Jim Duquette is one of the real bright minds in baseball media today. One reason for that may be the time he spent over the years working in MLB front offices.

Today we’re all lucky he took time to do this podcast just days ahead of the start of the 2025 Winter Meetings in Orlando.

O’s fans know Jim well, both from his time as Orioles’ co-general manager with Mike Flanagan in 2006 and 2007 to his time now in broadcasting.

“Duq” as I call him, is an outstanding commentator and analyst and heard Monday through Friday with co-host Mike Ferrin on their “Power Alley” show on MLB Network Radio via Sirius-XM. That show airs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET. Jim also co-hosts a Sunday show on the network with former GM Jim Bowden.

O’s fans also know him from many appearances over the years on MASN and also on 105.7 FM the Fan sports radio.

Jim and Mike will broadcast their show next week live from the Winter Meetings.

In this podcast we covered a lot of ground and one topic we discussed was will the O’s spend big money on a free agent starting pitcher and who should they pursue?

I even asked Jim if it turns out that Mike Elias is concerned that the price of pitching gets too high (after all Dylan Cease already signed for $210 million), could it be that O’s ownership actually has to sort of overrule him to get a big deal done?

“I think part of that learning curve and let’s say aggressiveness and push (to spend more for Baltimore now) is coming from ownership now,” said Duquette. “Whether it’s (David) Rubenstein or (Mike) Arougheti or both.

“I think for sure in those type of situations, when you have an executive who is maybe not as risk-averse as others within MLB, I think it does help that the owner is like, ‘Listen, I’m not worried about the risk on this one. I’m giving you the permission to go sign him.’”

We got into a lot of topics with Jim today and even spent some time talking about Flanagan and Jim’s time working with Mike atop the O’s baseball operations department.

A great guy who spent a lot of time to drop some knowledge for us today. Thanks to Duq!

Enjoy this one Birdland.

Hey Birdland and welcome to another work week after the extended Thanksgiving break.

Hope many of you had a great time with your family as I did. Now back to the business of baseball, which of course continued even during the long weekend.

The O’s reached agreement on two-year deal with right-hander Ryan Helsley on Saturday afternoon.

Yes he pitched to a 4.50 ERA for the Mets and Cardinals last year. But over a three-year run fron 2022 through 2024 he posted a 1.83 ERA and 82 saves.

Twice in that span he got National League Cy Young votes, finishing 12th in 2022 and ninth for that award in 2024.

Few more notes on Helsley:

He has been on the injured list just four times in his career.

He was the longest-tenured Cardinal at the time of the trade.

He is one of three Cardinals to ever throw an Immaculate Inning. He did so on Sept. 16, 2022 versus Cincinnati, joining Bob Gibson and Jason Isringhausen in St. Louis history.

He is one of three St. Louis closers to make more than one All-Star team joining Lee Smith and Bruce Sutter. Helsley made the All-Star teams in 2022 and 2024.

During the 2024 season, when he led the majors with 49 saves, he was named NL Reliever of the Month three times. He won that honor in April, June and September.

A fifth-round pick of the Cards in 2015, he turns 32 on July 18.

Let’s get your take in the comments below on this addition and how the O’s bullpen is coming together for next season. Plus feel free to pass on any O’s comments or questions.

Happy Thanksgiving Birdland!

In and around your family fun today or while you are traveling, hope you can find time to listen to my latest Steve on Baseball podcast.

My guest is John Eisenberg, who for 23 years starting in 1984 wrote over 3,000 columns for the Baltimore Sun. He has also written about and worked for the Baltimore Ravens and is the author of 11 books.

Wow, yep, 11!

His third was titled “From 33rd Street to Camden Yards” which is an oral history of the Orioles.

That book came out in 2001 and while writing and researching for that project, John interviewed every big name in club history and many others too.

His Substack “The Bird Tapes” rolls out many of those audio interviews for readers of his Substack. It’s a can’t miss for any O’s fan that remembers watching some of the all-time O’s greats.

In this podcast we spent time talking about the current team and what this winter could hold for the club in signings and additions. We also discussed his time with the Baltimore Sun. And John told some stories about covering the team then and we also talked about his current venture, the Bird Tapes.

Enjoy the holiday weekend and enjoy this latest edition of my podcast.

O’s right-handed pitching prospect Nestor German is from a school without a big name but one with a big name MLB pitcher among its former players.

In 2023, German was the Orioles’ 11th-round pick out of Seattle University. In 2018, the same school sent lefty Tarik Skubal to the Detroit Tigers. They got him in the ninth round and 254 players were selected ahead of him.

Now he’s the back-to-back Cy Young Award winner in the American League.

German doesn’t talk about winning any future Cy Young Awards, but his strong 2025 season could lead him to talk about possibly getting a shot with the Orioles during next season. And we did talk about that and much more when he joined me for my latest podcast out today.

German, age 23, pitched at three levels and in 26 games last season. First for High-A Aberdeen for six games, then for Double-A Chesapeake for 18 and he ended the year throwing two games at Triple-A Norfolk.

For the three clubs he was a combined 6-7 with a 3.93 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, .220 batting average against and 10.41 strikeout rate per nine innings.

