Steve On Baseball Podcast

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

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 releasedGibson 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

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

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

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

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

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 todayIt’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

Hey Birdland and welcome to another work week after the extended Thanksgiving break. Hope many of you had a great time with your family as I did. Now back to the business of baseball, which of course continued even during the long weekend.The O’s reached agreement on two-year deal with right-hander Ryan Helsley on Saturday afternoon.Yes he pitched to a 4.50 ERA for the Mets and Cardinals last year. But over a three-year run fron 2022 through 2024 he posted a 1.83 ERA and 82 saves.Twice in that span he got National League Cy Young votes, finishing 12th in 2022 and ninth for that award in 2024.Few more notes on Helsley:He has been on the injured list just four times in his career.He was the longest-tenured Cardinal at the time of the trade.He is one of three Cardinals to ever throw an Immaculate Inning. He did so on Sept. 16, 2022 versus Cincinnati, joining Bob Gibson and Jason Isringhausen in St. Louis history.He is one of three St. Louis closers to make more than one All-Star team joining Lee Smith and Bruce Sutter. Helsley made the All-Star teams in 2022 and 2024.During the 2024 season, when he led the majors with 49 saves, he was named NL Reliever of the Month three times. He won that honor in April, June and September.A fifth-round pick of the Cards in 2015, he turns 32 on July 18.Let’s get your take in the comments below on this addition and how the O’s bullpen is coming together for next season. Plus feel free to pass on any O’s comments or questions. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

O’s right-handed pitching prospect Nestor German is from a school without a big name but one with a big name MLB pitcher among its former players.In 2023, German was the Orioles’ 11th-round pick out of Seattle University. In 2018, the same school sent lefty Tarik Skubal to the Detroit Tigers. They got him in the ninth round and 254 players were selected ahead of him.Now he’s the back-to-back Cy Young Award winner in the American League.German doesn’t talk about winning any future Cy Young Awards, but his strong 2025 season could lead him to talk about possibly getting a shot with the Orioles during next season. And we did talk about that and much more when he joined me for my latest podcast out today.German, age 23, pitched at three levels and in 26 games last season. First for High-A Aberdeen for six games, then for Double-A Chesapeake for 18 and he ended the year throwing two games at Triple-A Norfolk.For the three clubs he was a combined 6-7 with a 3.93 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, .220 batting average against and 10.41 strikeout rate per nine innings.He is currently ranked the O’s No. 11 prospect (and third pitcher) via Baseball America and No. 14 (and sixth pitcher) via MLBPipeline.com.Those outlets give most of his pitches 50 and 55 scouting scale grades, so pretty solid across the board.Here are German’s rankings on the O’s farm last year (min. 80 IP)1st in WHIP (1.18)2nd in innings (123 2/3)3rd in swinging-strike percentage (14.8)3rd in K/BB ratio (3.11)4th in K percentage (28.0)5th in K/9 (10.41)5th in FIP (3.54)8th in ERA (3.93)Today is the 30th episode since April of the Steve on Baseball podcast with many more to come! I hope you enjoy this interview with German, who provided some nice insights on his career and being a pitching prospect for the Orioles. One change on my Substack: This Substack will remain with a mix of free and paywalled articles. The paywalled stories can be accessed by paying subscribers to this Substack. Those subscribers have access to every story and my full archive.Also beginning today a free article will remain that way for a week and then will be behind a paywall. This is obviously one way to grow the revenue generated here and that is my goal with this move. Once again an article that is free to all will remain that way for one week moving forward. And there will always be some free content produced in this space. To everyone that subscribes and reads here, thanks for the continued support.By the way, all audio and video remains free for all and those posts do not apply to this change. That includes, of course, podcasts and videos. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

