Previewing the Orioles Offseason Plans | Ep. 117
It's late for a preview, but lucky for us nothing has happened yet!
The cold weather has arrived, Thanksgiving is in the rearview, and all arrows are pointing towards 2024. As great as this last season was in Birdland, the 101-win Orioles ultimately fell short of their end goal, and they left us all with something of a sour taste following their unceremonious and swift exit from the playoffs. Make no mistake, 2023 was a success, but it also encourages us to want more moving forward.
That felt like something worth pod-ing about, and that is just what the boys have done as Tyler, Jesse, and Eli sit down to review a November of (relatively minor) moves and preview the Orioles offseason ahead.
Fortunately for our hosts, it’s been a slow start for the Hot Stove in both Baltimore and beyond. A few notable names have changes places, but most of the pieces that fans are hoping to see in the orange and black next year remain in search of their next destination.
That includes trade candidates like Corbin Burnes and Dylan Cease. The latter could be move as soon as this weekend with the Orioles said to be in the mix. Either one would represent an upgrade to the team’s pitching staff, but the prospect package required to make it happen is not something Elias has done during his time at the helm.
Elias has also claimed to be searching for back-end bullpen help. All-world closer Félix Bautista is going to miss all of 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery. While Yennier Cano was a wonderful surprise, it’s clear that reinforcements are needed in the late innings. Once again, that isn’t something Elias has looked to spend much on to this point, but coming off an AL-regular season could change his tune.
Would adding a starter and a reliever be enough to push this Orioles team beyond the Divisional Round in 2024? Could the offense use a little help? Are any of the team’s prospects “untouchable?” The guys discuss all of that and more in this week’s episode.
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Changes are coming
You may notice something different with this episode. Or maybe not. I’m not sure how perceptive you are. But anyway, there have been changes!
We’ve joined a podcast network, Bleav!
What does this mean for you, the listener? Hopefully very little. If you have already subscribed to us someone on the internet we thank you! Your experience should not be interrupted. We have already moved our RSS feed over to Bleav and today’s episode seems to have gone out relatively smoothly. If we didn’t show on the app or platform you use, please let us know.
Some other things to note:
Prior to joining Bleav we were using Substack to distribute our podcast to all of the various services. While we will no longer be using Substack in that way, we will continue to send out email notifications like this when new episodes post. Our audience has become accustomed to it, and we like the format. So we will still be here! But we will no longer run in Substack’s native podcast player.
You will start to hear advertisements in our show. This is kind of a big deal for us! It will help support us and sustain our efforts to bring you auditory entertainment. But we also understand that ads can be something of a pain from a listener perspective. We appreciate you for sitting through them. All ads are sourced from our network.
The other big change will be to how often we release episodes. We know that in recent years we have been quite slow on the uploads. Sometimes life gets in the way, and unfortunately we couldn’t make podcasting enough of a priority. That’s going to change starting today! Each week you should be getting at least two episodes from us, maybe more. It may be slightly scattershot during the offseason, but we hope to lock in a specific cadence by Opening Day.
These episodes will not always include all three of us. Podcasting has never been a full-time job for any of us, and this partnership with Bleav will not change that. It’s not possible for all three of us to clear the time we would need to make multiple shows per week. So instead, you may only get one or two of us at a time.
These episodes will also being shorter in length, maybe 30-40 minutes each time out. If you listened to our ALDS Recap episodes in October, that is the sort of package we have in mind.
That’s all the big stuff for now. We are excited to get this start now, during the offseason, so that we can work out the kinks and get everything sorted by the time spring training rolls around.
If you have any feedback in the meantime please leave a comment here or send us an email: thewarehousepod@gmail.com.
We really appreciate the support you all have shown us over the years. Without a listenership, we never could have joined a network, and we are excited to see how we can grow moving forward. Thank you!