The Orioles have constructed a full 40-man roster with a revolving door at the end of it.

They began January by signing veteran starter Charlie Morton and designating catcher René Pinto for assignment. The Diamondbacks claimed Pinto on waivers. The Orioles claimed pitcher Roansy Contreras and designated infielder Liván Soto, who was outrighted after clearing waivers. They signed reliever Andrew Kittredge and designated catcher Blake Hunt before trading him to the Mariners. They claimed infielder Jacob Amaya and designated Contreras, who was claimed by the Yankees. They signed outfielder Dylan Carlson and designated Amaya, and they acquired infielder Luis Vazquez in a trade with the Cubs and designated infielder Emmanuel Rivera.

This brings us to February.

The White Sox claimed Amaya, and Vazquez was designated when the Orioles signed outfielder Ramón Laureano. We aren’t even a week into the month.

Let’s take the latest look at the 40-man roster, which used to contain four catchers but now holds seven outfielders.

The holiday week is right around the corner, when baseball doesn’t have to shut down but often gets quiet.

The Orioles traded for pitcher Jonathan Heasley on Dec. 18, 2023 and didn’t announce another move until signing free-agent catchers David Bañuelos and Michael Pérez on the 30^th. Their only transactions in December 2021 were minor league deals due to the lockout, the last on the 15^th. But they made an exception in 2022 with a flurry that included the James McCann trade and Mychal Givens signing on the 21st and sending first baseman Lewin Díaz to the Braves on the 23^rd.

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias got agreements on two major league contracts right before this year’s Winter Meetings, securing outfielder Tyler O’Neill and catcher Gary Sánchez, and Japanese right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano signed with the club on Monday.

The roster probably isn’t done undergoing changes. Elias seems intent on finding at least one more reliever and he could continue his pursuit of a starter despite Sugano’s $13 million contract. Sugano isn’t a No. 1, which either keeps the search alive or leaves the Orioles choosing between Grayson Rodriguez and Zach Eflin and being satisfied with bolstering the middle of the rotation.

The 40-man roster is full and a 13-man pitching staff unexpectedly includes Sugano at $13 million. Per the Associated Press, he also can earn an additional $50,000 for an All-Star selection, $100,000 for winning the Cy Young Award, $75,000 for finishing in second place, $50,000 for finishing in third, $50,000 for winning a Gold Glove; $100,000 for being World Series Most Valuable Player, and $50,000 for being Championship Series MVP.

There are two significant roster-related deadline days across baseball this week. On Friday, all teams must tender contracts to their arbitration-eligible players, with the possibility looming that some could be non-tendered. But before we get to that, today all teams must decide which of their prospects they want to add to their 40-man rosters in order to protect them from being lost in the Rule 5 draft.

This is a day that usually didn’t garner much attention from the Nationals’ perspective when they were consistent contenders and basically sat out the Rule 5 draft for a decade. But it became important again last year, both because they owned (and used) the No. 1 pick in the draft and because they had a high number of prospects they wanted to protect, forcing them to part ways with several big leaguers.

A refresher course, for those who don’t remember how this works: The Rule 5 draft gives teams the opportunity to select unprotected minor leaguers away from other clubs for $100,000, with one critical caveat: Any player selected must remain on the major league roster the entire season (90 days on the active roster) or else be offered back to the original club.

The Nats, who hadn’t selected a Rule 5 player since 2010, finally got back in the game last year by taking Thaddeus Ward with the first overall pick. The right-hander missed several months with a shoulder injury but met the required standard by staying on the active roster enough to remain with the organization, which can now option him to Triple-A if it wants.

The Nationals did not, however, have anyone selected away from them in last year’s Rule 5 draft, evidence perhaps of some smart decisions they made to protect certain players and perhaps of the lack of big-league-ready talent further down the organizational depth chart.

The Nationals set their 40-man roster for the offseason as required by Major League Baseball this afternoon, activating five players who had been on the 60-day injured list (including Stephen Strasburg) and designating minor league reliever Matt Cronin for assignment to clear the spot needed to get the organization down to the correct number.

With 41 players under club control but only 40 slots available now through Opening Day, the Nats decided to drop Cronin, a 26-year-old lefty who looked like he would be a part of the team’s long-term plans entering this season but fell from grace following a rough season that ended in injury.

