As MLB moves toward inevitable labor war, where do Orioles fit into the battle?

We’re all excited about the possibilities of the 2026 MLB season but the clouds of labor war are percolating even in spring training. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the complicated complications of six decades of Major League Baseball labor history and the bubbling situation for a salary cap. And what will the role of the new Baltimore Orioles ownership be in the looming dogfight?

Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Orioles’ offseason moves, including the addition of Jordan Westburg and Gunner Henderson, and the potential impact of the MLB labor situation on the 2026 season. They expressed optimism about the team’s competitiveness, citing improvements in the starting rotation and the acquisition of Pete Alonso. However, they also highlighted concerns about the league’s labor issues, potential lockouts, and the financial challenges faced by small-market teams. The conversation also touched on the Orioles’ ownership’s strategy, the need for winning to drive fan engagement, and the broader implications of the labor dispute on the sport.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Get Zack to obtain a Baltimore Positive shirt that fits Nestor (arrange sizing and pickup) before upcoming Sarasota trip
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Restart and organize the Maryland Crab Cake Tour on the road in a couple of weeks (confirm dates, sponsors, and logistics)
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Provide further details about Baltimore Positive and the upcoming plans in a future column (publish follow-up column with specifics)

Orioles’ Offseason Moves and Expectations

• Nestor Aparicio discusses the Orioles’ offseason moves, including the additions of starters and relievers, and the spending on Jordan Westberg and Gunner Henderson.
• Nestor mentions his optimism about the Orioles being a playoff team, while Luke Jones is more cautious, believing they need more improvements.
• Nestor shares his experiences attending a funeral during a snowstorm and discussing baseball with people, highlighting the ongoing interest in the Orioles.
• The conversation touches on the broader context of baseball, including the labor situation and the historical impact of strikes and lockouts on the sport.

MLB Labor Situation and Its Impact

• Nestor and Luke discuss the potential impact of the expiring Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) on the MLB season, including the possibility of a lockout.
• Luke mentions Rob Manfred’s comments about negotiations usually starting around opening day, indicating a period of public posturing before any agreements.
• The conversation delves into the historical context of labor disputes in baseball, referencing figures like Marvin Miller and the 1994 strike.
• Nestor and Luke reflect on their personal experiences with past labor disputes and how they shaped their understanding of the business side of sports.

Historical Context and Personal Reflections

• Nestor shares his experiences as a young journalist in the late 80s, learning about the business side of sports from mentors like Jack Gibbons.
• The conversation highlights the importance of understanding the business aspects of sports journalism, even if it’s not the primary focus.
• Nestor recounts his interactions with players like Curt Schilling and his evolving understanding of the business of sports through various strikes and labor disputes.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of winning for the Orioles, noting that without memorable moments, it’s hard to recruit fans and build a loyal following.

Orioles’ Business Strategy and Ownership

• Nestor questions the long-term business strategy of the Orioles’ new ownership, led by David Rubenstein and Eric Grubman, and their plans for the team and the city.
• The conversation touches on the challenges of attracting fans and revenue, given the high cost of tickets and the need for a competitive team.
• Nestor expresses skepticism about the new ownership’s ability to generate revenue and their commitment to the city and the team’s future.
• Luke acknowledges the challenges but remains hopeful, emphasizing the importance of winning and the potential for the Orioles to become a competitive team.

Impact of Labor Disputes on Fans and Business

• Nestor and Luke discuss the potential impact of a labor dispute on the Orioles’ business operations, including the possibility of reduced attendance and revenue.
• The conversation highlights the importance of maintaining fan engagement and loyalty, even in the face of potential disruptions.
• Nestor reflects on the historical context of labor disputes and their impact on fan behavior and team performance.
• Luke emphasizes the need for the Orioles to be ready to capitalize on any positive momentum, given the competitive nature of the AL East division.

Orioles’ 2026 Season Outlook

• Nestor and Luke discuss the Orioles’ prospects for the 2026 season, including the potential impact of key players like Gunner Henderson and Pete Alonso.
• The conversation touches on the need for the Orioles’ young pitchers to perform well and the importance of a strong bullpen.
• Nestor expresses concern about the team’s ability to compete with top teams like the Blue Jays and Yankees, given the division’s strength.
• Luke remains optimistic, noting the team’s improvements and the potential for a strong wild card contender.

Orioles’ Business and Community Engagement

• Nestor questions the new ownership’s commitment to the community and their plans for the surrounding area around Camden Yards.
• The conversation highlights the need for the Orioles to engage with the community and build a strong fan base beyond the immediate Baltimore area.
• Nestor reflects on the challenges of attracting fans and generating revenue in a smaller market like Baltimore.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of winning and the potential for the Orioles to become a significant economic driver in the city.

Orioles’ Long-Term Strategy and Revenue Generation

• Nestor and Luke discuss the long-term strategy for the Orioles, including the need for a comprehensive plan to generate revenue and engage fans.
• The conversation touches on the challenges of attracting fans to games and the importance of offering competitive ticket prices.
• Nestor expresses frustration with the new ownership’s lack of transparency and their inability to articulate a clear vision for the team’s future.
• Luke remains hopeful, emphasizing the importance of winning and the potential for the Orioles to become a significant economic driver in the city.

Orioles’ Player Development and Future Plans

• Nestor and Luke discuss the Orioles’ player development strategy, including the importance of extending contracts with key players like Gunner Henderson.
• The conversation touches on the challenges of balancing short-term and long-term financial considerations for the team.
• Nestor reflects on the historical context of player development and the importance of building a strong core of young talent.
• Luke emphasizes the need for the Orioles to make smart decisions in player contracts to ensure long-term success.

Orioles’ Competition and Market Position

• Nestor and Luke discuss the Orioles’ competition within the AL East division and the challenges of competing with larger market teams.
• The conversation highlights the importance of winning and the need for the Orioles to be competitive to attract fans and generate revenue.
• Nestor reflects on the historical context of the Orioles’ struggles and the need for a comprehensive plan to improve the team’s performance.
• Luke remains optimistic, emphasizing the potential for the Orioles to become a significant economic driver in the city and the region.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

MLB labor situation, Orioles role, baseball season, pitching additions, player expectations, salary cap, work stoppage, ownership strategy, revenue sharing, market competition, fan engagement, team performance, player contracts, stadium development.

