The Nationals claimed shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng off waivers from the Mets on Wednesday, adding another infielder to an organization that continues to make transactions on the fringes of the roster while avoiding more significant moves this offseason.

Cheng’s acquisition prompted the club to designate Konnor Pilkington for assignment, dropping the left-hander who became a prominent member of the bullpen last summer from the 40-man roster.

The 24-year-old Cheng, who stands only 5-foot-8, was signed by the Pirates out of his native Taiwan in 2019 at 17. He slowly climbed the organizational ladder, playing 107 games at Triple-A Indianapolis last season. He also made his major league debut in April, appearing in three games and going 0-for-7 with three strikeouts.

Pittsburgh designated Cheng for assignment last month, and he was claimed off waivers by the Rays on Jan. 7. Tampa Bay also designated him for assignment only five days later, with the Mets then claiming him Jan. 16, only to designate him for assignment five days after that.

Cheng can only hope he sticks with the Nationals longer. A versatile infielder who primarily plays shortstop but has also seen action at second and third base, he owns a career .251/.350/.385 slash line with 88 doubles, 21 triples, 35 homers and 112 stolen bases in 507 professional games across five seasons.

A layer of snow and ice may be covering the field at Camden Yards, but from the fifth floor of the warehouse in right field, you can still make out the vague shape of a pitcher’s mound.

Baseball, despite nature’s best efforts, looms just beneath the surface.

Pitchers and catchers have arranged their travel to Sarasota, and “The Bird’s Nest” is getting geared up for spring training. This week, Annie Klaff and I opened up the mailbag. Some of the questions have been answered here, but for more, be sure to check out this week’s episode.

What letter grade would you give the O’s front office for their offseason efforts at the roster?

It’s difficult to start any lower than a B for an offseason in which Baltimore inked Pete Alonso to a 5-year, $155 million contract. The first baseman, and his 264 career home runs, instantly injects life into a lineup that needed a power surge. His acquisition also demonstrates the front office’s willingness to spend the necessary dollars to improve the team.

A week has passed since the Orioles made their last roster move, claiming outfielder/infielder Weston Wilson on waivers from the Phillies. In less than three weeks, the full squad will have reported to spring training in Sarasota.

Perhaps the Orioles will have found another starting pitcher and reliever. They could do a little more work on the position side, too.

Let’s dig into both sides of the mailbag while we wait.

You ask, I try to answer, and we have the latest sequel to the beloved original. And a reminder that my mailbag owns a snowblower and your mailbag tries to clear the driveway with table salt and a spatula.

Do you think the Orioles bullpen is good enough to not be a problem? Ryan Helsley, Andrew Kittredge, Keegan Akin and Tyler Wells have track records of success. Dietrich Enns, Yennier Cano, Rico Garcia, Colin Selby, Kade Strowd and Grant Wolfram seem like the most likely pool for the other four spots. Anthony Nunez may be a wild card. Cade Povich, Chayce McDermott and Brandon Young could be converts. Seems thin. What do you think?
I think you should be gassed after asking such a long question. Is this your attempt at cardio? Anyway, I think the Orioles should and will add at least one more high-leverage reliever, ideally a left-hander to go with Akin and Enns. Would they consider a reunion with Danny Coulombe or Cionel Pérez? The latter worked out for about 20 teams in Tampa and I talked to a scout from another American League team who recommended him. The stuff looked good, including a 98 mph fastball. But the Orioles soured on him, and for good reason. They may not be interested in 2.0. I think Helsley, Kittredge, Akin and Wells are locks, and that’s assuming the rotation doesn’t have room for Wells. I expect Enns to join them, and Cano probably will, but he must earn a spot. He has minor league options, and a putrid spring could cost him a roster spot. You left out Albert Suárez. He’s in my mock bullpen. After that, it could be a free-for-all. Another bullpen signing late in the offseason changes the equation. The unit looks pretty good but could be better.

The Washington Nationals claimed shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng off waivers from the New York Mets and designated left-handed pitcher Konnor Pilkington for assignment on Wednesday. Nationals President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni made the announcement.

