Update 2: Monday – Roch says the deal is in place. Rejoice!
Update: O’Day posted this on Sunday:
Contrary to the news, I have not reached an agreement with the O's yet. I am flattered by all the attention, but reports are premature.
— Darren O'Day (@DODay56) December 6, 2015
So, the Birds apparently still have plenty of room to screw this up. Here’s hoping that doesn’t happen.
Darren O’Day is back. Ken Rosenthal reports that O’Day and the O’s have agreed on a 4-year, $31M deal. The Nationals, Braves, and Dodgers were all rumored to be in hot pursuit.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane to remember Darren’s time in Baltimore to this point, and give thanks that it will be continuing.
The O’s claimed O’Day off waivers from the Texas Rangers on November 2, 2011, in a move that garnered few headlines. O’Day had pitched in parts of four MLB seasons to that point, and had been very, very good for Texas in 2009-10 (ERAs of 1.94 and 2.03 in 55.2 and 60.2 IP, respectively). A pair of injuries in 2011 limited O’Day to just 16 innings in 2011, and rather than pony up the $1.35M he was due, Texas placed him on waivers.
That turned out to be quite the mistake by the Rangers, and quite the gain for the Birds.
In 2012, O’Day went 7-1 out of the ‘pen, pitching to a 2.28 ERA in 67.0 IP. He was stellar in the postseason for the Birds as well, something that the vocal minority who like to call him a “choker” thanks to his 2014 playoff performance conveniently ignore. In 7.0 combined innings against Texas and New York that October, O’Day allowed just one measly hit, one walk, and struck out five. The Yankees managed just one baserunner (the walk) against him in 5.0 IP in the ALDS.
In June of that year, Jim Johnson and Buck Showalter teamed up to pull a prank on O’Day, and it was hilarious and wonderful in every way possible:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/urYr-4f-KMQ[/youtube]
I have an interlude here for a personal O’Day story. I may be off by a few months, but I believe this was during the winter between the 2012-2013 seasons (perhaps right after FanFest?) I was at Abbey Burger Bistro in Federal Hill for a friend’s birthday. We were at the upstairs bar, which if you’ve ever been to Abbey, you know is quite intimate. Seated at the table behind us were Chris Davis (hey, more on him in an upcoming “Goodbye” piece!), his wife Jill, O’Day, wife Elizabeth Prawn of FOX News, and Zach Britton. It was a Texas party!
Anyway, lots of people saw lots of Orioles at Abbey back then and even now. That’s not the interesting part of the story. That would be this – O’Day had excused himself to use the restroom, and, being the O’s fanboy that I am, I kept looking back and around at the table of Orioles in what I thought was a nonchalant way, but what I am now sure was obvious and awkward and annoying.
(You thought I was going to say I followed O’Day to the bathroom, didn’t you? You weirdo.)
Anyway, O’Day came back out of the bathroom and we made uncomfortable eye contact. I nodded, trying to show that yes, I know who you are, but I’m a cool fan and I’m not going to interrupt your evening to talk shop or gush over you. O’Day then broke out the Ace Ventura:
No, he wasn’t soaking wet and he didn’t shoot water all over the floor, nor was he quite that loud, but Darren was obviously pantomiming Ace. Mostly for the benefit of his friends at the table, but he didn’t let the fact that I was ogling him damper his performance, and for that I am appreciative. O’Day is an Ace Ventura fan, which just knocks him up another rung in my book.
In a bit of a “before they were stars” moment in early 2013, O’Day and fellow former Davis visited the MLB Fan Cave to talk about their strong starts.
O’Day was good again in 2013, serving mainly as the 8th-inning setup man to Jim Johnson following Pedro Strop’s early-season struggles and subsequent trade to Chicago. Darren posted a 2.18 ERA in 62.0 IP, but his WHIP (1.0), H/9 (6.8), FIP (3.58) and HR/9 (1.0) were all the highest of any point during his O’s tenure. Much of this was due to a sudden ineffectiveness against left-handed hitters. In 2012, lefties hit .205/.237/.420 against O’Day in 88 AB; in 2013, those numbers ballooned to .309/.367/.556 in 81 AB.
Cause for concern, or just a blip on the radar?
The latter, overwhelmingly, as it would turn out. As our Gordon Dixon pointed out here in his piece “O’Day Again Dominating Hitters from Both Sides of the Plate,” Darren rendered lefties “essentially useless” the following season. As of the publication of that article, on August 14, 2014, lefties were hitting .186/.266/.286 off him. Overall, 2014 was another outstanding season for O’Day. He turned in a career-best 1.70 ERA in a career-high 68.2 IP, and lowered those aforementioned WHIP, H/9, FIP, and HR/9 numbers back to 0.89, 5.5, 3.32, and 0.8.
On August 28 of that year, O’Day was honored in a way that very, very few relief pitchers are: with his own t-shirt giveaway!
Awesome! @Orioles: Introducing the Darren O'Day #Orioles T-Shirt! All Fans, Aug 27. http://t.co/9HZU3VHxV4 @DODay56 pic.twitter.com/Npz0Q6W9Hx"
— Darren O'Day (@DODay56) August 15, 2014
“I have a couple things going for me, and now I have a T-shirt,” O’Day said at the time. It’s pretty exciting. I never expected a T-shirt.”
“I hope [the fans] appreciate the bullpen guys, not just the closer – the guys that get the closer in the game,” he went on. “Middle relievers don’t get t-shirts, so I understand the significance of it.”
Unfortunately, an injury would begin to hamper O’Day at the worst possible time. Though he never went on the DL, his hamstring flared up in late August-early September. I never saw him use it as an excuse publicly, but it was obvious that O’Day wasn’t himself right when the O’s really needed him most. In September, O’Day allowed seven earned runs in 9.0 IP. To compare that ERA of 7.00, in August it had been 0.00 in 10.0 IP, in July 0.56 in 16.0 IP, etc. Something was clearly wrong, as he also allowed three home runs that month, matching his total allowed for April – August.
Alas, O’Day’s best appearance during that stretch run probably occurred in the We Won’t Stop video…
His struggles continued into October, as he allowed homers in each of his first two appearances – to Miguel Cabrera and Alex Gordon – and runs in his first three. In total, O’Day pitched just 2.2 IP in four appearances, allowing four earned runs as the We Won’t Stop Birds were decidedly stopped.
To begin 2015, though he allowed just one earned run in April, O’Day gave up two more dingers (baseball scoring is weird), so fans remained a bit uneasy. I took a look to see if “O’s Fans Should Be Worried About O’Day,” and came to this conclusion:
As for me though, because I live my life in constant donning of orange-colored glasses, I’m willing to take a leap here and say that O’Day will be just fine, as long as he stops catching so much of the strike zone to the best hitters in the game.
For once, I ended up being right (broken clock and all). O’Day not only rebounded, but did so in such convincing fashion that, well, he’s now one of the top-paid relief pitchers in baseball. He allowed just three long balls the rest of the season, and once again raised the bar on what it takes to say “Darren O’Day had a career year.”
65.1 IP, with carrer-bests in: ERA (1.52), K (82), ERA+ (274), FIP (2.49), K/9 (11.3), K/BB (5.86).
He was also named to his first All-Star team, where he took this bad-ass selfie…
The Birds are out in Cincy. I got Machado for #HRDerby champ! pic.twitter.com/UAL9EkCbru
— Darren O'Day (@DODay56) July 14, 2015
And had some fun on the ESPN set:
Machado's salsa is @JohnKruk_ESPN, @AaronBoone_ESPN, and @SimplyAJ10 approved…Berman…not so much…#HRDerby pic.twitter.com/wyyuw3zq5Z
— Darren O'Day (@DODay56) July 14, 2015
During the season, O’Day also earned a crazy reputation as being the master of escaping bases-loaded jams. Ducks on the pond? No worries…just call Darren!
Amazing. Because I’m young and hip (note: I am neither young nor hip), I took to calling him Darren O’Bae (note 2: “bae” is stupid) and the kids on the Twitter liked it.
Darren O'Bae? RT @BmoreDaveS Darren O'Day is bae
— Eutaw Street Report (@EutawStReport) March 6, 2015
(Note 3: There are three instances of someone on Twitter using that before I did, so nevermind on the taking credit thing.)
One more thing Birdland loves about O’Day – although he could never get him out, he at least got under the skin of Jose Bautista. Joey Jogs is one of the very few hitters from either side of the plate who has figured out O’Day, but figured him out he has, to the tune of 7-for-18 with four homers and nine RBI. Still, we appreciate that Darren gives us reason to crank up our Bautista hate that much more. And we can never forget this image:
Man, I hate that guy.
Here’s hoping O’Day gets plenty more chances to even things up with that jackass. Birdland will be watching.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand – thanks for everything, Darren, congrats on the fat new contract, and welcome back!
