Even after making 30 or more starts the last six full seasons and even after having thrown over 2,100 big league innings, before the Orioles could sign him to a one-year contract, right-handed starting pitcher Charlie Morton had to decide if he wanted to sign with any team.

In his first interview with O’s reporters today, via a team Zoom call, he said this was not the first time he had pondered retirement. But he also explained that as last season ended, he seemed to want to keep going.

Morton, 41, went 8-10 with a 4.19 ERA for the Braves and now has signed a one-year deal for $15 million with the Orioles. Over the past two years, he’s thrown 328 2/3 innings to an ERA of 3.92 and a .248 batting average against with 24 quality starts.

“I think I’ve been debating that decision every offseason for the past four or five years frankly,” Morton told the media today. “It was definitely toward the end of last year. We were in a tight race for the Wild Card spot and I felt my year hadn’t gone as I hoped.

“I really wasn’t thinking about it a whole lot. I was thinking more about trying to take it all in because I thought that might be my last year.

O’s lefty reliever Keegan Akin had a strong 2022 season with a 3.20 ERA and 1.09 WHIP. Then he dealt with lower back issues much of the next season and in 23 2/3 innings had an ERA of 6.85 and 1.78 WHIP. He pitched just two innings after June 28.

So fans might not have known what to expect of him in 2024. At Birdland Caravan last January, Akin told reporters he was finally healthy and feeling good but also was not taking a roster spot for granted. He would have to earn it.

He sure did and pitched better than probably many people gave him credit for.

His season was very solid, especially in the second half and he ranked among the best relievers in the game in some expected stats.

He was good both home and away and against both left and right-handed batters.

In Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson the Orioles have two young, talented players that could be considered faces of this franchise. Two players that were their first two selections in the 2019 MLB Draft. The first two players selected by Mike Elias after he was hired by the Orioles.

In the 2025 season, based off their play last year, the Orioles surely expect improvement from Rutschman after his disappointing second half. Henderson could improve too, but he had a season in 2024 that put him among the very best players in the game.

Can Gunnar find another gear?: Asking more out of Henderson based on his 2024, is asking a lot. He improved his batting line in each stat category, hitting .255/.325/.489/.814 in 2023 and last year that was .281/.364/.529/.893 as his OPS+ increased from 125 to 159.

How good was he in 2024? He was the third-best position player in baseball-reference Wins Above Replacement and ranked fifth in FanGraphs.com's WAR.

Via baseball-reference.com, Aaron Judge led all at 10.8 followed by Bobby Witt Jr. at 9.4 and then Henderson at 9.1. Juan Soto was fifth by the way, behind Jarren Duran at 7.9. Via FanGraphs, it was Judge leading the way at 11.2, Witt at 10.4 and Shohei Ohtani at 9.1 with Soto at 8.1 and Henderson at 8.0.

We could call it a “two tiered” Orioles rotation at this point. They have two at the top right now in right-handers Zack Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez and three that follow that in some order.

As of today, Eflin or Rodriguez could get the Opening Day assignment with the other starting second.

Third through fifth in some combo, is expected to be Dean Kremer, Tomoyuki Sugano and Charlie Morton. That is how I stack it as of today, Kremer, Sugano and Morton fifth. Others may project Morton at No. 3 or Sugano at No. 3. Lot of options here. No lefties in this rotation, but they are in the depth behind this group currently with pitchers like southpaws Cade Povich and Trevor Rogers. Could one of that duo impact the Opening Day five? Of course, it’s baseball, changes and injuries happen. Always write your plans in January in pencil with a big eraser close by.

The Orioles hopes for Eflin are likely big. In 2023 he pitched to an ERA of 3.50 with 16 wins for Tampa Bay and finished sixth for the AL Cy Young award. Traded to the Orioles on July 26 last summer for three minor leaguers, he went 5-2 with a 2.60 ERA over nine starts.

With a combined 3.54 ERA and 1.054 WHIP the past two seasons producing an ERA+ of 115, he will be expected to pitch to that form for the 2025 Orioles.

Let’s get this part straight. Right-hander Charlie Morton is not the replacement for losing Corbin Burnes. Neither is righty Tomoyuki Sugano. No one is saying they are. No one is hinting at it or suggesting it in any way.

