work well off each other. The Orioles will certainly have him throw both. They both sit around 96 miles an hour, the four seamer and the sinker. But Sorano’s stuff is really more about the nonfast balls. It was 32% slider usage this year, his number one pitch. That’s an 86 mile per hour slider with a 33% swing and miss rate. It got hit with a lot of slug this year, but the expected slugging was way down. He throws it over 40% of the time to righties. And then he has 31% change up usage. His pitches go slider change up for seam sinker. Change up at 89. Only a 20% swing and miss, but he throws it a lot to lefties. Has a lot more drop and a lot less horizontal movement than most change ups from his similar arm arm angle. It can be a pretty nasty pitch. And he does have like a 29 degree arm angle, which is which is pretty sidearm, especially for a right-handed pitcher. So, it gives Soraniano a little bit of deception uh out of that sidearmmy slot as well. Now, the big thing with Soraniano is he is out of minor league options for the first time. So, the Orioles couldn’t just send him down to Triple A this year. He would have to pass through waiverss. And I can pretty much guarantee you with the state of the Orioles 40man and the fact that they’re going to want to add players this off seasonason. Even though they just claimed him, Soraniano is going to be one of the first players DFAD off the 40man this offseason when the Orioles need to. I would almost guarantee that at some point between now and opening day, the Orioles DFA Sorato. Their hope is is that he clears waiverss. And if he does, it would be his first time doing it. So, he would have to accept an assignment to TripleA Norfol and stay in the Orioles organization as minor league depth. We’ve seen him do this a ton with relievers on the waiver wire over the years. Soraniano’s got some intriguing stuff. It’s another piece of bullpen depth. And hey, there could be some innings to be had in this bullpen. Soraniano’s had success at the big league level in the past. Maybe the OC something they can tweak there and get back to that level from a young reliever that hopefully still has some good innings left in that right arm. But it is the off season. The O’s have made a couple of moves already. They’ve gotten Kitridge. They’ve gotten Tiveres. They’re making some waiver claims. A lot of important dates though coming up as the moves will continue to come through. Get you kind of set for the full off season of deadlines to finish off the show coming up next. But first, this episode of the Locked On Orioles podcast is also brought to you by FanDuel. 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But it’s another waiver claim coming in. Pedro Leyon is the player who the Orioles have signed. I will get into him a little bit deeper next week. But the quick version of who is Pedro Leyon. He is a Cubanborn kind of utility guy. Plays the infield and plays the outfield. He has made it briefly to the big leagues. 2024. He played in seven games for the Astros, but otherwise has mostly been in the minor leagues. He played in just 25 minor league games last year, however, and is kind of one of these post hype guys, late bloomer type guys that the Orioles seemingly are going to bring in here who, you know, was a top ranked prospect at one point. He was in the futures game back in 2021. So, there is some hype here from Pedro Leon. I am literally trying to do this on the fly. Um, we will have a lot more Pedro Leone information for you uh coming up on the podcast next week. That means the OO may have to clear a spot on their 40 band and maybe Soraniano already is getting DFA. But I wanted to briefly talk about some big deadlines and dates to know for this off seasonason, right? So trades and signings are now open at this point as of Thursday. We’ll have the GM meetings next week when the GMs get together and kind of start to talk about things that could happen. November 18th is the deadline to accept the qualifying offer. The Orioles aren’t given any out, but could take a couple free agents like Zack Gallon maybe off the board if they accept it. November 18th is also the deadline to add players to the 40man roster, adding prospects there to protect them from the rule five draft. Relievers Anthony Nunees and Cameron Foster, who the Orioles got at the deadline this year, probably the locks to be added. Then they have some decisions to make. Cameron Weston, Carter Baller, Raone Gomez, King Gillies, uh Reed Trimble, Jud Fabian, guys that could be added by the Orioles. November 21st is the non-tender deadline. That’s the deadline to, you know, non-tender guy contract. Basically, send a guy into free agency early instead of going into arbitration. The big decision the Orioles have here is on Ryan Mount Castle. Will they be able to find a trade partner by November 21st or will they just non-tender him? Other candidates are guys like Dylan Carlson and Jose Castillo who we’ve talked about. Then the winter meetings December 7th through the 10th in Orlando. That’s usually when the offseason really heats up. So we’ve got exactly a month until all that stuff begins. You get the draft lottery while we’re there. December 9th. Orioles have the fourth best odds of getting the number one pick. That would be cool. Then the rule five draft on December 10th. O’s haven’t taken anyone in a couple of years, but they could lose some players as well. January 9th is the arbitration filing deadline. Doesn’t, you know, change anything for guys. as we just learned more about like what their payroll will be in 2026. Then February 11th, pitchers and catchers report to spring training. If anyone’s playing in the World Baseball Classic, they uh report a little bit earlier, but full reports are February 16th for all players, and the Orioles first spring training game is February 20th. Speaking of that World Baseball Classic, it is back March 5th through the 17th. No Orioles are confirmed yet to be playing, but I would guess at the very least Dean Kramer will pitch for team Israel and Tyler O’Neal will pitch for team will play for team Canada. They both did that in the last WBC. We could get a few others in there as well. Remember, the Orioles had Cedric Mullins playing in the last one. They had um Ryan Long pitching for team Great Britain in it as well. And the Orioles are going to play an exhibition game on March 3rd against team Netherlands. So, that’ll be fun. Hopefully, that one is broadcasted as well. Then, really, it’s not that far away. Thursday, March 26th, is Orioles opening day. The Yankees and the Giants open the season the night before with a standalone game that everybody else plays on the 26th. Orioles versus Twins, 3:05 p.m. Eastern time at Orio Park. It is so so close. And hey, maybe in that game or in that series, we’ll get some sort of like Pablo Lopez or Joe Ryan revenge game. That would probably come out to it being a pretty good off season for the Orioles. But a ton between now and then will happen. A ton between now and then will be covered right here on the Lockdown Orioles podcast. Make sure to stick around. We are still five days a week, all the way through the month of November, all the way through the winter meetings. Plenty of O’s content, including next week when I tell you a little bit more about Pedro Leyon and then really dive into the beginning of free agency and all those free agent wish lists on who the Orioles should pick up. But until then, I’m Connor Nukem and this has been the Locked On Orioles podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day.

The offseason just fully opened on Thursday, and the Orioles are already making moves. Host Connor Newcomb gives you the scouting report on outfielder Leody Taveras and RHP George Soriano, both of whom the Orioles acquired earlier this week.

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