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Friday, December 23, 2016

Columns:  Could Pedro Alvarez be the Orioles free agent most likely to return? The Sun 12/22  Duquette: “Still looking for opportunities to build the club” MASNsports.com 12/23  Notes on Gunkel’s splitter, Mancini’s power, Encarnacion’s new deal MASNsports.com 12/23  Is This The End For ? PressBoxOnline.com 12/22  A tale of love, loss, adoption and Oriole legend BaltimoreBaseball.com 12/23

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bal-20161222-story.html

Could Pedro Alvarez be the Orioles free agent most likely to return?

By Eduardo A. Encina / The Baltimore Sun December 22, 2016

For all the talk about the Orioles attempting to retain Mark Trumbo, it might be Pedro Alvarez who is the free agent most likely to return to the club.

Alvarez’s contributions to last year’s club can easily be overlooked, especially following his late signing in and his struggles at the plate early in the season. But Alvarez 22 homers with 49 RBIs and a .249/.322/.504 hitting line in 376 plate appearances while almost exclusively serving as a left-handed hitting against right-handed pitching.

Take away Alvarez’s first 12 games in April – he appeared to be hindered early after signing late and took some adjustment to a new league and being a DH for the first time in his career – and Alvarez posted a respectable .267/.329/.550 line for the season.

Because the Orioles want to get better defensively – particularly in the corner spots – and want to have a more multidimensional roster, the level of their interest in bringing back Alvarez hinges on his ability to play the field. That really wasn’t expected of Alvarez last season, even though he made six starts at third base for and made four errors in nine chances.

Alvarez’s agent, Scott Boras, said earlier this month at the Winter Meetings that Alvarez is experimenting with playing the outfield in an attempt to show he can be more than a designated hitter.

The interesting part of that is the notion of Alvarez trying to convert to the outfield – he’s only played third and first in the majors -- began last year with the Orioles. The team tinkered with the idea of giving Alvarez some in the outfield in spring training, but there really weren’t any available. Hyun Soo Kim needed to play to make the adjustment from Korea and the club wanted to get a good look at Rule 5 pick Joey Rickard. Alvarez did see time defensively at first and third base during spring training.

But even late in the season, the Orioles pondered giving Alvarez an opportunity in right field, but ultimately decided against it because he had never played there. Instead, once the club acquired veteran Michael Bourn late in the season, they started moving Mark Trumbo from right field into the DH spot on a more regular basis in an attempt to improve defensively. But that move took at bats away from Alvarez down the stretch.

It’s obviously a big ‘if’ to think that Alvarez can re-invent himself as an , especially since he’s struggled defensively elsewhere. Boras wants to raise his client’s stock. And the Orioles need to invest in players who can contribute in the field this offseason.

If the Orioles do re-sign Trumbo, Alvarez likely isn’t a fit, and retaining Alvarez might also affect whether the club can carry , who the team has projected as a right-handed designated hitter. Sure, the two could platoon at DH, but it leaves the Orioles bench with a player who can’t really help defensively on a nightly basis. Add in the team’s two Rule 5 picks this year – Aneury Tavarez and Anthony Santander – and the Orioles’ bench picture gets even more muddled.

Having said that, Alvarez would seem to have the arm strength to handle the outfield. Whether he can develop the range is the bigger question. But in his one season with the Orioles, Alvarez showed the desire to get better, often taking grounders at third base with Bobby Dickerson well before practice. And there’s no doubt that the Orioles recognized Alvarez’s value as a , veteran presence and teammate. They also have taken notice that Alvarez handled lefties better than he has in the past, hitting .243 last season against left- handers (albeit in a small sample size) compared to his career .205 mark.

Alvarez has been linked to a few clubs this offseason, including the , with whom he could slot nicely as a successor to the retired as a DH. But it’s more likely that most teams will take a wait-and-see approach with the slugger to see how the outfield experiment is going.

And there’s no question the Orioles will be paying close attention to Alvarez’s market, and the longer he remains a free agent, the most likely a reunion seems possible.

http://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2016/12/duquette-were-still-looking-for- opportunties-to-build-the-club.html

Duquette: “Still looking for opportunities to build the club”

By Roch Kubatko / MASNsports.com December 23, 2016

The Orioles maintained interest in free agent outfielder Ben Revere this winter, engaging again in talks with his representative. However, there doesn’t appear to be a financial fit and Revere is expected to sign with another team - perhaps as early as today.

