Leftovers aren’t just for the days after Thanksgiving.

I had some extra questions in last week’s mailbag. I’d prefer green bean casserole, but maybe later.

The portion is modest, unlike your server. Just a couple handfuls of inquiries that didn’t make the first one.

Also, my mailbag serves homemade stuffing and your mailbag uses a box that expired three years ago.

Who will be the top two Orioles in stolen bases in 2024 and who will get the most innings at third base?
Two questions packed into one. Sort of like a casserole. I can’t make bold predictions without knowing the Opening Day roster. Jorge Mateo and Cedric Mullins were 1-2 this season, but Mateo appeared in 116 games. I wouldn’t expect the same in 2024. The second part is easier because I can just choose between Gunnar Henderson and Jordan Westburg. I’ll get back to you.

The Orioles are tied for the seventh-best betting favorite to win the 2024 World Series. That is a step up from last winter when they were tied for the 17^th in odds from betonline.ag.

7/1: Atlanta

8/1: Los Angeles Dodgers

9/1: Houston, Texas

12/1: New York Yankees, Philadelphia

CLEVELAND – Nine Orioles minor league players and one coach are included on the Mesa Solar Sox roster in the Arizona Fall League, which begins Oct. 2.

The organization is sending pitchers Carter Baumler, Zack Peek, Trey McGough, Carlos Tavera and Peter Van Loon, catcher Connor Pavolony, infielders TT Bowens and Billy Cook, and outfielder John Rhodes to Mesa. Double-A Bowie pitching coach Forrest Herrmann is on the coaching staff.

MLB Pipeline ranks Rhodes as the organization’s No. 20 prospect, Baumler No. 22 and Cook No. 27.

Rhodes was the 76^th-overall pick in the 2021 draft who appeared in 108 games at Double-A Bowie this season and batted .228/.323/.422 with 22 doubles, three triples, 17 home runs and 69 RBIs in 108 games.

Baumler, a fifth-round pick in the 2020 draft, has undergone Tommy John and right shoulder surgeries. He appeared in seven games between the Florida Complex League and Single-A Delmarva and allowed six earned runs with nine walks and 21 strikeouts in 17 innings.

We’re down to two days before the trade deadline and the Orioles have made one deal, with the Athletics for reliever Shintaro Fujinami on July 19. Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias is in contact with everyone, whether due diligence or doing it with legitimate hopes of reaching an agreement.

Elias’ 26-minute media session Friday afternoon, in the auxiliary clubhouse rather than the stifling dugout heat, provided confirmation on his plans.

Find pitching.

Elias mentioned middle relief, which also came as no surprise. Fortify the bullpen, shorten games, and ease some of the strain on other relievers and the rotation.

The club also has engaged in talks for starting pitchers, though it isn’t clear how a newcomer would fit. A six-man rotation? A current starter sent to the ‘pen?

When it comes to facing left-handed pitchers, O’s center fielder Cedric Mullins, no longer a switch-hitter, has had success in the past batting left-on-left.

But the hits were not coming to him very often against lefty pitchers last year, when he hit .209/.265/.313/.578 against left-handers. That was very different from his solid numbers of 2021, when he produced a .277 batting average and .788 OPS left-on-left.

So Mullins’ winter focus was on getting back to stats like those in this 2023 season.

“Just really kind of dug deep into how some of my at-bats went last year,” he said this week at Globe Life Field. “Kind of getting a sense of what guys were trying to do to me and kind of make adjustments from there. Tried to simulate as much as I possibly could (this winter).”

The deep dive included a closer look at how those southpaws were getting him out.

It has finally happened. The Double-A Bowie Baysox are rolling. It happened later than we thought but the Baysox are making up for lost time now.

After going 27-42 in the first-half Eastern League race, Bowie has surged into first place in its division in the second half, going 20-8 heading into Thursday’s game. The Baysox have a few scorching hot hitters and a bullpen that has posted a 2.48 ERA in the second half after posting a 4.78 ERA earlier.

Among the hottest hitters is shortstop Joey Ortiz, the club’s fourth-round pick in 2019 from New Mexico State. The Orioles' first three selections in that draft were Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and Kyle Stowers, and they took Ortiz as their fifth pick.

He got off to a very slow start this season after undergoing season-ending left shoulder surgery last June. He ended this June batting .206 with a .596 OPS. Then he got on fire for the Baysox in July and produced a batting line of .404/.438/.674 with an OPS of 1.112.

“He had an elite shoulder injury that is difficult to come back from, and I think he has finally found his strength and his groove,” said Matt Blood, the Orioles' director of player development. “And he’s been making little adjustments all along the way. This is the player we saw last year before he got hurt. Probably a combination of getting fully healthy and strong as well as making adjustments to the league and the pitching he’s seen this year. Joey and that Bowie team are playing fantastic.”

Triple-A Norfolk outfielder Johnny Rizer, the Orioles’ seventh-round draft pick in 2019 out of Texas Christian University, underwent hip surgery last week in Philadelphia and is out for the remainder of the season.

The Orioles made the announcement this afternoon.

Rizer appeared in 22 games with the Tides and went 14-for-72 (.194) with five home runs and 12 RBIs in 81 plate appearances. He hit a combined .253/.312/.423 last summer with 15 doubles, three triples, 14 home runs and 53 RBIs in 98 games between Double-A Bowie (83) and Single-A Aberdeen.

Carter Baumler, a fifth-round selection in 2020 out of Dowling Catholic High in Iowa, will miss his next start at Single-A Delmarva due to right shoulder inflammation.

Baumler didn’t begin his professional career until this year after undergoing Tommy John surgery. He’s allowed two earned runs, walked seven batters and struck out 20 in 11 2/3 innings.

On the second pitch he saw at the Triple-A level on Wednesday night, Orioles top 100 infield prospect Gunnar Henderson smoked a homer to right field. It came off left-hander Ethan Small, the Brewers' No. 7 prospect who has pitched in the big leagues this year and has a 2.41 ERA at Triple-A. So yeah, nice debut.

The same night the player that moved to Triple-A with him, Jordan Westburg, had two hits, two RBIs and a double. While Henderson’s first Triple-A homer came on his second pitch at that level, Westburg waited for his second game to hit one for Norfolk. So, also nice debut.

The Orioles have to be delighted to see those highly ranked players moving up and hitting right away. No slumps at the moment for Henderson, who has an OPS of 1.035 this year heading into last night, or Westburg, who is at .856.

What made this week the right time for the Orioles to move up the dynamic duo?

“They both had played very well in Bowie and had amassed enough plate appearances for us to feel it was enough of a signal that they needed a greater challenge," Orioles director of players development Matt Blood told me this week. "It’s nice that they were able to move together, but that was more happenstance that they were playing that well. And all indicators were pointing to it’s time for a promotion."