Big baseball deals don't usually happen in November, but Mike Elias showed that sometimes they can when he dropped in the surprise trade of Grayson Rodriguez for Angels outfielder Taylor Ward. Days later, Mark is still full of contradictory thoughts about the trade, which he tries to hammer into something like sense in this episode.

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If it was entirely up to Mark, the Orioles would get a big-ticket free agent (or trade) pitcher this offseason and a back-end guy as well. In this episode, he goes through some of the likely candidates for the #4 or #5 addition they also need to make. Also, in the mailbag, a question about the season ticket changes gets Mark ranting again.

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The Orioles shuffled a lot on the roster fringes, on the coaching staff, and in the front office since last time. Mark runs down all of the changes before looking to the essential goals of this coming offseason, particularly the need to get a top starting pitcher. In short, it's scary to have to count on this year's free agent crop to produce an ace.

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New Orioles manager Craig Albernaz is getting introduced today and Mark is feeling good about the vibes, though of course what ends up happening is what really matters. Can he and his new staff correct what went wrong this year? In the mailbag, a listener has his eyes on Twins starter Pablo López.

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NOTE FROM MARK: This episode was recorded prior to the breaking news of the Orioles choosing their next manager. We'll talk about it next time. Sorry!

The Orioles did not have any Gold Glove or Silver Slugger finalists in the 2025 season. That's not all because of the infield, but the group certainly didn't help, with Gunnar Henderson's power outage, Adley Rutschman's multiple injuries, Jackson Holliday's baserunning problems, and more. Mark runs through the grim details as he wraps the position review series.

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The Orioles still don't have a new manager. Podcast Spouse asked when is it time to panic if there's no hire, so Mark starts off with thoughts on that before moving into the rundown of what happened in the Orioles outfield in 2025. There was a lot of disappointment but towards the end, some excitement.

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Mike Elias made a number of mistakes last offseason, many of which were concentrated in who to keep from his bullpen and how much he might need to ad to it. The Orioles "Plan A" bullpen could have been worse, but Plan A didn't survive long thanks to injuries, and Plans B and beyond were a whole lot worse.

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The 2025 Orioles were dragged into oblivion early on by the failure of their starting rotation, which was a nasty combination of Mike Elias making bad decisions last offseason and having bad luck piled on top of that. Mark sifts through the wreckage to try to figure out what went wrong and what has to be done for better things next season.

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The good news is that the 2025 Orioles season is over and they can never lose again. The bad news is that most of their problems will follow them into next season unless some big changes are made in the rotation and bullpen and unless their hitters get their acts together. Mark, as you can probably guess, is not excited.

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The Orioles offense is limping through September and it's not stopping them from a good record. Now the final weekend of the season remains, and the only question left is: Can the Orioles spoil the Yankees postseason seeding? Mark also dips into the mailbag to start thinking about big-ticket free agents coming this offseason.

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