Cheng, 24, spent five professional seasons in the Pittsburgh Pirates system after signing with them on July 2, 2019. He hit .251 with a .350 on-base percentage and a .385 slugging percentage and recorded 88 doubles, 21 triples, 35 home runs, 230 RBI, 112 stolen bases and 296 runs scored in 507 career Minor League games in the Pirates organization. He made his Major League debut in 2025, appearing in three games during the month of April. Cheng was claimed off waivers by the Tampa Bay Rays on Jan. 7 and by the New York Mets on Jan. 16.

A native of Pingtung County, Taiwan, Cheng was considered the “Best Defensive Infielder” and had the “Best Strike Zone Discipline” in Pittsburgh’s system entering the 2025 season, according to Baseball America. He hit .207 with 12 doubles, three triples, one homer, 36 RBI, 48 walks, 20 stolen bases and 36 runs scored in 110 games between Triple-A Indianapolis and Single-A Bradenton last season.

Washington’s 40-man roster is now at 40 players.

Would you believe Nationals pitchers and catchers will be on the field in West Palm Beach for their first official workout of the spring exactly two weeks from now?

Yep, while you can be excused for being focused on more pressing matters (like yelling at snow plow drivers for creating a wall of ice between the street and the driveway you spent hours shoveling) right now, rest assured baseball season is right around the corner.

And though the general feeling around the Nationals at this moment may not be as positive as many would have hoped, this still promises to be one of the more significant springs in club history. There’s an entirely new front office calling the shots. There’s an entirely new coaching staff leading the daily drills. And there are more new faces on the field than you probably realize. (12 players currently on the 40-man roster were not there at season’s end.)

So maybe it’s time to start turning our attention forward and consider some of the most pressing questions the 2026 Nats are going to face when they gather in the warm Florida sun in two weeks …

* HOW DIFFERENT IS CAMP GOING TO BE?
Davey Martinez ran each of the last eight spring trainings. Mike Rizzo was in charge of roster construction each of the last 16 springs. Both are gone, which would lead you to believe things are going to look very different this year.

The latest Top 100 prospects list was launched yesterday, illustrating again that the formulas aren’t duplicates.

ESPN has catcher Samuel Basallo at No. 4, pitcher Trey Gibson at No. 46 and outfielder Dylan Beavers at No. 57. These are the highest rankings for Basallo and Gibson in the preseason, with MLB Pipeline, Baseball America and The Athletics also sharing their results.

The significance with Gibson is he also appeared on Baseball America’s list at No. 72 and can be Prospect Promotion Incentive (PPI) eligible if he accrues the necessary service time.

A team earns an extra draft pick if an eligible player wins Rookie of the Year or finishes in the top three in Most Valuable Player/Cy Young voting.

Gibson isn’t expected to break camp with the team after winning the organization’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year award, simply because the rotation figures to be too stacked. But he could debut at some point. 

The Birdland Caravan wrapped up on Friday, a winter storm dumped copious amounts of snow and ice on the region, and we're still waiting to find out whether the Orioles can secure one of the top remaining starters on the market, who's getting spring training invitations, what's the composition of the minor league staffs, and whether pitchers Kyle Bradish and Keegan Akin are going to arbitration hearings.

Spring training isn't that far away. Temperatures in Sarasota are dipping into the 30s at night this week.

That needs to stop. 

Here are five leftovers from the Caravan:  

Gunnar Henderson didn’t bite on a contract-extension question.

Several of the Nationals’ top prospects have been given an invitation to participate in major league camp this spring, including infielder Seaver King and pitchers Travis Sykora and Jarlin Susana.

The Nats announced non-roster invitations to 10 players from within the organization, giving them an opportunity to work alongside those already on the 40-man roster.

King is perhaps the most notable name on the list, considering the 22-year-old has only one full season of professional experience at this point. Selected with the 10th overall pick in the 2024 Draft, he played in 20 games for low Single-A Fredericksburg that summer, then returned last season to play 45 games at high Single-A Wilmington and 80 at Double-A Harrisburg.