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SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. I promise. We’ll be getting the Maryland crab cake tour back out on the road here in a couple of weeks, as we get into March and as this crazy snow melts down, we have new sponsors, Farnan and dormer. We’re wearing the gear they are the comfort guys. They do HVAC. They were over my place earlier this week and helping us out. So I gotta get Zack to get me shirt that fits me. Luke’s shirts are fitting him pretty well, and we were set to go to Sarasota next week for a couple of days. Gonna do a little Bradenton this and that we have declined. I will provide further details out of Baltimore, positive in a future column. This one the mood so strikes me, but they will be playing baseball in 48 hours. And Luke, you and I are going to talk about the pitching we’ve done that. We talked about the additions in the last week of starters, relievers, spending money, the injuries and holiday and where we are with Jordan Westberg and the expectations of gunner. We’ve we’ve done deep dives on the Orioles, and you could find it all up Baltimore positive or under Luke. I haven’t gone anywhere in the last couple of weeks, and I attended a funeral during the snowstorm where I spoke baseball with about three or four people, because they come up to me, and my name is Aparicio. So people talk baseball to me, especially once the ravens are limited and they hired their coach. You know, people, what do you think of the new coach? I don’t know. What do you think of the new coach? I mean, what could any of us think of the new coach? But with the Orioles, it’s front and center, and I think everybody can look at this, and I have, I’m more optimistic than you, I think they’re a playoff team. You think they’re borderline, you think they need to do more. I don’t disagree with you, and I think they will do more. But the the first thing that any baseball person says to me, and again, these are all white guys, not primarily all. You’re the youngest white guy I talked to that does baseball. I don’t know anybody that’s 20 that’s in my life that talks baseball with me. Everybody I know has been around for Messersmith and the 81 strike and 94 and just on and on and on. And the labor thing, when I try to talk baseball with people, Hey, how do you feel about that? Well, they’re shutting sport down at the end of the year, and I don’t know whether people are patronizing me or trying to speak my language about the greater good of all of this, which is Mr. Rubenstein bought the team Peter Lonzo. Rah, rah, rah. But the undercurrents of the sport and the media and the money and the players and the owners and the war that’s now a it’s 100 year war, but it’s been a 50 Year Festering Wound, going back to Messersmith and Marvin Miller, who we brought up in the football segment we did earlier about report cards. But this baseball season, and there’s never a detente, and the players haven’t been winning as much lately as they did 40 or 50 years ago. I don’t really know where it’s going, but I know it dominates smart people that really want to talk about baseball. You can’t ignore it. It’s the

Luke Jones  03:16

elephant in the room. I mean, it is at the same time, we’re still a ways out from what’s going to happen, right? I mean, I know what. Rob Manfred was asked about it informally recently, and said that, I think generally, when they when they’ve gotten to the point when they know that a CBA is expiring, that it’s usually around opening day when they start having any semblance of conversation about it. We know that deadlines for action, so they’re not going to have a new CBA agreement at in April or May or June or July. There’s gonna be a lot of posturing publicly, I’m guessing, the All Star break. There’s going to be a lot of discussion at it, about labor at that point in time, and there’s gonna be a lot of people chiming in on that, but yeah, the overall expectation is also even Philly this year. I believe so.

Nestor Aparicio  04:09

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I think it is because of the 1776 and 1976 Yeah, I think it

Luke Jones  04:13

is okay. I’m on vacation that week, so yeah, I that was one, I kind of looked at it, but, but yeah. I mean, if you ask anyone who semi pays attention to labor and the union and the baseball owners, I mean, this has been talked about now for a year or two, right? I mean, it’s there’s going to be a lockout. It’s just gonna be a question of how long it lasts, right? It’s gonna be a question of whether it’s like the last lockout, which pushed back the start of the season by what a week? In the grand scheme of things, that’s no big deal in terms of fallout for fans and all of that. You know, if opening day becomes, you know, a game that’s rescheduled later in the season, and the season starts a week later, fans are ticked for about five minutes, and then they get over it. But. Yeah, you know, if the indications are that the owners are dug in more than ever on the idea of a salary cap, how many games are you gonna have to miss for that to happen? I mean, that’s, you know, 30 years ago, 30 plus years ago. It cost us a World Series. It cost us two months of baseball in 1994 and it it

Nestor Aparicio  05:23

started the you were 10 years old, right? You were 10 years I was 11 years old. What did you understand about it at that time? And I just want to say this for anybody listening in your your zoned out. Go listen to lock and forward. Go do whatever you want to, let him scream, whatever they’re going to do. But like you, and I don’t talk about this much, but, like, it shaped you, dude, because, like, you know a lot, you don’t like talking about the business of sports, but you’re not. You don’t have your head in the sand about it, in the same way that I don’t love talking about all of your nerd stats and but I understand war and I mean, I understand on base percentage. I played strat O Matic. It was important to walk and the strategy of the game and the evolving parts of all the analytics that I’m not allowed to know because, you know, I’m not a real media guy or not interested or anything. They don’t want me to know. They don’t want me on the inside. They don’t want me asking questions, same as the football team doesn’t. So therefore, my growth is a little bit stunted, because I don’t sit around the batting cage talking about this stuff the way I did for 30 years. I have interest in it, but the business side that I’ve come to appreciate and listen, man, I think I’ve told you this before, when I was reporter and I was 1918, 1920, years old in the late 80s, Jack Gibbons was my boss. Jack Gibbons love him to death. Serious guy. I remember being in his office in bet 8889 I was still, like, halfway through my apprenticeship there, and I said something really, and I was pretty flippant, dude. And you can imagine me as a 19 year old running around hammer jacks with the backstage pass. And this is who I am in 1988 8990 had a five year old kid by lines in all the sections of the paper. And Jack said something, because Jack took the business side seriously. We were trying to get a football team. A football team back right, trying to understand the business of getting a football team back. As a journalist who did not, I did not have my head in the sand about business, but I didn’t understand anything about business. And I said to Jack, in front of like, maybe Ken Rosenthal, and in front of a couple of other people. I said, Who cares about the business of sports? Nobody cares. And Jack lit up at me, like as a mentor, as a boss. What a good man. And he said to me, Nestor, and when Jack would look at me with disappointment, he looked at me like you’re not going to get anywhere unless you can figure this out, because you can’t write about it at the level. You need to write about it. Think about it in the way you need to think about it, unless you get yourself educated. And this is where the art modell journey and me owning my own business in the 90s, having never sold anything to anybody or ever thought about the ads were in the way in the newspaper. They weren’t. They just they eliminated my pros. So I didn’t understand anything about the business thing. And even through the strike of 81 where my father was trying to understand it and teach to me as a 1213, year old kid, when he canceled the Sporting News. And then I got on the radio in 91 in the 92 and I knew Curt Schilling well, and there was no bigger sell for the Union than him. Clearly, if you’ve seen his work, he’s a hard liner. But then I read Lords of the Realm, and then all of the ish happened, not only on my watch, but on my career. I thought my career was going to be over when baseball was going away. We didn’t have a football team here. So other than Joe Smith, there wasn’t a whole lot going on back in 93 and 94 and understanding the business of it came way more into focus when I talked about it every day on on radio as nasty Nestor in the Budweiser sports forum that Budweiser kept their sponsorship with me. John Dow and George Acton brought me scared pub list into their office over in Dundalk and said, Son, baseball’s going to come back and you’re going to be talking about it. We’re going to keep our sponsorship with you. So the business of sports to me, I that’s how I got it. You’re a 10 year old kid. How did your father explain the World Series going away in 1994 because, like, your acumen for understanding all of this, and your recall on all of it, is. As good as mine, if not better. You just don’t talk about it much because I don’t make you and you don’t

