Orioles News & Notes: Edward Cabrera, Coby Mayo, Carter Baumler

Orioles News & Notes: Edward Cabrera, Coby Mayo, Carter Baumler

Next up for the Orioles, it’s time to add some pitching. Could they do it via trade and maybe go get someone like Edward Cabrera, [Music] 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 Thursday, December 11th, 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 about some Orioles rumors on the pitching side. They’ve already gone and gotten Pete Alonzo. They’ve gotten their big bat to add to Taylor Ward. Now they turn their attention to the arms and they’ve been connected already to many guys in free agency, but also some interesting trade candidates. We’ll talk about how Edward Cabrera could fit in Baltimore. And we’ll talk about what teams would take Kobe Mayo in a trade. Maybe that makes Miami the perfect fit. And finally, a couple of news and notes pieces from earlier in the week talking about waiver claims and the rule five draft. But that’s all coming up on this episode of the Locked On Orioles podcast, which is brought to you by FanDuel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. So, let’s start today with Edward Cabrera. This was reported actually back on Tuesday night, I believe, and the plan was initially to get to it on Wednesday’s episode. And then, of course, what do the Orioles do on Wednesday? Well, they signed Pete Alonzo to a 5-year deal and that took up rightfully so the entirety of Wednesday’s pod. So, we pushed the Edward Carba talk to Thursday. But what it was purported by Ken Rosenthal and others at the Athletic on Tuesday night, unfortunately, right after I finished my live show on Tuesday that the Marlins were fielding offers for starting pitcher Edward Cabrera. And Rosenthal reported that multiple teams were in talks with the Marlins, but the only team he reported by name was the Orioles. And it was later reported that the Orioles were at least the front runner at this point to land Edward Cabrera if the Marlins are going to trade him. It’s not like a foregone conclusion at this point, but it seems like if he’s moved, it’s more than likely going to be to Baltimore. Now, other teams that talked to Rosenthal said the asking price is very high for Cabrera right now. So, we’ll see. But how would a guy like this fit in Baltimore? Well, if you don’t know much about Edward Cabrera, he’s a 27year-old right-handed starting pitcher. He will be 28 in April, who will be a free agent after 2028. So, he still has three more years of team control. He’ll be an ARB 2 in 2026. He’s projected to make only $3.7 million for next season. So, it’ be super cheap to get a legitimate starting pitcher and three years of control. Sounds really good. Now, 2025, this is the other good thing. He’s coming off his best career season with the Marlins this year. He’s had a career-high in innings pitched, a career-high in starts, had a career best fip. His walk rate went way down. It was a career best. He had a 105 stuff plus, which is the best he’s ever posted. It was just overall a really good year. 26 starts, 137 in two-thirds innings, a 353 RA with a 383 fib for Edward Cabrera. Now, he’s pitched in parts of five major league seasons. I would call this his first full full season. It’s the third year he’s made 20 starts or more, but his previous high was 20 starts. He’s gone 74, 20, 20, 26 in terms of starts at the big league level since he debuted with the Marlins at age 23 all the way back in 2021. And because of how his service time shakes out, he actually gets one more year than you would think before hitting free agency. So that’s why he’s not a free agent until after 2028. Now, he missed the first two weeks of this season with a blister and then he wasn’t very good for the last two weeks of April when he came back. But beginning in May till the end of the year, Cabrera was incredible. He had a 2.95 erra from May 1st onto the end of the season. Now, he did miss three weeks in September with a right elbow strain. And you hear right elbow strain, you get very nervous about a starting pitcher. The good thing was while the Marlins did have a great second half and kind of got themselves back at least on the periphery of the NL wild card race and they were playing, I wouldn’t say fully meaningful, but somewhat meaningful games down the stretch. They decided that with, you know, basically a week and change left in the regular season to bring back Edward Cabrera from the injured list, they were still technically not eliminated from the playoffs, but at that point with 10 days remaining in the season, you know, the odds were well under 1% that the Marlins would make it. They didn’t have to bring back Cabrera after three weeks out with an elbow issue if they thought there was any issue of him getting reinjured. Like, it just wasn’t worth