The World Series is over and fans are deprived of an epic Game 7. The Dodgers ruined those hopes by winning in five.

The offseason is underway, with players on the 60-day injured list returning to the 40-man roster and teams having exclusive negotiating rights with their free agents for five days before everyone else jumps into the bidding.

Pitchers Kyle Bradish, Tyler Wells and Félix Bautista and infielder Jorge Mateo are back on the 40-man. Pitchers Corbin Burnes, John Means and Brooks Kriske, catcher James McCann and outfielders Anthony Santander and Austin Slater are removed from it.  Bradish and Wells will go back onto the 60-day IL in spring training while recovering from elbow surgery.

Outfielder Daniel Johnson and pitcher Burch Smith declined outright assignments to Triple-A Norfolk and elected free agency.

The Orioles will make decisions on players with options for 2025 and which ones are tendered contracts and protected in the Rule 5 draft. The General Managers meetings begin next week. The Winter Meetings are scheduled for next month.

After he went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts on Sunday against Houston, O’s rookie Gunnar Henderson saw his average drop to .276. At that point he was 0-for-13 with seven strikeouts his previous four games and 4-for-29 with 11 strikeouts his previous eight.

Reason to worry? Nope.

Henderson, still just 21, began the game Monday at Boston by drawing a walk. Then he walked again. Then he walked again. Three walks in the first five innings. Then he mashed a baseball out to center in the sixth. A two-run homer that he hit 111 mph and it went 428 feet. A mammoth blast.

What slump?

Henderson continues to show he belongs in the majors and that he has smarts and poise and composure beyond his years. When he made his MLB debut Aug. 31, he became the youngest player to make his debut for the Orioles (21 years-063 days) since Dylan Bundy (19-313) on Sept. 23, 2012 and youngest position player since Manny Machado (20-034) on Aug. 9, 2012.

On this date in 1970, the Orioles were a day removed from clinching their second World Series title. The champagne had barely dried. But a year later, they faced a must-win situation against the Pirates at Memorial Stadium. Down 3-2 in games, the Orioles won 3-2 in 10 innings on Brooks Robinson's sacrifice fly off Bob Miller that scored Frank Robinson, who drew a one-out walk and hustled to third base on Merv Rettenmund's single. Brooks always will be remembered for his defensive wizardry in...

In case you missed it, Orioles left-hander Zach Britton was named to the Sporting News American League All-Star team. I saw the tweet after returning home from a mini-vacation in Mexico, where the top closers usually include tequila. The team was selected by a panel of 29 American League executives before the playoffs. Britton was the lone reliever and an obvious choice considering his historic season. The Indians' Andrew Miller, the Yankees' Dellin Betances and the Blue Jays' Roberto Osuna...

Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson, Dave McNally and Jim Palmer. They, of course, are the Orioles starters who each won 20 games in 1971, matching the 1920 Chicago White Sox as the only teams with four 20-game winners. But how good were those pitchers when it came to hitting home runs? That's the question that occurred to me this week as I researched a Roar from 34 post about Palmer's All-Star outings. The designated hitter wasn't created until 1973, so each of the Orioles' 20-game winners in 1971...