Shortly before they would have elected to not offer him a contract, the Orioles traded infielder Jonathan Villar to the Miami Marlins for left-handed pitcher Easton Lucas on Monday night. The Orioles had tried to trade Villar earlier and, failing to find a partner, placed him on outright waivers late last week....
By 8 o’clock tonight, the Orioles will officially end Jonathan Villar’s time with the team. Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, the Orioles placed Villar on outright waivers, knowing that another team wasn’t going to claim him. No team had expressed interest in trading for him. Surely the Orioles would have jumped at...
BALTIMORE—On a cold, wet Sunday morning, about 1,200 fans gathered a few blocks from M&T Bank Stadium to salute Trey Mancini’s charity works on behalf of 13-year-old cancer patient Mo Gaba at a tailgate before the Ravens game with the San Francisco 49ers. Mancini, who acknowledged being cold despite attending many foul-weather...
A year ago, Thanksgiving for Oriole fans meant optimism. There were new beginnings. Mike Elias had just been hired as the team’s top baseball executive, and no one knew who he’d select as manager. Twelve months later, the opinions on Elias are, like his recent hires, more diverse. Many fans think the...
Ahead of Monday’s deadline for tendering contracts, the Orioles placed infielder Jonathan Villar on outright waivers on Wednesday. The news was reported by MASNsports.com and confirmed by multiple industry sources. According to MLBTradeRumors.com, Villar, who had his most productive season in his major league career last season, could earn $10.4 million in...
The Orioles re-signed outfielder Mason Williams to a minor league contract on Tuesday. Williams, who hit .267 with two RBIs in 11 games for the Orioles last season, had his season ended early after running into the outfield wall on September 17. Williams, who could compete for a reserve outfielders job during...
With the announcement of the composition of the Orioles’ minor league staffs on Monday, and later news that Anthony Sanders has been hired as first base coach, it’s clear that the Orioles’ front office staff, player development personnel and coaches are getting younger. The news of Sanders’ hiring, which was expected and...
The Orioles announced multiple changes to their minor league coaching staffs on Monday. Although none of the managers at the minor league affiliates is new to the organization, a number of coaches are. Gary Kendall (pictured above) returns to Triple-A Norfolk for the second year, and Buck Britton will start his second...
Nowhere in the Orioles’ lineup is more uncertain than the middle infield. Last season, manager Brandon Hyde used either Richie Martin or Jonathan Villar at shortstop in every game while either Villar or Hanser Alberto played second. Villar played in all 162 games, and with a week to go before the December...
Keegan Akin, Dean Kremer, Ryan McKenna and Ryan Mountcastle have at least two things in common: They were all placed on the Orioles’ 40-man roster on Wednesday, and a day later said they had little idea the deadline for it was coming up. “It’s in the back of your head,” Akin said...