it. It’s not like they were going to get into the playoffs and they felt good enough to bring him back anyway. And he had a pretty good final two starts of the season that they brought him back for. So that tells me that they weren’t super super worried about the elbow or they just would have shut him down for the rest of the year. And he posted his best stuff numbers of the season in those final two starts. Now, the issue with Edgar Cabrera, you might be saying, Connor, he’s been in the big league since 2021, and you just said 137 and two/3s innings this year was his careerhigh. It’s actually his career high by far. It’s the first time he’s even eclipsed 100 big league innings in a single season. Now, to be fair, in some of these years, he’s pitched some in the minors while also pitching some in the majors. For example, like this year he did make two starts in AAA on rehab. So in total it was about 145 innings. In 2023 when he threw 99 and two/3 innings, he also threw 28 and a third in the minor league. So he was up to 128 innings. So he’s still, you know, building on a little bit more than that. It’s not as small a workload as as it looks like if you just look at purely the innings he’s thrown at the major league level. But that doesn’t take out the fact that injuries have been a concern for Edward Cabrera throughout his career. The history looks in some ways a lot like Grayson Rodriguez, who the Orioles traded away earlier this off seasonason with four years of team control with a lot of that having to do with how many injury issues Grayson has had and not been able to fully come back from. Now, the difference is Grayson hasn’t pitched since July of 2024. Edward Cabrera made 26 starts this season. So that’s a big difference in terms of the current health between those two guys. Now history of Cabrera signed by the Marlins as an amateur free agent out of the Dominican Republic all the way back in 2015. Always had huge stuff. Became a top 100 prospect in baseball while he was in Miami system. It’s big VO. It’s 97 averaging on the fastball. He can get it up there to 100 at times. The fastball just doesn’t have great shape. So, it’s kind of a dead zone fast ball. It plays down from the big velocity, but he relies on an awesome change up that’s like 93 to 94. And then a curveball and slider that are both great breaking balls. Both have swing and miss rates well over an elite 40% on the season. It’s truly some of the best secondary stuff of any starting pitcher in Major League Baseball. If he had good fast shape, he’d be seen as like a lockown number one. The reason why besides the injuries that he’s not seen as a number one starter is because the fastball has good VO but not good shape. But when you’re averaging 97 and you’re regularly touching 98 and 99, you can get away with a bad shape fastball if you have good secondaries and that is what Cabrera has. Now I do think the injury history is somehow longer than Grayson Rodriguez’s. Now Cabrera is older again. He’ll be 28 in April so there’s more time in his life for him to get injured so far. But there was a shoulder issue that lingered through 2023 and 24. As I mentioned, he made just 20 big league starts in each of those seasons. It’s now, I believe, been nine consecutive seasons between both the minors and the majors with the Marlins that Cabrera has made at least one IIL stint in all of those nine years. Sometimes it’s been blisters, it’s been arm stuff, there’s been elbow, shoulder, but he has yet to get Tommy John surgery, which on one hand is a positive. He’s always been able to bounce back fairly quickly from these injuries. On one side, could be a negative where you say kind of similar to a guy like Grayson, while he’s had all these issues and he still hasn’t had the Tommy John, is that TJ coming right around the corner? It’s something you certainly think about. Now, the bigger question truly is what would it take to get this guy, right? He’s he’s been in and out of the big league since 2021. It’s a career 407 RA and 87 big league stars with a 445 fib. So, it’s not insane numbers, but he seemed to put it all together finally this year, and he still has three years of control. And we know the stuff is dominant, and there’s got to be another level that Cabrera can potentially reach. Now, the Marlins need a first baseman. It almost makes too much sense for Kobe Mayo, especially at this point, to not be involved in a potential Edward Cabrera trade, but they would need more. They’re at this point, they’re not just taking Kobe Mayo straight up for Edward Cabrera. Fish on First, which is a great website that uh covers the Marlins. They proposed a trade that was Kobe Mayo and Boston Baitman, who was the top prospect the Orioles got back from the Padres’s in the Lauriano O’Harn deal at the deadline. It would just be those two