The Nationals non-tendered Revere after he batted .217/.260/.300 in 103 games, but he hit .306/.342/.377 in 2015 with the Phillies and Blue Jays. A strained oblique in April pretty much ruined his final season in D.C.

Revere, 28, bats from the left side and can play all three outfield positions. He would have been a nice fit in right field and atop the order.

Meanwhile, executive vice president Dan Duquette continues his efforts to plug the hole in right field. That’s just one remaining order of business. A decision must be made regarding designated hitter and another reliever could be added to the .

“We’re still looking for opportunities to build the club,” Duquette said. “We’re not done. We like some of the things that we did. Adding a and the two young (Rule 5) outfielders. But we’re still trying to build our ballclub.”

Business tends to slow for everyone between Christmas and New Year’s, and Duquette indicated that he isn’t particularly close to making another move.

“I don’t have anything that’s imminent,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of things that are percolating, if you will, but we’re not ready to pour the cup of coffee.”

Duquette remains open to signing a free agent or making a trade. Whatever comes first. “We’re looking at all of them,” he said. “We’re looking at trades, signings, international signings. There are still some players on the market that could help the club.”

The Orioles still seem more likely to add a reliever than a starter. Brad Brach was a popular target at the Winter Meetings and nothing has changed since the Orioles left National Harbor.

“We have some pretty good depth to our rotation and there’s a lot of interest in our relief on the trade market,” Duquette said.

Negotiations have stalled with Mark Trumbo’s agent. I’m told again that talks have quieted, but they could pick up again at a later date. The Orioles aren’t closing that door.

The Orioles also are focused on reaching agreements on new contracts with their arbitration- eligible players. There’s in-house business to do, as well.

“We are preparing our offers to try to sign some players that are arbitration eligibles and in the process of preparing our offers, we also prepare the cases in the event that we’re not able to negotiate a contract,” Duquette said. “So we’re in the process of doing both of those things right now.”

There’s nothing new to report on the assistant hitting coach, with Duquette saying, “We have some more work to do on that.”

I sought further confirmation that Lenny Harris and are two candidates and Duquette replied, “Those are some good names.”

Duquette said the hiring of a minor league pitching coordinator is still “in process.” “We’re still working on that,” he said.

John Wasdin is expected to replace Rick Peterson, who held the title of director of pitching development for the past five seasons. However, Wasdin would be named minor league pitching coordinator.

“It would probably be a coordinators position,” Duquette said. “It probably wouldn’t be a director’s position.”

http://www.masnsports.com/steve-melewski/2016/12/notes-on-gunkels-splitter-mancinis-power- encarnacions-new-deal.html

Notes on Gunkel’s splitter, Mancini’s power, Encarnacion’s new deal

By Steve Melewski / MASNsports.com December 23, 2016

It was a suggestion from his -A pitching coach that came after the 2015 season and before in 2016. For right-hander Joe Gunkel, it was advice that he put to good use.

A that was added to the Orioles’ 40-man roster in November, Gunkel has always been minus a blazing . He gets outs with a fastball between 88 and 92 mph, so he is always looking to work on and improve his secondary pitches to improve overall as a pitcher.

That suggestion led to him making a change with his off-speed . He went from throwing a straight to using a split-finger fastball as his change-of-pace pitch. “Alan Mills (then pitching coach at Double-A Bowie) made a suggestion last offseason to work on that,” Gunkel said. “I worked with him in Bowie on it and Oliver Drake helped a lot with it when I got to (-A) Norfolk. At one point of the (2016) year, it was one of my better pitches. I don’t throw a straight changeup anymore.

“I had struggled with my changeup some in 2015. My changeup was a little too fast and Mills called me in the offseason to check in on me. He said to play around with the splitter a little bit. It felt good throwing it during the offseason and I worked on it during the spring and in Bowie for the first month. Then it really made strides when I was in Norfolk.”

Give Gunkel credit for sticking with a pitch that was not easy to improve and perfect right away.

“It took a while to get the hang of it,” he said. “Once I got to Triple-A, it started to get a lot better and I got pointers from Oliver Drake, who has a really good one. There were some little adjustments I needed to make and then I felt a lot more comfortable with it.