The Orioles may still add a pitcher they can slot closer to the top of their rotation and based on comments here, that would be welcome.

Nothing they have done in the last few days precludes that from happening. In my mind, maybe you have a different take, that is just as likely to happen today as it was before the Morton signing.

Where I think some fans slanting toward the negative over the Morton are missing the boat, is this addition could help the 2025 Orioles. No matter who slots at the top of their rotation.

Yes, he turned 41 in November and was the fourth-oldest pitcher in the majors last year. He’s also pitched to a 3.92 ERA since 2023, throwing 328 2/3 innings. No O’s pitcher on the team in those seasons, pitched that many innings. Even those in their 20s. His ERA for those seasons tops that of Dean Kremer and Grayson Rodriguez, both at 4.11 for the 2023-2024 seasons.

Today a look at a few more notes and items we can expect to see during the 2025 season.

The return of this pitcher: The No. 11 overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft, right-hander Grayson Rodriguez should return as a full-time member of the Baltimore rotation.

In 2024, he made what turned out to be his last start on July 31. He was scheduled to pitch Aug. 6 in the series opener at Rogers Centre in Toronto but was scratched just minutes before first pitch with what was later described as right lat/teres discomfort.

Getting this now 25-year-old right-hander back is a big lift for the rotation, which loses ace righty Corbin Burnes. Rodriguez went 13-4 with a 3.86 ERA over 20 starts and the Orioles went 14-6 in those games.

He gave up two earned runs or less 14 times. And if you could take away his two worst starts last year, where he allowed seven runs each time, he would have finished the season with an ERA of 3.02.

With right-hander Corbin Burnes off to Arizona and no ace pitchers still to be had via free agency, the Orioles may have pivoted toward a pitcher who made nine appearances for them in the 2023 season and one more in that postseason.

That is 29-year-old right-hander Jack Flaherty, coming off a strong 2024 season that began with Detroit and ended with him getting a ring with the Los Angeles Dodgers, his hometown team.

Per The Athletic, “both sides would be open to a reunion after Flaherty’s bounce-back season.”

Between the two clubs last year, he made 28 starts throwing 162 innings – the second-most of his career. He went 13-7 with a 3.17 ERA and 1.068 WHIP. He posted strong walk and strikeout numbers, walking 2.1 per every nine innings (a 5.9 percent walk rate) and fanning 10.8 (29.9 percent).

Among qualified pitchers last year (the 58 that had 162 or more innings) he finished third in the majors in strikeouts/nine, tied for eighth in WHIP, tied for 13^th in batting average against (.223) and 13^th in MLB in ERA.

After a few days away, we’re back today with a new blog and hopefully some fresh thoughts and takes to lead us into the New Year.

For now, a few facts and opinions.

Fact: O’s 2024 ace pitcher Corbin Burnes is headed to Arizona to pitch for the 2025 season.

Opinion: The Orioles' current rotation, even minus Burnes, could be solid but is now missing the pitcher who finished fifth for the American League Cy Young Award. So how will the O’s make up for this loss? For me, it’s never a one-for-one type thing in that they add this player to replace that player. All players they use in 2025 could partially help replace those not back.

There are no longer any aces left via the free agent market but perhaps the team could deal for a top pitcher, as it did with Burnes last Feb. 1.

Baseball America recently wrote about the findings of Major League Baseball’s study on pitching injuries and what it meant for amateur youth pitchers.

The study found – to no real surprise – that youth pitchers are throwing too much, too hard, and too often. This is leading to long-term injuries. Again, no one should be surprised.

They are chasing the dollars of MLB and before that the scholarships from top Div. I schools that lead them to get drafted that lead them to pro ball and possibly one day to the big dollars of the majors.

How big?

Price tags are going up.

Today, it’s another edition, our pre-Holiday edition, of several questions for O’s fans. Per usual, answer one question or all of them. Respond to other readers' answers with your takes on their takes. 

On to the questions:

1) Where does right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano slot into the O’s rotation? And after going 15-3 with a 1.67 ERA in Japan, how well will he do for the 2025 Orioles?

2) Which player will bat leadoff the most next season?

3) Which player will lead the 2025 O’s in home runs and hit how many?