King struggled at times at the plate during the season, slashing just .244/.294/.337, but he enjoyed a highly productive turn in the Arizona Fall League, slashing a robust .359/.468/.563 in 18 games, scoring 21 runs while driving in 24 and stealing six bases.

The versatile infielder was known for playing all around the field at Wake Forest, but the Nationals so far have kept him exclusively at shortstop, believing they can move him to another position down the road if needed.

The Orioles have made the following roster move:

• LHP José Suarez claimed off waivers by the Atlanta Braves.

There are just 16 days until pitchers and catchers report to Sarasota, but who’s counting? 

As we continue barreling down the track towards the season, plenty of questions remain. 

Will the team add another big-time starting pitcher? What will Tyler Wells’ role be? What the heck is the “New Oriole Way?” And what does Heston Kjerstad’s status mean for the outfield conversation? 

This week on “The Bird’s Nest,” which goes live every Wednesday at 11 a.m. on our MASN Orioles YouTube and Facebook pages before living on your favorite podcast platforms, Annie Klaff and I will answer your most pressing O’s queries. 

Drop your questions in the comments below, and we could discuss it on this week’s show!

As the dust settled from last week’s trade of MacKenzie Gore, with plenty of thoughts coming to the forefront about the five prospects the Nationals got from the Rangers and what this all means about the new front office’s short-term and long-term intentions, another question eventually came to mind: Who exactly is going to fill out the Nats’ 2026 rotation at this point?

It’s a question, quite honestly, that doesn’t come with a very reassuring answer.

Even with Gore, the Nationals’ projected rotation looked thin on sure things. Now, it’s even thinner.

If he had to pick five starters right now to open the season, new manager Blake Butera probably would choose (in no particular order) Cade Cavalli, Brad Lord, Jake Irvin, Foster Griffin and (if healthy and ready to go) Josiah Gray. The options beyond that include Mitchell Parker, Andrew Alvarez and maybe Rule 5 Draft pick Griff McGarry (who you’d think is more likely to open the year as a long reliever). Then there are DJ Herz and Trevor Williams, each still recovering from elbow surgery but perhaps ready to go sometime around May.

Is that what the Nationals rotation will actually look like come late-March? Maybe, though again it would feature a lot more questions than answers.

The buzz that Pete Alonso has generated by signing his $155 million contract with the Orioles really came to life last week. Much more than words and photos on a billboard or on social media posts. It became faces and voices at the Birdland Caravan, with fans getting a chance to express their gratitude, appreciation and anything else to make him feel at home.

Alonso sat with manager Craig Albernaz for a question-and-answer session at the Senator Theatre, cracking jokes and asking for input on his walk-up song. He greeted the participants at the “Blessings in a Backpack” event on the sixth floor of the warehouse while also boxing bags of food for students at Beechfield Elementary/Middle School who otherwise might not have a meal on the weekends.

People showered him with applause before having to dig out from the snowstorm. 

“It’s been great so far,” he said. “Just seeing the amount of excitement and passion that people have this early just before spring training, it’s really exciting. It’s an exciting time in Birdland and I’m honored to be part of it.

“Just seeing everybody and hearing their excitement and feeling their excitement, too. The amount of intensity that you hear, it’s just really, I feel like this is like, I’ve used the word ‘shift.’ Talking with Alby, he’s like, it’s true. The organization from the top-bottom, it’s like we’re charging toward something forward, we’re working toward something forward, and it’s really gonna be a special time.

Orioles manager Craig Albernaz is aware that the roster could undergo more changes before players begin reporting to spring training. He also insists that it didn’t need much work.

“I felt good about this club when I initially took this job,” he said at Friday’s Birdland Caravan event at the warehouse.

It’s true. But Albernaz’s hiring came before the Orioles signed first baseman Pete Alonso, closer Ryan Helsley and starter Zach Eflin and traded for outfielder Taylor Ward, starter Shane Baz and set-up man Andrew Kittredge.

