Latest / Sports Avenue Twisted Podcast / Episode 57 feat. Zach Bollinger - Mike Elias promoted, Orioles Off-Season Plans, and Possible Extensions

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Episode 57 feat. Zach Bollinger - Mike Elias promoted, Orioles Off-Season Plans, and Possible Extensions · Sports Avenue Twisted Podcast

• 0:26
  Welcome to another edition of Sports Ave.
• 0:28
  Twisted podcast. We have a special guest in here
• 0:31
  today to talk about the Orioles. He is the Co host of the Ryan
• 0:34
  Ripken Show. Zach Bollinger, welcome to the
• 0:38
  show. We are honored to have you here
• 0:39
  and let everybody else know what you do.
• 0:42
  Hey what's up guys? Appreciate you having me on.
• 0:45
  Yeah so I Co host the Ryan Ripken show on I guess now we're
• 0:49
  Sunday, Monday and Thursdays at 4:00 PM during the weekday and
• 0:54
  then Ravens pre game shows on the on Sundays.
• 0:58
  Also, do Kevin and Zach react, which is a reaction show after
• 1:01
  every Orioles game. Lot of losses this season, a lot
• 1:05
  of losses to react to, but also do that for Ravens games.
• 1:09
  So really any content you want for Baltimore sports wide, I'll
• 1:13
  be talking about it at some point, that's for sure.
• 1:15
  Yeah. Man, we're excited to have you.
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  It's, it's, it's a couple weeks past due, but we knew you were
• 1:23
  busy. But we're glad that we have you
• 1:25
  on now, man. And, and we're excited to, to
• 1:28
  dive deep into, to what's, what's going on with Baltimore
• 1:31
  this season. So thank you.
• 1:33
  Oh, appreciate. Yeah, I'm, I'm excited.
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  I'm excited to talk about, not as excited about what we're
• 1:38
  talking about, you know, because it's been a disappointing season
• 1:41
  for everything right in Baltimore, but I'm excited to be
• 1:44
  here with you guys. Yeah, absolutely, man.
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  And there's so much to talk about, especially this season's
• 1:50
  gone and what's what to look forward in the offseason.
• 1:53
  But I'll start off with this. And this came to me as a
• 1:56
  surprise and I did not expect this to happen.
• 2:00
  And that is Mike Elias being or set to be promoted to to the
• 2:05
  presidency job for the Orioles. Because a lot of people thought
• 2:09
  with Michael is thinking that he hasn't done enough, even though
• 2:12
  they won the division two years ago, been a playoff team, but
• 2:16
  has yet to win a playoff game. And look at he came through the
• 2:20
  Jeff Flunow system with the Astros to become the GM And look
• 2:25
  at this team now and look at Elias.
• 2:28
  Were you shocked to the to the point there that he got
• 2:31
  promoted? And also talk about where this
• 2:34
  whole GM vacancies at and what what they're going to do.
• 2:38
  Yeah, I mean, I was shocked and just to the fact that they
• 2:41
  announced that, hey, over the winter and it was kind of like
• 2:43
  just a weird timing to announce that, hey, about seven months
• 2:47
  ago we promoted Michael Ice. Everyone's like, oh, okay, so
• 2:51
  that's news to everyone. They're like, yeah, we're
• 2:52
  looking for a new GM. And if I'm being honest with
• 2:55
  you, a few hours later, the report came out that the White
• 3:00
  Sox assistant GM was not taking the Orioles job.
• 3:03
  And I think if we're being honest, it was probably
• 3:05
  something where the Orioles knew that news was about to get out,
• 3:09
  that they're looking for AGM and thought that they would beat the
• 3:12
  media to the punch. So they announced that Elias has
• 3:15
  been promoted. And I think in a lot of ways,
• 3:17
  this could be the best of both worlds.
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  If you ask anyone in Baltimore, Elias eye for young talent, for
• 3:23
  development, for getting, you know, draft picks, stuff like
• 3:27
  that, Really expanding into the Dominican League and really
• 3:30
  helping the Orioles there. That's been his bread and
• 3:33
  butter. You know, he has built an
• 3:34
  incredible farm system over the past few years.
• 3:37
  Now, a lot of that has to do with the fact that, yes, he had
• 3:40
  a tanking team, a team that was so bad they literally outlawed
• 3:44
  tanking. They now have a draft lottery
• 3:45
  because it was like the Orioles aren't trying to win.
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  Like, we got to stop this. So the Orioles kind of got the
• 3:51
  last bit of the true tanking in Major League Baseball.
• 3:55
  But Michael Eyes, you got to give him credit.
• 3:56
  He hit on guys, you know, Gunnar Henderson at the end of the
• 3:59
  first round, Jordan Westbrook end of the first round.
• 4:02
  You know, they got a lot of these guys.
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  He made some nice trades when he first got there to acquire guys
• 4:07
  like Kyle Bradish, things of that nature.
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  And really for Oriole fans and really anyone covering the team,
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  the hope is that the one weak spot that Mike Elias has had is
• 4:18
  really it. It hasn't been the foundation.
• 4:20
  It's been adding on and who to add on to the foundation.
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  You know, they did a great job two years ago when they went and
• 4:26
  got Corbin Burns to supplement for the fact that Kyle Bradish
• 4:29
  was out for a majority of the season.
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  They were aggressive, got Corbin Burns and while yes, they didn't
• 4:34
  win a World Series and they didn't even win a playoff game
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  in the playoffs, you know, Corbin was your ace throughout
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  the season. He goes out there, delivers you
• 4:42
  8 innings of one run ball, gave you every chance in the world to
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  win that game against Kansas City that they end up losing 1
• 4:49
  nothing. And you know, you were hoping
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  that that was kind of going to be the beginning of this
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  aggressive push for Mike Elias to, you know, like you talked
• 4:59
  about, he came from the Astros. And if you were looking at the
• 5:01
  Astros, what they believed in and how their trajectory went,
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  they kind of played it safe. And then suddenly they turned it
• 5:08
  on. They went and they got the
• 5:10
  Justin Verlanders. They made the big trades to try
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  to bring pieces in to complement their core that was already set.
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  So Oriole fans were kind of hoping that this was the
• 5:19
  beginning of that, that OK, now Michael asked.
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  You know, the the word that we like to use because Mike used it
• 5:26
  is liftoff. It's been quote UN quote liftoff
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  for three years. And if you look at the record
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  and the liftoffs going the wrong way.
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  So you're hoping for me maybe the best of both worlds here.
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  Michael I promoted to president of baseball operations.
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  He is in charge of everything with the organization when it
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  comes to the development, the minor league system.
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  He's overseeing, you know, the international leagues and
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  everything that goes into creating the top, you know, one
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  of the better farm systems in baseball.
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  He's going to be in charge with it.
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  While he's going to oversee everything, including immediate
• 5:59
  day-to-day moves, the hope is that maybe AGM that comes in,
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  maybe he's a little bit more aggressive.
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  A new voice in that room can maybe give the benefit of, OK,
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  maybe they're going to go a little bit more aggressive, get
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  somebody who can, you know, make a bigger trade or is OK with
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  trading some more prospects and give that side of the general
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  manager role. And that voice in that room that
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  has quite frankly, recently it felt like it's been so against
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  making the big splash. I mean, this offseason, for
• 6:31
  example, you went from the offseason before you trade for
• 6:34
  Corbin Burns till you get 41 year old Charlie Morton and
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  you're like, OK, this is, you know, Anthony Santander leaves,
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  you get Tyler O'Neill and you're like, OK.
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  And it's like that's like, OK, I guess we're going for it.
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  We signed Gary Sanchez and you're like, I don't see what
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  we're doing here. So it is one of those things
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  where I think this could be the best of both, both worlds.
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  It's going to be intriguing to see who they go after.
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  I would love for them to get someone who is aggressive, who
• 7:06
  can be a voice of, hey, this is a time where we have this young
• 7:10
  core, let's go for it rather than kind of sitting there and
• 7:14
  hoping things fall into their lap.
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  Thinking about Mike Elias player I'd like to talk to you about is
• 7:21
  a little bit of Sam Bissell. He was the first Oriole that was
• 7:25
  extended in in the Mike Elias era.
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  I think was 8 for 67,000,000. What have been your, I think it
• 7:33
  was only after like 16 at bats too in the majors that they that
• 7:37
  they gave him an extension, which I thought was quite
• 7:40
  interesting. So what have been you, what's
• 7:42
  your what's been your assessment on on Basalo so far?
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  Even though it's a small sample, How does he look behind the
• 7:49
  plate? What and what do you think about
• 7:52
  him going into the future for this franchise?
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  His, he has probably one of the purest swings of any prospect
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  I've seen. He is up there.
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  I think he and Roman Anthony, everybody we've talked to media
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  wise, whether it's at, you know, Mark DeRosa, MLB Network,
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  whether it's Tim Kirchen, we've asked Jeff Passan about it.
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  It's just those two. When they take batting practice,
• 8:17
  when the ball hits the bat for them, it sounds different.
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  And I think Samuel Paseo just turned 21, actually just a few
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  days before he signed the contract, before he was called
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  up. And all he's done is come up in
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  big moments. Now he's 21, he's hitting below
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  200. It's expected.
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  You know, he's he's he's, he's barely old enough to drink.
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  So he goes out there and you're like, OK, we, we, we, we're, we
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  see what the potential is. I mean, he hits a home run
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  yesterday on an O2 pitch on a beautiful curveball by the
• 8:50
  pitcher that he just beat the pitcher.
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  He hits it 420 feet down the line.
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  He's had the walk off Homer. He's had multiple walk offs.
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  Actually also had the walk off single in his third ever game in
• 9:02
  the big leagues. They pinch hit him in the 10th
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  inning and try to get the go ahead run ball that literally
• 9:09
  bounces off the dirt. He somehow gets the bat to rolls
• 9:13
  it over as a low swinging bunt to get the run in.
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  It's been so impressive to see him at the plate.
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  His heart rate doesn't rise. I think that this is such a
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  great experience for him so that he can get into 2026 and hit the
• 9:27
  ground running. Catching, the learning
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  experience, I mean, we'll call it what it is.
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  It's catching at the big league levels.
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  He is learning. There are games that you go out
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  there and you watch and you're like, he's putting it together.
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  And then there are games like last night where the Orioles
• 9:42
  should have been out of the inning at 8:00 to 3:00 in the
• 9:44
  8th inning, but a drop third strike by Besio suddenly guys on
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  1st home run comes up next and it's 8:00 to 7:00 and you're
• 9:52
  like, OK, we we got a ball game now.
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  So the defense is what's going to be interesting.