“I’ve developed full confidence in it. I like to throw it early in counts to lefties, when I know they’re being aggressive. It helps. It has a good amount of depth, so if I can fill up the bottom of the zone with . I don’t necessarily have to throw the splitter for a strike to be effective. You can use it for a putaway pitch, but I also like to use it early in counts, fastball counts, to try to get them looking for a fastball and swinging at a splitter.”

We recently posted an interview with Trey Mancini in this space. Mancini hit three homers in just 14 at-bats last year for the Orioles in September, but said he knows he still has to establish himself all over again in spring training.

In the last couple of years, Mancini has played in a good hitter’s park at Bowie, then a tough park to hit in at Norfolk and then moved to Camden Yards where a well-struck ball can carry well.

“When I got up to Norfolk, it is true what they say - it is a tough park to drive the ball well in, especially in the gaps,” Mancini said. “But going from Bowie to Norfolk, you can’t change anything with your approach. You’re going to fly more on the than you would in Bowie or Baltimore, but I was glad I didn’t change anything when I went to Norfolk and happy that I did not. If you hit it well, you can still hit it out.”

In 2015, Mancini homered once every 24.9 at-bats at Bowie. In 2016, he homered once every 40.0 at-bats at Norfolk and then hit three homers in 11 at-bats at Camden Yards. Encarnacion leaves the East: Slugger Edwin Encarnacion, whose three- homer in October ended the Orioles’ season in Toronto, is no longer in the American League East. He has agreed to a contract with the , taking one top free agent slugger off the board.

Encarnacion, who will be 34 on opening day, gets a three-year deal worth $60 million with a fourth-year team option that will pay him either $25 million if the Indians pick it up or another $5 million if they don’t.

It is fair to ask and wonder if the Orioles should have taken a strong run at Encarnacion. His $65 million guaranteed dollars doesn’t seem much north of what the team has reportedly offeredMark Trumbo. Of course, the Orioles would have lost a first-round pick for signing him.

Encarnacion hit 42 homers last year and led the AL with 127 RBIs. Over the past five years, he has hit .272/.367/.544 with 193 runs and a .912 OPS. Encarnacion has played 127 career games with 544 plate appearances against Baltimore, batting .266/.342/.549 with 34 homers, 83 RBIs and with an .891 OPS. At least now the Orioles won’t face him 19 times per season.

https://www.pressboxonline.com/2016/12/22/is-this-the-end-for-orioles-nolan-reimold

Is This The End For Nolan Reimold?

By Rich Dubroff / PressBoxOnline.com December 22, 2016

While the Orioles are busy looking for outfielders, Nolan Reimold is looking for work.

It's highly unlikely Reimold will be in Orioles camp in February, but he's been counted out many times before.

Presumably, Reimold's Orioles' career is finished, and before it officially ends, let's appreciate what he brought.

For many fans, Reimold was one of the most polarizing of all Orioles in recent years, but he shouldn't have been.

Many criticized him for taking up a roster spot, but they didn't understand him.

Reimold first became an Oriole May 14, 2009, two weeks before catcher Matt Wieters joined the team, and he had a most promising rookie season.

In 104 games, Reimold batted .279 with 15 home runs and 45 RBIs. He walked enough for a .365 OBP and stole eight bases in 10 attempts.

Reimold's rookie season ended in mid-September when he needed surgery on his Achilles tendon. His at the time, Dave Trembley, thought the Orioles had a great outfield of the future with Reimold in left, Adam Jones in center and Nick Markakis in right.

Unfortunately, the 2009 season wasn't the first of Reimold's good seasons with the Orioles. It was, really, his only good season.

The next spring training began an annual ritual that we didn't know would become one: Asking Reimold questions about his health.

In my time covering the team, I don't remember an Oriole who answered more questions about his injuries and fewer about his performance, and Reimold, generally, was patient with his questioners.

But 2010 started off poorly for Reimold and the Orioles. In mid-May, Reimold was sent back to Triple-A Norfolk with a .205 average, and by the time he returned in September, both Trembley and interim manager were gone.

Manager Buck Showalter wanted a look at Reimold, and while the team played well that month, Reimold didn't play any better than he did before he was sent down, batting .212 in 10 games.

After Reimold was recalled from the Tides in May 2011, he showed Showalter some glimpses of what he had been two years earlier, hitting 13 home runs, six of them in September when the Orioles got hot.