Luke Jones  10:04

love it well and and I do, while I think it’s important to be aware of it, it’s also not you know that it’s not what remember, we’re in the entertainment business at the end of the day, right? People, sports are an escape. So if you dwell on the business of it too much unless that’s your specific niche. And there are sports business, sports enterprise reporters out there who do a

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Nestor Aparicio  10:26

fantastic I think if you can’t explain it, you’re worthless to me. And I would have never have hired anybody here and put it behind the microphone. And I did a couple. It is because it was the foundational part of being able to explain it at a higher level, at a grown up level.

Luke Jones  10:39

It is at the same time people tune in for the games, right? People, then they ask why they do but at the same time that they’re not consumed by that, in the sense that you might have some curiosity in how your favorite sausage is made, but you’re not going to dwell on that seven days a week, right? I mean, so, I mean, you know to answer your question. I mean, it wasn’t that deep. I was 11, and I understood, and I knew the history of the game. There had been work stoppages. I was aware of 81 and what 1990 when started late and all but it, you know, and on a very simplistic level, the owners wanted a salary cap. The players didn’t, I mean, and on the most simplistic level, what we’re talking about now still kind of the same thing. Now it’s deeper than that. And look, I think whether you’re pro cap or not, I think there are a lot of questions that we have no idea what the answers are going to be if and when a cap is implemented, and what the fallout is for that. But you know, as I’ve said to you a number of times over the years, for me, it’s not nearly as much about the idea of the salary cap as much as what’s the floor, what are how’s the revenue being shared to determine what the cap is going to be. Are we going to make these small market teams that have cried poor, cried poor, cried poor, so much to the point where you say, all right, there’s a cap. What are you are you are you going to spend to the cap? Are there going to be penalties for being going below the floor, or is it going to be window dressing? Right? Because if you create a system that all it’s going to do is just kind of trim from the top, yet everything else kind of stays time to sort of not exactly status quo, because the optics of it will look different. But if you still kind of have that system in place, well, I don’t know if that’s going to make the sport all that much better, right? So there’s all. There are always those factors. What are the unintended consequences? You have players that have contracts to go into the 2030s at this point in time? How do you grandfather those situations in for whatever a cap is going to you know, whenever you’re going to implement a cap. And that’s just bobby Bonilla. I mean, these are unintended things you need to think. I saw the other day. Will Carroll, who used to work for Sports Illustrated, still does a lot of baseball, but sports injuries collectively has a sub stack. He wrote about this the other day. What would this mean for the pitching industry? I mean, think about it right now, the biggest market inefficiency in baseball is the millions that are just lit on fire with arm injuries for pitchers at this point in time, what would a hard cap mean for that? You know, because now it’s not just owners taking on risk of guaranteed dollars. It’s now you have a $30 million pitcher that goes up in smoke and has Tommy John surgery and is lost for the next year. That’s detrimental to a team’s ability to win, because that’s still going to count against the cap, right? So it’s

Nestor Aparicio  13:36

different than in the NFL, where where you don’t have guarantees. Russell Wilson doesn’t work out in Denver and Deshaun Watson in Cleveland, that you can eat that a little bit. It’s a lot harder to eat that if you’re if it was Chris Davis’s contract here, right?

Luke Jones  13:50

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So, so like, and look, that’s not to say that that’s an argument for not having a capital but like, you’ve got to think and consider about all the all these things. The other factor, and I saw this, I think the athletic did an article on this. I only had a chance to read about a third of it, but they were bringing up the point that while a lot of people are focused on what’s going to be this labor war, come this off season and it’s going to be a lockout, there’s no question about that’s just me a matter of how long it is, right? It’s either gonna be a lockout that’s two or three months and doesn’t jeopardize the season, or we’re going to be talking about missing games in 2027 which, you know, or, heaven forbid, an entire season being missed.

Nestor Aparicio  14:27

Well, I mean, a year from right this minute, they will not have detente, because they’re going to fight, right

Luke Jones  14:33

it’d be, it’d be very surprising. Yeah, you know, I’m, I’m not necessarily so fatalistic to think that they’re not going to play baseball at all next year. Because I I’d like to think there are enough individuals on both sides of that argument to realize how catastrophic that could be to the long term health of the sport. But that said, there’s gonna be a fight. There’s no question. However, the other part of this is i. So how in line are the baseball owners going to be, in general? Because right now, I just went to mlb.com and you go to MLB TV, which is the streaming you now have upwards. I don’t know the exact number, but there are so many teams now that their local media rights are being brokered by major league baseball at this point in time, like you can go to MLB website right now. There’s angels.tv, athletics.tv, brewers.tv, Cardinals, guardians, Diamondbacks. You get my point. How is that going to shake out?