From the Gilman School in Baltimore to pro baseball on the farm for the O’s and Nats and now onto his media business, Ryan Ripken is the latest from a famous baseball family to make his mark.When your grandad is Cal Ripken Sr., your father is Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. and your uncle is former Oriole and current MLB Network star Bill Ripken, you may have picked up a few things about the game along the way.As a player Ryan reached the Triple-A level. He was drafted by the Orioles in 2012 and the Nationals in 2014. He played on the O’s farm from 2017-2021.A couple years ago he started Ryan Ripken media from scratch and now he hosts the Ryan Ripken show a couple of times a week via his YouTube channel which has thousands of subscribers and keeps the posts humming via his social media.He’s making his own name for himself in this famous family and doing it his way. Fans are finding and enjoying his work and he’s also a part of the great baseball coverage during the season on 105.7 FM the Fan in Baltimore.I hope you enjoy Ryan’s comments today as we discussed several players now avaiable to the Orioles and all teams via free agency and several other topics. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Fans around Birdland will finally hear in depth from their new manager, Craig Albernaz, during next Tuesday’s press conference at Oriole Park.We will soon start to get to know him.But Tampa Bay Rays radio broadcaster Neil Solondz has known Albernaz since his Triple-A playing days. Neil was the radio broadcaster for the Durham Bulls and Albernaz was a player there for parts of five seasons, the first three with Solondz at the mic from 2009-2011.Neil makes a great pairing in the Rays radio booth with Andy Freed, himself a long-time Rays broadcaster who grew up an O’s fan and went to Towson University. Go Tigers!Neil just completed his 14th year on the Rays Radio Network and his second as a play-by-play voice. Before that he hosted pre and postgame shows and was a fill-in play-by-play broadcaster.The Rays have some wonderful people in their media and it seems most of the O’s reporters are always happy to see an O’s-Rays matchup to get to see everyone.We covered a lot of ground today with Neil. Everything from Albernaz’s playing days with the Bulls, to what made him an outstanding minor league manager on the Rays farm to what kind of skipper might be coming to Birdland. To how he might handle the pressure to win in Baltimore. We get great insight today on this podcast from someone that knows Albernaz well.Thanks to Neil for joining me today. Enjoy this one Birdland. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

I believe I first met Brett Hollander when he was at the Gilman School in Baltimore and at the age of 15 was an intern at WBAL Radio where I was the Sports Director.His memory is better than mine from those days but that means, in a sense, I was there for the start of an outstanding broadcasting career.From Gilman, Brett went on to Dickinson College in Pennsylvania where he broadcast many sports and really fell in love with working in the booth. He met a classmate there named Geoff Arnold and later they would team up in the O’s booth!Brett grew up around broadcasting. His dad, Rich worked many years at WBAL-TV. I remember watching him often on Channel 11 where he was a great news reporter as we say “back in the day.”Brett worked early in his career at CBS Radio in Baltimore where he noted in this podcast, he broadcast the first sports update heard on 105.7 FM the Fan when the station switched from AM to the FM dial.He worked many years at WBAL Radio, hosting O’s pre and postgame shows, also was the host of Sportsline and at one time hosted the afternoon drive talk-show, showing he is more than just a sports guy.He was named the 2015 Maryland Sportscaster of the Year.This was a real fun conversation, mostly about broadcasting and Brett’s career, between two long-time friends.Who knew that kid from Gilman would one day wind up in the O’s booth!Enjoy today’s podcast with Brett. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

The offseason is here for the Orioles, but the Steve on Baseball podcast continues on, games or no games.Sometimes the offseason speculation provides more interesting topics to discuss and today we got into several of them.My guest is Matt Weyrich, one of the Baltimore Sun’s beat writers. Matt joined the Sun in January of 2024 and just completed his second season on the beat. He is a 2019 James Madison University grad and a proud fan of the Dukes.We discussed the season-ending press conferences, the manager search, the struggles of the young hitters, possible roster additions, Samuel Basallo and more.We covered a lot of ground today, so enjoy the first offseason edition of the Steve on Baseball podcast! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe