Tuesday Bird Droppings: Brandon Hyde has a new job

Good morning, Camden Chatters.

It’s official: Ryan Helsley is an Oriole. Yesterday the O’s announced the signing, which was first reported on Saturday by ESPN’s Jeff Passan. As previously reported, it’s a two-year, $28 million deal that includes an opt-out after the first year.

Meanwhile, Helsley’s former team, the Mets, replaced him in their bullpen by reportedly signing Devin Williams to a three-year deal. Williams is leaving the AL East after one unremarkable season with the Yankees, and his arrival with the Mets could spell the end of Edwin Díaz’s tenure with the club. If so, hopefully Díaz doesn’t join one of the Orioles’ division competitors.

One guy who will be doing so is former Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, who was hired yesterday by the Tampa Bay Rays as a senior advisor for baseball operations. Hyde had unsuccessfully interviewed for a few of the plethora of vacant managerial jobs this winter, all of which have since been filled. Now he’ll he back in baseball, and in the AL East, for the first time since the Orioles fired him May 17.

It’s good to see Hyde land on his feet with a successful organization. I don’t think the Orioles had much choice but to send him packing after the Orioles’ disastrous start to 2025, but he certainly had his share of success during his 6+ season tenure in Baltimore. His 101-win season and AL Manager of the Year campaign in 2023 was a fitting reward for a guy who had to put up with a whole lot of talentless rosters and bad baseball during the Orioles’ rebuilding years. He helped guide the next generation of young Orioles to the majors and he put them in the position to succeed, at least for a while.

Things didn’t end well for Hyde with the Orioles — which is the case for most managers with most teams — but he’s a good baseball guy who still has a lot to offer to the game. Best of luck to him with the Rays…just, you know, not too much luck. The O’s are trying to beat those guys, after all.

Mailbag leftovers for breakfast (Helsley deal official) – School of Roch

Roch Kubatko tackles reader questions about Zac Gallen, Enrique Bradfield Jr., and Grant Anders. You’ve definitely heard of two of those people.

What do you think of the Orioles adding Ryan Helsley? | MAILBAG – BaltimoreBaseball.com

A reader named Robert is none too happy about the Orioles adding Ryan Helsley. I mean, there’s a chance it won’t pan out, but I don’t think it’s going to go the way of the Craig Kimbrel signing.

Will O’s aggressive offseason continue at Winter Meetings? – MLB.com

I must admit, this is not a headline I was expecting to read a few weeks ago.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! And happy birthday to two members of the 2025 Orioles who won’t be back for 2026: catcher Gary Sánchez (33) and right-hander Bryan Baker (31). Baker pitched all but one of his first 174 MLB games with the Orioles, compiling a 3.73 ERA in parts of four seasons, before the O’s traded him to the Rays this July for a draft pick that became Slater de Brun. The journeyman Sánchez played just 29 games for the Birds, missing most of the year due to right wrist inflammation and a right knee sprain, and is currently a free agent.

The Orioles have made a whole bunch of moves on this date in history, so maybe they’ll add to their tradition of Dec. 2 activity with a signing or trade today. Perhaps the most notable of their transactions was in 1971, when the Orioles traded away Hall of Famer Frank Robinson after his franchise-changing six seasons in Baltimore. Frank batted .300/.401/.543 with 179 homers and 545 RBIs as an Oriole, and won the Triple Crown and AL MVP in his debut season in 1966, leading the O’s to their first championship. The Birds sent him to the Dodgers as part of a six-player trade that brought righty Doyle Alexander and some spare parts to Baltimore.

In 1958, the Orioles acquired former AL batting champ and three-time All-Star second baseman Bobby Ávila from Cleveland, where he’d spent the first decade of his career. Ávila’s stint in Baltimore, though, lasted only 20 games, in which he hit .170 before the O’s lost him on waivers.

On this date in 1993, the O’s re-signed Hall of Fame designated hitter and Maryland native Harold Baines as a free agent. The O’s had acquired Baines in a trade the previous winter and he OPS’d .900 in his first season with the club. Baines ultimately played six more seasons with the Birds over three different stints, batting .301/.379/.502 with 107 dingers.

In 2013, the Orioles traded closer Jim Johnson, who had just posted back-to-back 50-save seasons for the Birds, leading the league each year. Johnson was a year away from free agency and the O’s didn’t want to pay him the raise he would get in arbitration, so they sent him to the Athletics in a salary dump. They might have cut bait at the right time; Johnson went on to post a 7.09 ERA for two teams in 2014, though he later salvaged his career a bit with the Braves.

And on this day in 2015, the O’s acquired slugger Mark Trumbo from the Mariners, and boy did that pay off — for one year, at least. Trumbo erupted for a league-leading 47 home runs in 2016, making the All-Star Game and helping the O’s earn a wild card spot. But the Orioles made the mistake of re-signing him to a three-year deal after that campaign, and he posted a -0.3 WAR during that contract, retiring after an injury-marred 2019 campaign.