Perhaps his most memorable moment came Sept. 28, 2011, when he hit a game-tying double against the Boston Red Sox and scored the run that knocked them out of the playoffs.

Entering 2012, the Orioles were without a , and Showalter thought Reimold, with his on-base ability, could do it. In 16 games, Reimold was batting .313, but in mid-April, he injured his neck diving for a ball in Chicago.

He didn't play after April 30 and underwent the first of two neck surgeries in June 2012.

That surgery didn't go well, and a year later, Reimold needed another, and in 2015, he sued Johns Hopkins Hospital for negligent medical care. The suit has been settled.

In 2012 and 2013, Reimold played 56 games for the Orioles, and he started 2014 on the disabled list. After 17 rehab games with Double-A Bowie, there was no room on the Orioles for him, and he was lost on a waiver claim to Toronto.

Reimold played 22 games with the Blue Jays and seven with the before he returned to the Orioles on a minor league deal for the 2015 season.

He had an injury-free 2015 with Norfolk and the Orioles, and he was back last year.

In 2016, Reimold's health allowed him to play through the season, and he equaled his career high, appearing in 104 games.

Reimold had a good start and was hitting .300 in early June, but he wore down.

In the second half of the season, Reimold was batting.139 with just four RBIs. Two of them came on a game-ending, two-run against Cleveland July 24, his third game-ender.

In what seems like his final at-bat with the Orioles, in his only postseason appearance during the Wild Card game Oct. 4, Reimold made the third out of the 11th against Francisco Liriano, striking out. A few minutes later, he watched Edwin Encarnacion's home run fall over him.

While fans criticized him, throughout his career Reimold diligently worked to stay on, or get back on, the field. As Showalter pointed out, his problems really started when he dove for a ball to help his team.

There's been no chatter about Reimold this offseason -- no talk linking him to another team, or back to the Orioles.

http://www.baltimorebaseball.com/2016/12/23/tale-love-loss-adoption-oriole-legend-brooks- robinson/

A tale of love, loss, adoption and Oriole legend Brooks Robinson

By Dan Connolly / BaltimoreBaseball.com December 22, 2016

This isn’t a baseball story, not really anyway.

It’s a people story, a love story, a tragic story.

And then, just when you want to scream from the rooftops about how life is so damn unfair, this becomes a story of heart-warming hope, with an all-time Orioles’ great providing some of that – at first unbeknownst to him and, ultimately, because of his simple act of kindness.

This isn’t my story. I’m telling it now because it’s the holiday season, and because it’s good to read something uplifting around this time of year.

It has been told much better by the person who has lived it, my good friend and proxy little sister, Leslie Gray Streeter, the pop culture columnist at The Palm Beach Post.

I’ve known Leslie since we were young reporters at The York (Pa.) Dispatch in the mid-1990s. We bonded because we were both Baltimorons – our favorite pastime was ripping each other when the occasional Balmer accent would tumble out of our mouths. (“Did you just say, ‘am- buew-lance?’ Really?”)

Leslie and I grew up a few miles apart in Baltimore; she went to City and I went to Calvert Hall. We didn’t know each other, but later realized we had several mutual acquaintances. We also had plenty in common, including an obsession with the Orioles as children. I wanted to play third base at Memorial Stadium; she wanted to marry . Neither dream worked out.

Leslie didn’t end up marrying anyone until her late 30s, when she reconnected with a City classmate, Scott Zervitz, who also was living in Florida. I had spent much of my 20s and 30s disparaging every guy that Leslie dated. Because, to be frank, most were losers. And, as her pseudo-big-brother, I felt it was my role to point that out as often as possible.

Scott seemed different, though. We got along from the beginning, probably because he was a sports fanatic, and was obsessed with the Orioles and Ravens. As a kid, he won a raffle to be a bat-boy-for-a-day at Memorial Stadium and got cursed out by in the home . When he told me that story, complete with an imitation of Weaver’s snarky rasp and colorful language, it was hard not to like the guy.

Leslie and Scott were married in February 2010. She had found her soulmate. We were all so happy. They wanted children, but hadn’t been able to conceive when Leslie received a phone call from a relative in September 2013. A baby boy had been born in Baltimore to a member of her extended family. He may be put up for adoption. Was she interested?