Nestor Aparicio  15:37

Because it’s I’m guessing, not well, because I’m guessing the 99 bucks your mom is going to spend on it or whatever, they’re going to be a lot of people that don’t, and you’re going to have the wall up that you have with hockey, where you either watch it or you don’t well, and once you don’t, you don’t, and you don’t need more, and you might come in in September, if it matters, or whatever. But like they’ve really

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Luke Jones  15:59

but my but the point I but the point I was trying to make is not about that as much as how kumbaya are the 30 owners going to be about that moving more and more toward that kind of a system, which it’s pretty apparent that that’s what Rob Manfred wants, whereas, if you’re the Yankees with yes network, even though the Yankees don’t own yes network anymore, the TV rights are very lucrative. This is Notre Dame Fighting about conferences, really, right? So, so my point on this is, if the owners how dug in are the owners going to be on a cap, if they can’t all be on the same page when it comes to TV rights, which are going to be of the utmost importance to the long term health? So part of this is also goes back to, are the owners truly going to be as dug in on that as they need to be if they’re fighting about TV amongst themselves

Nestor Aparicio  16:46

so Well, Jerry Jones inherited this system. If he didn’t, he would have branched off and been Jupiter, yeah, or tried to, and yet, you know what I mean, like that. That’s the thing that reigns sports in. We did a whole hour on the NFL and how they dominate all of this, and that’s more important than any of this baseball stuff we’re talking about in the greater scheme of things. And baseball has its moment here, but it isn’t Marvin Miller anymore, and it isn’t Mark Belanger, and it isn’t Don fear, and it isn’t George Steinbrenner, but now it’s conglomerates. I mean, it’s still the Steinberger family in the New York side, but the fox thing and the LA thing and the money thing and the new ownership thing, and where they’re like, they really have these battleship franchises that have always ganged up on the pirates and the Orioles and the brewers and and that was part of the whole scheme, is that they were going to be rich and there were going to Be pauper nations that were going to live on the edge and maybe get a crumb and get a World Series every 43 years, you know, and still bring Katie Griggs in here to mistreat people like me and say, we’re going to thrive? Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, we’re thriving. I don’t know where thriving is for them, in regard to their gate or in regard to your mother and your sister up in Pennsylvania, watching the games and putting your nieces in Orioles gear and maybe dragging them down to the ballpark to give them $500 twice a year, like going to Disney World, I don’t know, but I don’t know how it really works in St Louis, except when I fly in, It’s worked. I’m there, I see like it’s a big deal, and they’ve worked hard at making it a big deal. I live here, it’s not a big deal, and I wish it were. And even the ghost of Angelos on this shoulder, telling me that the Washington franchise would really disconnect all of this and make the Orioles a smaller franchise. From a revenue standpoint, these guys, Mr. Big money pants, they put their billion eight out that, you know. Dude, he’s in the Epstein files. Dude, he was canoodling with Epstein after Epstein was a pedophile. But I digress. Um, it’s the first time I’ve even mentioned that. And like, I mean, and who cares? Who cares? Right? Everybody should care. But the new ownership is trying to figure out where the revenue is here, and whether it’s coming from you and me and your mother giving them 99 bucks, and that that’s going to be sustainable for real, that there really are enough Baltimore Orioles fans for that. When Angeles ripped the name off and called him Orioles because he wanted to usurp rest in Virginia, they’re never getting that again. I just don’t know where their revenue streams are. And I wonder, and this is where if I sat with Katie Griggs and she were honest, and she would never be if she sat with me and Rubenstein and Eric Getty, and I asked them what they really think of this, because they’ve helicoptered into this. Katie Griggs, not so much because she was in Seattle, but she What does she know from award she wasn’t watching baseball in 1981 I was, I don’t really know she’s red Lords of the Realm, to even understand the history of base, I. Have no inclination she has, and I certainly know that Rubenstein doesn’t care or know to know baseball well enough to sit with me and talk about baseball, but I wonder what they think of the industry, and what line of booja they have been sold to think that this thing’s just going to print money for them by mistreating people like me and Jim Palmer. So I look at it and say, what is their grand plan, and where are they going to be? Going to be Hawks? Where are they going to be? Are they going to be on Team Manfred in this fight? Angelo’s helicopter didn’t, bought the team and took the player side, you know, and pistol and Steinbrenner and called bud ceiling a bad car salesman. I mean, Angelos was Trump before Trump, and I don’t know where the Orioles sit on this, and all of this sits underneath of Angelos is gone. Two big Mr. Money pants are in they care. But what’s the Inner Harbor? What are they building around the stadium? Inevitably, that’s going to be what makes the thing worth money. You know, I’ve been to all of these stadia, all of them, that’s, that’s, that’s the that’s the generator. I don’t even see a plan, dude, and I’m not even allowed to ask a question, and anything that happens this summer is going to be, we’re getting the all star game in 2029 and they are right. Yeah, right. So some, at some point in the near future, they’re not going to want to talk about it, the labor thing, and whatever they know they’re not going to share. So I’m gonna have to sit here and guess what side of the fence they’re on, because, like, I don’t know what they really again, anything. They sit and tell me, I’m going to call bullja on it, because I’ve lived here forever and they haven’t. They don’t know their ass from their elbow, not even enough to be kind like, literally. So if I were to sit and talk to them about this and say, What? What’s the 10 year plan here? What’s going to be on the walkway, what’s going to be here. Tell me about the stadium authority. The stadium authority guy, he’s Wes Moore’s guy, he scolded me in Las Vegas for 10 minutes last year, then walked away from me. The stadium authority guy, you want me to get your message out? What’s your message? I’d like to know where the messaging is in all of this, and that it’s not Greg Bader and and Jennifer grand all and Katie Griggs, not even speaking to any of this, because this is where Jack Gibbons got in my face years ago as a young man and saying, it’s a lot of money at stake. This is the city, this is the harbor. This is our future. This is the franchise’s future. And it’s about more than just Pete Alonso went home. We’ll get to that. We’re going to do all that all year, but like, you’re going to shut the sport down, like, because of the Dodgers and the Yankees. I need to understand the modern part of that and then tell me where the strategy, Where’s the exit strategy for orioles.com and masson.com to integrate to create revenue for Mr. Rubenstein and Mr. Era Getty per Don rovac that spawns off condos downtown or mixed usage, or we’re going to have another casino and move it closer to the city, or we’re going to have thrill rides, I don’t movie theaters, concert, like all of those things that are going to be necessary, unless they’re just in here squeezing this and dropping it for the next people and saying, this baseball business isn’t for me. I’m a billionaire. This wasn’t even fun dealing with the city, dealing with the state, dealing with the union, dealing with these creeps that own the franchises I’m trying to build downtown and be the Civic hero and be the philanthropist and like, what’s the plan here? Dave Katie, where did the Orioles stand in this? What am I supposed to be pitching Oriole fans as to what side we’re on here in in player versus owner war? That feels inevitable. It feels inevitable that this time next year, I won’t be asking them for credentials, that they’ll decline for me to come down to Sarasota.