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  You know how that comes along because his arm grades out with
• 10:02
  the best of them. I mean, he's got one of the best
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  top times. Well, the strongest arms graded
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  out in the majors in his small sample size.
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  So that's their it. It's going to be about how he
• 10:12
  calls the game, how he develops, you know, blocking defensively
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  as a catcher. But I also think they view him a
• 10:18
  lot as a first baseman, DH, catcher down the line.
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  I don't think they're going to stick him at 1st and say, OK,
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  you or stick him solely at catcher and be like, you're a
• 10:28
  catcher, you're the starting guy.
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  Go. You still have Adly Ruchman.
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  I think Adly's still a guy they want to extend.
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  And so I think you see Besayo playing a lot of catcher.
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  He's going to play a lot of first.
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  He's got DH because you want his bat in the lineup 140 to 150
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  games a year. You know, he's got that
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  impactful of a bat even at this young age.
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  So I think the skies the limit for this kid.
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  I think he has potential. The biggest comp that we keep
• 10:54
  getting is Jordan Alvarez. You know, he's just got that
• 10:57
  unreal power where even if he misses a baseball, I mean, he's
• 11:02
  going to hit it. You know, his first swing of his
• 11:05
  career, he was actually robbed of a home run by Jesus Sanchez.
• 11:08
  It was a ball up at his chin that he should have never even
• 11:11
  swung at, missed it completely. And literally Jesus or Jesus
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  Sanchez in Houston goes over the wall to get it.
• 11:19
  And you're like, oh, this kid has that kind of power.
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  So for him, Sky's the limit with the bats specifically, he's
• 11:27
  actually really athletic over at first base.
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  I'm intrigued to see how he develops.
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  He just hasn't had a lot of time there and even this season with
• 11:34
  his injuries and stuff, he was D aging most of the year in the
• 11:37
  minors, didn't get as many games catching as they would have
• 11:41
  liked because of injury. But he's he's learning it as he
• 11:45
  goes learning catching at the big league level.
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  So the bat is what he they signed the deal because of the
• 11:50
  bat. You know that the bat is what
• 11:52
  they want long term where he fits in at catcher.
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  I think they want him to be there for a little bit.
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  Definitely get his reps in there because of that arm because of
• 12:01
  that potential. But he's going to be wherever
• 12:03
  they need catcher first chapter to get that bat in the lineup.
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  So let's talk about the season, the season, the way it's gone.
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  And you look at the way the seasons happened.
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  And I expected the Orioles to be a playoff team, especially the
• 12:19
  way that the seasons has gone the last couple of years because
• 12:22
  they, like I said, they won the division into playoffs and
• 12:25
  thinking that this, this group of core guys was only going to
• 12:29
  get better. But we looked at the pitching
• 12:32
  and we're like, OK, I think the pitching is good enough because
• 12:34
  their offense will pick up the slack.
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  But it's been an underwhelming season for the Orioles and talk
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  to us how the the season is gone because we asked ourselves,
• 12:46
  like, what went wrong? Could it be the pitching?
• 12:49
  Could it be the way the structure, roster structure has
• 12:53
  been the injuries? Like talk a bit about the the
• 12:55
  way the seasons gone. Everything went wrong, plain and
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  simple. Absolutely everything that could
• 13:01
  have gone wrong went wrong. Grayson Rodriguez before the
• 13:05
  season even starts, gets injured, ends up missing.
• 13:08
  They were like, hey, he'll probably be back in a few weeks,
• 13:10
  maybe for opening day. Never going to pitch this
• 13:13
  season. Kyle Bradish, obviously he's he
• 13:16
  and Tyler Wells were out for the majority of the season up until
• 13:20
  the past two weeks, 2-3 weeks. So that killed the rotation.
• 13:26
  So now you're starting, you know you're aces and you know
• 13:30
  parentheses is OK. Zach Efflin, who then has a back
• 13:34
  injury and misses most of the season.
• 13:37
  Dean Kramer can pitch well. He's not really a 1C Morton.
• 13:40
  He's your new quote UN quote ace.
• 13:43
  You lose your Owen 12 to his first 12 appearances.
• 13:47
  So that's awesome. Offensively, same thing,
• 13:52
  Injuries. I mean, Jordan Westberg misses
• 13:54
  most of the first half. Honestly most.
• 13:56
  He's going to end up missing over half the season.
• 13:58
  Adli Ruchman finds himself on the IL for the first time in his
• 14:02
  career. He misses 1/3 of the season.
• 14:05
  Tyler O'Neill We all knew he couldn't stay healthy when we
• 14:08
  signed him, so there wasn't much expectation.
• 14:10
  But shocker, he was injured. And then the guys who weren't
• 14:15
  injured, you know, Colton Cows, if you want to add him, you
• 14:17
  know, running her up for rookie of the year last year breaks his
• 14:20
  thumb sliding into first, head first into first for some reason
• 14:24
  in the second game, third game of the year.
• 14:26
  And it just felt like everything was just this downward spiral.
• 14:30
  I mean, situational hitting was atrocious and it was just that
• 14:34
  things just kept getting worse. It was one of those things
• 14:38
  offensively, there was nobody that you really felt like, OK,
• 14:42
  that's the guy that's going to go out there and make something
• 14:45
  happen. I mean, Gunner's having a down
• 14:48
  year. He's batting 274.
• 14:50
  I mean, he does not have the power anywhere close to the
• 14:53
  power. I mean, he was hitting over 35
• 14:55
  homers last year. This year he's at 16 with 64 RB.
• 14:59
  Is that's not MVP, Gunner, Henderson numbers.
• 15:01
  It just felt like everyone took this step back that, you know,
• 15:06
  the whole team, there was just something weird going on.
• 15:09
  And by the time it kind of got righted, you know, they fire
• 15:13
  Brandon Hyde. A week later, they fall down to
• 15:16
  18 games below 500. Since then, they've been
• 15:19
  actually one of the better teams in baseball.
• 15:21
  They're 10 games above 500 since May 24th.
• 15:24
  And but the matter of it is, is they it dug the hole too deep to
• 15:29
  get out of you know, it, it was nowhere close to being OK.
• 15:34
  These guys can make something happen.
• 15:39
  You know, it was no, at no point even in the second-half did you
• 15:42
  really feel like it was in the cards.
• 15:45
  You felt like overall it's it was just a over and over and
• 15:52
  over again of oh, could they put together and then it would
• 15:55
  spiral into 3-4 game losses and you're like, OK, here we go
• 16:00
  again. I mean, they had a stretch of a
• 16:02
  12 games where they went one and 11 against the Nats and the
• 16:05
  Twins. And you want to talk about
• 16:07
  putting the nail in the coffin of the season that was in May.
• 16:10
  And that's really where it got lost because once you're 18
• 16:13
  games under 500, that's that's tough to get out of.
• 16:18
  It doesn't matter how talented you are.
• 16:19
  So it just, it was a horrible start.
• 16:22
  They something was going on. And honestly, it started last
• 16:25
  year in about July where they just started playing bad
• 16:29
  baseball and it carried over into this year.
• 16:31
  So the hope is now, if you know you are an Oil fan, if you're
• 16:35
  hoping the Orioles can take that step, They've played good
• 16:38
  baseball recently. They've had their ups and downs.
• 16:42
  But overall, it's going into next year.
• 16:44
  It's all about keeping momentum going.
• 16:45
  So this year it it was everything to answer your
• 16:48
  question, it was injuries were atrocious, guys underperforming.
• 16:53
  And then at the end of it, I mean, over the last month and a
• 16:56
  half, it's been, they traded 9 players.
• 16:59
  And eventually that's going to catch up to you because some of
• 17:01
  the guys they're sending out there in the bullpen these days,
• 17:04
  I'm like, OK, no clue who you are.
• 17:06
  It is very, it is very hard for it.
• 17:10
  There's very few times where I can look at somebody coming into
• 17:14
  an Oriole game and have no idea who this guy is.
• 17:17
  But we have done it a few times recently where I'm like, I got
• 17:20
  nothing. I'm like I I'm finding out about
• 17:23
  you for the first time ever. In May, though, the the Orioles
• 17:29
  moved on from from manager Bread and Hyde relieved them of his
• 17:33
  duties, and they went on to name Tony Mansolino the interim
• 17:36
  manager. How do you assess the job he's
• 17:39
  done so far taking over a team that's had their struggles this
• 17:44
  year, to say the least? And, and is he just that?
• 17:48
  Is he an interim manager and is that search still ongoing?
• 17:53
  What do you know about that situation?
• 17:56
  Tony Manzilino was given a horrendous job of being thrown
• 18:01
  into a situation that no one saw coming.
• 18:04
  And the fact of everyone thought the Orioles were a playoff team,
• 18:07
  thought they could win, you know, they're over.
• 18:08
  Under for win total was like 90 1/2.
• 18:10
  It's like, OK, this team's going to be good.
• 18:12
  Suddenly in May, you're 18 games under 500 and you are now
• 18:16
  suddenly the manager. I mean, and from that
• 18:19
  standpoint, they're 10 games over 500 with them.
• 18:23
  He's done his job. He has done a fantastic job of
• 18:26
  writing the ship. Players absolutely love him.
• 18:30
  I think they love playing for him.
• 18:31
  He is a player's coach and I think he has done everything he
• 18:34
  really could to try to write this ship as much as he could.
• 18:38
  With that being said, he should not be the manager next year.
• 18:41
  This team I, I understand if, unless they win out 10 and they
• 18:46
  can finish a game above 500, I just I don't see there being a
• 18:51
  point. I think they need new voices in
• 18:53
  there all throughout the coaching staff.
• 18:57
  I mean it, it really is one of those things where I think they
• 18:59
  need a new regime. They need an older veteran in my
• 19:02
  opinion, because they're such a young team.
• 19:05
  I want a guy who's been there, guy who's done that.
• 19:08
  If you go younger, I mean, guys like Skip Schumacher always get
• 19:13
  thrown in this Ryan Flaherty from the Cubs.
• 19:16
  You know, there's so many guys that get tossed into the kind of
• 19:20
  search, but we haven't heard anything official.
• 19:23
  I would be shocked if they stayed with Tony Manzilino.
• 19:26
  I think he has done a great job. I think he has really done the
• 19:28
  best he could for the situation. I just think they need a guy
• 19:32
  who's been there. You know it.
• 19:33
  I don't think this is Tony's last time getting a chance to
• 19:37
  manage somewhere. I could see him taking over
• 19:40
  somewhere as maybe an interim manager down the line.
• 19:43
  Maybe he gets a job. But for the Orioles, a team that
• 19:46
  you are hoping to win next year, again, you know, you don't want
• 19:49
  this to be a multi year downslide.
• 19:52
  I think they need a veteran guy who can kind of right this ship
• 19:56
  situationally, you know, improve because I mean, every fan base
• 20:00
  hates how their manager handles the bullpen.
• 20:02
  So I'm not going to get into that.
• 20:03
  You could have the best bullpen ever.
• 20:06
  The fan base. He's just going to hate how the
• 20:07
  manager handles that. So I'm not going to get too into
• 20:12
  how, you know, the ups and downs of Manzilino.
• 20:14
  He also calls, runs points and that's the whole other thing.
• 20:18
  Just personally why I can't listen to his interviews anymore
• 20:22
  because that just it gets me every time.
• 20:24
  But he he's he's done a great job of riding the ship.
• 20:28
  I just think that this team needs a new voice in there.
• 20:33
  Looking at the roster, the way it's structured to start the
• 20:36
  season and now after the trade deadline, so much has shifted
• 20:41
  and reconstructed. So mentioned the names out
• 20:44
  there. Who was traded with Sir Anthony
• 20:46
  Dominguez, was traded to the Blue Jays for Jerome Watts
• 20:49
  Brown, Gregory Soto to the Mets, Charlie Moran to the Tigers,
• 20:54
  Cedric Mullins to the Mets. And then the one that shocked me
• 20:58
  the most that found a way for the Padres to get it done was
• 21:03
  Ryan Ahern and Ramon Lariano traded to the Padres.
• 21:08
  Talk about some of those players.
• 21:10
  And if I'm missing any names, you could mention it as well.
• 21:12
  Like what were your thoughts about like the whole trade
• 21:14
  positive? Because we did talk about it
• 21:16
  prior to the show. And and look at they did get
• 21:19
  some capital in return. And and what do you think about
• 21:22
  the players they got in return as well?
• 21:24
  Yeah, I crashed out when we traded little Ramon Lauriano.
• 21:27
  I was on stream and I, I have not crashed out like that in a
• 21:30
  long time. I, I thought it was stupid.
• 21:33
  I thought it was just irresponsible.
• 21:37
  I thought it was just flat out dumb.
• 21:39
  Ramon Lauriano in a career year hitting over 300 with a $6.5
• 21:43
  million option for next year, I thought was a no brainer at the
• 21:46
  time. I still have my, you know,
• 21:50
  thoughts on wishing we kept Ramon, but you know, he was the
• 21:54
  really the only player that I looked at and I was like, why
• 21:56
  the hell did we trade him? You know, he was the only guy
• 21:59
  that I really was like, what are we doing?
• 22:02
  The other guys that accepted were gone.
• 22:03
  There were a few shockers. Brian Baker to the Rays of weeks
• 22:07
  before the deadline for 1/3. The 37th overall pick, which
• 22:12
  ended up being Slater Debron, which was a really nice pick up
• 22:15
  out of high school for the Orioles in the draft.
• 22:18
  Ramona Rios was kind of an under the, you know, underrated trade,
• 22:23
  just, you know, getting rid of a utility guy.
• 22:26
  It just felt like the Orioles, they they said they were selling
• 22:30
  and they sold. I mean, nine guys total traded
• 22:33
  at the deadline is a lot. I mean, you got 26 men on your
• 22:36
  roster. You are well over, you know,
• 22:38
  you're sitting over a third of your roster elsewhere right now.
• 22:42
  And it's guys that help this team win, you know, and not only
• 22:45
  that, it's the, you know, the heart and Sawyer team.
• 22:48
  Cedric Mullins was that guy for a lot of Orioles fans and for
• 22:52
  the team, you know, it was he was that steady presence since
• 22:55
  they've been bad in the, you know, the 2019 Twenty 20s.
• 22:58
  He was through it all. It was hard to see him go.
• 23:01
  But at the same time, it's a business and they had to do what
• 23:04
  they had to do to make not only the future, you know, the
• 23:08
  present, as good as it could be, but the future, and you have to
• 23:11
  keep that in mind. I I got a chance to call Boston
• 23:15
  Bateman's first game in AA about a month ago or hiya at Aberdeen,
• 23:22
  and he was the guy that the Orioles, the quote UN quote
• 23:24
  prize, you know, prospect in the Ramon Oriano Rhino Hearn trade
• 23:29
  to the Padres. He looks great for I think he's
• 23:32
  19 years old. I mean, one, he's just a massive
• 23:35
  human being about 652, 66222230I mean he is a big guy and they
• 23:43
  got prospects I'm excited about. You know, that's The thing is I
• 23:46
  think at the end of the day, hindsight and we will never
• 23:49
  know. We won't know who won these
• 23:51
  trades for 3-4 years because that's what you know, it takes
• 23:55
  in Major League Baseball, in the NBA and NFL, you can tell after
• 24:00
  about a year or two who guys won, you know what what happens
• 24:04
  and all of that. But in in baseball with some of
• 24:06
  these prospects, it could be 3456 years before we really know
• 24:10
  who won these trades or what they truly got.
• 24:13
  But they did the right thing. You know, as much as I think it
• 24:17
  hurt fans to see some of these mainstay players go the Ryan
• 24:22
  O'hearn, who they've, you know, fallen in love with, the Cedric
• 24:24
  Mullins, all those guys. It's the business side of
• 24:27
  baseball and it sucks, but it's the business side.
• 24:30
  It's part of the game. It's why the managers, you know,
• 24:33
  GMs get paid what they do for making those tough decisions and
• 24:36
  hoping that it pans out well. So they rebuilt the farm system.
• 24:40
  I think between the draft and the yeah, between the draft and
• 24:44
  trade deadline, they added 37 prospects.
• 24:48
  So a, a, a very big haul, you know, very big haul over that.
• 24:53
  And a lot of guys joining the top 30 joining, you know, kind
• 24:57
  of their upper echelon. So completely restock the farm
• 25:00
  system for the future. Now the biggest thing is they
• 25:02
  can't do what they did before and just assume every player is
• 25:05
  going to be oh, they're a top prospect, they're going to pan
• 25:08
  out. They got to trade some of these
• 25:09
  guys. You got to trade, you know, turn
• 25:11
  these prospects into major leaguers because all 37 are not
• 25:14
  going to be major leaguers. And probably you're hoping of
• 25:18
  the 37 you, you know, got into your system, maybe four or five
• 25:22
  turn into above average great player.
• 25:25
  So just looking at the odds, turn some of these guys into
• 25:29
  some relief pitchers and do a starter and do it, you know,
• 25:32
  whatever you may need because you know, help your farm system
• 25:35
  work for you. It's what the best teams do.
• 25:37
  They go out, they find a weakness and they use their
• 25:40
  draft capital, their prospects that they've, you know, their
• 25:43
  farm system to kind of build from it for their.
• 25:45
  So it was a great way to get the prospects back to upgrade the
• 25:50
  farm system. But with a team that has
• 25:52
  aspirations to win in 26, they're going to need to to have
• 25:56
  have the farm system work for them now.
• 26:00
  The past several, several seasons, the Orioles have seemed
• 26:03
  to have a a problem or an issue with developing pitching.
• 26:08
  They they have Grayson Rodriguez, who looks all the
• 26:12
  parts of being that ace, but he just can't stay healthy.
• 26:15
  And before that, you gotta go back to guys like Kevin Gosman,
• 26:19
  Chris Tillman, who are pretty, pretty solid pitchers.
• 26:22
  And even before that, Eric Bedard and Mike Messina.
• 26:25
  It's been a long time, so would you say that there's a that
• 26:29
  there's an issue when it comes to developing homegrown talent
• 26:33
  in the rotation? There's been an issue since I
• 26:37
  was born developing homegrown talent, the Orioles.
• 26:40
  This is, I have, I've, I've accepted it at this point.
• 26:45
  Like I literally on my shows, I, I no longer say Grayson
• 26:50
  Rodriguez's name. I just say who he who shall not
• 26:52
  be named because I'm not naming him even pencilling him in until
• 26:55
  I see him on the mound again, because these guys, they've had
• 26:58
  guys, you know, the Dylan Bundy's these top prospects.
• 27:02
  You know, all these guys that looks like, oh, they are the
• 27:04
  savior of the rotation. They're going to do it.
• 27:06
  You know, they are the guy to break the Oriole St. and then
• 27:09
  they don't they it's injuries. It's always injuries.
• 27:13
  The closest thing they got is Kyle Bradish.
• 27:15
  They traded, funny enough, Dylan Bundy to the Angels for Bradish,
• 27:19
  who was in high A at the time, low prospect, and they kind of
• 27:24
  turned him into the, you know, the ace that he is now.
• 27:27
  But I mean, besides that, it's been a lot of stories of them
• 27:30
  giving guys away and then that, you know, you look at Gosman,
• 27:33
  you look at Jake Arrieta. I mean, guys that go out and win
• 27:36
  Cy Young's after leaving Baltimore.
• 27:38
  I mean, so I, yeah, I am very OK with saying there's an issue.
• 27:43
  There's been an issue my entire life in Baltimore about
• 27:45
  developing pitching. I don't know what it is.
• 27:47
  I don't know what they're doing to these guys, but something
• 27:50
  goes wrong. I mean, that's why it's so
• 27:53
  insane of what Trevor Rogers is doing, that somehow he got into
• 27:56
  the Oriole system and he is something happened and he is
• 27:59
  absolutely thriving right now. But yeah, no.
• 28:02
  And that's why it's a little scary.
• 28:03
  I mean, the Orioles got a lot of pitching prospects back in this
• 28:09
  deadline and draft. So I think we are going quantity
• 28:12
  over quality. And I think they're just like,
• 28:14
  something's got to something's got to work.
• 28:16
  One of these 20 guys has to be good.
• 28:18
  So I think that's just kind of where we're going now.
• 28:20
  And, you know, that's why I'm so big on.
• 28:23
  I loved when they traded for Corbin Burns because it's like,
• 28:25
  OK, we didn't have to develop him.
• 28:27
  We they did all the hard work. Just give up the prospects and
• 28:31
  go get them. I'm still so in on the, you
• 28:34
  know, develop the bats by the arms, go out, sign guys who are
• 28:37
  proven because we have, we have certainly proven that we ain't
• 28:40
  developing them. So I want to talk about Grayson
• 28:46
  Rodriguez, since you brought that up, because I believe that
• 28:49
  it was Dan Duquette in his final year that drafted Rayson
• 28:52
  Rodriguez. I think he was the 11th pick in
• 28:55
  2018. And thinking that they let go of
• 28:59
  Corbin Burns and knowing that Gracie Rodriguez had a lot of
• 29:04
  promise and he was called up two years ago and he hasn't been
• 29:07
  healthy throughout the most part.