for Cabrera. I think Kobe Mayo still has something in there. I think Boston Baitman could be really good. Boston Baiton isn’t even in double A yet. I would do that deal absolutely, no questions asked. I believe they proposed another deal that it was like a Luis Day Leone based deal. It was three prospects. It was a little lesser on that one. But I mean, it just makes so much more sense to move a guy like Mayo with signing Pete Alonzo as we’ll talk about. If the even if there’s one more prospect you got to throw in with Mayo and Boston Baitman, I think I’m doing that deal for Edward Cabrera. Only issue is despite the fact that he has the stuff of a potential number one as I just talked about and looked a lot more like it this season, if you go and trade for Edgar Cabrera, he simply cannot be the best starting pitcher that you acquire this off seasonason. Right? We’ve talked about kind of these categories we’re putting starters into. I think we all agree the Orioles need to acquire two starting pitchers this offseason. One to sit at the top of the rotation and one somewhere below him, right? A three four type guy. And there’s players who kind of fall in the middle of that range. Like we’ve talked about guys like Zack Gallon or Nick Paveta where I think they’re really good, but I don’t think they can be the best starter you acquire. I would throw a guy like Edward Cabrera in that mix with Gall and Paveta. Now Cabrera has a higher ceiling than both of those guys, and he’s much younger, so that’s a good thing. But because of so many injury concerns, he kind of falls into that same category of would he make the Orioles rotation better? Absolutely. He threw a careerhigh of 137 and two-thirds innings. Even if you think he’s healthy and you could push him up over 150 innings in 2026, which is possible if he stays healthy, you still need another guy who you can count on 180 or 190 in that rotation of good innings as well. Maybe you could argue if you got two guys from that group, like if you got Nick Paveta and Edward Cabrera, I might be okay with that being the pitching they’re bringing in. But if you could sign one of the four big guys, I Valdez, Michael King, Ranger Suarez, and then trade for Edward Cabrera, it’s kind of the same thing I talked about when we mentioned Freddy Peralta last week. Like that would be along with Ponzo and Taylor Ward and everything else. Just an insanely incredible winning the offseason type winter for the Orioles if they were able to pull that off. I mean, say it with someone like Framber Valdez. He’s your number one, Bradish two. I mean, Rogers three, Cabrera four, and Kramer five is honestly an insane rotation to go into the season with, you start to teeter me if Cabrera is your best pitcher you acquire because of the injury concerns. But if he’s number two and you get a more stable, steadying force at the top and then you’re banking on the stuff and the upside with Cabrera, I’m totally fine with that, making it work. if the O’s really are the the front runners here and really are trying to get Edward Cabera this off season. Now, as I mentioned, Kobe Mayo would probably be in an Edward Cabrera trade, but there’s no guarantee that that’s the exact trade the Orioles would make, but it really feels like they got to trade Kobe Mayo. Maybe not precisely right now, but there’s unless he changes positions, there’s really not a lot of future for Kobe Mayo in Baltimore now that Pete Lonzo is here. So, who are some teams besides the Marlins who need some help at first base, who have some pitching to give up and could be a trade partner with the Orioles for Mr. Mayo himself? We’ll talk about that coming up next. But first, this episode of the Locked Orioles podcast is brought to you by Game Time. The World Cup is coming back to North America for the first time since 1994. And with 48 teams for the first time ever, it’s going to be massive. But let’s be honest, getting tickets is usually the hardest part. That’s why the Game Time app is clutch. Finally giving fans a real advantage when it comes to snagging seats. 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So, we’ll talk about the Kobe Mayo of it all in terms of a trade piece here in just a moment, but first, we have some exciting stuff going on at Lockdown Orioles. And I want to thank you for making Lockdown Orioles your first listen of the day. and thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. Now you already live your team everyday. Now it’s time to take it up a level and go ad free. Join the Everyday Club today and get locked on Orioles with no interruptions, membersonly Discord access and more. All for just $5 per month or to save a little bit of money, $50 per year. Go to lockedonorals.supcast.com supercast.com or check the link in the show notes to learn more. So, let’s talk about