Luke Jones  24:10

I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know what you want me to how you want me to respond. I mean, if I had all the answers, I wouldn’t be sitting here. I’d be maybe I’d be running an organization. But, I mean, these are fair questions. I will continue to say, in a big picture standpoint, as much as you do try to downplay the winning part of it, they have to win because you have four decades of very few memorable moments that everything you talk about that will be important. In a big picture sense, you’ve the biggest way you can recruit people to be part of that, and to invest in that, and build in that, and to make this thing as great as it can be. And I’ve used the Cardinals as an example, not the Cardinals, as they currently are, because they don’t look very good right now, but what the Cardinals have been over the last quarter century, you’ve got to win, and you’ve got. Not, but you have to be ready to capitalize on that, right? You have to be when you’re in a position to make the playoffs and the make a run and you hope win a World Series at some point in time here in the not too distant future, you’ve got to have all your ducks in line to jump on that and to capitalize on that, because we talked about the Kansas City Royals a decade ago and how that thing was great for about five minutes, and then it was back to what it is. And now there’s talks, you know, who knows what’s going to happen with the ballparks there? And what I mean, there’s, I mean, the chiefs are moving to Kansas, apparently, and and all of that. So, yeah, I mean, I have these questions, and I don’t have all these ants all the answers for it, but it’s important for the long term growth, you know, to answer your question, as far as you know, what side they’re going to be on. I mean, David Rubenstein’s talked about a salary cap in baseball, not necessarily, not necessarily in the in the most nuanced, eloquent way, but he’s talked about that. So I To me that’s a tell where they stand on that. You know, I don’t think they’re going to be Peter Angelos being pro labor, but, you know, at the same time, they’re not necessarily going to get a ton of questions about it in April and May, but as we get later in the season, and you know, not necessarily even locally, but just on a national standpoint, the discourse is going to pick up. Like I said, I said, I think the all star game will probably be when that starts to become more and more of a talking point, and certainly will be a big talking point in October, as the World Series or the playoffs are going on, and we’re all kind of wondering, okay, when are they going to be on a baseball field again? You know, it’s there’s a lot to there’s a lot to unpack. Because, as I said, even the owners themselves, are they going to be fighting about what the TV model is going to look like? I mean, it seems like they did okay for themselves in revamping the national TV. You know, NBC is a big player in that now, so they’ve done some of that in terms of, I guess, making up for their fight. They the public fight they had with ESPN last year. And I mean, heck, ESPN now sells MLB TV and and now, you know, has has that. So they appease the ESPN in that way. But you still have this system of haves and have nots. And you know, more than ever, because you now have how many teams who don’t even, aren’t even on an RSN anymore. You know, aren’t even, don’t even have a regional sports network that they either own or somebody else owns.

Nestor Aparicio  27:27

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Well, the luxury tax model from the get go was a disaster, right? Like, just a disaster that you know, that that creep down in Florida was pocketing all of the money. Tampa was pocketing money. Angelos was almost, I mean, even though I’m the only one accused him of it, he did it. Just pocketed money for years and years and years and years to keep it away from payroll, to keep it away from the fans, to keep away from the stadium, keep away from everybody. They just the Angelos family was just a ginormous winner in this over 2025, years, and the team on the field was a loser. And that’s different than if Katie Griggs were running the St Louis Cardinals. Now wouldn’t be different than if Mike Elias were running the St Louis Cardinals baseball operation, because that can be fixed, as they’ve proven in Tampa and other places where they can win with a limited payroll, but what are the Orioles that? That was the question we asked, and we’re now two years into the Rubenstein and the Whistler and I mean, we’re two years into this, and they have no further defined what they are to somebody that’s smart, not coming out and doing an hour bull shot in the morning where I come and shake a hand and and then you get treated like you’re a ghost three weeks later, like what the real plan is that that the important people in Maryland could explain it, not just me. Somebody should be able to explain it to me, what is David Rubenstein and Michael era Getty? What are they trying to do here? What are they trying to do here, with the city, with the stadium, with the surrounding what’s the dream plan here? And I know this summer, the thing that’s going to get in the way is what we’re talking about. We don’t know if we’re going to play baseball next April. Dude, that’s problematic from a planning standpoint, from owning a new business, from anything they want to get done in Annapolis, where everybody’s fighting over money, and I talk about that here all the time. And the real things, Kerwin, education funding, the lottery, you know, cannabis industry. I talk about all of these things that fun things. I have the Transportation Secretary on, I have the Commerce Secretary like, I talk to people all the time about this stuff, and when Katie Griggs can’t explain it to me, and you’re one of the smartest people I know, and you pay attention, but not enough like to know to say, like, what’s the real plan here? How much is Madison really going to cost your mother three years from now? What do they think their payroll is three years from now? What do they think the city looks like three years from now? What do they think their relationship with the convention center and the harbor is going to be? What’s this? What’s the vision for the city? And that speaks to Brandon Scott, and that speaks to the governor and a lot of things. But if I just paid 1,000,000,008 for it, and I came in for it, and the State gave me 600 million to take the Jim Henneman press box and throw it out, and we fixed it all up, and now nobody’s buying it, because it’s $38,000 for a season ticket. And they thought that people like that existed here, and they don’t. They don’t. I would have told them that two years ago. Good luck digging that up, finding new businesses who have no association with baseball, that are just going to fork out 40 grand for season ticket. I I’ve lived here a long time. You can go to the mike tissues events. You can go to accelerant you can go to these networking events where business leaders gather. You go down to DC, and they would have the same problem down there, although they’ve got a head start of like they had a parade, well, half a parade a couple years ago, and they haven’t had anything like that here. And these are the challenges that I have for Mark fine and for Katie Griggs and Don Roback, and they’re the challenges they’re going to feel when they’re on the street. I wrote to them honestly, when they got the town a year and a half ago, I get up on them, but like, what is the plan? And the plan is going to be, well, we might not even play baseball next. So they’re not. This is a hard year for them to get anything seriously done, you know. And I mean that, and to your point, winning, winning, winning. Pete Alonso, they have to play competitive baseball. They have to play some playoff games, dude, right? I mean, let’s be honest, they have to play some playoff games well.

Luke Jones  31:45

And it’s interesting. You just brought up that point because they did spend money this offseason, right? I mean, in the sport in general, there was plenty of questions going into this offseason about, what’s this going to look like? Are you going to have teams that are going to spend and try to win and kind of treat things like

Nestor Aparicio  32:08

as they always are? They spent 19 million on a pitcher last week. You know, hard your mother and me at $100 are not getting them 19 million on subscriptions. You know what? I mean? Like, I like 19 it’s a lot of money and and add a Don rovax department to try to go find $19 million from local business dude, really, that’s a hell of a lot of bobblehead nights. I’m and I’m just saying that’s on a number four starter. So, like, I think of it like that. I think of it like that.