Mike Snyder just completed his 16^th season with the Orioles. He was inherited by Mike Elias when he joined the Orioles but has proven to be a key lieutenant to the O’s executive vice president and general manager.

Snyder completed his first year in the role of senior director of professional scouting after being promoted in October of 2023. In this role, he oversees the club’s pro scouting and player analysis across the majors, minors, and Asian professional leagues, as well as assisting with contract negotiations, 40-man roster construction, player transactions, and departmental hiring.

He has a hand in evaluating talent ranging from a minor league player who may have little chance to make the majors to some of the best players in all of MLB.

He has plenty of resources at his disposal no doubt and reams of stats, data and video to check as well as his in-person scouting looks.

But does character matter too? What role does that play when the O’s look to acquire a player?

Today in this space a few more comments from 2024 Double-A Bowie manager Roberto Mercado on a few of his players with the Baysox this year.

I interviewed Mercado after the Arizona Fall League season when he led Surprise to the AFL title game. During that interview we talked about his Fall League experience but also about several of his 2024 Baysox players.

One pitcher that impressed him was right-hander Cameron Weston, the club’s round eight pick in 2022 out of the University of Michigan.

He had solid stats pitching in four games at the start of last season for High-A Aberdeen before he moved to Bowie and pitched in 23 more games with 14 starts.

Despite his good 2024 and career numbers, Weston is not ranked in the current MLBPipeline.com O’s top 30 prospects list.

For the Orioles in recent years, seeing a highly-ranked prospect come up and produce right away has been a challenge. Frankly, it’s a challenge for a lot of players and teams.

Any move up the minor league ladder can be a challenge for a young player but the move to the majors is the hardest. Hard to get there, sometimes harder to stay there.

The O’s can go back to Cal Ripken Jr. to see his rough start in the majors. More recently, then No. 1 ranked prospect Adley Rutschman came up in May of 2022. After his first 20 big league games, he was batting .176 with no homers or RBIs. Colton Cowser hit .115 in 2023, and Grayson Rodriguez had an ERA of 7.35 his first 10 MLB starts. Now he’s a top of the rotation type pitcher.

In 2024, elite prospects like Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo had some big-time MLB struggles.

During the Winter Meetings, O’s director of player development Anthony Villa was asked about how the organization can try to help their top prospects get off to better starts when they arrive in the big leagues?

With 13 international players ranked among the O’s top 30 prospects by MLBPipeline.com, the club’s international program keeps humming along.

It’s big for the Orioles to have both quantity and quality coming from the international prospects. Not only are players like Samuel Basallo getting close now to the majors, but the high number of ranked international prospects will help the O’s mainly a highly-ranked and fertile farm system.

Basallo remains the shining star, having played his age 19 season in 2024. He ends the year ranked as the No. 13 top 100 prospect by both Baseball America and MLBPipeline.

Over 127 games between Double-A Bowie (now Chesapeake) and Triple-A Norfolk, Basallo who turned 20 on Aug. 13, hit .278/.341/.449/.790 with 25 doubles, 19 homers and 65 RBIs.

Basallo produced an .820 OPS with Bowie with 16 homers, 55 RBIs. He hit just .222 with the Tides but batted .297 with an .810 OPS his last 11 games, after going 7-for-44 his first 10 games.

During my recent conversation with Matt Blood, the O’s vice president, player development and domestic scouting, we spent much of the time discussing what happened on the O’s farm in 2024.

He was honest to say the club was, to use his words “not celebrating” the farm offense from last season.

Sure, a lot went right and players like Samuel Basallo and Coby Mayo and others had plenty of special days and nights on the farm.

But overall, Triple-A Norfolk’s team OPS of .752 rated 13^th of 20 teams in the International League. Double-A Bowie (now Chesapeake) had a team OPS of .667 (ninth of 12 in the Eastern League). High-A Aberdeen was at .684 to finish seventh of 12 in the South Atlantic League. Low-A Delmarva, at .641, ranked 11^th of 12 in the Carolina League.

Like the big league club making some changes and adjustments on offense, the farm system may do some of the same moving forward.

During my interview in this space recently with Orioles Double-A Bowie (now Chesapeake) manager Roberto Mercado, he spent some time talking about his work in the Arizona Fall League and the O’s players he managed there.