Kobe Mayo, right? He’s kind of an important piece of this discussion because the Orioles just signed Ponzo to a 5-year deal. Kobe Mayo won’t be a free agent for another five years. They both are right-handed power hitters who play first base. It doesn’t feel like there’s a future in Baltimore at this point for Mayo, which probably means he’s going to get traded. And is he the same kind of trade candidate with the same kind of value that he once was? No. When he was a prospect and he was a top 10 prospect in baseball, he had more value two years ago than he did now when he’s looked pretty bad in the two chances that he’s gotten at the major league level. So the question is a what can the Orioles get for him? I don’t know if that’s a as big of an issue because even if he’s more of a centerpiece, you can add things to Kobe Mayo to get a trade done for a pitcher. The bigger question might be who would want Kobe Mayo and who would match up with the Orioles in a trade. So we talked about the Marlins already. They’re a great one. They are 29th out of 30 teams at fan graphs projected for offensive production from their first baseman in 2026. They’ve they’re talking about moving Connor Norby over to first base at this point. So that’s an easy fit for the Orioles. How about the Brewers? Their projection is 27th at first base. Maybe in a Freddy Peralta trade, you could base it around Kobe Mayo. Ken Rosenthal did report on Wednesday that the Orioles are among a bunch of teams who are talking with the Brewers, checking in on Freddy Peralta. They’ve reportedly opened the door to dealing Peralta this offseason. I already put Peralta as the number one pitcher on my trade wish list for the Orioles this off season. And the projections, you know, they went and got Andrew Vaughn and kind of resurrected his career to play first base last year when Rehys Hoskins got hurt. But the projections don’t really believe that Andrew Vaughn’s going to repeat what he did and do a full turnaround. And Kobe Mayo is probably a better long-term option or at least an an equalish one and gives you a better shot than Andrew Vaughn does. How about the Dbacks, right? They’re still always at least trying to be in it. They’re 26th projected at first base next year. I’m not sure they have the big- time pitching to give up like teams like the Marlins and the Brewers do. But maybe it’s more likely that a move like Ryan Mount Castle to the Dbacks would happen than Kobe Mayo. And maybe they can try to get like an interesting optionable relief arm in a deal for you know Mount Castle and some cash or Mount Castle and another prospect for something like that where you can clear that space. Maybe you can hold on to Mayo for a little bit longer and get another arm that could help your bullpen. Twins are 25th in projection. We already know they’re looking at first baseman in free agency including Ryan O’Harn. The latest reporting has been that the Twins are going to go for it this season despite tearing it down at the deadline last year. They’re reportedly going to hold on to Byron Buckton and Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez. Of course, Ryan and Lopez were both on my trade pitcher wish list last week. But if Kobe Mayo was centered around a really good offer from the Orioles, would they maybe think again about dealing Ryan or Lopez at this point? I guess it’s possible. Nationals are 24th in first baseman projected war. They’re dealing McKenzie Gore out there. That market seems to be heating up. Kobe Mayo could be a good piece to put in that trade. How about the Padres’s 23rd in projected war at first. I’ve already talked about Nick Paveta. The possibility that he is available out there. Now, the Padres’s need starting pitching, but they also need to shed payroll, and shedding Nick Paveta’s 19 million would be very helpful in replacing it with Kobe Mayo making the league minimum. And that could help them at first base this season, especially because they’re trying to trade Jake Croninworth as well and Luis Arise and Ryan O’Harna are free agents. They they kind of need a first baseman and Mayo would be a cheap one for them. Reds are 22nd in projected war from their first baseman next year. Really any of those arms. They kind of have seven starters for five spots. So, you know, I don’t think Hunter Green’s getting moved, but a Nicolola, a Rhett Lauder, a Brady Singer could all potentially help the Orioles rotation in a Kobe Mayo deal. And then the Pirates are 20th and you know they’re looking at bats to add to first base. But if none of the bats actually sign with them, maybe a a Mitch Keller deal or a Mike Burroughs could bring them a Kobe May or even a smaller deal and and Ryan Mount Castle could be like a one-year placeholder for the Pirates at first base is is definitely a possibility as well. Sometimes