Luke Jones  32:36

Fair enough. I mean, there’s also a lot of revenue they get, but, yeah, sure, but the fact that they spent money they’re trying to win this year, and that’s good, you know, the idea that if they were going to be more conservative and view it through the lens of, well, we might not be playing baseball next year. Do we want to sign a bunch of contracts that might be prohibitive, depending on what a potential new salary cap or new whatever system is in place?

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Nestor Aparicio  33:04

Well, these guys are new and fresh and wealthy. They were marks like literally, at the winter meetings, right? They were tied to everybody because they they said, out loud, they said, behind closed, we have money and we’re going to spend it, right, like that.

Luke Jones  33:15

Literally, they needed to get better. I mean, they they’re coming off of a last place season, and by the way, a lot of the money they spent last year was one year deals, right? It was a lot of money that was there for 2025 and then came off the books so well. That speaks to allies. You know, smart their their payroll is higher this year than it was last year, but it’s not dramatically higher. And, you know, that’s kind of what I thought. I figured, okay, what did they spend last year? And then add a little bit to that now they still don’t have a ton of long term money locked in, right? I mean, Pete Alonso, yes, even Helsley has an opt out after year one. If he has a great year, he’s gonna hit the market. Besides, yeah, I mean, but besides, but even look at the breakdown of that beside, oh, that’s still not when you when you see what it is. Yes, he’s guaranteed money, but a lot of that is still the structure of you had six years of club control. There’s two you bought out his first two years of free agency. Assuming this player is not a complete block bust, you know, that’s not going to be a contract that you know. And even if he is a bust, that’s not a contract that’s so over the top detrimental that it’s going to ruin you financially. It’s not like you know, Juan Soto, if Juan Soto got hit by a bus,

Nestor Aparicio  34:25

well, there’s a reason. He took the deal and the other guys didn’t Sure.

Luke Jones  34:29

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Oh, no question. I mean it, you know. And I said it to you at the time back when this happened in August. I mean, if you were to line up the Orioles members of who you’d perceive to be the Orioles young core, beside was always number one on that list of guys that were most likely to sign an extension. And again, that wasn’t even a lucrative one. That was a one. I mean, they gave it to him right after he made his major league debut, right so, you know, there’s, there’s those. And then they’re signing a guy a year or two into his career, and then, you know, you get. To a point where someone’s four or five years in, you know, like gunner Henderson, four years in at this point, you know, he’s not going to sign a deal. I mean, he could, but like, you’re gonna have to give him

Nestor Aparicio  35:12

what he would get on the open market anyway. You know, Messiah, a little bit more of a like a targeted guy in that it looks like they believed in him more they believe in all of them that. I mean, holiday in Henderson and rushman wouldn’t have taken that

Luke Jones  35:27

deal well, especially. I mean, think about it. Jackson holiday’s father made how much money and over the course of his career, Jackson holiday grew up in wealth, right? I mean, even some of these other guys who maybe didn’t grow up in Samuel beside circumstances, grew up in better circumstances, right? So there’s always that. And look, I, I don’t begrudge a team for recognizing that, and I’m not going to be grudge any player for saying, Hey, I just made my major league debut, and they want to give me whatever. I can’t remember what the number was off the top of my head, but they, they want to guarantee me that money. Yeah, I’m not worried about what happened six years from now. This, this is going to change my life and my family’s lives for immediate in the immediate right right now. So everyone’s circumstances are different in that way and but yeah, that was always going to be the most likely outcome for him. And look, as much as I’ve, both of us and others have criticized the Orioles for the lack of extensions with their young core. They did get one done, right? They got one done with him, and hopefully Sam, beside being a great player, and if it is, my goodness, four or five years from now, we’ll be talking about how much of a bargain that is. That’s going to be like a you hope that’s like a franchise quarterback playing on his rookie contract like that’s what you’re hoping that turns into here in the next couple years. So you know what? At the same time, you know to go back to your bigger question, yeah, what is going to happen here? I mean, it is there the financial reality of an extension for gunner Henderson. I mean, you’re not going to extend everybody, of course, and nor should you right? I mean, you could kind of look at the Braves were kind of the model in recent years for extending all of your guys. And now you look at a couple of those deals, you say they might, might not have been smart to extend that guy.

Nestor Aparicio  37:15

Right? Every franchise has a bad deal right now, right? There’s no, there’s nobody.

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Luke Jones  37:19

There’s no such thing, I mean, and that’s just the reality with with free that was the point I made about talking about the salary cap, right? I mean, the idea of a cap system, and, you know, I’ve seen, and all of this is speculative right now, because we’re still a long ways away from any kind of negotiations, whatever the reality of the work stoppage is going to be all that, right? I mean, this is still, like, way out there, but, you know, you kind of think about it. I’ve seen some people propose like, Would you do a $240 million cap, and there’d be a $160 million floor? You know? What does that really mean? Is it a hard cap? You know, is the floor tied to some really significant penalties, if you have teams that are not spending money at the bottom, like the small market teams are, are trying to operate as they always did and and you kind of have some window dressing penalties that aren’t really penalties. Well, under that system, I’m not sure it makes baseball a whole lot better, other than just to say, Okay, well, the Dodgers can’t defer $700 million contracts, but these teams at the bottom still aren’t spending the way they need to. And even though we have better revenue sharing and all so, you know, like, what’s it all look like?

Nestor Aparicio  38:24

You know? Well, I saw the stadium coming up in Vegas behind the MGM. I mean, I see the shell. It’s, it’s being built in the shadow of the strip. I know exactly where it is, right by the sphere. And they’re thinking like that, that’s going to go like the Raiders, from being a really crappy franchise to being a viable one, you know. And baseball on the West Coast is much bigger than baseball is in Baltimore, Maryland. I promise you that that’s just a fact.

Luke Jones  38:50

I mean, I, you know, I can’t speak to that other than just knowing that Baltimore Maryland’s not a gigantic market. I mean, it’s just not. I mean, I will say this from a you know, to go back to your TV question. I mean, there’s still a very sizable footprint. When you talk about Oreos having rights all the way down to what North Carolina and up through Pennsylvania.