• 29:08
  And is it a concern for a guy like him?
• 29:12
  And he's not even that old. He's really young.
• 29:14
  And and do this front office still believe that he's going to
• 29:19
  be the anchor of this pitching staff moving forward starting
• 29:22
  next year? If they still believe it, then
• 29:26
  they're that's, that's on them. I, I, I believe in, I believe in
• 29:30
  Grayson Rodriguez's talent as much as anyone.
• 29:33
  I same reason I can't bring him up on my show.
• 29:36
  I would love to be able to pencil Grayson Rodriguez in as
• 29:38
  the number two or three behind Rodgers and Bradish.
• 29:41
  I can't I until he stays on the field, I can't because he has
• 29:45
  all the town in the world. He has an electrifying fastball.
• 29:48
  His secondary pitches have taken massive steps to the point where
• 29:51
  when he's on, there's not many you know better than him.
• 29:55
  He is a guy who can anchor rotation, but you got to be on
• 30:00
  the field to do it. Like you can have all the
• 30:03
  potential in the world, but you got to be on the field to do it.
• 30:06
  I would love for them to be able to get a healthy Grayson
• 30:09
  Rodriguez who can anchor it. The talent is there.
• 30:12
  That has never been a question. The questions been whether or
• 30:14
  not he can stay on the mound. So if he can stay on the mound
• 30:17
  and he'll even give you 20 starts a year, I'm not even
• 30:20
  asking for 3035. Give me half the season and I
• 30:24
  think it if my biggest fear is kind of what you said is that
• 30:27
  they rely on him to be that guy next year.
• 30:30
  And like that, that can't be the mindset because we're going to
• 30:33
  sit in the exact same situation we are here where it's like, oh,
• 30:37
  pitching depth didn't work out. You know, guys got injured and
• 30:40
  we had nothing, you know, no backup plan.
• 30:42
  So with a guy like Grayson Rodriguez, if he can just stay
• 30:46
  healthy, and that is the biggest if in the world, if he could
• 30:50
  just stay healthy, the talent's there.
• 30:53
  I I think he can do it. And like the other thing you
• 30:56
  talked about, he's so young. He is still so young.
• 30:58
  And for him, if he could just put it together and just
• 31:02
  actually like it's the other thing.
• 31:03
  He's been in the league for like 3 years now, but he doesn't have
• 31:06
  the experience of a three guy that's been in the league for
• 31:08
  three years. I mean, missed all this year,
• 31:10
  missed the whole back in the last year.
• 31:12
  He was up and down in the minors his first year.
• 31:14
  So it's like he's put together almost the equivalent of like
• 31:17
  one season over three years. So it's like he's also got to
• 31:21
  get the reps If he could stay healthy, if he could go 2 full
• 31:24
  seasons, I think by the second end of the second one, he'd be
• 31:28
  seen as a top 1015 pitcher in baseball.
• 31:31
  But you got to stay on the field.
• 31:33
  You know, you got to stay on the mound if you want to do that.
• 31:35
  And that's the biggest thing for a lot of the Orioles.
• 31:37
  You know, Bradish as well, he's battled arm injuries recently.
• 31:40
  Wells has battled arm injuries recently.
• 31:43
  When they're on the field, when they are pitching, this rotation
• 31:47
  is great, But when it doesn't do too much, when we're just
• 31:51
  talking about, oh, when six months, when these guys return,
• 31:54
  we'll be good. We we got to see him healthy.
• 31:56
  So that's why it's so nice to see Bradish and Wells back this
• 32:01
  month, kind of both returning to dominant form, hoping for 2026.
• 32:05
  But I just at this moment, until we figure out what the heck's
• 32:08
  going on with Grayson and the injuries, I can't rely on him to
• 32:11
  be out there to start the season this.
• 32:16
  Next question might be a. Little painful for you, but you
• 32:19
  mentioned about the bullpen and of all these guys that are just
• 32:24
  guys that you've never heard about before like you know you
• 32:28
  got Yanir Cano that we've heard of him.
• 32:31
  You know, like Felix Bautista, he's her, but you know, you like
• 32:36
  Dietrich ends Rico Garcia, Yaramo Geraldo I'd never even
• 32:40
  heard of before. I just just breakdown the the
• 32:45
  bullpen and are a lot of these guys like whose mainstays or do
• 32:52
  you just need a complete utter overhaul next year?
• 32:55
  Like what's gonna happen with this situation?
• 32:59
  I would love to tell you what's. Gonna happen, but every time I
• 33:01
  look at that bullpen I ask myself the same question.
• 33:05
  They are. This is like a nine man tryout
• 33:08
  at this point. It is.
• 33:09
  Everyone is fighting first spot on next year's team.
• 33:12
  Dietrich ends and Rico Garcia 2 waiver pickups.
• 33:14
  Both have been incredible in the second-half after the trade
• 33:18
  deadline. I think they are making a point
• 33:20
  to be on the team in 26. I don't think anyone in baseball
• 33:25
  is playing their way off a team more than Yeni Arcano is in the
• 33:29
  2025 season. I mean, he's been awful.
• 33:31
  It's to the point you can't put him in close games, You can't
• 33:34
  put him in blowouts. He's going to find ways to make
• 33:36
  it make it somehow close. It's just been a fall from grace
• 33:40
  that I have not seen from a player in a very long time.
• 33:44
  And if I'm being honest, he's only around here.
• 33:46
  So I mean, it got to the point they sent him down.
• 33:48
  They they sent him down a few months ago.
• 33:50
  And then when they traded everyone, it was like, what?
• 33:52
  We got to bring Kano back up, So bring him back up.
• 33:55
  It's been just as bad. I think they're giving him the
• 33:58
  benefit of the doubt. They're saying we've seen you
• 34:01
  dominate. We know it's in there.
• 34:02
  They're going to hope that this is just a really horrible year
• 34:06
  and that maybe next year he puts it together.
• 34:08
  But you know, they traded Gregory Soto, they traded Sir
• 34:13
  Anthony Dominguez, they traded Brian Baker.
• 34:15
  Felix Bautista is probably out for all of next year.
• 34:17
  So that means you are looking for a you have to overhaul the
• 34:22
  bullpen, you know, and they are not going to be able to go get
• 34:26
  5-6 guys in free agency. That's just not realistic.
• 34:28
  You need to go get a closer and then it's going to need to be
• 34:31
  two or three high leverage guys that maybe you get, but they're
• 34:35
  not going to get 5-6 high leverage guys.
• 34:37
  You're going to need guys to step up.
• 34:38
  Now, whether that's the cage Stroud, you know, the young guys
• 34:42
  in the minors, whether that is, you know, these Dietrich ends
• 34:45
  these, you know, Rico Garcia's Geraldo has great, you know,
• 34:49
  metrics that they love, even though sometimes I don't know
• 34:51
  where the ball is going when he's throwing it.
• 34:54
  It's just it's one of those things where they are the
• 34:57
  definition of they are sending things out and hoping something
• 35:00
  sticks. I mean, it is a rote.
• 35:02
  It is literally a rotation right now.
• 35:04
  I mean, every day you get a notification that two more DFA
• 35:07
  Ed and two other guys have been claimed and they're just seeing
• 35:10
  who can stay. And so they I would say probably
• 35:15
  Keegan Aiken, you know, lefty, he's going to be here next year.
• 35:18
  I think they're going to give Cano the benefit of doubt.
• 35:20
  You know, Rico Garcia, I'm going to be here.
• 35:23
  Dietrich end. So that's four guys, maybe Kate
• 35:26
  Straub, but you're going to have to, you know, they're going to
• 35:28
  have to find some guys to eat some innings in some very
• 35:31
  important spots next year. And I I don't think that those
• 35:34
  guys are necessarily in this organization.
• 35:38
  I mean, we've seen things. Does Grayson Rodriguez come back
• 35:41
  as the closer to just try to limit his innings?
• 35:44
  You know, just OK, he can throw 100, go be the closer.
• 35:47
  Does Tyler Wells become a closer?
• 35:49
  Are they going to have to do something with that?
• 35:51
  I mean, Albert Suarez finally comes back from injury, gets 223
• 35:55
  appearances, looks like himself a few days ago and then suddenly
• 35:59
  he's got an elbow injury. He's back on the IR.
• 36:01
  So who knows what happens there. But this offseason, I I would
• 36:05
  not be upset if they're going to make 5 or 6 moves if four or
• 36:08
  five of them are in the bullpen because that that's going to be
• 36:11
  the biggest thing. Go get a top of the line starter
• 36:14
  who can slide in behind Bradish and Rogers.
• 36:17
  And then they got to spend a lot of resources on getting that
• 36:21
  bullpen, whether it's through trade, free agency, because
• 36:24
  they're going to need four or five guys to really get back to
• 36:27
  competitiveness because it's been, it's been rough since the
• 36:30
  deadline. Let's talk about one of the
• 36:34
  bright spots of this roster is Jeremiah Jackson.
• 36:37
  He came out of nowhere and all of a sudden he's become a factor
• 36:42
  for this team. And I look at his highlights
• 36:44
  every time I see some sort of statistic like he's doing
• 36:47
  something important for the Orioles to win games, right?
• 36:52
  Talk about where he came from, because I know he's been a bit
• 36:55
  of a journeyman. He's not a young guy, right?
• 36:57
  So talk a bit about him. He's only, what, 2526?
• 37:01
  So yeah, I mean, go ahead. Yeah, it's weird to call.
• 37:05
  A guy 2526 a journeyman, but it's true.
• 37:07
  I mean he has gone from he's been a part of big trades was
• 37:11
  then with I believe the Mets organization for a little bit
• 37:15
  comes to Baltimore sitting in the minors.
• 37:17
  And then something clicked this year.
• 37:19
  I mean, he was a guy who we hit, you know, a little high 2
• 37:22
  hundreds for most of his career in the minors.
• 37:24
  And he was, you know, he was just a guy, you know, he's, it
• 37:27
  was just a guy in the Miners and suddenly he's batting 366
• 37:31
  throughout the first like 180 game or first 80 games of the
• 37:34
  Miners. And you're like, this guy just
• 37:36
  doesn't stop hitting. So, you know, there's the
• 37:38
  benefit of, well, what's 1 of the upsides to trading your
• 37:42
  entire freaking roster at the deadline?
• 37:44
  So you get to bring guys up and see what they can do.
• 37:46
  And Jeremiah Jackson, they brought him up the first time.
• 37:49
  You're like, OK, let's see what this guy can do.
• 37:51
  They put him out in the left right field, has never played
• 37:55
  the outfield before. And the first ball hit to him,
• 37:58
  he looks up and looks down and was like, I don't see it.
• 38:01
  And you're like, OK, this is what we're doing now.
• 38:04
  This is the 2025 Baltimore Orioles.
• 38:06
  And ever since then, I mean, he's put it together
• 38:09
  defensively. He's not a great defensive
• 38:11
  player, but he now plays the outfield, he plays the infield.
• 38:15
  But with the bat, this guy just hits.
• 38:16
  He he came out of the womb hitting.
• 38:19
  I don't know how else to explain it.
• 38:21
  He just genuinely when he is up and there is this calm about
• 38:26
  him, he just finds ways, you know, he's he's showing some
• 38:28
  more power recently, a lot more double S and homers, but he just
• 38:32
  sprays the baseball. He he's going to use all, you
• 38:35
  know, every part of the field. He's going to hit it every which
• 38:38
  way. He's situationally, you know,
• 38:42
  coherent, so he's sitting there and if he just needs to hit the
• 38:45
  ball to the right side to get a guy over, he'll do that.
• 38:47
  If he needs to lay a bunt down, he'll do that.
• 38:49
  But I mean, to come out here and he's hitting like 280 / 3040
• 38:54
  games at this point. He's been probably one of the
• 38:56
  bright spots, if not the the brightest spot for the Orioles
• 38:59
  this year, especially late in the season because that guy has
• 39:03
  gone from, OK, he's a journeyman, let's see what
• 39:05
  happens. Let's see what we can do with
• 39:06
  them. Maybe this works out, maybe it
• 39:08
  doesn't to now suddenly, I mean, if he's not on this team in 26,
• 39:12
  six people are going to going to be upset and rightfully so
• 39:15
  because he has done everything to play himself into that
• 39:18
  situation where it's no longer even OK, he's a super utility,
• 39:22
  it's OK. How are we going to find a way
• 39:24
  to get Jeremiah Jackson in there 80% of the games?
• 39:27
  Because he has proven so far in a smaller sample size, you know,
• 39:32
  obviously in like 3540 games. But the dude has just hit the
• 39:37
  baseball and he hasn't stopped since he's gotten up to the
• 39:39
  major. So you're going to keep doing
• 39:41
  that. You know he's going to force his
• 39:43
  way onto this team long term. So let's.
• 39:49
  Let's talk a bit about the position player depth that you
• 39:52
  have going forward. You know some of the guys that
• 39:56
  you've already called up, like you got Dylan Bevers and and
• 40:02
  Kobe Mayo and and. And then you got guys who have
• 40:05
  struggled that you've drafted in recent years like Vance
• 40:08
  Honeycutt, Enrique Bradfield looks like he could be a player.
• 40:13
  You draft like Irish this year. Obviously Sam Basayo you
• 40:17
  mentioned already. So talk about a bit about the
• 40:21
  position, player depth going forward and the potential that
• 40:26
  this team could be to be that offensive juggernaut going
• 40:30
  forward. Yeah, I mean the positional
• 40:32
  depth. Is unbelievable.
• 40:33
  That's the, you know, bread and butter right now of the Oriole
• 40:36
  systems. They have a lot of highly rated
• 40:39
  position players. You know, that's kind of what's
• 40:41
  been their MO recently. You know, we've talked about the
• 40:44
  lack of being able to develop pitchers.
• 40:46
  That's changing hopefully a little bit in the minors this
• 40:49
  season. They've had some more success
• 40:51
  getting pitchers up, you know, through the minors, having
• 40:54
  success all the way up. We'll see how it translates to
• 40:56
  the big leagues. But you know, they're they're
• 40:58
  just some guys that throughout the minor leagues, you know,
• 41:02
  Dylan Beavers, he's one of those guys.
• 41:04
  He was not a high prospect. He wasn't a top 100 guy anywhere
• 41:07
  up until August gets called up. Next thing you know, I mean he's
• 41:11
  hitting 290 for the Orioles since being called up on August
• 41:15
  17th. So a whole month now.
• 41:17
  I mean had back-to-back games earlier today with A2 run Homer.
• 41:21
  I mean, he has been kind of the, you know, the 1 making it all
• 41:25
  work right now. So it it's been a lot of these
• 41:28
  young guys, the position player depth and the offense should
• 41:32
  never be in a worry for the Orioles.
• 41:34
  And that's why this year was so surprising, because guys like
• 41:37
  Adley, guys like Westbrook, guys like Gunner took steps back.
• 41:39
  They had down years, you know, like, oh crap, like that's not
• 41:43
  supposed to happen. You know, even when the pitchers
• 41:45
  were allowing just two, three runs in a game, we're getting
• 41:48
  shut out, we're lose, we're only scoring 1.
• 41:50
  So what's the biggest frustration this year is that
• 41:54
  the talent there is there offensively, it's how is it
• 41:56
  going to work? How are they going to continue
• 41:58
  to step up? And I think, you know, I've I've
• 42:02
  talked about it. I think a lot of these guys,
• 42:03
  they do have guys and they have a lot of lot of really talented
• 42:07
  position players, but we also got a lot of really talented
• 42:10
  guys already up in the major. So that's where I've talked
• 42:12
  about before. You need to let your minor
• 42:16
  league system, your farm system work for you.
• 42:18
  You know, trade for pitchers, trade for a big bat if you need
• 42:21
  to, whatever they need. You know, this this second-half
• 42:24
  of this year's been extended spring training.
• 42:27
  Like they are letting Kobe Mayo, they're letting Paseo, letting
• 42:30
  Beavers, letting all these young guys.
• 42:32
  It's, you know, Jeremiah Jackson, it's go play.
• 42:34
  You are playing every single day.
• 42:36
  I don't care if you strike out 40 times in a row.
• 42:38
  I don't care if you hit forty home runs in 40 at bat, you are
• 42:41
  playing every single day. And that I think has set them up
• 42:45
  for they know sort of more what they have.
• 42:47
  They've gotten guys more comfortable in the big leagues
• 42:50
  so that next year you don't have Pasayo making his Major League
• 42:53
  debut on opening Day. And so the first two months or
• 42:56
  him just getting adjusted, they can do that this season.
• 42:59
  So they know what they're getting into next year.
• 43:01
  So the the Orioles depth positional wise that that's
• 43:05
  their bread and butter right now.
• 43:06
  You know, that's where it's like, OK, they need to have
• 43:09
  these guys step up. Van Tyke, that's been
• 43:11
  disappointing. The Orioles thought they could
• 43:15
  get the strikeout rate down. Think it went up.
• 43:18
  I mean, that's kind of been unfortunate one, but they've
• 43:22
  they've just had guys throughout kind of come out of nowhere
• 43:25
  throughout this process. And and that's been, you know,
• 43:29
  Henry George or Nate George, this guy 19th round pick last
• 43:34
  year, you know, out of high school.
• 43:35
  And it's like, OK, this kid will do.
• 43:37
  You know, whatever happens all of a sudden jumps into the top
• 43:39
  60 for MLB prospects this year, flies up the rankings.
• 43:43
  He's already in AA because he's playing so well.
• 43:45
  So you're like, OK, they have these guys, they have a crap ton
• 43:49
  of speed in the minor leagues, which is nice to, you know, just
• 43:53
  because this team they're not going to hit home runs like this
• 43:55
  year. You got to be good at taking the
• 43:57
  extra base and stuff like that. But it's all going to depend on
• 44:00
  how they hit at the Major League level.
• 44:02
  These guys have proven they can hit and that's with a lot of
• 44:05
  guys. Unfortunately, with the Orioles,
• 44:07
  Heston cursed at prime example do could do nothing but hit 400
• 44:12
  and hit homers in AAA, got to the majors that struggled with
• 44:15
  injuries, but he just hasn't put it together.
• 44:17
  You know, Kobe Mayo struggled a lot in August.
• 44:20
  He's actually having a fantastic September.
• 44:22
  And if you look at his September, think it's June, July
• 44:26
  and September, he's got not above an 800 OPS.
• 44:29
  But the reason why, you know, I was talking about let these guys
• 44:32
  fail right now is these young guys in their first year,
• 44:35
  they're going to have atrocious months.
• 44:37
  Like you are going to fail miserably at baseball.
• 44:40
  It does not matter. We have talked to some of the
• 44:42
  greatest. I mean, we're we're joking with
• 44:44
  Ken Griffey junior a few weeks ago.
• 44:46
  He's like, there were times where I was like you like Take
• 44:49
  Me Out, like I suck right now. Like it's like I am bad.
• 44:53
  Like in the great, you know, some of the greatest of all time
• 44:55
  they had it. You know, Cal Ripken Junior, he
• 44:57
  started off his career, you know, he went like 3 for three
• 45:00
  the first game, then went like one for 54 after.
• 45:03
  And it's like, OK, you're going to struggle when you're younger
• 45:06
  and you're going to struggle all throughout.
• 45:08
  So it's about get that first big take, struggle out of the way,
• 45:12
  so then you're like, OK, I've done it before, I've gotten past
• 45:15
  it, and now you can get back to what you do best.
• 45:18
  And I think that's what's important about this season is
• 45:20
  letting in such a failure of a year is letting these young guys
• 45:24
  get time to at least be ready to hit the ground running next
• 45:27
  year. Trevor Rogers has turned.
• 45:31
  The corner in this rotation for the Orioles and a lot of people
• 45:36
  were questioning him when he was acquired for Kyle Stores and
• 45:41
  Connor Norby. But it seems like this year he
• 45:44
  has whatever he did, it's working from complete.
• 45:47
  He looks like a complete different pitcher compared to
• 45:49
  what he was last year. And what has worked for some
• 45:52
  people think the arm saw is so, so difficult to keep a track on
• 45:57
  and the stuff looks great for him and he looks like a
• 46:00
  frontline starting pitcher. So what has worked out for
• 46:03
  Trevor Rogers? Yeah, it's not bad for the.
• 46:06
  Worst trade in baseball history. Yeah, Oriole fans deemed it that
• 46:10
  pretty quickly this offseason as Kyle Stauer started looking like
• 46:14
  an MVP candidate and they gave up on Rogers.
• 46:17
  I think on honestly, to be frank with you, the, the most
• 46:20
  important thing is Trevor Rogers is healthy.
• 46:23
  He has been injured since 2021 in some capacity, whether it's
• 46:27
  his back, his lower body, his, you know, lat, whatever it may
• 46:31
  be. And we, we've talked to a few
• 46:32
  reporters in Miami and they were like towards the end, everyone
• 46:36
  knew he just had to go somewhere else.
