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We are now one week away from the start of the 2026 MLB Draft. The first four rounds will be selected on Saturday July 11 beginning at 1:30 p.m. in Philadelphia. Rounds five through 20 go off on Sunday July 12. The Steve on Baseball podcast returned today with a great guest - Baseball America national writer Carlos Collazo. He heads up BA’s draft coverage and you will also see Carlos as part of the national television coverage on July 11 seen on NBC and MLB Network. A 2016 UNC grad, Carlos has been with Baseball America since 2017. We covered a lot of ground in this podcast, getting his in-depth thoughts on what the O’s might do with the No. 7 overall pick and all the ramifications and factors at work for the pick. This is the first time the O’s have selected No. 7 since they drafted Nick Markakis with that selection in 2003. We discussed various scenarios for the No. 7 pick and I asked Carlos how the board looks for other O’s top picks at No. 46 and No. 82. We discussed the O’s seeming hesitancy to draft a pitcher with their top pick and what may be behind that. Late in the podcast I asked Carlos to explain what a draft model is? Spoiler alert, the O’s are one of many teams that seem to be reliant on their model. Enjoy this latest edition of the Steve on Baseball podcast. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

His pro career is off to a fine start for the High-A Frederick Keys. Lefty Joseph Dzierwa is 3-1 with a 2.33 ERA for Frederick. Over 27 innings he’s allowed just 15 hits with seven walks to 29 strikeouts. Showing a low-to-mid 90s heater and plus changeup, he has an 0.81 WHIP and opponents are hitting just .160 with a .497 OPS off Dzierwa. O’s fans likely first saw him when he had a dominant outing in the March 20 Spring Breakout game versus Boston. He threw three scoreless and fanned eight Red Sox prospects that night. Dzierwa is the highest-drafted pitcher by the Mike Elias front office, taken in Round 2 last year, No. 58 overall. He is rated as the O’s No. 12 prospect via MLBPipeline.com and No. 17 by Baseball America. We had a wonderful conversation taped on Friday when he and the Keys were in Brooklyn to play the Cyclones. In this podcast Dzierwa told us about the tall lefty big league pitcher that has already given him some pointers. He explained how this Ohio kid went to college at Michigan State and how he has worked with the O’s pitching coaches thus far. We went over that, his repertoire and more. He is quickly making a name for himself on the O’s watch. Take some time to get to know lefty pitching prospect Joseph Dzierwa. Yesterday in New York: Last year at this time, right-hander Trey Gibson was pitching for the High-A Aberdeen IronBirds. Right now Dzierwa is pitching in High-A ball. Could he move as fast as Gibson did and pitch at three levels this year? Well, he’s got a shot and is off to a great start this year. Enjoy today’s podcast. Here is last night’s story on Gibson pitching well in his MLB debut, yet the O’s losing again in the Bronx. Game four of the series is tonight at Yankee Stadium. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Collin Woody, once drafted by the Orioles in Round 38 of the 2016 MLB Draft, is my guest this week on the Steve on Baseball podcast. It’s a return trip for Woody on the podcast. We first talked late last year when he was the manager of the Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds. This season Woody, age 31, is skipper of the Frederick Keys. He will lead his team as Frederick rejoins the O’s organization this year as High-A affiliate in the South Atlantic League. From Tampa, Fla. and a former player at UNC-Greensboro, Woody and the Keys will play their home opener next Tuesday in Frederick. Before 2026, Frederick’s last year as an O’s affiliate was 2020, but that season was cancelled by the pandemic. So the last time Frederick actually played as an O’s farm team was in 2019. Next week will surely be a big deal in Frederick, a wonderful baseball community. Collin provided some great insights for this podcast on the return of baseball to Frederick, managing at the minor league level and also on some of his key players. We discussed several to include pitchers Joseph Dzierwa and Boston Bateman and position players Nate George and Ike Irish to name a few. Enjoy the lastest edition of the podcast! NEW CITY CONNECTS IN BIRDLAND When the Orioles begin a new homestand tonight versus the San Francisco Giants, the club will also break out new City Connect uniforms. The O’s say these present a uniform “depicting the beauty of Baltimore, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and everything in between, from the stoop to the yard. Charm, grit, and pride: every detail brings the spirit of Baltimore’s beloved stoops straight to the one place we all call