Cronin, a fourth-round pick in 2019, posted a 2.42 ERA and 1.096 WHIP in 48 games with Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Rochester in 2022. But he struggled to a 5.02 ERA and 1.884 WHIP this season in Rochester and had surgery in August for a herniated disc in his back.

Meanwhile, the emergence of Robert Garcia, Jose A. Ferrer and Joe La Sorsa this year left the Nationals with several left-handed options for next year’s bullpen, further making Cronin expendable.

If Cronin goes unclaimed, he could be outrighted to the minors and remain in the organization, albeit no longer a member of the 40-man roster.

The Orioles filled their 40-man roster last week by claiming left-hander Tucker Davidson off waivers from the Royals. The start of the tinkering and retooling.

They made another move Wednesday, claiming outfielder Sam Hilliard off waivers from the Braves and designating reliever Joey Krehbiel for assignment.

Davidson and Hilliard, who are out of minor league options, could stay on the 40-man heading into spring training, where they'd compete for a bullpen and bench role, respectively, or the Orioles might attempt to pass one or both through waivers and offer a camp invitation - a maneuver they've executed countless times in the past. The duo could stay in the organization or move on from it.

We're only in the third day of November. Lots of other changes are forthcoming.

Here’s the current 40-man roster:

The Nationals are cutting ties with infielder Michael Chavis, outfielder Blake Rutherford and reliever Hobie Harris, clearing necessary space on their 40-man roster as they prepare to enter the offseason.

Chavis, Rutherford and Harris cleared waivers and were outrighted to Triple-A Rochester. Both Chavis and Rutherford, who ended the season on the active big league roster, had the right to declare free agency and chose to do so, leaving the organization. Harris, who made the Opening Day bullpen but spent most of the season with Rochester, will be a minor league free agent at the conclusion of the World Series.

Those three moves, plus comparable moves with reliever Victor Arano and outfielder Travis Blankenhorn earlier this month, cleared a total of five spots on the Nationals’ 40-man roster, which ultimately will be needed for players who ended the season on the 60-day injured list.

The Nats had six such players on the 60-day IL at season’s end: catcher Riley Adams, outfielders Stone Garrett and Victor Robles, and right-handers Cade Cavalli, Carl Edwards Jr. and Stephen Strasburg. Edwards becomes eligible for free agency after the World Series and is unlikely to return.

Strasburg has already come to the conclusion he’ll need to retire after a failed attempt to return from thoracic outlet surgery, but until he and the organization come to an agreement on how to handle the $105 million he’s still owed through 2026, he will need to occupy a spot on the 40-man roster.

The Orioles close out their series in Kansas City this afternoon and board a charter for Atlanta, where they won two of three games at Truist Park in June 2018.

They claimed the series opener, which is their go-to move in 2023.

A win Friday night would make the Orioles 11-0 in the first game of a series, already the longest streak in club history to begin a season, according to STATS.

The old record was seven in April 1974, followed by five in April 1996.

Let us dig a little deeper.

Though this offseason hasn’t seen the Nationals make a lot of major waves, it has seen them make plenty of minor ones.

More than one-quarter of the slots on the organization’s 40-man roster have changed since the season ended, with 11 new additions to the mix. Some were promoted from within the farm system. Others were acquired either via free agency or from other clubs.

There are still more changes to come, perhaps one more within the next day or two once Erasmo Ramirez’s new one-year deal becomes official, requiring the removal of someone else from the roster.

But in the meantime, let’s review who is currently on the 40-man roster, and where the Nationals’ most significant needs still remain …

CATCHERS (3): Keibert Ruiz, Riley Adams, Israel Pineda
Comment: The Nats appear pretty much set here. Ruiz is the clear-cut No. 1 catcher. Adams and Pineda should compete with each other during spring training for the backup job, with the loser headed to Triple-A Rochester.

This week’s signings of Jeimer Candelario and Stone Garrett left the Nationals with a full 40-man roster. Knowing more acquisitions are likely to come at next week’s Winter Meetings, they knew they’d need to clear some more roster spots.