Nestor Aparicio  39:11

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Rights doesn’t mean that anybody’s gonna buy but that well, but that’s the big question. More than people are really fans anymore. You know what? I mean? Like, there was a point where Richmond, Virginia drew huge fans the Baltimore mayor, that was 30 years ago, man. I mean, we’re so 30 years ago in the 3.5 million that I can’t, you know, when I look at Cal Ripken and I see what he looks like physically and his age, and I think he was on the field when that mattered. And I’m thinking, the hardest part for the Orioles is they haven’t had anything that’s mattered outside of you and me and Essex and Dundalk and Rosedale in years and years and years since Cal Ripken and trying to churn that up with winning and making the ballpark attractive. I mean, I talked to one of my, one of the very few Trumpers I have left in my universe last week, up in four. Forest, Forest Hill up in Bel Air, North Bel Air. And he said none of my friends would think to drive to Baltimore and go to an Oriole game no matter what. And we like baseball, and we like the Orioles, and we’re all white guys and bad, bad, bad, but, you know, we’ll get the games. But he said, I went to one game last year. I got dragged down kids at Bab, Bab, you know, whatever? Said, you have a good time. He’s like, Yeah, I guess so, you know, I said, Why didn’t you go back? I don’t know. And this is a guy that used to talk Oriole baseball with me when Cal was playing every minute of every day, right? And somebody’s been in my life for 35 years who played sports, loves sports, thinks himself as a Ravens guy. He can give you the history of Oriole baseball at his fingertips, and he’s giving them no money, except whatever they’re sucking out of the cable bill. And they’re trying. He’s watching the games, and they’re buy, buy, buy, buy, buy. And, or you come down and give me money, give me money, and Kevin Brown’s reading the ads and but, like, I don’t know where that that changes to get your mom and your sister from Pennsylvania and all of your neighbors up where you are down a little more often, a little bit more. But all of that is going to come with $20 beers, because it’s not right. Katie would say, Well, you have our discounted burglary. Katie, come on and say it then, please. I mean, how much it costs?

Luke Jones  41:20

Yeah, I still think, and I don’t even know how much of it has cost as much as and I think this is a question for all these sports, the NFL included. And I can remember talking to you about this a decade ago, the TV product is excellent when you have 65 inch TVs in your living room now that are in HD or going on 4k even though there’s not a whole lot of sport sporting events that are broadcasted in 4k just just yet. But I’ve talked I’ve talked to this, I’ve talked to you about this before, my spot in the press box, which the Camden Yards press spot, which will be moved to the third base side. Now, you know. But in in recent years, until this past season, continued to be the best sight line in all of Major League Baseball for a press box. But that said asking me to truly evaluate how well a pitcher threw that night, you do a way better job watching it on TV than I can from watching it from the press box and trying to look up at the and there’s TVs in the press box. This isn’t me complaining. Let’s let’s be clear. This is just the reality of, I’m watching it from behind home plate, further away. You can get a much better gage on a picture stuff and his movement and the Velo, because the the radar gun is, you know, instantly, you know the flashes on the TV. It’s a great product on TV. All these sports are at this point in time. And some of this is also, you know, you’re in your 50s. I’m in my 40s, like, and, you know, like, just speaking as just general sports fans, for a moment, I’m at a point in my life where I don’t want to deal with going to games nearly as much as I did, like, if I were not working in sports and I were just had some other more run of the mill, I

Nestor Aparicio  43:08

see Ginsburg going having a beer once in a while with his brother at a ball game. You know, like, I don’t know that life I pay for a million tickets in a million ways. It’s just, am I going to do it this year with these people, no way they’re not getting my money based on how I’ve been treated by them personally.

Luke Jones  43:29

But I’m talking an average fan. You know not. You have very personal reasons for feeling that way, and that’s fine, but just I’m trying to speak as an average fan here, like my brother in law, my sister, they used to have that now, they lived a little bit closer to Philadelphia at the time, but they used to have season tickets to the Philadelphia 70 Sixers during their you know, the trust the process when they were tanking, like you want to talk about tanking, I mean, the Orioles, what, what the Sixers did compared to what the Orioles did. I mean, that’s tanking, but they had it then, and they enjoyed it, and it was more much cheaper than but the minute they got good. I mean, the prices just skyrocketed. And it’s at a point now where, you know, they don’t even go to one game every year like, I think they’re I think I think Greg’s taken Scarlett. I think they’re going to a game. They might be going to hockey game, whatever point is, they were season ticket holders within the last decade. And yes, their circumstances changed. They got married, they have two kids. Like, that’s life, right? In the same way that someone that’s 70 years old,

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Nestor Aparicio  44:39

Katie Griggs has said in my presence twice in the last three months, my competition isn’t the ravens, it’s the couch, it’s everything else in your world. And that’s what I’m doing baseball that makes to come down and go to a game has to be the most important thing in your life that night, and to sit on your couch every night and watch it for 160 nights. It has to be really important to you, and I’m finding that to be a waning issue in the humanity of Baltimore, that I’m one of the ring leaders that makes that happen and talks about it and cares about it and knows about it and lived it and can explain it to people, and they don’t even care to help me explain it to people, because they’re arrogant and they’re shut off and from out of town, and they think that this town is something that it’s not. And I’m going to sit here and watch it with popcorn and see how it goes and opine about it. But it is. It’s a shame. I don’t know. It’s just a shame that they ripped out the Jim Henneman press box and they thought that there were $40,000 customers. And to your point, maybe they’ll find them at some point. The only way they’re going to find them is to start winning, because they’re not going to find it when it’s empty. That’s for sure, you know. And if that’s their plan, good, come on and tell me, and we can go back and forth as to whether this is going to work or not. But they’re two years into this. They’re billionaires. I’m unimpressed. I mean, I’m just, I mean, just all the way through he’s in the Epstein files. I’m unimpressed, in a general sense, from what I had hoped that they were going to be, and not just a white knight riding in a horse and spend the money on a first baseman. That’s cool. I thought that they would have some plan for the city. I thought that that was like part of the philanthropy. I just thought that they would have a thing. And I know this year is not going to be a good year to talk about that, as this thing goes to war, and I think behind it, and that’s not your kind of war. It’s, you know, labor war wins above replacement. Though, are we both of the mindset in wrapping this up that we think they’re going to be very competitive this year, and because of that, the labor thing won’t be out in front any more than it is in the news, because it’s going to be out in front because manfred’s going to piss off Bryce Harper, and we’re going to figure out who in the Orioles locker room is going to be a union man or not. Probably going to figure out really quick where, you know, some of the veteran guys, and they don’t have a lot of veteran guys, but that’s usually where the Kyle Gibson’s come in and Bassett, you know, come in and say, Hey, been at this a while. We’re not, you know, we’re not doing a salary cap. You know, whatever the whatever the war line is, it’s going to be woven into the season, whether we want it to be or not.

Luke Jones  47:32

It is going to be at the same time. You don’t have a scenario where the players are going to go on strike on August 12, or August 11, or whatever that was in 1994 right? I mean, you know that,

Nestor Aparicio  47:44

you’re I was on a radio that day, dude, I remember it set fire to the castle, right? So, yeah, but, but it is different.

Luke Jones  47:50

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And I think the average fan, and I don’t say this to be disparaging, average fans are are watching this for an escape. They’re not watching this to know, to necessarily have this great interest in how the sausage is made. They’re aware of it, but it’s not necessarily going to be front of mind knowing that the 2026 season is safe. You know what I mean? Like, there’s no scenario like the CBA doesn’t expire in August. I had to come

Nestor Aparicio  48:17

to terms with Reggie Jackson, went and played for the Yankees when I was nine, and Don Baylor and Bobby Crich, and, you know, just a long rod crew wasn’t a twin anymore. And, you know, and I see these guys all come to town and say, well, Nolan Ryan left the American League. Well, you can’t do that, you know. So I went through that and the strike at 81 so I’ve just, I’ve lived my whole life in it, sure, you know, it’s the heartbeat of a baseball. And it’s, you know what? I know, dude, it’s never helped the Orioles. It’s the Orioles are 43 years into this without having a piece of cheese at all. And that’s the detriment of that’s what Katie Griggs and Mark fine and Don Robin also against. And pub. It’s not an arrogance,

Luke Jones  48:58

you’re right. But they also were very poorly run for most of that time. So you know, at some point in time, there’s also like, okay, beyond poorly run. My point. Like, you can talk all you want about the system being unfair, but if you’re not even going to run

Nestor Aparicio  49:11

yourselves, here’s how unfair the system was. That guy ran and his kids ran the team into the freaking Harbor, ran them into the ground and walked with $2 billion probably three or 4 billion in actual revenue through through all the years of siphoning $100 million a year off the television money for a long time, the family walked with three or $4 billion out of the Deal and left these people holding the bag and $600 million of our money to help them fix the stadium to then try to maximize revenue, which they’re having a hard time doing. Yeah, it should be no shocker to

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Luke Jones  49:55

you know, and you you know, as we were wrapping this up, you asked me about the ori. In their fate in 2026 I’ll I’ll go back to what I said. I think they’re improved. I think they’re an above average team. I think they’re absolutely a strong wild card contender. My concern is that still might be fourth place in the American League. I mean Toronto and the Yankees tied for first last year. I mean, Toronto was splashier, whereas the Yankees kind of are running it back, you know, the Red Sox for as much as there was talk about Bregman, you know, they, they went out and they improved their starting rotation. And they’ve got some young players that they, you know, their own young core, you know, with Roman, Anthony and and looking at that. But they went and got Ranger Suarez, they got Sonny gray. They have Wilson Contreras. I mean, Red Sox are better, and the Red Sox were in third place last year and a playoff team. So the Orioles are improved, right? I think they’re, you know, I can’t sit here and say that I love their chances for the division. It doesn’t mean they can’t win the division. Let’s be clear, there’s different ways of looking

Nestor Aparicio  51:01

at this. Gunner Henderson to be an MVP and Pete Alonso to be Pete Alonso. And they’re going to need Jackson holiday to fix his wrist. And they’re, they’re gonna, they got a lot of Yeah, question marks,

Luke Jones  51:11

Bradish, you know, Bradish, Trevor Rogers and Boz. They need two of those three guys to be dude really good. Like, really good. Hey, go back to 23 second half of 23 Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez, second half of the season. They were dudes the second half of the season. Now, not dudes in the way that, like, Oh my gosh. They’re the greatest one two punch and whatnot. But like they, I mean, Bradish was fourth and Cy Young voting that year. Go look, Bruce fell apart in the middle of that season. You know? Well, Burns was a year after that point. They had guys that emerged, so they’re going to need some of that to happen. Last year was bad start, first of all, bad off season. Bad start, injured. Didn’t have enough pitching, even before Grayson, Rodriguez, like that was a bot. I said it how many times last year, their first two months of the season was like a bottom 2% worst case scenario. If you went through all the different projected all the different scenarios that could happen, Gunner Henderson was heard out of the gate, right? I mean, like, go through the list rest of the season, they weren’t terrible, they weren’t great, but they were like, wild card contender esque, you know, how they played over the final four months of the season. So, you know, they’re better than that. They’re still deficiencies. I’m still worried about the pen. I still think they’re, you know, closer to being like an 8990 ish win kind of team. Then ideally you’d like to say, hey, 9495 wins, which is kind of where you’d put the the Blue Jays and the Yankees right now, I think. But who knows how it’s going to play out the you know, we we spent two minutes talking about beside wins rookie of the year and is a legit number five hitter who you’re going to put behind Pete Alonso as the year goes on. Man, that lineup looks a lot different at that point in time. If, if bicyo is the big bopper that so many people that watched him in the minors, not just Oreos people, but people around baseball have a lot of belief in. I mean, just a guy that has been compared to Jordan Alvarez, you know, like, he can be that kind of slugger. Oh, my goodness, you know, I’m not saying he’s going to be that guy, but so they’re, they’re a lot of for as much as we tend to to look at the Orioles in terms of what they don’t have, there’s still a lot of young talent on this team that’s now been augmented with Alonso and Taylor Ward, and they’ve added some of the veteran pitching, you know, to the bullpen and and obviously With with Bassett and, you know, we’ll see about Zac Eflin. So they help their floor in that way, but still have a lot of upside here. And doesn’t mean all these guys are going to click. They’re not. Not every single young guy is going to click. But if they click in a more efficient and better way than they did last year, then this should be a really fun summer, regardless of all of the uncertainty that lies ahead with the sport in general.

Nestor Aparicio  54:06

8

He’s Luke Jones. He’s Baltimore Luke. You could find us out at Baltimore positive, and, of course, our newest sponsor at Farnham and Dermer. Big appreciation to the comfort guys. You’ll find them out at Baltimore positive. If there’s any breaking news, if the Orioles sign it, are there any players still left to sign. There’s still guys out there, right?

Luke Jones  54:22

Maybe, I mean, there are, I don’t know how many are really moving the needle at this point in time.

Nestor Aparicio  54:27

Well, maybe enough to get a W NST tech service out of so it’s all brought to you by Cole roofing and Gordian energy. And we have the LA Marathon happening. We have the NFL Combine happening. We have NFL free agency that begins in about three weeks, we have plenty going on, including a Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery, in conjunction with our partners at GBMC, we’re going to be getting that back out on the road. Little quiet time here, some deeper conversations and hopefully a fruitful baseball season ahead. I’m Nestor. We are WNS, the AM, 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop. Talking Baltimore positive you.