• 46:38
  Like the talents there. It just wasn't something he
• 46:40
  needed a new, new spot. So he comes to Baltimore and he
• 46:44
  struggles. You know, he struggles.
• 46:46
  He's still not healthy. He's still his velo's down.
• 46:49
  You know, he's only throwing 9091.
• 46:51
  And you're like, what did we acquire?
• 46:54
  Like what? And then he goes in and it's
• 46:55
  like, OK, Trevor Rogers in the offseason gets injured, gets
• 46:59
  injured playing catch. And you're like, awesome.
• 47:01
  Kyle Stowers goes out there, starts looking like an MVP.
• 47:04
  So everyone of course is like great, the worst trade in
• 47:06
  baseball history, Trevor Rogers comes out against Boston and May
• 47:11
  has, I think it was 7 shutout innings, goes back in the minors
• 47:15
  for two a month and a half comes back and just has been lights
• 47:19
  out. He's been the best pitcher in
• 47:20
  baseball since. And that's crazy to say.
• 47:23
  I every time I say Trevor Rogers has been the best pitcher in
• 47:26
  baseball since it, it's crazy to say out loud, but it it is
• 47:30
  weirdly true. I mean, every time he pitches,
• 47:32
  they put up a statistic that no players ever done this in their
• 47:36
  first fourteen starts since Sandy Covfe.
• 47:38
  So it's just Randy Johnson, Trevor Rogers and you know, Jim
• 47:43
  Palmer and you're like, what is going on right now?
• 47:46
  Because it does feel like an anomaly.
• 47:48
  He was this guy that they didn't think was going to crack the
• 47:51
  team, but now he's the best starter in baseball and you're
• 47:53
  like, this doesn't make sense. I think a lot of it has to do
• 47:56
  with V Lo's back up. I mean, he's touching 95 again,
• 48:00
  what she was when he was runner up for Rookie of the Year in
• 48:02
  2000 in 21. And I, I think the health is
• 48:06
  big. I think the Velo is big, but
• 48:09
  he's also he's tunneling so well.
• 48:11
  He he has been great at letting his pitches work off each other,
• 48:15
  fooling hitters. They don't know what's coming.
• 48:18
  But you know, my biggest thing is I got to see it for longer.
• 48:20
  You know, we, we see these types of runs all the time.
• 48:24
  If he can sit there, I'm not expecting him to have a 1/3 ERA
• 48:28
  next year. But if he can sit even just
• 48:31
  below 3, that's such a win. You know, that's such a win for
• 48:34
  the Orioles because Trevor Rogers, if you want to talk
• 48:37
  about the biggest surprises I've probably ever seen, you know,
• 48:41
  following sports, it's the resurgence of Trevor Rogers
• 48:44
  somehow going from the most hated man in Baltimore to the
• 48:47
  most beloved. And it's been a wild ride.
• 48:51
  I want to talk. About your current.
• 48:54
  Leadoff hitter at Jackson Holiday a little bit.
• 48:57
  He's been pretty good this year. You look at last year and
• 49:00
  baseball being one of the biggest overreaction sports of
• 49:03
  all time. You know, people, especially
• 49:06
  when you're drafted, you know, 11 right?
• 49:08
  And, and a lot of people overreacted and said, you know,
• 49:11
  this guys up buses and that. But, you know, you look at his
• 49:14
  stats this year, he's put up a pretty solid season, 250
• 49:18
  average, 17 home runs, 55 ribbies with 17 stolen bases.
• 49:24
  And he's looking like he could be, you know, like he's like,
• 49:27
  he's still so very young and he's developing into that
• 49:30
  player. So what are your thoughts about
• 49:32
  him? What kind of profile does he
• 49:34
  have going into the future? And you believe you could still
• 49:37
  be that super stung player down the road?
• 49:40
  Yeah. I mean, like like you said, he
• 49:41
  was, he was the number one pick. It's Matt Holiday's son.
• 49:44
  It's you know, he's he's he's a Hall of Famer, right?
• 49:46
  He's the second he steps on the field.
• 49:48
  He's going to be a Hall of Famer.
• 49:49
  There's nothing. He's never going to struggle in
• 49:52
  his life. And people like that was the
• 49:53
  expectation. He's the number one prospect.
• 49:56
  He's going to come up. He's got 162 homers.
• 49:58
  He's never going to strike out and he's going to be the
• 50:00
  greatest thing since sliced bread.
• 50:02
  He was 20 years old when he got up here.
• 50:04
  He's. Still, he just.
• 50:05
  Turned, I think. Actually I think he turns 22 in
• 50:07
  like a few weeks. He is so young it's ridiculous.
• 50:10
  He put on like 10 lbs of muscle this season just by or this past
• 50:14
  offseason just eating nothing but ground beef, which was a
• 50:17
  weird story, but you know, it happened.
• 50:22
  I was actually, you know, he just, he's getting so much more
• 50:24
  comfortable and you can tell it, he actually had such an
• 50:26
  atrocious month of August that he probably wants to forget it
• 50:29
  ever happened. But he just, he finds a way to
• 50:31
  bounce back. He actually today snapped his 16
• 50:33
  game on base streak, had an 8 game hit streak, but he's
• 50:36
  putting it together. His play at second base has
• 50:39
  taken just leaps and bounds since he first got there and it
• 50:42
  felt like every ball over there was about to get booted or
• 50:45
  dropped or whatever. I still have so much faith in
• 50:49
  Jackson Holiday One because he's so young and he is just
• 50:52
  developing into who he is as a player.
• 50:54
  I think he has an incredible batting eye.
• 50:56
  I think the power is just getting there.
• 50:58
  We were actually was talking to him I think two months ago at
• 51:02
  this point and he joked about that he can't wait till he's 25
• 51:06
  and has his grown man strength. So all these times that he keeps
• 51:08
  flying out to the warning track will actually leave the yard.
• 51:12
  And I mean it. I feel like this guy averages
• 51:14
  like 2-3 a week where it just he just hits wall scrapers and it's
• 51:18
  just like one day I told him another, another offseason of
• 51:22
  just ground beef and we'll be there.
• 51:24
  So it you know it for Jackson Holiday, he's getting more
• 51:27
  aggressive on the base pass. He's learning how to be a a good
• 51:30
  base stealer. He genuinely is.
• 51:32
  He was taking off at times earlier this year that you were
• 51:35
  like, what are we doing, Jackson?
• 51:37
  But he's become so cerebral on the base pads his, you know, he
• 51:42
  he's changed his stance a little bit.
• 51:43
  He just looks so tired in August, to be honest with you.
• 51:47
  He it looked like his stance was getting so upright.
• 51:49
  You know, things changed and he just looks like he got his
• 51:52
  confidence back. I think if he can finish this
• 51:54
  year the same way he's hitting right now, you know, like you
• 51:57
  said, he has put together a very for a 21 year old and really his
• 52:02
  first full season of Major League Baseball tit 250.
• 52:06
  He leads the team in home runs, which is more of a shot at how
• 52:09
  little power the Orioles have had this year.
• 52:11
  But he he really he has been really great for them and at
• 52:15
  times one of the few bright spots because sticking him at
• 52:19
  he's the, you know, Tony Manzilino when he took over, he
• 52:21
  said Jackson holidays the lead off guy and he's not leaving
• 52:24
  that spot and he's stuck to it. And I think it's been great for
• 52:27
  not only the team, but for Jackson, because I think he's
• 52:30
  the long term lead off guy. And I think this is just getting
• 52:33
  him better for inevitably his I, I think it's going to be a very
• 52:37
  nice 2026 so. I want to talk about two.
• 52:42
  Of the most important players in this franchise and we we could
• 52:45
  dive deep a little bit more into this is Adly Rushman and Gunner
• 52:48
  Henderson. And both of those guys were, I
• 52:51
  believe, drafted in 2019 and they've been pretty much the
• 52:54
  cornerstones of this franchise so far.
• 52:56
  And we talked earlier about Basile getting extended.
• 53:01
  And look at Ali Rushman. He has two years left in his
• 53:04
  contract. I believe he's represented by
• 53:05
  Beverly Hills, a Sports Group, I believe, or Beverly, whatever it
• 53:08
  is. And Gunner, Gunner Henderson is
• 53:12
  represented by Scott Boris. So and he has three years left.
• 53:16
  Like how do you think this will play out with those guys?
• 53:20
  And if there's any other guys that could be possibly extended
• 53:24
  besides those two who could get extended?
• 53:26
  Or do you think it could play played self out as long as Scott
• 53:32
  Boris? Represents Gunner, Henderson,
• 53:34
  Jordan Westberg and them. I do not say them getting them
• 53:38
  getting extended. Scott Boris is love him or hate
• 53:41
  him, he is damn good at what he does and he has players wait and
• 53:47
  he has guys go to free agency. There have been only a few
• 53:51
  instances of these guys signing early.
• 53:54
  I think Salvador Perez is one of the only Boris clients to sign
• 53:58
  before hitting free agency with his current club.
• 54:02
  It's just not what Scott does. So Adley, I think they still
• 54:06
  would like to sign him long term.
• 54:07
  I know because of Besayo people are like oh, you can't have two
• 54:10
  catchers. I don't think either if you are
• 54:14
  splitting catching duties between the two.
• 54:17
  And I think the Orioles, you know, we've seen it this year.
• 54:19
  They're going to carry 3 catchers next year because
• 54:21
  you're going to be DH ING one of them if the other is catching
• 54:25
  and you don't want to lose your, you know, DH spot if something
• 54:28
  were to happen to a catcher in the middle of the game.
• 54:31
  So they're going to be a third catcher.
• 54:33
  I think they're taking a lot of pressure and just.
• 54:37
  Wear and tear off of. Them by splitting them up
• 54:39
  between catcher DH besides could get time at first.
• 54:43
  I I think Adley might be the next one you see extended of the
• 54:47
  position player group. I think the guy they need to get
• 54:50
  extended is Trevor Rogers. He's got one year left on his
• 54:53
  deal. He's not Scott Boris.
• 54:55
  So that opens up that realm of possibilities.
• 54:58
  I think that has to get done this offseason.
• 55:01
  But then yeah, Gunner Henderson, they want to sign Gunner
• 55:03
  Henderson. And I know for a fact that they
• 55:06
  have offered Gunner Henderson an uncomfortable amount of money
• 55:10
  that is closer to Juan Soto than it is to Bobby Witt Junior.
• 55:13
  And they said no. So it's like we've we've seen
• 55:16
  the reports, they've gone over 400 million and Gunner's
• 55:19
  declined it because Gunner wants.
