We’re now less than a week from the start of the 2024 regular season, and with 45 players still remaining in camp and only four spring games left, the Orioles have plenty of tough choices to make before they set their opening 26-man roster.

The O’s did, at least, throw fans a bone when Brandon Hyde announced a couple of the club’s roster decisions yesterday. For starters, the O’s have set their season-opening rotation. The five names are exactly who we expected, if not in quite the same order. After Corbin Burnes’s Opening Day assignment, it’ll go Grayson Rodriguez, Tyler Wells, Dean Kremer, and Cole Irvin. Interesting to me is that Hyde confirmed Irvin will start April 2, the fifth game of the season, even though the O’s could have chosen to give Burnes his second start on regular rest that night (thanks to the off day after Opening Day) and push Irvin back to April 3. It could be a sign that the O’s intend to use each of their five starters on their usual turn, regardless of off days.

Personally, I’m of the mind that if you have a bonafide ace — and Burnes is one of the best of the best — then you should start him every five days like clockwork, even if it means jumping other pitchers in line sometimes. If you did it that way, thanks to the Orioles’ ample off days early in the season, Burnes could start on March 28, and then April 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, and 27, giving him seven starts through the end of April. By contrast, if he has to wait for every fifth game, regardless of off days, he’d start March 28, April 3, 10, 15, 21, and 27, just six starts in that same span. I’d prefer seven Burnes starts to six, but the O’s don’t seem inclined to take that approach.

Hyde’s other morsel of news was that Jorge Mateo, once considered to be on the roster bubble, has officially made the team. Mateo was in danger of being squeezed off the roster now that Gunnar Henderson has taken over as the everyday shortstop, but Jorge has hit well in spring training (.996 OPS) and offers game-changing speed that no other Oriole can approach. Mateo offers defensive versatility all around the infield and theoretically in the outfield as well, although he didn’t play center field as much as we might have expected this spring.

Hyde didn’t tip his hand about any of the Orioles’ other positional roster battles, including whether top prospect Jackson Holliday will make the team. With Mateo now a lock, It seems that Holliday, Ramón Urías, Colton Cowser, Kyle Stowers, Heston Kjerstad, and Ryan McKenna are fighting for three remaining spots. (That’s not including the long-shot candidates like veteran Kolten Wong or rookie Coby Mayo.) I don’t have any inkling of which way the O’s are leaning, but it would be awfully nice to have Holliday on the Opening Day roster. And Cowser too, for that matter. But each of those six players brings his own unique skill set, so any combination of three is a valid option right now. It’ll be fascinating to see how this all plays out in the coming days.

Links

Offseason In Review: Baltimore Orioles – MLB Trade Rumors
Mark Polishuk recaps the club’s offseason action and assesses that the O’s “look like legitimate World Series contenders.” I never get tired of reading that kind of sentence about the Orioles.

Jackson Holliday: How baseball’s best prospect was built – The Baltimore Banner
Just when you think you couldn’t get more hyped about Jackson Holliday, Andy Kostka’s profile of the mega-prospect makes you excited all over again. Put this man on the Opening Day roster! Don’t make us wait any longer!

How Orioles’ Corbin Burnes became one of MLB’s best pitchers – The Baltimore Sun
“Corbin Burnes is an Oriole” is another one of those sentences that I’ll never get tired of hearing. Jacob Calvin Meyer details what makes the Birds’ ace excel.

Henderson happy to stay at shortstop, Hyde impressed with Kimbrel’s changeup, Nevin notches another hit (O’s lose 3-2) – School of Roch
Among other Orioles notes, apparently the 35-year-old Craig Kimbrel is experimenting with throwing a new pitch. Who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks?

Orioles birthdays and history

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Former Orioles born on March 22 include catcher Andrew Susac (34), outfielder Mike Morse (42), and the late infielder Billy Goodman (b. 1926, d. 1984).

On this date in 1981, Orioles manager Earl Weaver was handed a three-game suspension for forfeiting a spring training game against Kansas City when the umpires didn’t give him an updated lineup card after some Royals defensive substitutions. I kind of feel like there had to be an ulterior motive behind that forfeit. Forfeiting a game just because a bunch of random, no-name players were on the field? Random, no-name players being on the field is what spring training is all about.