home.” They are showing off pride in Baltimore with a “BMORE” written across the front of the jersey. The O’s say that “reps every neighborhood in Baltimore. The Oriole Bird is perched proudly atop BMORE, front and center. Right where it belongs.” BIRDLAND TERRITORY UPDATE We have now recorded three Birdland Territory shows as we’ve had a great first week of our new show available on You Tube, Spotify, Apple podcasts and other outlets. Click here to get to our You Tube site and please subscribe if you have not already! Birdland Territory, hosted by the trio of myself, Tim Barbalace of 105.7 FM the Fan and former O’s reliever Brad Brach, will air three times a week during the season. That’s a lot of content to produce, but we are delighted how the first few shows turned out. The latest show features a discussion about a pretty good collective start for the bullpen, some talk of the rough news about Zach Eflin, we noted Gunnar’s decent start and chance to have a very big year and we discussed ABS challenges and how the O’s struggled to get some correct in recent games. Thanks for checking out Birdland Territory. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

For a pitcher that was signed after the 2023 MLB Draft out of Liberty University, right-hander Trey Gibson had quite the 2025 season on the O’s farm. He started with High-A Aberdeen, making nine appearances before he moved to Double-A Chesapeake and rolled through 10 starts with an ERA of 1.55 for the Baysox. He ended the year with seven starts for Triple-A Norfolk. For the full year, Gibson, age 23, went 5-8 with a 4.26 ERA in 120 1/3 innings. He fanned 12.4 batters per nine innings on his way to earning the “Jim Palmer Award” as the Orioles’ Minor League Pitcher of the Year. This spring he has made two outings for the Orioles in MLB games. That includes his three scoreless in the first exhibition game of the new season on Feb. 20 versus the Yankees. He recently added a third outing in a live BP session. Gibson keeps expanding his repertoire, this spring adding what he called a “true cutter” and that adds to the two-seamer and “death ball” he started to throw last year. Depending how you classify the offerings he throws six or seven pitches now. The “death ball” is kind of a gyro slider that has become a real putaway pitch for Gibson. It breaks down more than side-to-side and he used it all last year but it really improved for him as 2025 went on. As he will explain in this podcast, he threw and played catch with a “higher volume” this winter in the offseason and came into camp ready to pitch three innings in the first game. It was a bit of a change to his usual offseason routine. Gibson should begin this season in the Triple-A rotation and his day to make the O’s roster for the first time should be coming in 2026. Gibson is widely considered the organization’s top pitching prospect right now. Per ESPN, he is the O’s team No. 2 prospect and No. 46 via their national top 100. Per Baseball America he is team No. 3 and No. 72 in the top 100. Per MLBPipeline.com he is rated as the O’s No. 5 prospect. Enjoy the latest edition of the podcast and learn more about O’s top 100 pitcher Trey Gibson. Spring breakout rosters released Gibson is one of 16 pitchers and 40 players named yesterday to the Orioles’ Spring Breakout roster for their game March 20 vs. Boston. The full roster is here — Pitchers: Micah Ashman LHP, Zane Barnhart LHP, Boston Bateman LHP, Braxton Bragg RHP, Luis De León LHP, Joseph Dzierwa LHP, Nestor German RHP, Trey Gibson RHP, Chandler Marsh RHP, Esteban Mejia RHP, Tyson Neighbors RHP, Anthony Nunez RHP, JT Quinn RHP, Patrick Reilly RHP, Juaron Watts-Brown RHP, Levi Wells RHP. Catchers: Ethan Anderson C/1B, Samuel Basallo C/1B, Yasmil Bucce C Creed Willems C/1B. Infielders: Wehiwa Aloy SS, Aron Estrada 2B/OF Wilfri De La Cruz SS, Cobb Hightower INF, Ike Irish 1B, Joshua Liranzo INF, Jaiden Lo Re INF, Griff O’Ferrall SS/2B, José Peña INF, Colin Yeaman SS. Outfielders: RJ Austin OF, Dylan Beavers OF, Enrique Bradfield Jr. OF, Vance Honeycutt OF, Nate George OF, DJ Layton OF, Stiven Martinez OF, Jordan Sanchez OF, Thomas Sosa OF, Reed Trimble OF. The Spring Breakout 40-man player pool rosters, which will be reduced to 27-man rosters on March 16th , were announced yesterday on MLB Network, and feature 91 of the top 100 prospects according to MLB Pipeline. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

