Good Morning Birdland,
Pitchers and catchers have arrived to Sarasota! Spring is here (kind of). We can soon stop worrying about all of the offseason storylines, and instead talk about actual baseball.
Get a look at these guys! In this post from the Orioles’ Instragram alone, you can see Dean Kremer, Samuel Basallo, Kyle Bradish, Trevor Rogers, Shane Baz, Yennier Cano, Luis De Léon, Ryan Helsley, Trey Gibson, and Yaramil Hiraldo. And the in this one you can also see Adley Rutschman, Keegan Akin, Dietrich Enns, Rico Garcia, Cade Povich, and Maverick Handle, among others already mentioned.
By the end of September, I was annoyed by all of them! The season was a disappointment and a drag. But the winter weather has cooled my anger. I am ready to be hurt again.
But before we get to that, there is still the settling of the rotation to sort out. We got some news there on Tuesday.
We learned that Justin Verlander will not be joining the team. He is headed back to Detroit, where he spent the first 13 seasons of his career. That’s nice for him.
USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported yesterday that the Orioles are one of four teams still in the mix for free agent pitcher Zac Gallen. Nightengale is the same guy that reported Gallen had already agreed to a deal with the Cubs way back in December, so take his words with a boulder of salt.
Mike Elias told the media yesterday that his front office continues to be “plugged in” on the pitcher market, but also said that he believes the existing rotation is “very strong and very talented.” That sounds like a guy that doesn’t love the available external options, and would prefer to wait for an in-season trade.
That logic is fine if the team can actually make it to July in a competitive position. He made a similar bet a year ago, and it didn’t pan out. This roster does feel better prepared to make a run than the one 12 months ago, but nothing is guaranteed.
The variable in this are the Orioles young pitchers. We have seen Povich and Brandon Young. Both can fill in here and there, but I’m not sure anyone wants them to be full-time members of the rotation. Next up is Gibson and De Leon. Gibson is likely to get a chance at some point in 2026. If he is the real deal, all that talk of adding another pitcher will seem silly. But we won’t know that until June at the earliest.
Links
Time for the first Orioles workout | Roch Kubatko
A whole bunch of quotes from new skipper Craig Albernaz. He sounds confident in his crew! But what else is he going to say? On the first day of spring training every team feels like a World Series winner.
Mike Elias has confidence in Orioles pitching staff but doesn’t rule out an addition | The Baltimore Banner
If the Orioles are good, they are going to add to the pitching staff. But it has always felt like that addition was going to come from a trade, rather than the free agent market. Elias doesn’t like paying top-dollar for arms. He has said as much. If a discount isn’t available, he is usually going to prefer to make a swap for a younger option with team control.
Coby Mayo’s future with the Orioles feels more uncertain than ever | The Baltimore Sun
The fact that Mayo hasn’t been moved paired with the trade for Blaze Alexander last week feels like something could be afoot. Is someone hurt? Or do the Orioles just plain to cycle through infielders all summer? It is odd. But it is also not uncommon for Elias to let prospects wilt on the vine a bit rather than dealing them.
Elias: O’s ‘plugged in’ with SP market, could still add another arm | MLB.com
Elias also mentions here that Mayo is going to move around this spring, including first base, third base, and corner outfield! That’s a bit of news, even if it is unsurprising given the roster makeup.
Orioles birthdays
Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!
- Gregory Soto turns 31 today. The lefty just spent parts of two seasons with the Orioles from 2024-25, accumulating a 4.33 ERA and 0.2 bWAR over 68 total appearances. He was traded to the Mets last summer and is now with the Pirates.
- César Cabral is 37. His Orioles career lasted two games, both of which came in 2015 as a reliever.
- The late Brian Matusz (b. 1987, d. 2025) was born on this day. Selected fourth overall in 2008, Matusz transitioned to a bullpen role early in his big league career, eventually turning into one of the game’s better lefty specialists. He was particularly dominant against Hall of Famer David Ortiz, who went 4-for-29 with 13 strikeouts against Matusz in his career.
- Matt Lindstrom is 46 years old. The reliever’s time in Baltimore was short, spanning just 34 games in 2012. He was eventually dealt to the Diamondbacks in exchange for Joe Saunders.
This day in O’s history
1987 – The Orioles sign Ray Knight, the MVP of the Mets’ recent World Series win, to a one-year, $475,000 deal plus incentives. Knight had turned down an $800,000 offer from the Mets earlier in the offseason.
