Orioles Opening Day 2025 is four months and 13 days away from today.

Pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training will be roughly three months from now, though that date is not officially announced yet so it could vary by a couple of days in either direction.

There is a lot of time still for offseason things to happen, and a smaller amount of time that’s still also a lot of time before anyone needs to worry that nothing has happened yet.

The next small thing on the offseason calendar is the deadline for teams to add their eligible prospects to the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 draft.

That deadline comes up tomorrow. It wasn’t a big day for the Orioles last year. They made no new 40-man additions of their own minor leaguers ahead of the deadline.

This year will probably end up similarly to last year, rather than some of the earlier Mike Elias years where they were adding four or more guys.

The obvious players to be added have already been added during the season. For 2020 high school picks, that’s Coby Mayo. For 2021 college picks, that’s Connor Norby.

Obviously, Norby was traded so he’s not on the 40-man now anyway. The most likely candidate this time around seems like pitching prospect Brandon Young.

No one cared about him even though he was eligible last year too, because he was so soon off of Tommy John surgery. Young, a 6’6” righty, had a solid Triple-A track record this year and should be protected.

A couple more days after that and it will be the non-tender deadline, where we find out if the Orioles decide to dump any of their arbitration-eligible players rather than keep them around for next season.

Two more days from that and it’s the deadline for the qualifying offer free agents to decide whether to accept the offers or decline and move into free agency with a draft pick penalty attached to them. Corbin Burnes and Anthony Santander are almost certain to decline.

In the meantime, things are trickling along. Reportedly, the team has hired on Cody Asche, a broad “offensive strategy” guy from 2024, as a hitting coach for 2025.

Also reportedly, now-former director of pitching Chris Holt has been hired by the Red Sox to be their bullpen coach for 2025. I think anyone who felt like Holt was in a great position of influence and doing an indispensable job needs to reconsider that based on his having to take what seems to be a real downgrade to me in his next job.

So, probably nothing will happen today. But you never know, something might happen!

Around the blogO’sphere

Big spenders or not, Orioles payroll projected to increase in 2025 (The Baltimore Sun)
The Orioles haven’t signed anyone yet and they’ve already got about the same Opening Day payroll projected as they had last year. A year from now, this same thing will play out even more.

The 2025 Orioles bullpen is beginning to assemble (Orioles.com)
How do you feel about a back end trio of Félix Bautista, Yennier Cano, and Seranthony Domínguez?

Corbin Burnes said his poor August would cost him the Cy Young. Was he right? (The Baltimore Banner)
Burnes had a 7.36 ERA in five August starts. It would have taken a lot for him to clearly pass the likely winner, Tarik Skubal, but I think if not for August Burnes would at a minimum be runner-up for the Cy, instead of not in the top three.

Notes on the Orioles in the Arizona Fall League (Steve Melewski)

Things have continued to go well for Creed Willems out there as the AFL season is about to come to an end.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Today in 1973, Jim Palmer was named as the AL Cy Young Award winner for the season. Palmer’s first of three eventual career wins came after a season where he posted a 2.40 ERA (155 ERA+) across 296.1 innings. He also finished as runner-up for the MVP award.

A year ago, Brandon Hyde was named as the AL Manager of the Year.

There are a pair of former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2021 infielder Freddy Galvis, and 1988-90 pitcher Curt Schilling.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: painter Claude Monet (1840), composer Aaron Copland (1900), Apollo 1 astronaut Ed White (1930), Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise (1933), cyclist Bernard Hinault (1954), Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker (1975), and actress Vanessa Bayer (1981).

On this day in history…

In 1851, Moby-Dick was first published in the United States.

In 1965, American and North Vietnamese forces had their first large-scale clash in the Vietnam War in the Battle of Ia Drang, a five-day battle where roughly half of the 1,000 American personnel were killed or wounded in the fighting.

In 1969, the Apollo 12 mission launched. This was the second of the manned lunar landing missions.

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on November 14. Have a safe Thursday.