He is currently ranked the O’s No. 11 prospect (and third pitcher) via Baseball America and No. 14 (and sixth pitcher) via MLBPipeline.com.

Those outlets give most of his pitches 50 and 55 scouting scale grades, so pretty solid across the board.

Here are German’s rankings on the O’s farm last year (min. 80 IP)

1st in WHIP (1.18)

2nd in innings (123 2/3)

3rd in swinging-strike percentage (14.8)

3rd in K/BB ratio (3.11)

4th in K percentage (28.0)

5th in K/9 (10.41)

5th in FIP (3.54)

8th in ERA (3.93)

Today is the 30th episode since April of the Steve on Baseball podcast with many more to come! I hope you enjoy this interview with German, who provided some nice insights on his career and being a pitching prospect for the Orioles.

One change on my Substack: This Substack will remain with a mix of free and paywalled articles. The paywalled stories can be accessed by paying subscribers to this Substack. Those subscribers have access to every story and my full archive.

Also beginning today a free article will remain that way for a week and then will be behind a paywall.

This is obviously one way to grow the revenue generated here and that is my goal with this move.

Once again an article that is free to all will remain that way for one week moving forward. And there will always be some free content produced in this space.

To everyone that subscribes and reads here, thanks for the continued support.

By the way, all audio and video remains free for all and those posts do not apply to this change. That includes, of course, podcasts and videos.

If you went to bed at a certain time last night, maybe you awoke to a surprise today in that the Orioles pulled off their first big move of this offseason late last night.

They acquired outfielder Taylor Ward from the Los Angeles Angels for O’s right-handed pitcher Grayson Rodriguez in a one-for-one trade.

Ward, who turns 32 on Dec. 14, has played in 156 and 157 games the last two years. He made 153 starts last season for the Angels in left field while batting .228/.317/.475/.792 with 31 doubles, two triples, 36 homers, 83 runs and 103 RBIs.

In the AL stats, he ranked tied for fifth in homers, sixth in RBIs, seventh in extra-base hits, 20th in slugging and 29th in the league in OPS.

Check out this video on the deal and leave some thoughts and comments below.

Please keep subscribing to my Substack in addition to checking out my Facebook page for this Substack right here.

My orginal story on the deal from late last night is right here.

From the Gilman School in Baltimore to pro baseball on the farm for the O’s and Nats and now onto his media business, Ryan Ripken is the latest from a famous baseball family to make his mark.

When your grandad is Cal Ripken Sr., your father is Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. and your uncle is former Oriole and current MLB Network star Bill Ripken, you may have picked up a few things about the game along the way.

As a player Ryan reached the Triple-A level. He was drafted by the Orioles in 2012 and the Nationals in 2014. He played on the O’s farm from 2017-2021.

A couple years ago he started Ryan Ripken media from scratch and now he hosts the Ryan Ripken show a couple of times a week via his YouTube channel which has thousands of subscribers and keeps the posts humming via his social media.

He’s making his own name for himself in this famous family and doing it his way. Fans are finding and enjoying his work and he’s also a part of the great baseball coverage during the season on 105.7 FM the Fan in Baltimore.

I hope you enjoy Ryan’s comments today as we discussed several players now avaiable to the Orioles and all teams via free agency and several other topics.

Hey Birdland, a new video for my Substack readers and subscribers to watch and react to.

It’s been a minute since I posted a video or produced a live video, but both are returning in full force this winter and this is the start.

Today the topic - Is there pressure on the O’s to make a big signing this winter? The obvious answer is yes. Could they win without one? Yes. They had a $71 million dollar payroll and won 101 games and the AL East in 2023.

But the division is so strong again and Toronto was two outs away from winning the World Series. In keeping up with Jonses in the AL East, a team has to spend some dollars.

It’s time for the Orioles.

Elias comments at the General Manager meetings

At the GM meetings in Las Vegas Wednesday, the O’s Mike Elias discussed his club’s ability to pursue players and spend some of those dollars this winter.

“We’re still down from where our 2025 payroll was. We’ve got quite a bit to go just to get back to 2025 levels, and I think that’s definitely a possibility if we want to go there, and we’ll assess opportunities beyond that,” Elias told reporters, including MLB.com Wednesday. “I think we’re just going to look at things on a case-by-case basis. The ownership group has a lot of willingness to invest, but also wants to win. ...

“This is a group that’s really enabling us to invest. We’re going to go out in the market, see what we’re able to do to improve the team. But we’ll definitely be behaving as buyers this season, whether it’s free agency or trade.”

In this article, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand asks - “Will this be the offseason that Baltimore goes all-in?

“Industry sources believe the Orioles will be aggressive in free agency as they look to return to the postseason following a disappointing 75-win season and last-place finish in the American League East.”

New coaches

The local media has now reported on and confirmed three additions to the coaching staff of new manager Craig Albernaz.

Yesterday, the Baltimore Sun was first to report that Donnie Ecker will be hired as bench coach. He was the Texas Rangers bench coach and offensive coordinator from 2022 through 2024. He was not their bench coach last year and, in fact, was fired May 4 with the Rangers at 17-18.

