There are now 112 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day 2026. There are a few more days to go yet until the winter meetings, which could be a focus for activity. As we’ve already seen this offseason, however, Mike Elias isn’t waiting around if he gets his hands on a signing or trade that he likes.

Unless Elias does something today, the biggest news that touches on Birdland today is last night’s report from Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times that the Rays are signing former Oriole Cedric Mullins to a one-year contract. Other reports indicated that Mullins will make $7 million for the season. That’s less than Mullins made last season, but still not a bad salary number for a guy whose offense took the swan dive that it took after he was traded to the Mets last July.

In what may just be a coincidence but could plausibly be viewed as an intriguing connection, the move comes within days of the Rays bringing former Orioles manager Brandon Hyde into a front office senior advisor role. If there’s one thing that baseball guys love to do, it’s bringing in their guys from before. Elias manages to do this even after seven years on the job with the O’s, forever finding players who were connected in some way to the Astros while Elias was there. Time will tell if any other of Hyde’s former Orioles are brought down there.

One of the sad things about the Orioles collapse last season is that it meant the team “had to” move on from Mullins, a pending free agent whose skills seemed to be in decline from his peak. It would have been nice if things had worked out in such a way that Mullins could have been an Oriole for life. Or, failing that, to have the Orioles have a good last ride for Mullins. He deserved that after being around from the immediate aftermath of the last collapse, through the whole tanking era, on into about 2.5 good years of Orioles baseball. He didn’t even get a chance to be a playoff hero with the Mets since they didn’t end up making the playoffs, in part because Mullins hit like crap there.

Elias has repeatedly shown he doesn’t care about emotional connection for fans stuff and watching Mullins in action last year, it’s hard to say that he’s wrong in this case. The 2026 roster with Mullins on it at some kind of $10+ million salary for Mullins – like he had some people wanting the Orioles to sign after his hot start to last season – would probably not be a great improvement over what’s here right now, not doing much more to solve the center field question than is there currently with Colton Cowser as the apparent center fielder.

I don’t think there was ever much chance of a 2026 free agent reunion in Baltimore, so it’s not like I feel the Orioles missed an opportunity they would have taken, or should have taken. Mullins is the kind of guy where I’ll wish him well except for when he’s playing the O’s, though.

Orioles stuff you might have missed

Ryan Helsley is excited to join an Orioles team looking to bounce back in the AL East (The Baltimore Banner)
Apparently, Helsley heard positive things about experiences with the team from a variety of former Cardinals teammates. The next time this leads to a good player signing with the Orioles over any other team will be the first time.

Ryan Helsley isn’t another Craig Kimbrel, right? (The Baltimore Sun)
One never knows with relievers. I feel like even if Helsley ends up bombing, though, it’ll be for a different reason than Kimbrel did. Kimbrel was several years older than Helsley is now.

Questions for Orioles manager Craig Albernaz before winter meetings (Baltimore Baseball)
Albernaz already faced the press when he was introduced. There is usually at least one manager presser at the winter meetings as well. Among the questions Rich Dubroff has is about finding playing time for both Coby Mayo and Ryan Mountcastle. I suspect that Elias will arrange things so that Albernaz doesn’t have to make this choice.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Today in 1968, the Orioles acquired Mike Cuellar from the Astros in a five player deal that sent two outfielders, including former ROY winner Curt Blefary, to Houston. Cuellar put up 17.1 bWAR over the next eight seasons, with 20+ wins in each of 1969, 1970, and 1971.

In 1974, the Orioles acquired Ken Singleton from the Expos in another five player swap that sent end-of-career Dave McNally to Montreal.

In 1988, the Orioles traded Eddie Murray to the Dodgers. That one didn’t work out so well.

There is one current Oriole with a birthday today. Happy 22nd birthday to Jackson Holliday. No, really, 22. Two former Orioles were also born on this day: 1989-90 outfielder Stan Jefferson, and 1994 reliever and Hall of Famer Lee Smith. Today is Smith’s 68th birthday, so an extra happy birthday to him.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: game show host Wink Martindale (1933), actress Marisa Tomei (1964), rapper Jay-Z (1969), and model/TV personality Tyra Banks (1973).

On this day in history…

In 1906, the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity was founded at Cornell University. This was the first Greek letter organization for Black Americans.

In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson set sail for Europe to join the World War I peace talks in Versailles. Wilson was the first president to visit Europe while in office.

In 1943, the New Deal program Works Progress Administration was shut down due to World War II wartime employment rendering it no longer necessary.

And that’s the way it is in Birdland on December 4. Have a safe Thursday.