The Nats took care of that Thursday, announcing outfielders Yasel Antuna and Josh Palacios each cleared waivers and was outrighted to the minors. That removed both players from the 40-man roster, leaving two open slots heading into the Winter Meetings.

Both Antuna and Palacios seemed to be on thin ice heading into the offseason, with both players in danger of losing their roster spots last month when the Nationals needed to add several players to protect them from the Rule 5 draft. Though they both survived that round of cuts, they didn’t survive this one.

Antuna has been regarded as one of the organization’s better offensive prospects since he was signed out of the Dominican Republic in July 2016 for a hefty $3.9 million. But outside of a strong 2017 debut in rookie ball in which he batted .301/.382/.399, he hasn’t been able to hit consistently in the minors. Over the course of five professional seasons spanning 1,548 plate appearances, Antuna owns a .231/.329/.358 slash line with 65 doubles, 30 homers and 157 RBIs.

The Nationals hoped a position switch this year might help after Antuna was charged with 36 errors in only 96 games at shortstop in 2021. But even playing with less defensive pressure as an outfielder this season, he still struggled at the plate.

The Nationals chose to protect six prospects from being lost in next month’s Rule 5 draft before today’s leaguewide deadline, which forced them to remove four more players from their 40-man roster, including outfielder Yadiel Hernandez.

Hernandez and right-handers Jackson Tetreault and Evan Lee all cleared waivers and were outrighted to Triple-A Rochester, so they remain in the organization, though off the 40-man roster. Right-hander Tommy Romero was designated for assignment to clear another opening for prospects who needed to be protected.

The Nats took those four openings, plus two they already had entering the day, and promoted six prospects to the 40-man roster: third baseman Jake Alu, outfielder Jeremy De La Rosa, right-handers Jackson Rutledge and Jake Irvin, plus lefties Matt Cronin and Jose Ferrer. All six of those players would have been eligible to be selected by other organizations in the Rule 5 draft.

The decision to demote Hernandez isn’t necessarily a shock, but it underscores the club’s desire to look for younger alternatives in the outfield who have a better chance of being part of the long-term plan.

Hernandez, 35, has been an above-average hitter across 644 major league plate appearances the last three seasons, with 27 doubles, 19 homers, 79 RBIs and a .727 OPS. But he spent the last two months of this season on the injured list with a calf strain, and the fact the Nationals never activated him in late September suggested they were already thinking about moving on from the veteran outfielder.

All major league clubs were required to reinstate all players who ended the season on the injured list to their 40-man rosters Thursday, a deadline that prompted the Nationals to cut ties with two healthy players.

The Nats announced that catcher Tres Barrera and reliever Francisco Pérez both cleared waivers and were outrighted to Triple-A Rochester. Barrera and Pérez must now decide whether to accept the assignment and remain with the organization or become free agents.

Those moves were necessary when the Nationals were required to activate six players who had been on the 60-day IL (Stephen Strasburg, Tanner Rainey, Carter Kieboom, Yadiel Hernandez, Jackson Tetreault and Evan Lee), bringing their 40-man roster total to 41.

The club could’ve removed only one player to get back down to the maximum of 40, but instead opted to remove both Barrera and Pérez, leaving one open slot for now as the offseason commences, with more decisions likely in the next week.

Tuesday is MLB’s deadline to add minor leaguers to the 40-man roster in order to protect them from being lost in the Rule 5 draft. Among this winter’s Rule 5-eligible prospects are outfielder Jeremy De La Rosa, third baseman Jake Alu, shortstop Jackson Cluff, catcher Drew Millas and right-handers Jake Irvin and Jackson Rutledge.

The Orioles will begin tonight’s game against the Nationals with a four-man bench after they bring up a player from Triple-A Norfolk.

An extra outfielder. An extra infielder. Probably not third catcher, though it’s less risky to put Adley Rutschman and Robinson Chirinos in the same lineup.

Infielder Jonathan Araúz would make sense as an extra utility player, but he hasn’t been in the minors for the minimum 10 days after the Orioles selected him off waivers from the Red Sox Wednesday afternoon.

Infielder Rylan Bannon makes sense and there's nothing holding him back.

The 40-man roster is full. A spot could be opened by transferring reliever Travis Lakins Sr. onto the 60-man injured list, where he’d join John Means, Chris Ellis and Alexander Wells.