you can worry that, oh, you know, our top trade piece is a first baseman, right? He used to be a third baseman, he wasn’t very good there, so we kind of moved him to first full-time. that decreases the value of a player when they don’t have more defensive versatility than first base and maybe playing third base in an emergency if you need them to. But it kind of works out like all the teams I just named who are all in the bottom 10 of projected production from first baseman at least on their roster right now for 2026 are all teams that kind of have some starting pitching that not just that they could trade away but reportedly seem somewhat willing to trade away this off season. that allows Kobe Mayo to match up with a lot of the teams the Orioles are already talking trades with for pitching. To me, that makes it even more likely that someone like Mayo is going to get moved in one of these deals. Like everything that’s happened this off season tells me Kobe Mayo is getting traded for a pitcher. I’m not going to guarantee it because you never know what could happen, but it just feels like we’re really tracking that way. And of course, we’ll have it all covered if a deal like that does happen. But because we for good reason fully focused on Pete Alonzo on Wednesday’s episode, we missed some smaller news and notes from winter meetings day three. So we’re going to get to those things regarding the rule five draft waiver claims and others on the final segment of the show that is coming up next. But first, this episode of the Locked Orioles podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. NFL Sundays move fast. one big play and suddenly everything feels different. That’s what makes live betting with FanDuel so exciting. You’re not just watching the game, you’re reacting to it in real time. And even though the Ravens, I think, are somehow still favored over the Bengals on Sunday. I can’t imagine why. 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Let’s start with a waiver claim that the Orioles made, and it’s actually somebody who has already been on their roster earlier this off season. That is Josh Walker, the 31-year-old left-handed reliever who the Orioles claimed off waiverss from the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday. Now, Walker had been DFA by the Orioles earlier this off seasonason and claimed by the Braves. Braves DFA him and the Orioles claimed him back. Originally, the O’s had claimed Walker off waivers from the Phillies back in August. He made six appearances in TripleA Norfol, then went on the injured list and didn’t pitch anymore for the rest of the season. He has pitched in the big leagues parts of the last three seasons with the Mets and the Blue Jays, although it’s a 659 ERA in 27 and a3 MLB innings. But the Orioles like the stuff, they like the arm slot. He’s a 6’6 left-hander with some funk coming out of the bullpen. He does have an option year remaining which gives him more bull depth. It’s more than likely he’ll be DF8 again by the Orioles at some point this off season for the second time. They’ll try to sneak him through waiverss and keep him in the organization. Remember, he was one of the guys earlier this offseason where the Orioles upped his salary a little bit for 2026 in the hopes of it being easier for him to pass through waivers or making it more likely that he sticks in the organization if he does clear waiverss. So, at some point in the next couple of weeks when the O’s make another move, they’re going to try it again with Walker on waiverss and see if he will return to the Orioles potentially this time. But they did have to make move uh room on the 40man for him. So, catcher Drew Romo was DFA to make room. Romo literally just claimed by the Orioles from the Rockies off waivers on Friday. 24year-old switchhitting catcher with minor league options. Great defender who debuted for Colorado in 2024 and then played just briefly in the majors this year. bat hasn’t really come around at the major league level, but is a guy who if he does clear waiverss and stick in the minors could compete for that third catcher spot. You know, I mentioned earlier this week that the Orioles were going to DFA him soon, and they did. If he clears waiverss, he’ll stick around in the organization as good catching depth for the Orioles to have. But he was not the only catcher DFA this week because on Thursday, the Orioles made the Pete Allonzo signing official. His press conference is going to be today on Friday. And with that, they needed to make another 40-man roster move. And Maverick Handley was the player who was DFA Thursday to make room. Of course, the catcher, Orioles 2019 draft pick out of Stanford. Great defender, hit a little better in the higher minor leagues as he got older, but finally got his big league debut in 2025 with