No matter if baseball's Winter Meetings proceed as planned next month in Orlando, Fla., or are shelved while a new collective bargaining agreement is negotiated, Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias will be keeping both eyes on the major and minor league free agent markets. Large sums of cash won't be spent, but there are ways to upgrade the roster and depth at the highest levels of the farm system. Venturing to the minor league side allows the Orioles to increase camp...

The Orioles get a four-game break from contending opponents, facing the Rangers tonight with rookie Zac Lowther on the mound and a designated hitter back in their lineup. Trey Mancini is the cleanup hitter and DH. Anthony Santander remains out of the lineup with a sore left hamstring. Santander ran sprints earlier today and hit in the cage. Austin Hays is in left field and Ryan McKenna is in right. Jahmai Jones is the second baseman. Austin Wynns is catching. Lowther is making his ninth...

With rookie Chris EIlis unavailable to make tonight's start due to some arm fatigue, the Orioles are going with Conner Greene in a bullpen game against the Phillies. Greene is making his first major league start after 18 relief appearances this season. He hasn't gone more than two innings or thrown more than 37 pitches, which happened in his debut on July 27 against the Marlins. Until allowing three runs Sunday in one-third of an inning at Fenway Park, Greene had strung together six scoreless...

Alexander Wells trailed by two runs tonight just two batters into his latest start with the Orioles. The first three batters produced three hits. The flashbacks to the past three games, with 44 runs surrendered, were blinding. It never got that bad. There was no need to begin researching past records within the organization or the league. But the Orioles assumed the position and fell again on hard times. Wells followed a scoreless second inning by serving up back-to-back home runs in the third,...

The Orioles went through their off-day without making any changes to their roster. There's still time to tweak the pitching staff before the series opener against the Yankees at Camden Yards. I've seen a lot in my 25 years on the beat, much of it good and some stuff that made me rub my eyes and wish I could cleanse my mind. Pretty much the entire 2018 season needs to be burned like unwanted film. And that 30-3 loss to the Rangers in 2007. And every attempt to interview Erik Bedard. Losing a...

The Orioles found a fresh arm for their bullpen this morning, selecting the contract of reliever Eric Hanhold from Triple-A Norfolk. Hanhold replaces Manny Barreda, who was optioned after Game 2 of last night's stunning 11-2 loss. Barreda served up Teoscar Hernández's 445-foot, three-run homer in the Jays' 11-run seventh inning. Matt Harvey was transferred to the 60-day injured list with right knee inflammation to make room for Hanhold on the 40-man roster. Harvey's season is...

The starts will keep coming to Orioles left-hander Keegan Akin. What he does with them is up to him. The Orioles can only provide the opportunities, sit back and hope that he flourishes. Just as they did while making Cedric Mullins their everyday center fielder. Akin issued a leadoff walk to George Springer tonight in the second game of the doubleheader, retired 15 batters in a row and turned in six hitless innings, and Mullins belted his 29th home run. But the Orioles still couldn't achieve...

The Orioles ran out of rookie relievers making their major league debuts. Their streak of bullpen wins by newbies ended last night at two. A modest total for most streaks, but no other team in the modern era went back-to-back before the Orioles, who provided the opportunity for Mike Baumann the previous night and Manny Barreda on Wednesday. Could there be more contrasting relievers than these two? Baumann, 25, the third-round pick in 2017 who's ranked as a Top 10 prospect in the system by...

Rule 5 pick Tyler Wells wasn't available to pitch tonight after Orioles manager Brandon Hyde reluctantly had to use him to get the final out in Wednesday's remarkable comeback win. The rookie pitched in back-to-back games and in three of the last four, and he wasn't going to close if a slim lead carried to the ninth. Hyde was just hoping to be pressed into a decision. No jokes about avoiding one-run games. He'd take any margin as long as his club was on the right side of it. Kansas City...

A quality start from Matt Harvey on Aug. 27 against the Rays has been followed by two failed attempts to complete the fifth inning. What's also going to follow are questions about his remaining time in a rotation that keeps getting younger and less experienced. The Orioles will figure it out. In the meantime, they seem to be getting more frisky. More confident in themselves. Less inclined to wait for something bad to happen to them. There's no reasonable way to question it. They made sure...

The Orioles made a series of pitching moves before tonight's game, setting up the possibility of achieving one club record and tying another during the series against the Royals. Besides recalling Mike Baumann from Triple-A Norfolk and placing Jorge López on the 10-day injured list, the Orioles also selected the contract of reliever Manny Barreda from Norfolk and optioned reliever Zack Burdi to the Tides. Reliever Hunter Harvey was transferred to the 60-day injured list to create a spot for...

Knuckleballer Mickey Jannis, and the law states that he can't be referenced without his signature pitch proceeding his name, became the eighth Oriole on Wednesday to make his major league debut this season. Konner Wade was the ninth, and the 42nd player used by the club, when he replaced starter Keegan Akin yesterday and allowed six runs and seven hits in 1 2/3 innings. Alexander Wells became Nos. 10 and 43 when he replaced Wade in the seventh and tossed two scoreless innings. And it's only...

Trey Mancini hopped on a Zoom call after a recent loss and spoke about the frustrating nature of a team that can't get "synced up." His words coming after the Orioles scored six runs and allowed 13. Plenty of offense and no pitching to support it. It also works in reverse. Starter Jorge López completed six innings yesterday for the first time since Sept. 19, 2020. A quality start produced by someone besides John Means. Relievers Shawn Armstrong and Tanner Scott combined to retire all six...

The Orioles gambled today by leaving their tired bullpen intact and counting on Jorge López to provide some length. But they didn't necessarily bypass an obvious solution. The pitching staff at Triple-A Norfolk isn't loaded with 40-man options. Hard decisions are pending, with Hunter Harvey's return from the 60-day injured list, perhaps by early June, just one of them. Manager Brandon Hyde wasn't going to use a couple of his relievers tonight after an exhausting homestand. Finding a hot...

For the Orioles, it has been a recurring problem with their offense: a lack of clutch hits. This issue showed up again big time in the second game of the Seattle series Tuesday night. The Orioles had the bases loaded and one out in the second inning. They had bases loaded and two outs in the sixth and the same situation in the eighth. The last two times, catcher Chance Sisco grounded out in each instance to end the threat. He went hitless and is now batting .162 with a .414 OPS. He had company...

In 12 exhibition games in 2019 after his trade to the Orioles, outfielder Dwight Smith Jr. collected 12 hits in 28 at-bats, hit five home runs and posted a 1.448 OPS. He slashed .241/.297/.412 in 392 plate appearances during the regular season. Catcher Chance Sisco went 13-for-34 (.382) with four home runs and 11 RBIs in the Grapefruit League, his 1.298 OPS ranking third on the club, but he batted .210 with a .729 OPS and played in only 58 games after the Orioles broke camp. Joey Rickard...