Should the Orioles retain the 40th-best player in baseball? Usually, that’s an easy question to answer, but Jonathan Villar’s future is uncertain. According to FanGraphs, Villar was the 40th-best player in Major League Baseball in the 2019 season. Both FanGraphs and Baseballreference.com calculate Villar’s WAR (wins above replacement) at 4.0. That puts...
Mike Elias’ first year as the Orioles’ top baseball executive is over, and despite another horrid won/loss record, it’s a qualified success. The Orioles weren’t meant to be competitive this season, and they weren’t. It was nice they won seven more games than they did a year ago, but at some point,...
BOSTON— The second-worst season in Orioles history is over. It wasn’t as bad as 2018 with its 115 losses, but the Orioles eight-game improvement in 2019 still left them with a 54-108 record. In 1988, when the Orioles started 0-21, they finished 54-107 with a game rained out. Their 223 losses in...
BOSTON—Game 162 typified the Orioles’ 2019 season. There were some excellent plays, and some absurd ones. The result was one final loss, the 108th, 5-4 to the Boston Red Sox on Sunday. A wondrous play extended the game in the eighth, and a careless one ended it in the bottom of the...
BOSTON—Mark Trumbo is set to play in his final game for the Orioles Sunday afternoon. Trumbo was dealt to the Orioles in December 2015 and led the major leagues in home runs with 47 in 2016. Before the 2017 season, he signed a three-year extension. In September 2018, he underwent right knee...
BOSTON—John Means’ stellar and unexpected rookie season ended Saturday with a win. Means, who allowed three runs in the first inning, got strong support from the Orioles in their 9-4 win over the Boston Red Sox. He will finish his first major league season with a 12-11 record and 3.60 ERA. He...
BOSTON—Starter Asher Wojciechowski closed out his season by showing the Orioles that he deserves to come back for 2020. Wojciechowski, who spent the second half of the season with the Orioles, got stronger as he went along on Friday night, throwing six scoreless innings, allowing four hits in the Orioles’ 4-1 victory...
BOSTON—A little over seven months ago, Brandon Hyde began his first spring training as a major league manager in Sarasota, Florida. His second spring training begins on February 11. “The season did kind of fly by,” Hyde said late Friday afternoon as the Orioles prepared for their final series of the season...
In Mike Elias’ final scheduled press briefing of the 2019 season, the Orioles’ general manager covered a variety of topics. One of the areas that didn’t get much attention were his comments on starter Alex Cobb. “I think he’s going to be in spring training, have a normal spring training, and we’ll...
BALTIMORE—On a beautiful Sunday, the Orioles drew 17,540 fans for their final home game of the 2019 season. That number was about 1,200 higher than their average of 16,348 for the season. The 2019 season was a disappointment on the field and at the box office. With six games remaining, the Orioles...