all the catching injuries the Orioles had, and that included Handley himself at one point with his concussion, but didn’t hit at all at the big league. Still a little bit older. I’d be surprised if anyone else claims Handley on waiverss. And if he does clear, he will have to stay in the Orioles organization in Triple A. So, he’ll be catching depth again to have in spring training and again could factor in as the Orioles look at a third catcher going into 2026. But probably the bigger news from Wednesday in the final day of the winter meetings besides Pete Allonzo was that the Orioles did lose a player in the rule five draft. The rule five draft happened on Wednesday. Used to be a much bigger deal for the Orioles, but since they’ve gotten better, they’ve been less and less likely to pick in the rule five draft. Remember, kind of the way it works is generally if it’s been four years since you were drafted out of college or five years since you were drafted out of high school or signed as an international free agent, you become eligible for the rule five draft. A draft in which teams can pick minor leaguers out of other team systems. It’s a way to keep teams from just hoarding guys in the minor leagues forever and not debuting them. The way to protect a guy from the rule five draft is to add him to the 40man roster in November. If you do that, you protect him. The Orioles did that with three players, two relief pitchers, Anthony Nunees and Cameron Foster, who were in triple AAA this year, and then outfielder Reed Trimble. They added all three of them to the 40man, so they were not eligible for other teams to draft them in the rule five. But when the O’s did that back in November, we talked about the couple of players that they left unprotected that could be drafted. One of them was outfielder Jud Fabian. And the other one we really talked about besides starting pitcher Cameron Weston was relief pitcher Carter Bombler. And that is the one guy who was selected out of the oral system. He was taken with the fifth overall pick in the rule five draft by the White Socks. The White Socks immediately traded him to the Rangers for a prospect. So now Carter Balner, 23-year-old right-handed reliever, who will be 24 in January, is a Texas Ranger. Balmer, if you’re not familiar, Orioles fifth round pick out of high school. They gave an overslap bonus to back in 2020. just has had so many injuries, surgeries on the arm and the shoulder over the years. Was finally healthyish this year, although he still did spend some IIL time and overall in the minor leagues this season did post a 204 erra in 39 and two/3 innings out of the bullpen. Now, most of that was in Aberdine. He did come up for seven and two/3 scoreless innings in relief in DA Chesapeake to finish the year. So, again, he’s barely pitched in double A. I talked about how it was possible the O’s were going to protect him because the stuff has played up incredibly since he’s gotten healthy and since the Orioles kind of fully moved him into relief. He was a starting pitcher in the system for a while. Stuff came together. It looked nasty. I mean, there’s a chance he could make it and pitch in the Rangers big league bullpen in 2025, but I think the Orioles figured with all the injuries and the fact that he only has seven innings in double A, it just wasn’t worth it for them to guarantee him a 40man roster spot for all off season and beyond. Now, Bonnler to stick with the Rangers. He will have to either stay on the Rangers big league roster or on the big league injured list for the entirety of the 2026 season. if he doesn’t make the team out of spring training, if they want to cut him at some point, whatever it may be, he will be returned to the Orioles at some point next year. But if he sticks around, he is officially a Rangers player beyond 2026. Now, the bad news for the Orioles is the projected Texas Rangers bullpen right now looks horrendous. A bunch of their relievers from last year, Shawn Armstrong, Jacob Webb are free agents right now. Hobie Milner was one of their free agents. He just signed with the Cubs on Thursday, so they’re not bringing him back. like their bullpen might have more openings than than almost any other bullpen in Major League Baseball. So, best landing spot for Bumler, probably worst case scenario for the Orioles because less of a chance he gets returned, more of a chance he actually makes the big league roster. So, the question is going to be A, is he healthy? And B, is he ready to pitch in the big leagues after just seven innings in double A? We’ll learn that, you know, maybe in spring training or maybe early in the season if he does make the team. and we’ll keep an eye on that to see if it’s possible that Balumler does get returned to the Orioles. Now, the one thing to note is that he did get traded, which