Franchise tag could change offseason — even if not used
When the Ravens traded for Yannick Ngakoue in October, it wasn’t inconceivable that he would return to Baltimore in 2021 on the franchise tag. The defense was staring down an edge rusher exodus, and a tender to Ngakoue, a Pro Bowl defensive end, would cost less than a second tender for Pro Bowl outside linebacker Matthew Judon.
When the Ravens’ playoff run ended in January, with the lowest-rated game of quarterback Lamar Jackson’s season, it also wasn’t inconceivable that general manager Eric DeCosta would have a historic class of freeagent wide receivers to pursue. The NFL’s salary cap would be falling sharply, and not everyone would be able to keep their star wideouts.
Now, with Tuesday marking the start of the NFL’s franchise and transition tag window for pending free agents, the Ravens’ offseason options at two crucial positions have seemingly changed. Ngakoue’s impact and playing time were limited over his nine games with the Ravens, making a return unlikely. And with the NFL’s salary cap floor set at $180 million, teams appear less willing to part with their top receivers.
graduate, he spent a redshirt year at South Carolina before transferring to Indian River Community College in Florida for one season. He was a 12th-round draft pick of the Washington Nationals in 2014 but dealt with ankle injuries that required surgery for most of his time there and was released in spring training before the 2017 season.
He was quickly signed to a minor league contract with the Orioles to play for the Aberdeen IronBirds, which is owned by Ripken Baseball, and has steadily climbed the Orioles’ system since.
He hit a career-best .276 between High-A Frederick and Double-A Bowie in 2019 and was part of the Baysox’s playoff surge in the second half of the season. After the pandemic wiped out the 2020 minor league season, he enters 2021 ticketed for the high minors again and is the most tenured player on the first base depth chart in the system.
He’s struggled with injuries over the years, including an oblique injury in 2019, but feels as if that year was still the closest he’s come in his search for the best version of himself on the baseball field. A healthy year in 2020 has him hopeful there’s more to come.
The sessions with his father, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer last February but has fully recovered, are only part of the reason why. They’d worked together some in the past, but their schedules made it hard to do consistently. Neither traveled like they usually would, so they had a standing session with each other every morning.
Working from the player development plan the Orioles gave Ripken, the two would do tee work, front-flips and batting practice, plus any drills the club prescribed. They’d move on to footwork and more efficient movements in the field.
“You work on stuff, and you take a break to give yourself a little breather, and you just talk about one conversation leads to another and you’re having this really open dialogue,” Ripken said. “I think that was one of the coolest things, being able to really break down and talk about what happened, what I felt, what I saw, what he saw. It really helped the days where things weren’t going as well to get back on track.”
When they’d try to work together in the past, Ripken acknowledged that he wasn’t always ready to accept what his father was trying to teach him.
“I’m a big feel guy, and he is too,” Ripken said. “We’ll get technical with our mechanics, but until you talk about feeling something, like with hitting, when you are trying to wait back and have a little bit longer of a pause or hang back … you can understand the concept, but until you start doing that consistently, you won’t really get it. I started to get that concept the last couple of years, and I can feel what he’s talking about now. That’s kind of the cool thing. We can really kind of dissect and go into that.
“It’s a lot of combinations, to put the words with the actual feeling. Now it’s all starting to make sense. That to me was one of the cool parts. And honestly, we’re both still learning a ton. The game is the same, but it has still changed in a lot of ways. Constantly trying to learn and get better has been a cool process.”
Ripken also worked with Tom Eller, a hitting coach in the organization, once or twice a week. But that wasn’t the only instance in which Ripken’s own pursuits meshed well with the team’s new player development resources.
After he was released by the Nationals, he started working on mindfulness and controlling his thought process to battle selfdoubt and distractions. He said when his mind is elsewhere or unwelcome thoughts are creeping in, he acknowledges them before refocusing on the task at hand.
Ripken credits the Orioles for bringing in mental skills coach Kathryn Rowe last year and holding virtual sessions for their minor leaguers through the coronavirus shutdown. He believes mindset is a separator as to who makes the big leagues and who doesn’t.
“The ones who have the most success are the ones who can make the adjustments and go through the hardships,” Ripken said.
Despite his slow climb through the minors, Ripken still seeks that goal of making the big leagues for himself. He admits to wondering whether the lost 2020 season would mean the end of his career, and took some online classes in economics and business analytics this fall. He doesn’t give much thought to what life after baseball will look like, though.
“Right now, I’m going to keep focusing on being the best player I can be for the Orioles organization,” Ripken said.