The cupboard is better stocked, but it wasn’t close to bare.

“That just speaks to the team that Mike (Elias) and his group have constructed, both in the player development side and acquisition side,” Albernaz said.

The news got buried in the aftermath of the MacKenzie Gore trade, but the Nationals also made another waiver claim Thursday and in a corresponding move designated Riley Adams for assignment.

The Nats claimed reliever Gus Varland from the Diamondbacks, bringing aboard a 29-year-old right-hander with a 4.82 ERA in 42 career major league games with the Brewers, Dodgers and White Sox. All of those appearances came from 2023-24; Varland spent the majority of the 2025 season on the injured list recovering from a lat strain, able to pitch in only eight minor league games.

Needing to clear a 40-man roster spot for Varland, the Nationals designated Adams, a move that traditionally leads to a departure from the organization but likely won’t in this particular case because of a quirk of the catcher’s contract.

Adams, who has played 251 games for the Nats since his July 2021 acquisition from the Blue Jays for closer Brad Hand, agreed last month to a split contract that guaranteed him $1 million if he was on the major league roster and $500,000 if he accepted an outright assignment to the minors.

We’re seeing now why the Nationals made that offer, and why Adams agreed to it. With Harry Ford expected to join Keibert Ruiz behind the plate, Adams was probably going to be the odd man out. And because he’s out of options, he couldn’t have been sent to Triple-A without first clearing waivers.

The Orioles have three players in MLB Pipeline’s latest Top 100 prospects list, including two who debuted a day apart in 2025 and a 16^th-round draft pick who earned the organization’s Minor League Player of the Year award.

Outfielder Nate George, 19, is the newcomer, ranking 93^rd after playing at three levels in his first professional season and batting .337/.413/.483 with 14 doubles, nine triples, five home runs, 42 RBIs and 50 stolen bases in 87 games. He topped out at High-A Aberdeen.

Catcher Samuel Basallo is eighth and outfielder Dylan Beavers is 69^th after they joined the Orioles in August.

Here’s why it matters:

Because both players rank in the Top 100 by multiple outlets, they become eligible for baseball’s Prospect Promotion Incentive program. They must begin the season on the Opening Day roster, which they will, and be chosen the American League’s Rookie of the Year, which gives the Orioles an extra draft pick between the first and second rounds.

The equipment trucks pulled out of Camden Yards earlier today and began their 1,000-mile trip to Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota in preparation for spring training. The haul included 320 uniforms, 300 hats, 200 helmets, 10 pitching machines, 800 dozen baseballs and 300 bats, all of which are expected to arrive at the complex next week.

The Birdland Caravan is wrapping up this evening, cut short due to an impending storm that’s forecast to blanket the region in substantial amounts of snow and ice. Manager Craig Albernaz, first baseman Pete Alonso, shortstop Gunnar Henderson, infielder Jordan Westburg, catcher Samuel Basallo and pitcher Tyler Wells filed onto the sixth floor of the warehouse and volunteered at the “Blessings in a Backpack” event, with fans and media also invited to fill bags with food – including cans of pasta, fruit cups and bowls of cereal - for school-aged children who otherwise might go hungry on weekends.

Today’s event assisted students in need at Beechfield Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore.

After an hour’s worth of packing, Albernaz and some players met separately with the local media on the seventh floor. Westburg had to catch a flight home, but outfielder Dylan Beavers showed up later.

Here are a few nuggets after the food was bagged and boxed.

For the last month-plus, the Orioles’ attention has been on the pitching staff. 

Baltimore’s first big moves of the offseason were to bolster their lineup, trading for former Angels’ slugger Taylor Ward and signing another home-run machine in Pete Alonso. Since then, the most significant moves have been addressing starting pitching with the acquisitions of Shane Baz and Zach Eflin. 

If additional moves are looming around the corner, they will, most likely, come on that pitching front once more. As such, a question arises: are the Orioles done adding significantly to their position player group? 

A 26-man Opening Day roster will consist of 13 position players, most of which seem to be locked in. 

