Good morning, Camden Chatters.
The MLB playoffs continue on, with nothing for Orioles fans to do except watch forlornly as former O’s castoffs play critical roles for successful teams. Such was the case last night as the Rays took a 3-2 series lead over the Guardians with a win in Cleveland, putting Tampa Bay one win away from the franchise’s third World Series appearance.
In yesterday’s 3-1 victory, the Rays entrusted their last four outs to two recent Orioles relievers, Tyler Wells and Bryan Baker. In the eighth, Wells, summoned with two outs and a man aboard, got arguably the biggest out of the game, striking out future Hall of Famer José Ramírez, who represented the potential tying run. And the ninth inning belonged to Baker, who has become a lockdown closer in less than two seasons with the Rays after the O’s dumped him in July 2025. He worked past a leadoff walk to retire the Guardians with ease, earning his 34th consecutive save dating back to mid-May. (It’s still wild to me that Baker had only two losses the entire season, and both came against the Orioles.) Cedric Mullins and Jorge Mateo also briefly appeared in the game.
You can’t blame O’s fans if they’re feeling conflicted about the former Orioles’ success. On the one hand, it’s nice to see some familiar faces finding success, especially fan favorites like Mullins. On the other hand, in Baker’s case especially, it makes you wonder why the Orioles couldn’t unlock the same kind of success from these players that the Rays have. Baker was an erratic middle reliever for the Orioles, and the Rays almost instantly turned him into one of the best closers in the game. And all the O’s got in return for him was a draft pick, which turned into Slater de Brun, whom they ended up trading back Tampa Bay anyway. It’s almost as if — and try to stay with me here — the Rays are a much better-run organization than the Orioles. Who knew?
If the Rays seal the deal tonight or tomorrow and punch their ticket to the World Series, we’ll be seeing a bevy of former Birds in the Fall Classic, including Tampa Bay’s quartet and the Brewers’ DL Hall and Joey Ortiz (and Gary Sánchez, not that he counts as one who got away.) All of these guys were on the Orioles within the past few years, and now they’ve achieved something that the current Orioles are nowhere close to doing. Good for them. Bad for us.
It’s hard to get excited about Holliday when one of the “positives” from this season is that he didn’t have a platoon split, OPSing .643 against righties and .632 against lefties. Neither of those is good!
The Orioles may have whiffed on Bryan Baker, but they’ve had a few of their own mild successes in grabbing other teams’ castoffs and turning them into useful relievers. They got productive 2026 performances from some pitchers who I didn’t know existed a year ago.
Roch Kubatko fields questions about (among other things) why it’s incredibly dumb to say that a reporter doesn’t have the right to record you during a press conference. As if somebody would spout something so foolish.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Five former Orioles were born on this day, including All-Star Anthony Santander (32). The switch-hitting outfielder developed from a raw Rule 5 draftee into a premier slugger, ending his O’s career with a 44-homer, 102-RBI season in 2024 before signing a five-year, $92.5 million free agent deal with the Blue Jays. Because it’s his birthday, I won’t talk about how his Blue Jays tenure has turned out so far.
Other former Orioles with Oct. 19 birthdays include longtime Blue Jay and notable irritant José Bautista (46), right-handers Jordan Lyles (36) and Oswaldo Peraza (64), and the late catcher Vic Roznovsky (b. 1938, d. 2022).
On this date in 1959, the Orioles acquired Jim Gentile, a little-used first baseman for the Dodgers, in exchange for shortstop Willy Miranda. It ended up being a great piece of business for the Birds. Gentile spent four years in Baltimore and crushed 20+ homers each season, including a sensational 1961 campaign in which he collected 46 homers and tied Roger Maris with an AL-leading 141 RBIs. Gentile was a three-time All-Star, the 1960 AL Rookie of the Year runner-up, and third-place finisher for the 1961 AL MVP. Miranda, meanwhile, never played another major league game.