Leslie and Scott decided this was their sign from above. Within six months, the couple was fostering the little boy in Florida and navigating the crazy rollercoaster of adoption. From afar, it seemed like a gut-wrenching process; I couldn’t imagine what they were going through.

It crept along. The occasional milestone inching them forward.

One day, Leslie called me to let me know what they were going to name the little boy.

I laughed.

Seriously?

“Yes,” she said. “Brooks Robinson Streeter-Zervitz.”

“Let me get this straight. This little African-American boy, born in Baltimore, soon to be adopted by an African-American woman and a white Jewish man in Florida will be named after a 70- something, white ballplayer from Little Rock, Arkansas?”

“Yep,” she chuckled.

“Perfect,” I said.

Truth is, Leslie always was on board with naming the boy after an Oriole – Scott’s wishes – but she wanted to go with Ripken. After all, Cal Ripken Jr., was a little more her and Scott’s generation of ballplayer. But Scott was unrelenting.

He wanted his boy named Brooks, after not just arguably the greatest player in Orioles history, but the undisputed greatest person to ever wear the uniform. The ultimate class act. Leslie bought in. Once the child was officially adopted, he would be legally renamed Brooks.

In March 2015, as the pending adoption painfully crawled along in the court system, I met Scott, Leslie and soon-to-be Brooks in Orlando before an Orioles-Braves exhibition game. We hung out at a coffee shop. Little Brooks sat on my lap. Scott and I talked Orioles. Leslie fed her son. It was awesome to see her in the role of mom with this beautiful family in the making.

Later that day, while I was working in the press box, Brooks attended his first baseball game. At one point, he was screaming and crying, as 18-month-olds like to do, and Scott tried to stop the temper tantrum. “Brooks Robinson,” he said sternly. Suddenly, everyone around the family quieted. For a moment, all of the baseball fans in the section thought there had been a sighting of the legend. Nope, just a little boy named Brooks Robinson being cranky. Carry on.

There should have been so many more moments like that. The three of them experiencing more baseball games, experiencing more Disneyworld, experiencing more life, experiencing more love.

But, unfortunately, maddeningly, that’s not always the way life works.

Four months later, in July, 2015, I received an early morning phone call from my best friend. His voice was distant. He was choked up.

“I’m sorry to tell you this, man,” he said between deep breaths. “Leslie’s Scott is dead. Died overnight.”

It was cardiac arrest at age 44. More than five years after marrying Leslie, and about one year before this son he loved so much could legally become his, Scott was gone. He was buried in his Brooks Robinson, throwback O’s jersey. I mourned for Scott, though I didn’t really know him that well. And I mourned deeply for Leslie, who had gone from wife and foster mom to widow and mom in an eyeblink.

How she has survived and flourished this last year-plus is a testament to her strength and her faith. And testament to the commitment she has for this child that should have been hers and Scott’s much earlier, but was still floating in red-tape ether.

Somehow, Leslie expertly sidestepped life’s blows. And, this July, she was in a courtroom in Towson with family and friends for the official adoption of Brooks Robinson Streeter-Zervitz. When the name was said officially for the first time, there wasn’t a dry eye in the judge’s chambers. It was one of the most emotional moments I’ve ever encountered.

This story could stop here. It’d certainly be enough for one piece. It’d certainly be enough for that feel-good vibe about humanity we all crave at this time of year.

But there’s a post script to this. Because Leslie’s a writer.

She’s at her best when she puts things into words. She wanted the original Brooks Robinson to know her son’s tale. So, she wrote the Hall-of-Famer a good, old-fashioned letter. Unlike many fans, she wanted nothing from the 79-year-old Robinson, who still lives in Baltimore County. She put that in the letter. She meant it. She’s been through hell, but she’s never asked for any special treatment throughout this ordeal. And she didn’t that day.

All she wanted was for Robinson to know how much his integrity and his acceptance of people of different races and cultures had shaped her husband’s life and now would shape her new son’s life. That’s the connective beauty and strength of sports, of baseball in particular.

A few weeks later, Leslie received an envelope in the mail at her home in Florida. Inside was a color photo of Robinson, kneeling in the summer sun at Memorial Stadium so many moons ago.

An inscription was written in blue Sharpie.

“Brooks,” it read, “I’m honored you have my name. Hope to say hello one day soon.”

It was signed, “Brooks Robinson, Hall of Fame 1983.”