• 55:21
  I mean, why wouldn't you? If, if Scott Boris is telling
• 55:23
  him he could be the, you know, a $700 million guy, they're going
• 55:27
  to sit there and they're going to wait and see what happens.
• 55:29
  But I would, it would be one of the happiest days of my life if
• 55:33
  I got the notification that Gunner Henderson signed an
• 55:35
  extension in Baltimore because I'm that already preparing for
• 55:41
  the inevitable day that he goes to free agency.
• 55:43
  I'm not saying he won't return to Baltimore in free agency if
• 55:46
  they give him the best offer. But Scott, Boris, anytime you
• 55:51
  mention him in a sentence about extensions, usually the answer
• 55:54
  is unfortunately going to be no. Let me.
• 55:58
  Ask you this before we go to the next question.
• 56:01
  Yeah, let's just say so because some guys don't feel comfortable
• 56:05
  extending guys. You looked at what Washington
• 56:08
  did with Juan Soto, trading him to the Padres and then with the
• 56:11
  Padres, he got traded to the Yankees.
• 56:13
  Could you see a scenario where Gunner Henderson could
• 56:16
  potentially get traded if he doesn't agree to terms with the
• 56:18
  Orioles, if they if they stink in 26 and. 27 Yeah, like if they
• 56:24
  if, if the core it it it's unfortunately for Orioles fans,
• 56:27
  you know, PTSD of Manny Machado all over again.
• 56:30
  It it looked like, OK, they got this core.
• 56:32
  They're going to go for it. And you know, they'll they'll
• 56:35
  sign Manny. They'll extend these guys
• 56:36
  because this is the young core. You know, they're winning
• 56:39
  together. And then all of a sudden in
• 56:40
  2017, you you you missed the playoffs and you're like, OK,
• 56:43
  then 2018 you are one of the worst.
• 56:45
  I mean, you lose 100 games. And so halfway through, you're
• 56:47
  like, we got to trade Manny. Like he's not coming back to be
• 56:50
  a part of a rebuild. And we're not you know, we got
• 56:53
  to get the most out of them now. The most they got out of that
• 56:55
  was Dean Kramer. So that didn't really work out
• 56:58
  like they thought. But, you know, as much as it
• 57:01
  sucks, if this team is not in a position to win when 27 comes
• 57:06
  up, I think, you know, going into that offseason to 28, his
• 57:09
  final year, there will be those discussions of what what do you
• 57:12
  do with Gunner Henderson now if he is, if they are what they
• 57:15
  hope to be still competing, still see themselves as World
• 57:18
  Series contenders now, they're going to go for it.
• 57:20
  They're going to they're going to keep gunner, but you know, I
• 57:23
  also Michael eyes has a love for prospect so I can't can also see
• 57:28
  if if a few get dangled in front of him, he would he'd he'd
• 57:32
  probably take it unfortunately. So we talked about.
• 57:36
  The bullpen a bit earlier and. And the struggles, to say the
• 57:40
  least, that they've had. Who do you think could be the
• 57:42
  closer this team next year? Batista isn't ready to go
• 57:45
  because we saw, like you mentioned, Cano's just been
• 57:49
  really bad. He's, you know, I especially
• 57:52
  after a guy who was so great the last couple years, one of the
• 57:57
  best relievers in baseball. So do you believe that the
• 58:00
  closer exists on this team or is just something that, yeah, just
• 58:04
  something they're looking towards, they've got, they've
• 58:08
  got to sign? Someone in 20 in the offseason,
• 58:11
  I don't trust, You know, they can try Tyler Wells, They can do
• 58:13
  all this stuff. This was got about a year ago
• 58:17
  now. We had Jonathan Papelbon on and
• 58:19
  he just flat out said no team wins the World Series with
• 58:22
  closer by committee. Like it's it is so hard to win
• 58:25
  with, but you need a psycho. You need someone who can go out
• 58:30
  there in the ninth, who wants the ball in their hands, win the
• 58:32
  biggest moments and who's going to go out there.
• 58:34
  So you look at the free agency, you know, you look at maybe does
• 58:38
  Suarez opt out of his deal in San Diego?
• 58:41
  Does a Ryan Helsley, you know, he's struggling with the Mets.
• 58:44
  Don't think he comes to goes back there.
• 58:46
  Is he available? Do they have to go make a trade?
• 58:49
  But you know, I, I do not think if they go into next season
• 58:53
  without making a move for a top of the line closer, they are
• 58:57
  putting themselves, they're doing a disservice to the team.
• 58:59
  I mean, they need a guy who they can go out there like a Felix
• 59:03
  Bautista did, and you trust when you hand him the ball that
• 59:06
  they're going to get 3 outs could.
• 59:10
  You see? Anyone from from the roster
• 59:14
  right now in the offseason that could potentially a trade
• 59:18
  candidate. For example, you look at a guy
• 59:20
  like Mount, Ryan, Mountcastle, because the Orioles keeps on
• 59:24
  bringing up guys and they keep having positional players or
• 59:27
  Jorge Mateo or even Tyler. Or if you want to go deeper,
• 59:31
  since some of these guys are already up, could they trade
• 59:34
  some of these guys in the minors to upgrade this team this
• 59:37
  offseason? Yeah.
• 59:39
  I think you have to look at that, I think.
• 59:41
  Ryan Mountcastle is the guy that always comes up.
• 59:43
  I think one of here, Kobe Mayo, is going to be gone next year
• 59:45
  because they're just repetitive. It's two right-handed power
• 59:49
  hitters that play first base, and if you're going to split
• 59:51
  that time with Pesayo getting there, sometimes I just think
• 59:56
  that one of them well, But we've been saying that with Mount
• 59:59
  Castle the past two offseasons. I would have put so much money
• 1:00:02
  on the fact that he'd be in Seattle by now.
• 1:00:04
  It's unreal. But it just hasn't worked out.
• 1:00:06
  You know, Seattle has an abundance of young pitching and
• 1:00:10
  I mean, up until recently with the trade deadline, they didn't
• 1:00:13
  have a lot of offense. So you wanted to, you know, you
• 1:00:16
  thought that matched up well. I, I wouldn't be surprised if
• 1:00:20
  Mount Castle, I think, you know, if they're trading Kobe Mayo,
• 1:00:24
  it's for a much bigger prize. You know, he would probably be
• 1:00:27
  the star of a bigger deal that maybe gets you a top of the line
• 1:00:31
  starter of, you know, a big back end reliever.
• 1:00:34
  But I think one of them most likely just because of the
• 1:00:38
  situation that they're in with, OK, do you really need 2 guys
• 1:00:43
  that you want to get every day at bats but are both
• 1:00:46
  right-handed hitting first baseman?
• 1:00:48
  I mean, it worked when it was with Ryan O'hearn because you
• 1:00:51
  could let him go and kind of platoon, OK O'hearn's always
• 1:00:53
  playing first against the righty.
• 1:00:55
  When they throw a lefty in there, we'll DH O'hearn or
• 1:00:58
  whatever and we'll bring in Mayo or Mountain Castle.
• 1:01:00
  But if it's two righties, it's going to be hard for them to
• 1:01:04
  really, you know, I think it's best if maybe one of them is
• 1:01:07
  elsewhere for everyone. I mean, even for the player to
• 1:01:09
  get the most, you know, reps that they possibly can and most
• 1:01:13
  run. But, you know, I think the
• 1:01:15
  biggest guy that always gets floated around, especially in
• 1:01:18
  Baltimore media, is Ryan Mountcastle.
• 1:01:20
  I think for the past three years, everyone has traded him
• 1:01:23
  in the offseason, just assumed he's gone.
• 1:01:25
  And then here comes opening day and Ryan Mountcastle is your
• 1:01:28
  starting first baseman. And I mean, it's sad because he
• 1:01:31
  kind of doesn't get the love he deserves here.
• 1:01:33
  I mean, he is a damn good player, especially when he's
• 1:01:36
  hot. There are very few players in
• 1:01:38
  baseball that can take over a game like Ryan Mountcastle.
• 1:01:41
  I mean, he's had twelve RBI games.
• 1:01:43
  Like it's just like you looking like this is ridiculous what
• 1:01:46
  he's doing right now. But you know, when it's bad,
• 1:01:48
  it's been bad. So I wouldn't be surprised at
• 1:01:51
  all if a guy like Mount Castle gets floated around in trade
• 1:01:55
  discussions because they got up, you know, like I said earlier,
• 1:01:57
  they're going to have to trade some guys to get, you know,
• 1:01:59
  relievers or a pitcher because they they are not going to be
• 1:02:03
  able to just run it back with this group right now and just
• 1:02:06
  hope that it's magically, you know, oh, it was just injuries.
• 1:02:09
  You know, they're going to have to improve.
• 1:02:12
  Tell you no team would be happier than.
• 1:02:13
  The Blue Jays to see the I was going to say that, you know.
• 1:02:19
  But life in the ale. Use is so tough like I I I truly
• 1:02:25
  believe that some people don't really get how tough this
• 1:02:28
  division is like and it's been this way for years and you know
• 1:02:33
  like last year was the Blue Jays turn to be at the bottom this
• 1:02:36
  year it's your turn few years ago was the Yankees.
• 1:02:40
  You know the Red Sox have had their turn.
• 1:02:42
  You know, like it's it's really tough.
• 1:02:44
  So how how would you say how much pressure is there for the
• 1:02:50
  Orioles to add this offseason to have that bounce back season
• 1:02:54
  next year? Oh, I mean this is this is the
• 1:02:57
  most. Confident I've ever been going
• 1:02:58
  into an offseason that the Orioles are going to be
• 1:03:00
  aggressive. And the main reason is because,
• 1:03:02
  well, if they aren't and if this is repeated next season, well,
• 1:03:05
  Michael, Isis is going to be out of a job.
• 1:03:08
  They got to, they got to be aggressive and they have to
• 1:03:11
  bounce back. I mean, this new ownership group
• 1:03:13
  wants to win. They are very mad about the
• 1:03:15
  current situation. They do not like losing.
• 1:03:18
  And especially for a team that, you know, is young and you had
• 1:03:21
  high expectations for, you know, like you said, life in the AL
• 1:03:25
  East is tough and it's not getting any easier.
• 1:03:27
  I mean, the Jays obviously have a lot of young, talented
• 1:03:30
  players. The Red Sox seem to be calling
• 1:03:31
  up a top prospect every other day.
• 1:03:34
  The Yankees are going to buy themselves 80 to 90 wins every
• 1:03:37
  single year, no matter how high their average age of the team
• 1:03:40
  is. The Rays are the Rays.
• 1:03:42
  I just, at this point, I don't care.
• 1:03:44
  The Rays are going to send out 26 guys on Opening Day that
• 1:03:48
  you've never heard of before, and then they're going to win 81
• 1:03:51
  games. It's what they do It's
• 1:03:53
  ridiculous. Three of the pitchers that
• 1:03:55
  you've never seen in your life are going to compete for the Cy
• 1:03:57
  Young. For some reason it's just the
• 1:03:59
  Rays, so I don't know how they do it.
• 1:04:02
  The Rays just, and this is the Rays, I guess down year.
• 1:04:04
  So it means next year they're going to show up with random
• 1:04:07
  humans and probably Junior Caminero is going to win MVP and
• 1:04:10
  they'll somehow win 95 games just because that's what the
• 1:04:13
  Rays do. I mean, being in the I'm so
• 1:04:15
  tired of playing in the AL ES, you know, we obviously talked
• 1:04:18
  football beforehand. I'm so tired of my team, my
• 1:04:21
  baseball teams in the AL East and my football teams in the AFC
• 1:04:24
  North and I don't get an offseason.
• 1:04:26
  Like we are fighting for our lives in everything.
• 1:04:29
  Like it's like you lose 1 game and seven teams, even though
• 1:04:32
  there's only four others somehow seventeens game game games on
• 1:04:36
  you, you're like awesome, This is fantastic.
• 1:04:38
  I mean, it's just a dog fight. It, it genuinely is every single
• 1:04:42
  year in the AAL E, it's just and you know, two or three teams are
• 1:04:47
  going to the playoffs. Hell, we've had years where it
• 1:04:50
  looked like the AL East could send four teams and it, it just
• 1:04:53
  genuinely is crazy when you look at the pure talent in the AL
• 1:04:58
  East right now and just a young talent.
• 1:05:00
  I mean, really every team has a young superstar, funny enough,
• 1:05:05
  besides the Yankees that you can point to.
• 1:05:09
  You know, you look at you look at obviously gunner, you have
• 1:05:12
  vladdy, you have Roman Anthony and them coming up, you have
• 1:05:15
  junior Cam and Aaron. And then you look at the
• 1:05:16
  Yankees. They're like you got Darren
• 1:05:17
  judge, you know, which is awesome.
• 1:05:19
  You know, I would I would love Aaron judge, but you got like
• 1:05:22
  you're like, OK, I don't know, in five years, you know, I know
• 1:05:24
  these guys are still going to be, you know, hopefully Gunners
• 1:05:27
  here, but you know, I know these guys are still going to be here
• 1:05:29
  competing. So it's, I mean, that's why the
• 1:05:32
  hardest thing to do right now in the AL East is be is
• 1:05:35
  consistently win because every year you're competing with at
• 1:05:38
  least, you know, 2-3 other teams that are really damn talented.
• 1:05:44
  To wrap up this episode and. So a lot has to do with this
• 1:05:48
  ownership. Like you said, the Rubensteins
• 1:05:50
  took over this franchise, I believe what like last year or
• 1:05:52
  the year before, before the Angels because because the
• 1:05:55
  Angels have been running that franchise and you saw that
• 1:05:58
  debacle with the kids, right, going into into a lawsuit within
• 1:06:02
  each other and try to get rights.
• 1:06:03
  And, you know, a lot of people thought that getting this new
• 1:06:08
  ownership with the Rubensteins has turned the corner.
• 1:06:12
  And I look at this team and look, I mean, every team has its
• 1:06:17
  down year and the Orioles are having that right now.
• 1:06:19
  But looking at this team and looking at the financial
• 1:06:22
  commitment, they only have 22 million committed.
• 1:06:25
  That's it. It's like they just have Tyler
• 1:06:28
  O'Neill Sam beside Jorge Matteo and Alvin Rodriguez.
• 1:06:32
  What are your expectations with this payroll next year and how
• 1:06:36
  much do you think financially they could add to improve this
• 1:06:39
  team moving forward? Yeah, I mean, they got to add
• 1:06:42
  and I, I. Mean the the ownership group is
• 1:06:44
  willing to add. I think honestly this falls on
• 1:06:47
  Mike Elias to where he goes with his numbers and he says whether
• 1:06:51
  or not a player is worth it. And they say, OK, here's what
• 1:06:55
  our numbers say your worth is and here's what we're willing to
• 1:06:58
  pay you. And I think he is finding out in
• 1:07:00
  Major League Baseball if you go to pay a guy his worth, you will
• 1:07:03
  not have that guy. Why?
• 1:07:05
  Because there is going to be a desperate team that will give
• 1:07:07
  him $10 million a year more. Because if you are looking to
• 1:07:11
  pay a guy his worth, you are not getting him.
• 1:07:14
  So you are going to have to overpay.
• 1:07:16
  You are going to have to take risks.
• 1:07:18
  You know it. It's not always going to be OK,
• 1:07:20
  Here's what our metrics are telling us, your worth.
• 1:07:22
  And they're going to be like, awesome, love that.
• 1:07:24
  If the metrics are telling me that's what I'm worth, I don't
• 1:07:26
  care what another team's telling me, I'm going to go with what
• 1:07:28
  your metrics are telling me. They got it.
• 1:07:30
  They got to spend. And you know it.
• 1:07:32
  It's been something where every year, yes, the payroll's gone
• 1:07:35
  up. I think, you know, they'll
• 1:07:36
  probably be close sur to that 150 once, you know, in that
• 1:07:41
  closer hopefully to 200 by the end.
• 1:07:43
  All arbitration, everything goes into it next year.
• 1:07:47
  But they've you know, it's also about not just spending to
• 1:07:51
  spend. I mean, they spent nine and a
• 1:07:53
  half million dollars this last offseason on Gary Sanchez.
• 1:07:56
  They spent 15,000,000 on CC Morton.
• 1:07:59
  They spent 15,000,000 on Tsugano.
• 1:08:01
  They spent 50 million on Tyler O'Neill.
• 1:08:04
  And you're sitting there and you're like, OK, not wasn't a
• 1:08:07
  lot of value. That was, you know, maybe, you
• 1:08:10
  know, eventually at the end, Charlie Morton was one of your
• 1:08:12
  better pitchers. But for a lot of it, I mean,
• 1:08:14
  like, if you're going to spend that much, you know, it's going
• 1:08:18
  to be about where they're allocating.
• 1:08:20
  You can't just spend to spend, You know, this they they can't
• 1:08:22
  just be like, oh, well, salary caps going up or salary number
• 1:08:26
  is going up. You know, we're we're trying to
• 1:08:28
  win all this stuff. You got to put talented players
• 1:08:30
  out there. And I think that's why this
• 1:08:32
  offseason, I have never been more confident that the Orioles
• 1:08:35
  are going to do something simply because if they don't, I don't
• 1:08:38
  think this group is here next year.
• 1:08:40
  And I I think that's pretty cut and dry at this point.
• 1:08:42
  Their their seat is getting hotter.
• 1:08:44
  I mean, they've yet to win a playoff game, you know?
• 1:08:46
  Yeah, they they won the division.
• 1:08:47
  Yeah. They went to the playoffs last
• 1:08:48
  year. Yet to win a playoff game since
• 1:08:50
  2014. That's eleven years.
• 1:08:53
  You're about to be at 12 years. I mean, there's and this is year
• 1:08:56
  7 of this regime, you know? Yeah.
• 1:08:58
  You already got rid of Brandon Hyde.
• 1:09:00
  There's no no other finger to point.
• 1:09:02
  You know, the the next finger is is going to Mike Elias.
• 1:09:05
  So I think there is pressure and they they've got to make
• 1:09:07
  something happen if they not only want to compete, but prove
• 1:09:11
  that, hey, we're not just competing for a division for a
• 1:09:14
  wild card. They they got to prove that they
• 1:09:16
  can win it all. And you know, I think the young
• 1:09:19
  talent is there. They just got to supplement it.
• 1:09:23
  Zach. We thank you once again for
• 1:09:26
  being this in this episode. That was some great information
• 1:09:30
  to provide because a lot of Orioles fans need to know what's
• 1:09:33
  going on and what this franchise is about.
• 1:09:35
  But I think that they're going to have a big offseason.
• 1:09:37
  And I think that with this team that they they are in a good
• 1:09:42
  spot moving forward. But where can we find you?
• 1:09:45
  It's social media and everywhere else, Yeah, if you want to
• 1:09:48
  follow me on Twitter for. My rants about pretty much just
• 1:09:52
  everything. You'll get random thoughts at
• 1:09:55
  2:00 AM. For the random things, you'll
• 1:09:57
  get random highlights from six years ago that randomly popped
• 1:10:01
  up on my line. But if you want to follow me on
• 1:10:03
  Twitter or X, it's at Zach Bollinger, 18.
• 1:10:07
  Same as I think I'm just Zach Bollinger on Instagram.
• 1:10:11
  But yeah, no, follow me if you want to watch our podcast, the
• 1:10:16
  Ryan Ripken Show on YouTube and Kevin and Zach react as well.
• 1:10:19
  But guys appreciate you having me on.
• 1:10:21
  It's been a lot of fun. Yeah, man, it's been one of our.
• 1:10:25
  Best episodes, I think, man, you, you, you're you're going to
• 1:10:29
  be hard to top. And it was, it was awesome
• 1:10:31
  having you and it was just fun, man, talking to you and stuff.
• 1:10:35
  So keep up the good work, man. I love, I love your rants, man.
• 1:10:39
  You're funny and witty and it's it's it's awesome, man.
• 1:10:42
  So I really, I really appreciate that guys.
• 1:10:45
  Yeah, keep, keep doing this. This is a lot of fun.
• 1:10:47
  Yeah. And anytime.
• 1:10:48
  Maybe, maybe not after what happened last time in Buffalo,
• 1:10:51
  but you know, well, well, I would love to come back on talk,
• 1:10:55
  talk a little Ravens football. Sweet.
• 1:10:58
  Absolutely. We'll figure out a date on that.
• 1:11:00
  Off the air, but we will place the description below where you
• 1:11:03
  can find all of Zach's contest because 1 he it's it's a must
• 1:11:08
  listen. I listen to his show, his post
• 1:11:11
  game show and 2GO look at his Twitter because you know what he
• 1:11:15
  will be animated and he will let it out.
• 1:11:18
  So make sure you make sure you won't have to think about what
• 1:11:22
  I'm trying to say. I make it pretty clear what I'm
• 1:11:24
  thinking on Twitter, so make. Sure, you follow me and we'll
• 1:11:29
  place your description below, but till next time, take care,
• 1:11:32
  be kind to each other. Signing off from the Sports Ave.
• 1:11:34
  Twisted podcast on Wednesday, September 17th, 2025.