Adley Rutschman, Pete Alonso, Jackson Holliday, Jordan Westburg, Gunnar Henderson, Taylor Ward and Colton Cowser should all be considered everyday players, assuming that they all stay healthy. That’s more than half the spots taken up already.  

On the day he traded Juan Soto, Mike Rizzo acknowledged the raw emotions everyone was feeling at the time but insisted it ultimately would leave the Nationals in a better position to win long-term.

“I think it accelerates the process,” the former general manager said. “I think that you lose a generational talent like that, but you put in five key elements of your future championship roster.”

Not even 3 1/2 years later, the man who replaced Rizzo running baseball operations tried to explain how trading away one of those “key elements of your future championship roster” for five more prospects – long before this franchise has come anywhere close to winning again – will put the Nats in a better position to win long-term, a message that is increasingly difficult for a weary fanbase to accept.

“I hear it, and I empathize with it,” Paul Toboni said Thursday night after trading MacKenzie Gore to the Rangers. “There would be part of me – I think back to my 15-year-old self; I was a Giants fan at the time – bummed to see a player of this caliber leaving, and a leader on the team and that sort of thing.

“But I would paint a much more optimistic picture. I think the excitement that comes with these players we’re getting in return exceeds the disappointment of seeing MacKenzie go. That’s just me talking as the head of baseball operations now. I’m really excited about the package we’ve gotten in return. And I hope fans see it in the same way.”

Ranger Suárez signed with the Red Sox. The Marlins traded Edward Cabrera to the Cubs for three prospects. The Brewers traded Freddy Peralta to the Mets for two prospects. The Nationals traded MacKenzie Gore to the Rangers yesterday for five prospects.

The options for the Orioles’ rotation are dwindling.

So is the competition for the other starters.

Framber Valdez and Zac Gallen remain available in free agency. The trade market isn’t dry, though Peralta and Gore were two of the more appealing candidates. Gore has two more years of team control.

The industry seems braced for the Orioles to make the next big move, but yesterday’s activity was confined to the waiver claim of infielder/outfielder Weston Wilson from the Phillies.

The Washington Nationals acquired shortstop Gavin Fien, right-handed pitcher Alejandro Rosario, shortstop Devin Fitz-Gerald, outfielder Yeremy Cabrera and first baseman Abimelec Ortiz in exchange for left-handed pitcher MacKenzie Gore on Thursday. Nationals President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni made the announcement.

Fien, 18, was the 12^th overall selection by the Rangers in the first round of the 2025 First-Year Player Draft out of Great Oak High School in Temecula, Calif. Texas' No. 2 prospect per Baseball America and No. 3 per MLBPipeline.com, he hit .220 with three doubles, a triple, seven RBI, a stolen base, three walks and four runs scored in 10 games for Single-A Hickory in his first taste of professional baseball in 2025.

Fien (pronounced ‘FEEN’) hit .358 with six doubles, one triple, five home runs, 16 RBI, eight stolen bases, 24 runs scored and more walks (11) than strikeouts (9) in 30 games as a high school senior in 2025. In four varsity seasons, he slashed .378/.451/.633/1.084 with four triples, 29 doubles, and 65 RBI in 91 games

A member of the U18 USA National Team, Fien slashed .400/.429/.680 with 11 RBI during the 2024 World Cup qualifier in Panama and helped the Americans win the gold medal. He was also named the Most Valuable Player of the 2024 MLB High School All-Star Game in San Diego where he shared the field with new teammates Eli Willits, Landon Harmon and Miguel Sime Jr.

Rosario, 23, was Texas’ No. 13 prospect, per Baseball America and No. 6 per MLBPipeline.com. In his only professional season in 2024, he struck out 129 in 88.1 innings, while issuing just 13 walks between Single-A Down East and High-A Hickory. For his efforts, he vaulted himself onto Baseball America's Top 100 prospect list, landing at No. 49 before the 2025 season.  Rosario was selected in the fifth-round pick out of the University of Miami in 2023.