But he also spent some time talking about his 2024 season with Double-A Bowie and some of the notable players he managed there this year. We’ll feature this in two parts and check in on a few players today and more in a few days.

Right-handed pitcher Alex Pham, age 25, was not added to the O’s 40-man roster and was available to any team in the recent Rule 5 draft.

Pham, a 19^th-round draft pick from the University of San Francisco, had a solid year for Bowie and he spent all of the 2024 season with the Baysox, making 27 starts.

Pham, who pitched to an ERA of 2.57 in 2023 between High-A Aberdeen and Bowie, went 7-4 with a 4.24 ERA for the Baysox this season. Over 119 innings he allowed 97 hits, had a 1.24 WHIP with a .221 average against and .669 OPS against. He walked 3.78 per nine and fanned 10.44.

The Orioles, as they did during the 2024 season, will have three hitting coaches working with their position players again in the 2025 year.

This time around, Cody Asche returns to the staff as primary hitting coach. The assistant hitting coaches are Sherman Johnson and Tommy Joseph. Johnson will also serve as upper level hitting coordinator.

Johnson, 34, spent last season as the O’s minor league upper-level hitting coordinator. He was the hitting coach at Triple-A Norfolk in 2023, his first professional coaching position after a nine-year playing career.

Joseph, 33, completed his first season as an MLB coach in 2024 as the assistant hitting coach for the Seattle Mariners. He joined the Mariners after three seasons as a minor league hitting coach for the San Francisco Giants with High-A Eugene in 2023 and with the New York Mets for Double-A Binghamton in 2022 and Single-A St. Lucie in 2021. Joseph appeared in 249 MLB games with the Phillies from 2016-17.

Asche, 34, spent the last two years as the O's offensive strategy coach. He served as the organization’s upper-level hitting coordinator in 2022. He was also a guest on a recent addition of the “Hot Stove” radio show on WBAL Radio.

The Orioles are not guaranteeing that Jackson Holliday will be their starting second baseman when the 2025 season starts, but it’s pretty clear they expect exactly that result.

At age 20 in 60 games last season, he hit .189/.255/.311/.565 for an OPS+ of just 66.

His struggles led some fans to question how he became the No. 1 ranked player in the minors and to question his potential? I can remind you how – he earned it.

I asked manager Brandon Hyde this week if Holliday is his guy at second base?

“Think we’re going to give him every opportunity,” the skipper said. “Loved the way he finished the season last year (going 4-for-5 the last weekend). I like the swing adjustments that he’s made. I just talked to him yesterday, he feels great. And you know, he’s a big part of the future for us. We’re going to give him every opportunity this spring.”

While the Orioles continue to work on their offseason and look to add new players to their roster, getting one already on that roster back to previous form is also on the agenda this winter.

Manager Brandon Hyde, in a phone interview Tuesday, said the club has reached out to catcher Adley Rutschman and the work to get his bat going again has begun.

Rutschman finished 12^th in the AL MVP vote in 2022 and ninth in 2023. But in 2024, his OPS dropped from .809 the previous year to .709.

Last season, on June 27, Rutschman was hitting .300 with an .830 OPS. But in his last 71 games, he batted just .189 with four homers and an OPS of .559.

“We’ve been in regular contact with Adley,” Hyde said from the Winter Meetings in Dallas. “We've put some plans in place and collaborated on some things that we feel like, that he feels like, that he wanted to kind of get back to. That kind of went away the second half. We know what kind of player he is and is going to be. We are doing a lot of things with him to get him back offensively and defensively to be the player that he is.

Under the Mike Elias regime, Matt Blood has played a prominent role for the Orioles. He was hired first as director of player development in September of 2019. On his watch, the O’s farm system became the first to be ranked No. 1 in five straight rankings by MLBPipeline.com. 

Blood was promoted to his current role, vice president, player development and domestic scouting in October of 2023.

He was involved in the recent hiring of Triple-A Norfolk manager Tim Federowicz, someone he knows since both were students and involved with the baseball team at the University of North Carolina.

When Buck Britton was hired to move to the O’s big league coaching staff, the club interviewed several candidates for their Triple-A opening before the recent hiring of Federowicz.

Federowicz had a 13-year pro career and played parts of eight season in the majors as a catcher with six teams. He retired in December of 2021.