r/orioles • u/mlb-dinger • 2d ago
Offseason Thread - Week of 12 Oct 2026
Offseason thread for the week: news, rumours and anything else.
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u/romorr 8h ago
Chris Bassitt on Craig Albernaz's first year as manager:
"He was an unbelievable manager. He was an unbelievable guy for the locker room. He held guys accountable... Things will be implemented and things will be changed but I thought Alby did an unbelievable job."
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u/tomtheterp1988 The Catch™, 8/31/2026 8h ago
At least two different ways to interpret "unbelievable."
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u/romorr 1d ago
I hope the Orioles stretch out Nunez.
Guy's a baby when it comes to pitching. There could be more there.
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u/Key_Tax8124 1d ago
Nunez is tough. Because yes, he has the ceiling to be such a stud. But last year he pitched a career high of 72 IP last year. IMO very small chance he can go to 120+ innings and be a contributor in the playoffs as a starter next year. Between the steep development learning to start in the big leagues and it being such a stretch on his arm, highly doubt he would be a playoff SP next year.
But in the pen, he could be a real weapon right away. Which is an area of need of ours, our pen will be solid next year, but a lock-down pen would be outstanding...
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u/romorr 11h ago
Starting pitchers are way more valuable than relievers, and Nunez has the pitch mix of a starter already. He is exactly the kind of reliever that gets moved to the rotation, especially considering the reason he's in the pen in the first place.
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u/Key_Tax8124 9h ago
Oh absolutely. But the Orioles are in a position where 2027 they need contributors to their big league team.. Nunez, who has never started at any level before, would v likely need another year in the minors before potentially contributing as a starter. If we decide to stretch Nunez out and have him start, almost no shot he would contribute at all to the big league team in 2027.
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u/romorr 9h ago
2027 they need contributors to their big league team
We have more than enough time to add to the BP. November is going to be crazy, and I expect a good amount of signings / trades.
We also have some nice BP options down on the farm. If we add in guys that should stop starting, we'll have even more.
who has never started at any level before, would v likely need another year in the minors before potentially contributing as a starter.
Right, he hasn't started before, and there's a good reason as to why. He's not your typical reliever, who was in the rotation to start his career. So there could be more there, and with his pitch mix, it's absolutely something the Orioles should consider.
The nice thing is we have time on our side. It doesn't necessarily need to be done this year. Nunez is only going into his age 25 season, and we still control him for 5 years.
It's an annoying statement, but it's true, you can never have enough starting pitching. He might not be the next deGrom, but maybe the next Michael King?
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u/Key_Tax8124 8h ago
All of what you said it very true, I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Even if we don't opt to stretch him out in 2027, could happen in 2028 too!
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u/to_the__cloud 19h ago edited 18h ago
i wouldnt mind if he spends the whole year in norfolk if he's looking promising.
norfolk rotation is gonna be pretty fun regardless with gibson, forret and german to start then whenever dzierwa, eyanson and hunter get promoted.
edit: and de leon!
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u/romorr 8h ago
Eyanson
Hunter
Dzierwa
Forret
German
Wells
Should be the rotation to start the year. I could see Eyanson / Hunter / Bragg starting out in AA. They get the 5 start, 3-4 inning treatment, and once we are ready to move past that, they get to AAA.
And this isn't counting the 40 man guys, LDL and Gibson.
So that is 9 real options to be in the Norfolk rotation. If you want to add Quinn, Reilly, and Gongora, that's 12.
Trade season could be very fun for us.
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u/tomtheterp1988 The Catch™, 8/31/2026 8h ago
If they handle him correctly, Nunez for Mullins could rival AJ for Bedard as far as a legendary Oriole trades.
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u/Dangerous_Substance7 2d ago
Man, I’m just trying to imagine how I’d be feeling if Inwere a Brewers fan right now. Kingslayers!
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u/tickle69_ 2d ago
No way Cole Sulser is pitching rn 😭 next Dillion Tate or something is coming out of their pen 😭😭
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u/ReyDragons 12h ago
Pete isn't a gold glove finalist... Dismantle the committee that decides this and rebuild
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u/OsCrowsAndNattyBohs1 Ramon Urias Stan 2d ago
The Pop Fly drop of the week is the Jeffrey Maier incident
https://popflypopshop.com/products/260-the-jeffrey-maier-incident-7-x-10-5
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u/tomtheterp1988 The Catch™, 8/31/2026 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yelich? Wow.
Yamamoto out after 2.2? DOUBLE WOW!
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u/Friendly-Contact-433 The Shorebirds Guy 1d ago
The outfield defensive alignment rule being tested in the AFL is going to suck if implemented
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u/bobcatgoldthwait 1d ago
I didn't even know this was a thing.
My initial reaction is to say "this sounds stupid", but if it leads to teams prioritizing speedier OFers (even corner OFers) who can cover more ground, that could be exciting. Maybe?
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u/tomtheterp1988 The Catch™, 8/31/2026 1d ago
Bad news for teams with slow, inexperienced, mediocre corner outfielders.
In other words, bad news for O's fans.
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u/bobcatgoldthwait 1d ago
We just need an OF of EBJ, Cowser and Honeycutt. They'll combine for 750 K's in a season but they'll cover some ground!
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u/Friendly-Contact-433 The Shorebirds Guy 1d ago
In other words they won't benefit from MLB trying to increase offensive numbers on balls hit to the OF
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u/tomtheterp1988 The Catch™, 8/31/2026 8h ago
I think it's funny that the Fox Sports ad sales team was (no doubt) hoping, begging, praying for a NYY/LAD matchup, and now they might get only the Dodgers. Wonder how much of their projected revenue went down the toilet.
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u/MrSeptember711 pitching, defense, 3-run homers 4h ago
Meanwhile lots of us wanted literally ANYTHING other than another Yanks Dodgers WS. Hoping for the Brewers to stomp the Dodgers again tonight 🤞
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u/LoraxEleven 1h ago
Ain't the brews cold out in LA! I wish old Uke could've called that game. Great job from the O's of days gone by.
They moved tomorrow's game up to 5p.
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u/Loose-Produce-608 1d ago
It’s just… so hard for me to watch baker turn into this guy when we had him for sooo long. Everyone knew he just had to figure out the changeup and we couldn’t do it. So frustrating to see the rays figure it out in one off-season when we couldn’t figure it for basically his whole career
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u/isestrex 14h ago
I just don't get the constant crying over the one guy Elias has traded who's taken a big step, when, by contrast, he's let dozens of other names go who have struggled mightily (Mancini, Lopez, Hays, Santander, Mullins, Ward... to name a few), OR names he's brought in to the ire of other fanbases. You realize that O'Hearn, Cano, Rogers, Blaze were all major league players who fan bases are doing the same "I can't believe we let him go to flourish somewhere else!"
Yes losing Baker is sad, but we're far on the other side of the ledger playing the poaching game.
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u/TheBigIguana15 12h ago
Don’t forget my guy Stowers.
But yeah people are going to be annoyed when you give away a major piece of a division rivals potential World Series run for essentially nothing while your own team is on decade two of no playoff wins.
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u/pan567 5h ago
FWIW, I think the bigger thing here is that the organization should try to learn what they could do differently in the future when they have a player with raw capability but are struggling to convert that into consistently good results. That entails understanding what the Rays did differently.
It's not unheard of it for a player to have inconsistent results with one team and then find their stride elsewhere. In fact, some players the O's brought in struggled elsewhere and found their stride here (ROH and CES, for example). But in instances where it is the opposite like with Baker, I think the most important thing is trying to understand why, and incorporating those lessons to how you operate differently in the future.
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u/to_the__cloud 45m ago
it feels bittersweet to watch jackson chourio play. like im enjoying him hit leadoff bombs but can't help but compare to our 22 year old jackson at home
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u/Kotow92 1h ago
Man DL Hall…
If only we had a competent GM
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u/waker94 1h ago
I’d still trade him for Corbin Burnes at that point in time. Great trade for both teams
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u/ANGRY_BEARDED_MAN 1h ago
Yeah this is some crazy revisionist history right here, this sub was over the moon when we got Burnes. In case anyone needs a reminder.
Don't see a whole lot of hand wringing about losing DL Hall in that thread
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u/dubsgOtups 2d ago
things i never thought i'd ever see:
dl hall getting a playoff W against skubal/dodgers.