Baltimore Orioles: Mike Redmond interviews, Hall of Fame thoughts

On Sunday evening, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that current Rockies bench coach Mike Redmond has interviewed with Mike Elias and the Baltimore Orioles for the open manager job

During his introductory press conference, Mike Elias said of the Baltimore Orioles managerial search, “I don’t think past experience is a prerequisite, but obviously experience, especially good experience, is always attractive in any hiring process”. Good experience can be subjective, but Mike Redmond has been there before, having served as the manager of the Marlins from 2013-2015.

Redmond spent 13 years as a catcher in the majors between Miami and Minnesota. During his playing days, he was known more for his defense and leadership than the bat, amassing a career .287/.342/.358 slash line.

Redmond retired in 2010 and in 2011, he managed the Lansing Lugnuts to the Midwest League championship and earned the manager of the year award in the process. After managing the Dunedin Blue Jays in 2012, Redmond was hired by the Marlins prior to the start of the 2013 season.

In just over two years with the Marlins, Redmond posted a record of 155-207 and was fired shortly after signing a contract extension with the club. Redmond has served as a bench coach with the Rockies for the past two years.

The Orioles have improvements to make at the major league level and will need to address the Rule 5 draft on Thursday, but the most important thing right now for Elias seems to be filling out the coaching staff and the front office. That’s fine by us, even if it means slow news days.

Other Orioles thoughts

Harold Baines and Lee Smith were elected to the Hall of Fame through the Today’s Game committee on Sunday night. Smith received 16 of 16 possible votes, while Baines received 12, just getting past the minimum 75% mark for entry.

Smith pitched for six major league teams during his career, including the Orioles in 1994. He amassed 478 career saves and a 3.03 ERA in over 1,200 innings. He was a seven-time All Star and finished in the top-five in Cy Young voting three times. He was the all-time saves leader until Trevor Hoffman broke his record in 2006.

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Smith spent 15 years on the BBWAA ballot, never surpassing 50.6% of the total vote, well shy of the required 75% mark. He was a very good reliever for the better part of his 18-year career and if we’re putting single-inning relievers in the Hall, Smith absolutely belongs there.

Baines’ election is a bit more perplexing. Baines never got above 6.1% of the vote in his five years on the BBWAA ballot. He spent parts of seven years in Baltimore; he was a six-time all-star but never finished higher than 9th in MVP voting and led the league in slugging percentage just once. He hit 384 career homers but he never hit more than 29 in a season, and he hit more than twenty in just 11 of his 22 seasons.

The case for him is essentially sorting the all-time hits leaderboard (2,866 total, good for 46th all-time), and that he played in the 1990’s and never got popped for steroids. Other than that, I’m genuinely not sure why he’s in the conversation. Let me know why I’m wrong in the comments?

Monday is generally a good news day during the winter meetings but the Orioles will likely remain quiet. Manny Machado projects to sign before Bryce Harper, but I’d be surprised if either of them sign before the end of the meetings on Thursday. We could see a trade or two, and maybe a lower-tier free agent signing by the end of the day tomorrow.