probably means the Rangers had a deal with the White Socks that, hey, if you draft Carter Baller for us because they were picking lower than the White Socks, we’ll trade you this prospect to take him. That happens sometimes. That’s the same time that thing that happened with Zack Pop, a reliever that was taken out of the Orioles system a couple of years ago in the rule five draft. and Pop on the team he eventually ended up on, which I believe was the Marlins, I think, did end up sticking with that team for the entire next year and was removed from the system because it’s more likely if you’re trading for a guy after the rule five draft, you really have plans to hold on to him in the next season. So, I’d say it’s a pretty solid chance that the Orioles have fully lost Carter Bumler. If that’s the case, it’s disappointing. Like, I was always in on Baller. He just never could stay healthy. If he’s going to get his first big league chance, I wish him the absolute best in Texas. But if he struggles, I’m not going to hate it because that means he’s probably getting returned to the Orioles and maybe the O’s can kind of develop him a little slower and turn him into a bullpen weapon at some point down the road. There were 13 picks made in the big league phase of the rule five draft. Orioles didn’t make a pick. They had a full 40man roster. They’re don’t really have space to put a rule five guy on there, but another former Orioles prospect was picked. Ryan Watson, one time the Orioles minor league pitcher of the year was in the Giant system. He was taken sixth by the Athletics and then traded to the Red Sox. We might see Ryan Watson make his big league debut maybe against the Orioles at some point this year. There’s also the minor league phase of the rule five draft. It works a little differently. The Orioles used to take tons of players in the minor league phase to just add free players to their system. For the first time in a while, they didn’t take anyone in the minor league phase, but they only had one player selected from their system. Now, the minor league phase works a little bit differently. There’s no stipulations on rosters. Once you lose a player in the minor league rule five draft, you basically lost him. He’s on somebody else’s team and organization. And the Mets apparently were really mad about the Pete Alonzo thing. So, they selected right-handed pitcher Justin Armster out of the oral system and got him back. You know what? I will trade Justin Arm Brewster for Pete Alonzo any day. I think I’m okay with that swap with the 15th pick in the rule five draft minor league phase. Armbster, 27-year-old righty, 12th round pick of the Orioles in 2021. got to Triple A as a starter in 2023. Went back there in 2024 as a starter, but had a 759 erra. Orioles moved him to the bullpen. He looked better in the pen, but only pitched three games out of the bullpen in Triple A this year until he had a lat injury, had lat surgery, and was done for the season. So, there were big injury concerns with him as well. I don’t think he was really in the Orioles future plans at this point. So, we thank you, Justin Arm Brewster. Again, if it’s a trade him for Alonzo, I’ll take that every time. But that was the news we missed from Wednesday. And that’ll do it for today’s episode. Sorry for the, you know, later posting here close to 9:00 p.m. on Thursday. Doing the live episodes in the evenings this week because of the winter meetings messed up the schedule a little bit, but still going to get you five episodes. So, still going to have a Friday episode out. I would expect that probably around midday afternoon here on Friday, we will still have a little bit more content coming your way this week on the Locked on Orioles podcast. Make sure you subscribe and follow the show on YouTube or Apple Podcast or Spotify so you always get the latest episodes. And did Locked on Orioles make your Spotify wrapped this year? If you prove it on social media, you can secure a free month of that brand new Everyday Club I was talking about. Just tag our National Locked On Podcast Network account on any social platform and we’ll drop you a code. Be one of the first to join the Everyday or Club to get your favorite show ad free and exclusive access to the membersonly Discord channel. That’ll do it for today’s episode. 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.

As the Baltimore Orioles continue to search for pitching, they are reportedly one of the frontrunners to acquire Edward Cabrera from the Miami Marlins via trade. Host Connor Newcomb talks about how Cabrera would fit into the Orioles rotation.

Then, Connor discusses some potential landing spots for Coby Mayo in a trade, the Orioles losing Carter Baumler in the Rule 5 Draft, and some other news and notes.

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