He was on the Rangers staff as the team beat the Orioles in the 2023 playoffs on their way to a World Series championship.

He has an extensive background as a hitting coach in the majors and minors and worked with Albernaz in San Francisco for a couple of seasons.

Earlier, BaltimoreBaseball.com was first to report the O’s addition of Dustin Lind from the Phillies to serve as lead hitting coach. And the Baltimore Banner was first to report the additon of Jason Bourgeois from the White Sox as O’s first base coach and outfield instructor.

Albernaz is building a staff he is quite familiar with and obviously has a lot of belief and trust in. He coached with Ecker and Lind on the Giants staff and played Triple-A ball with Bourgeois. That should make for a close-knit staff with this group already quite familiar with each other.

Also last night, MLB.com and the Baltimore Banner were first to report that Buck Britton, Drew French and Ryan Klimek are expected to return and remain with the Orioles. They were on the 2025 coaching staff, but in which exact roles they return is not yet clear.

MASNSports.com reported that Grant Anders won’t return as major league development coach.

Please leave some comments on my video today here if you are so inclined.

Fans around Birdland will finally hear in depth from their new manager, Craig Albernaz, during next Tuesday’s press conference at Oriole Park.

We will soon start to get to know him.

But Tampa Bay Rays radio broadcaster Neil Solondz has known Albernaz since his Triple-A playing days. Neil was the radio broadcaster for the Durham Bulls and Albernaz was a player there for parts of five seasons, the first three with Solondz at the mic from 2009-2011.

Neil makes a great pairing in the Rays radio booth with Andy Freed, himself a long-time Rays broadcaster who grew up an O’s fan and went to Towson University. Go Tigers!

Neil just completed his 14th year on the Rays Radio Network and his second as a play-by-play voice. Before that he hosted pre and postgame shows and was a fill-in play-by-play broadcaster.

The Rays have some wonderful people in their media and it seems most of the O’s reporters are always happy to see an O’s-Rays matchup to get to see everyone.

We covered a lot of ground today with Neil. Everything from Albernaz’s playing days with the Bulls, to what made him an outstanding minor league manager on the Rays farm to what kind of skipper might be coming to Birdland. To how he might handle the pressure to win in Baltimore.

We get great insight today on this podcast from someone that knows Albernaz well.

Thanks to Neil for joining me today. Enjoy this one Birdland.

Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner just completed his fourth year covering the Orioles as the Banner’s lead beat writer. Andy grew up in Rockville and is a 2020 University of Maryland graduate.

His introduction to O’s fans was with the Baltimore Sun for the 2022 season. He was hired by the Banner in December of that year and just completed his third season leading the Banner’s coverage.

We got into several topics including his recent stories about Kevin Gausman and Trey Yesavage of the Blue Jays and how those players could be linked to the Orioles. Gausman for obvious reasons. Yesavage as the high-draft pick pitcher - a selection that the Orioles have not made under Mike Elias.

We talked a bit about his career and covering a big league clubhouse at a young age.

We discussed the pressures that may be facing the organization this winter to sign a free agent to a big contract.

“Baltimore needs to make a splash,” said Kostka and I agreed with him.

Andy is a proud winner of - the inaugural winner in fact - the John McNamara Sports Writing Award. It is named in McNamara’s honor and Andy was the winner from May of 2019 while he reported for the Diamondback student newspaper. The award is issued by the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.

Mac, as many of us knew him, died in a shooting in June of 2018 at the Annapolis Capital. He was a long-time, good friend and I saw him often covering the minors in Bowie over the years. We first got to know each other when we were starting our careers - John in Hagerstown and myself in Frederick.

No doubt Andy is proud of that honor and being linked with such an outstanding reporter and person.

We had a fun conversation and covered a lot of ground on the Orioles. Hope you enjoy today’s podcast.

I believe I first met Brett Hollander when he was at the Gilman School in Baltimore and at the age of 15 was an intern at WBAL Radio where I was the Sports Director.

His memory is better than mine from those days but that means, in a sense, I was there for the start of an outstanding broadcasting career.

From Gilman, Brett went on to Dickinson College in Pennsylvania where he broadcast many sports and really fell in love with working in the booth. He met a classmate there named Geoff Arnold and later they would team up in the O’s booth!

Brett grew up around broadcasting. His dad, Rich worked many years at WBAL-TV. I remember watching him often on Channel 11 where he was a great news reporter as we say “back in the day.”

Brett worked early in his career at CBS Radio in Baltimore where he noted in this podcast, he broadcast the first sports update heard on 105.7 FM the Fan when the station switched from AM to the FM dial.

He worked many years at WBAL Radio, hosting O’s pre and postgame shows, also was the host of Sportsline and at one time hosted the afternoon drive talk-show, showing he is more than just a sports guy.

He was named the 2015 Maryland Sportscaster of the Year.

This was a real fun conversation, mostly about broadcasting and Brett’s career, between two long-time friends.

Who knew that kid from Gilman would one day wind up in the O’s booth!

Enjoy today’s podcast with Brett.