The Orioles have back-to-back wins for the first time in the Grapefruit League after beating Tampa Bay 4-3 on Wednesday afternoon. It was a well-pitched game, as seven Baltimore pitchers combined on a four-hitter with 12 strikeouts. Reliever Andrew Kittredge allowed a three-run shot in the fourth and was the only Baltimore pitcher to give up any runs. Here is a video entry today noting good days for two O’s in lefty Trevor Rogers and minor league outfielder Vance Honeycutt. Rogers has fanned six in five scoreless frames over two games now and looks in mid-season form before we get to March 1. Baltimore pitchers have fanned 66 over six games in spring training to lead MLB. For Honeycutt, he is 2-for-2 with two homers. He had two homers over his last 33 games last season for High-A Aberdeen and has matched that with a couple of nice swings under the Florida sun. After he struggled so badly last year - a .559 OPS and 40.8 strikeout rate - over 101 games for Aberdeen, it is nice to see him do this early on for the Orioles. It should build some confidence and maybe jump-start a better season for him. Click here from the O’s X feed for the Honeycutt homer and click here for Tyler O’Neill’s RBI double in the third. He went 2-for-2 yesterday and is 4-for-6 to start his spring. Leave a comment with any early impressions you have on O’s spring training or any thoughts on the team right now. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Just two Polish guys from Baltimore on the podcast today talking Orioles. Like myself, Dan Szymborski is from Baltimore and is a popular radio and podcast guest this time of year to discuss his ZiPS projection system which can be found on FanGraphs.com. That stands for Zymborski Projection System. Dan, a 1996 Towson High School grad and 2000 grad of Loyola College, is a Senior writer for FanGraphs.com and also still contributes to his former employer at ESPN. No projection system is perfect or completely accurate but ZiPS has been at it since 2003 and when I interviewed Dan for MASNSports.com ahead of the 2023 season, ZiPS was very accurate then on several players. The system projected Adley Rutschman for a 126 OPS+ and the actual number for that 2023 season for Rutschman was 128. He pretty much nailed it for several others then to include Gunnar Henderson, Ryan Mountcastle and Anthony Santander. Spoiler alert - ZiPS is very bullish on several O’s on offense but a bit less so on the pitchers. We get into all of that today with Dan. He feels Baltimore could have a top five AL offense and maybe a top five MLB offense. Enjoy the latest addition of the Steve on Baseball podcast! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

At the ripe “old” age of just 31, Anthony Villa is about to begin his third season as one of the top front office members running the O’s farm system. He is the club’s Director of Player Development. Villa, hired by the Orioles ahead of the 2020 season, has been a fast riser in the organization, spending time as a hitting coach and as the O’s minor league hitting coordinator for the 2023 season. The next year he moved into his current role. Villa makes a second appearance on my podcast after joining me for an interview at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen in the middle of last summer. If you want to go back and hear that interview from last June, click here. Villa oversees just about all aspects of the Baltimore farm, involved in everything from the staffing of coaches and managers to instruction throughout the farm. If there is a player on an O’s farm club he knows him and wants to help that young man advance to the majors. Last year Villa and his staff were proud of and thrilled for instance to see Samuel Basallo and Dylan Beavers both make the Orioles. These are two players they worked closely with from the first day they joined the organization, all the way through the higher minors and on to Baltimore. Getting a player to the “show” is a big moment for any farm system. This podcast was first a radio interview on 105.7 FM the Fan, when I recently filled in for Ryan Ripken on the “Hot Stove League” show and Villa was a guest on the show. We discussed many topics to include how the O’s keep tabs on the minor league players over the winter to a rundown of some players recently named top 100 prospects. Late in this podcast you may find his answer quite interesting when I asked Anthony how much the O’s practice bunting on the farm? The Steve on Baseball podcast is back and hopefully will become a more regular feature here as it was all throughout the 2025 season. Enjoy the interview with Villa! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Now that the Super Bowl is in the record books for another year, many sports fans, and certainly our baseball-loving fans here, turn their attention to hardball. O’s pitcher and catchers report tomorrow to Sarasota and the first workout is set for Wednesday. In this video entry today I discussed FanGraphs.com’s playoff odds and where the O’s are rated in addition to some Zips projections for O’s batters which are quite favorable for fans around Birdland. Please take about six minutes to watch and leave some questions and comments. Thanks for the continued support of this Substack. At the end of the month I will celebrate one year on Substack. That year went fast! I will have more to say about that later. Have a great week everyone and enjoy the fact that baseball begins this week! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

When it comes to covering international amateur signings, few do it better and with more experience than Ben Badler of Baseball America. Ben is my guest this week on the Steve on Baseball podcast, the initial edition of calender year 2026. Next Thursday, Jan. 15, is the first day of the new international signing period. Under the Mike Elias front office the O’s have signed six players to million dollar bonuses since 2021. This year they have four such players in this one class, per Baseball America. We will get into that a whole lot more today with Ben, who has been at Baseball America since 2007. “The Orioles this year seem like they are going to have one of the better classes this year. They’ve got some big bats at the top of the class. Arms as well. I think this is going to be one of their better signing classes in recent years,” Badler said. The O’s top signee is expected to be shortstop Jose Luis Acevedo, a right-handed hitter from the Domincan Republic, who turned 17 in November. He’s got a plus hit tool and may be able to stick at shortstop as a solid defender. On BA’s bonus board - they rank these international amateurs based on the amount of their projected bonuses - he is the No. 11 player. He might set an O’s team bonus record for an international amateur. That mark is currently held by Luis Almeyda who got $2.297 million in 2023. Per the BA bonus board, the O’s are also getting players currently rated No. 24, No. 40 and No. 42. The board will be updated and expanded next week ahead of Thursday. With international players making up about 30 percent of major league clubhouses, it is a talent source a team can’t ignore and under Elias and Koby Perez, the O’s do not. They make it a priority. Once it was stunning to see even a few players from the international ranks in an O’s top 30 prospects lists. On the lastest BA O’s top 30 there are 11 international players led by Samuel Basallo at No. 1. So today’s podcast is both very timely and very informative as we were able to grab Ben as the guest. He provided some great insights. Enjoy the lastest podcast Birdland. And click here for Badler’s latest on the BA international bonus big board top 50. (subscription may be required). Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

I really enjoyed recording today’s edition of this podcast, taped about a week ago with O’s minor league player Ethan Anderson. Anderson, 22, was the O’s second-round pick (No. 61 overall) in the 2024 draft out of the University of Virgina. He just completed his first full year and second season on the O’s farm. It ended with him playing well for Peoria in the Arizona Fall League where he hit .300 with an .841 OPS in 19 games. He made the AFL’s Fall Stars game. In 2024 at Virginia, Anderson, a switch-hitting catcher and sometimes first baseman, hit .331/.435/.508/.943 and he was all ACC. For his career he walked one more time than he struck out. On the O’s farm in 2025 with 70 games at High-A Aberdeen and 20 to end the year at Double-A Chesapeake, Anderson hit .248/.338/.339/.677. He made 49 starts catching, 22 at first base and two in right field, Ethan provided some great insights for this podcast and it is well worth your time to hear him talk about the process of trying to improve and make the majors. How the O’s work with their young players, his days at UVA and how he was born in Hawaii, but then his family moved numerous times during his youth. Thanks Ethan for a great interview! Hope Birdland enjoys the latest Steve on Baseball podcast. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Good Monday Birdland! Let’s start the week with a video entry discussing a few topics. More talking, less writing. Friday’s press conference introducing new Oriole Pete Alonso was interesting for a lot of reasons. Alonso was impressive and clearly was impressed with numerous aspects of the Orioles’ organization. He got off to a great start with his new club. Take a few minutes to watch the video and leave some comments or questions. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Hey let’s talk more about the O’s signing of Pete Alonso which became official yesterday afternoon. Alonso will be introduced later this afternoon at a Camden Yards press conference. Once again on this podcast I am joined by my former MASN teammate Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com. He returned from the Winter Meetings late Wednesday after a stunning day that saw the O’s reach an agreement with Alonso on a five-year deal for $155 million. Per Jon Heyman, the deal includes a $12.5 million dollar signing bonus and a 2026 salary of 18.5 million. Then Alonso’s salary is set at $31.0 million from 2027 through 2030 to complete the deal. He is a five-time All-Star, 2025 Silver Slugger Award winner, and 2019 National League Rookie of the Year, all over a seven-year career with the New York Mets. The first baseman is one of six active players with five or more seasons of at least 35 home runs and joins Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber and the New York Yankees Aaron Judge as the only players in the majors since 2019 with five or more seasons of 35+ homers. Since debuting in 2019, he’s driven in an MLB-high 712 runs, 33 more than any other player during that time. To make 40-man roster room, catcher Maverick Handley was designated for assignment. Today’s Oriole Park press conference is set for 4 p.m. Speakers will include Alonso, Mike Elias, Orioles President of Baseball Operations & General Manager, David Rubenstein, O’s Control Owner and Alonso’s agent, Scott Boras of the Boras Corporation. Fans can tune into the press conference on Orioles.com, Orioles Facebook, and YouTube channels. The press conference will also be carried live on MASN and MASN+. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Took a few minutes to talk about the O’s five-year agreement for $155 million today with slugging first baseman Pete Alonso. The fans have waited for this day - the day when the O’s won one in free agency against the big boys. He’s not going back to the Mets or joining the Red Sox. Alonso is heading to Baltimore. Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

After a season that ended with the Orioles ranked 24th in MLB in runs per game and 19th in slugging, the team recently traded for outfielder Taylor Ward. He hit 36 homers in 2025 for the Los Angeles Angels to rank tied for fifth in the American League. That may not be the only big bat the O’s add this offseason. Several outlets have now reported that the Orioles are expected to meet today with free agent slugger Pete Alonso with a face-to-face meeting in Orlando at the Winter Meetings. Alonso will drive the 90 minutes from his Tampa home to meet with the O’s and Red Sox and maybe other clubs as well. Prying Alonso away from the large market, big spending Mets would be an upset on the order of Super Bowl III, but the O’s at least have a shot to pull that off. Alonso, who turned 31 Sunday, hit .272/.347/.524/.871 last season with 38 homers and 126 RBIs. He was second in MLB in RBIs, eighth in homers and 10th in OPS. The five-time All-Star and two-time Home Run Derby winner produced an OPS+ of 144 last year. Since 2021, that number is 134 and, in that span, he has averaged 39 homers and 111 RBIs. That is a very, very legit MLB slugger who would sure boost an O’s lineup that struggled for much of last year. Clearly O’s president Mike Elias is not just counting on the young core to all bounce back and improve the O’s offense in that manner. One big move has been made and others could be coming. Adding another first baseman would add to a position where the O’s already have Ryan Mountcastle and Coby Mayo. Elias said for now, that is not a concern. If they added a top bat, they’ll sort it out later. “If the player is good enough, we can figure out ways to accomodate them,” Elias told media in Orlando late Monday afternoon. The O’s continue to be linked to top free agent pitchers, including lefties Framber Valdez and Ranger Suarez. Could they add both a top bat and a top arm? “Yes, I think so,” said Elias. “You look at our payroll as it stands right now and it’s still well below where we were at last year, and we’ll just consider opportunities as they come up and have those conversions with ownership. But we do have room for more moves, multiple more moves.” Check out the video at the top of this entry for more thoughts from yours truly on the opening day at the Winter Meetings. On tap today It’s the MLB Draft Lottery at 5:30 p.m. today in Orlando. The first six picks for next summer’s draft will be determined via this lottery. Heading into this event, the O’s have the fourth-best odds to get the overall No. 1 pick. The Chicago White Sox are listed with a 27.73 percent chance to pick 1/1 with Minnesota next at 22.18 percent, then Pittsburgh at 16.81 and the Orioles at 9.24 percent. The O’s have had the overall No. 1 pick previously in 1989 (Ben McDonald), 2019 (Adley Rutschman) and 2022 (Jackson Holliday). UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky is rated the No. 1 prospect for the next draft by both Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com. The right to draft him is what is likely at stake today. BA calls him the “one of the better college shortstop prospect in years.” Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

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. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe