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[Baltimore Orioles]

The top 20 Orioles prospects for 2025

Photo by Brandon Sloter/Getty Images

A composite ranking from five Orioles prospect lists.

With every passing season, the Orioles farm system takes on a different role to play for the ongoing success of the franchise. Unlike the last few years where the question was who would be debuting soon to help the team right now, no prospects have made the team for Opening Day and unless the right combination of injuries gets Coby Mayo to the majors, no one’s arrival is imminent either.

For top prospect Samuel Basallo and Mayo, there could still be impact by the end of the 2025 season. For most of the rest, their only impact on the 2025 Orioles will be if they are traded. This is a group where development this year will be important to help for next year and beyond. That’s especially true in two areas of the team: The starting rotation, where most of the pitchers are old and on contracts that expire after 2025, and the outfield, where two starters could hit free agency after this season.

There are five different prospect lists that have been used to make up this ranking. Four are from national publications: Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, MLB Pipeline, and The Athletic. The fifth is local, coming from the Orioles prospect enthusiasts of the On The Verge podcast.

The methodology for this composite list is that each prospect has his rankings on these separate lists averaged together. The prospects are ordered in my list according to that average. The #1 prospect, which Samuel Basallo is unanimously, is a 1, #2 is 2, all the way down to 20. Some lists exceed 20 names. For those lists, I have not included any names beyond 20 in my composite.

The only decision I have made that alters any list is to exclude Baseball America’s ranking of Heston Kjerstad, who does not count as a prospect by MLB’s reckoning any more. All players below him on that list were moved up by one.

This is a system that has had some real turnover since last year’s list. Three of the top five 2024 prospects, and four of the top ten - Jackson Holliday, Colton Cowser, Kjerstad, and Cade Povich - have graduated to MLB with the Orioles. Five prospects from last year’s top 20 were traded away. The highest-ranked of these was Connor Norby. I expect some more trades to thin out the list as this season goes along.

#1 - C Samuel Basallo​

• Likely starting level: Triple-A Norfolk
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 20
• How he got here: International amateur signing, January 2021
• Where he ranked last year: #2
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: 33%
• What’s his deal? (from Baseball America)

Basallo has an elite offensive skill set for several reasons, with his ability to generate hard contact chief among them. ... Basallo sees pitches well out of pitchers’ hands and is a diligent game-planner for his at-bats. Focusing more on pitches he can drive will further unlock his advanced offensive potential, especially given his adjustability and strong base at a young age. Basallo is flexible for his massive size and moves well behind the plate, though his receiving is an area of constant work as he gains professional experience at the position. He boasts a tremendously strong arm and accurately deploys it.

#2 - IF Coby Mayo​

• Likely starting level: Norfolk
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 23
• How he got here: 2020 draft (4th round)
• Where he ranked last year: #3
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: Very high as long as he’s not traded
• What’s his deal? (from MLB Pipeline)

Mayo has the chance to be more than just a power-only bat. The bat speed and strength are there for him to continue to be a home run threat every time he steps in the box. But he’s also become a better all-around hitter who takes walks and can drive the ball to all fields ... Mayo has long had one of the better arms in the Orioles’ system and he’s capable of making throws from anywhere at third base.

#3 - OF Enrique Bradfield Jr.​

• Likely starting level: Double-A Chesapeake (formerly known as Bowie)
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 23
• How he got here: 2023 draft (1st round)
• Where he ranked last year: #6
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: Nonzero but highly unlikely
• What’s his deal? (from Baseball Prospectus)

Bradfield is one of the fastest players in organized baseball at any level, and he translates his elite foot speed into excellent center field defense. It’s the rare game-breaking speed and glove combo that would merit a Top 101 ranking even if he couldn’t hit a lick. And his bat isn’t that bad. Bradfield combines a solid approach with good contact rates ... Any medium-hit ground ball here is a potential hit, and any slow roller is going in the infielder’s pocket.

#4 - OF Vance Honeycutt​

• Likely starting level: High-A Aberdeen
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 22
• How he got here: 2024 draft (1st round)
• Where he ranked last year: Unranked (not drafted yet)
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: Zero
• What’s his deal? (from BA)

Honeycutt’s athleticism and raw power are most attractive at this point, given his potential to impact a game in center field with elite defense and on the bases, in addition to his potential above-average power. The Orioles also feel confident about his ability to recognize pitches and control the strike zone. They have been encouraged by his willingness to address some of his movement patterns and swing traits to improve his path to and through the ball to make more consistent contact. ... the upside of an all-star-caliber player who impacts the game in every facet is worth (the risks).

#5 - RHP Chayce McDermott​

• Likely starting level: Norfolk
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 26
• How he got here: Trey Mancini trade, July 2022
• Where he ranked last year: #5
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: Incredibly likely
• What’s his deal? (from Pipeline)

McDermott’s most attractive feature is his ability to miss bats. He struck out 32.3 percent of batters over two seasons at Triple-A thanks to a fastball and slider that are both plus pitches, with the heater reaching 97 mph and living in the mid-90s. He’ll also utilize an average curve and sprinkle in a changeup-like splitter, and his ability to throw everything out of the same arm slot makes all four pitches difficult to square up in the zone

#6 - OF Dylan Beavers​

• Likely starting level: Norfolk
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 23
• How he got here: 2022 draft (CBA round)
• Where he ranked last year: #8
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: It would take a lot of injuries
• What’s his deal? (from BP)

Beavers’ bat speed should mean he’ll run into something close to average power along with batting averages in the .270 range, and enough walks to boost the overall line into acceptable for corner outfield play. He’ll add value on the bases as well where he’s an aggressive, efficient base stealer despite merely above-average speed ... Beavers is a high-probability major-leaguer.

#7 - IF Griff O’Ferrall​

• Likely starting level: Aberdeen
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 22
• How he got here: 2024 draft (PPI pick)
• Where he ranked last year: Unranked (not drafted yet)
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: Zero
• What’s his deal? (from Pipeline)

O’Ferrall brings (bat-to-ball skills) in spades. He walked more than he struck out in college, has very good feel for the barrel and makes sound swing decisions, which allow him to grind out at-bats and get on base. ... Good footwork, positioning and quickness help him overcome a just-average but accurate arm, and while he has enough range to stick at shortstop, those skills would help him move around the infield if necessary.

#8 (tie) - RHP Michael Forret​

• Likely starting level: Chesapeake
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 21
• How he got here: 2023 draft (14th round)
• Where he ranked last year: Unranked
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: Zero
• What’s his deal? (from Pipeline)

Forret is a 6-foot-3 righty with a varied pitch mix and a lot of projection, but all his stuff is pointing in the right direction. He has two potentially plus fastballs ... He has two sliders, with the sweeper the best of his secondary offerings. He also throws two changeups and a splitter. It’s a deep pit of weapons, though at some point Forret might need to make decisions about keeping only his most effective pitches and scrapping the others.

#8 (tie) - RHP Nestor German​

• Likely starting level: Aberdeen
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 23
• How he got here: 2023 draft (11th round)
• Where he ranked last year: Unranked
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: Zero
• What’s his deal? (from BA)

Velocity gains and improvement in his delivery and routine helped German dominate in the low minors, where his above-average command and pitchability combined with firmer stuff. His fastball averaged 93.4 mph and was up to 97-98, and the progression to a harder slider in the high 80s over the course of the season gave him a better breaking ball. ... German’s advanced pitch mix and bushel of above-average pitches give him a clear view at a rotation role in the major leagues

#10 - RHP Patrick Reilly​

• Likely starting level: Chesapeake
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 23
• How he got here: Billy Cook trade, July 2024
• Where he ranked last year: Unranked (not in organization)
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: Zero
• What’s his deal? (from Pipeline)

A 6-foot-3 right-hander with a power arsenal, Reilly’s ultimate role will be based on his ability to command his high-octane stuff. ... His high-spin fastball flashes as high as 100 mph in relief and sits comfortably in the low-to-mid-90s as a starter, and he uses its impressive induced vertical break to generate a ton of whiffs up in the zone.

#11 - LHP Luis de León​

• Likely starting level: Aberdeen
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 22
• How he got here: International amateur signing, December 2021
• Where he ranked last year: #13
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: Zero
• What’s his deal? (from On The Verge)

De León didn’t take the step forward in 2024 that many anticipated, but he remains one of the more intriguing arms in the system. He started 2024 back in Low-A and devoured hitters, but was challenged in High-A. De León can run it up to 97 mph from the left side and has multiple effective secondary offerings, but control was a major issue throughout the year.

#12 (tie) - RHP Brandon Young​

• Likely starting level: Norfolk
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 26
• How he got here: Undrafted free agent, 2020
• Where he ranked last year: Unranked
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: 60%
• What’s his deal? (from OTV)

He’s more than just a beautiful head of hair, possessing a big league quality fastball and at least three average to above-average secondaries which he’s showcased an ability to pound the zone with and produce big swing and miss. Young was added to the 40-man roster ahead of the Rule 5 draft, setting himself up to make his big league debut in 2025.

#12 (tie) - OF Jud Fabian​

• Likely starting level: Norfolk
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 24
• How he got here: 2022 draft (CBB round)
• Where he ranked last year: #14
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: If he hits, it could happen
• What’s his deal? (from BA)

Fabian’s skill set is one that has always boasted major league traits. His uppercut righthanded swing generates above-average power, while advanced range, playmaking ability and instincts make him a plus center fielder. He also can impact a game on the bases with his plus speed. ... Swing decisions have never been an issue—only contact ability—so improving that could give Fabian fringe-average—or slightly better—hit tool potential. The more contact he makes, the more likely he is to get to his power in games.

#14 - C/IF Ethan Anderson​

• Likely starting level: Aberdeen
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 21
• How he got here: 2024 draft (2nd round)
• Where he ranked last year: Unranked (not drafted yet)
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: Zero
• What’s his deal? (from BP)

He handles premium velocity without issue and doesn’t really have a hole in plate approach or swing. Hit-tool-first catching prospects are certainly risky, as the day-to-day grind in the pros might cause some contact or damage regression that Anderson doesn’t really have to give back, but he’s likely to stick behind the plate and be a good hitter, and that’s not a common combination among catching prospects.

#15 (tie) - RHP Keeler Morfe​

• Likely starting level: Low-A Delmarva
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 19
• How he got here: International amateur signing, 2023
• Where he ranked last year: Unranked
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: Zero
• What’s his deal? (from OTV)

Morfe was put on the radar after watching one of his early outings in the Dominican Summer League last year. He was touching 100 mph and pounding the strikezone as he dominated the opposing lineup. Soon after, the Orioles promoted the 18-year-old arm straight to Delmarva, believing the FCL wasn’t going to be a challenge for him. ... He has three plus offerings, is adding a fourth pitch for 2025, is extremely athletic, and has one of the more refined and poised deliveries in the lower minors of the system.

#15 (tie) - RHP Trey Gibson​

• Likely starting level: Aberdeen
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 23
• How he got here: Undrafted free agent, 2023
• Where he ranked last year: Unranked
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: Zero
• What’s his deal? (from BA)

Gibson was able to add significant fastball velocity as the 2024 season progressed. He averaged 94.5 mph for the season and 95.5 mph from Aug. 1 onward, while getting up to 99, with an 89-92 mph cutter, mid-80s slider, and low-80s curveball that all have above-average potential and solid swing-and-miss traits. His sweepy slider is the best of the pack currently. He also throws a firm, work-in-progress changeup. ... Gibson has the makings of a quality major league starter based on his pitch mix and unique weapons.

#17 - RHP Cameron Weston​

• Likely starting level: Chesapeake
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 24
• How he got here: 2022 draft (8th round)
• Where he ranked last year: Unranked
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: So you’re telling me there’s a chance dot GIF
• What’s his deal? (from Pipeline)

The 6-foot-2, 215-pound Weston is a sinker/slider righty with a three-quarters arm slot, a four-pitch mix and some polish. ... Paired with above-average control and the ability to locate all of his pitches, Weston is able to miss bats without breaking the radar gun. He walked only 2.4 batters per nine at Double-A. If Weston maintains his level of performance, he has a chance to fulfill his ceiling as a durable back-end starter.

#18 (tie) - RHP Trace Bright​

• Likely starting level: Norfolk
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 24
• How he got here: 2022 draft (5th round)
• Where he ranked last year: Honorable mention
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: If he pitches well, it could happen
• What’s his deal? (from BA)

Bright averaged 93.3 mph with his four-seam fastball in 2024 and sat 93-95 mph at times at the end of the season at Double-A Bowie. Overall, he added a little velocity to a pitch that misses bats at the top of the zone and has good plane. ... Bright has a repeatable delivery but has been a below-average strike-thrower in each of the last two seasons. ... Bright’s improved stuff gives more visibility to a potential back-end starter role in the majors.

#18 (tie) - IF Leandro Arias​

• Likely starting level: Aberdeen
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 20
• How he got here: International amateur signing, January 2022
• Where he ranked last year: #18
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: Zero
• What’s his deal? (from OTV)

Arias was not only one of the youngest players in Low-A last season, he missed a big chunk of time due to an injury. Yet he was still promoted to High-A to close out the year where he flashed the above-average hit tool as a 19-year old in 20 games. He hits the ball hard with solid contact rates and low swing and miss rates. Defensively he can stick at SS or move over and be an above-average second baseman.

#20 - C/IF Creed Willems​

• Likely starting level: Chesapeake
• Age (on July 1, 2025): 22
• How he got here: 2021 draft (8th round)
• Where he ranked last year: Unranked
• Chances of seeing him on the Orioles this year: Probably zero
• What’s his deal? (from Pipeline)

Willems has an attractive profile as a left-handed-hitting backstop with excellent raw power, and he’s been able to get to it in games to an impressive degree as a young player ... Willems is a decent baserunner despite poor footspeed, taking extra bases when he can and rarely running into outs. ... His strong arm has kept him behind the plate despite questions about his receiving and blocking. He isn’t an elite defender, but he’s ironed out those edges somewhat and caught better than scouts expected in the Fall League.

Honorable mentions​

These players appeared on at least one of the top 20s but did not have sufficient support to crack the composite top 20. July 1 age is in parenthesis.

OF Thomas Sosa (20) (from BP)

If you witness Sosa catching a pitch on the inner half, he can look like a future star, and there is impressive high-end power for his age when he runs into one, but his swing can be a little out of control.

OF Stiven Martinez (17) (from Pipeline)

Strong and athletic with a knack for hitting the ball hard, Martinez stands out particularly because of his raw power.

IF Aron Estrada (20) (from BA)

Estrada lacks any standout skills at this point but also doesn’t have any glaring holes. He makes good contact, though he’s a bit of a free-swinger who expands the zone too frequently.

RHP Chase Allsup (22) (from BP)

Baltimore’s 2024 fourth-rounder out of Auburn is a four-pitch righty who has touched triple-digits before in short bursts. ... It’s pure velocity without great command or bat-missing shape.

IF Elvin Garcia (18) (from BP)

The 18-year-old also already has the Orioles hitting prospect mantra down pat. Pick the right pitches to swing at, make a good amount of contact when you do, and make most of your hard contact in the air.

RHP Alex Pham (25) (from OTV)

Pham’s rough start in 2024 might have been due to some tinkering, because it’s hard to find an arm in the system who had a better second half of the season: 59 IP, 2.59 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 61 K.

RHP Edgar Portes (22) (from OTV)

Portes spent some time last offseason training with Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez and then proceeded to have a career year in High-A (trained with him again this winter).

OF Austin Overn (22) (from BA)

Overn’s athleticism shines through on the baseball field, and he boasts the intriguing potential to add strength to improve an offensive profile that’s built around contact and line drives at present.

SS DJ Layton (18) (from Pipeline)

(The Orioles) are bullish on the athletic switch-hitter with a few interesting raw tools. ... Layton’s athleticism plays on both sides of the ball, and on the basepaths.

Source: https://www.camdenchat.com/2025/3/24/24379949/orioles-top-prospects-rankings-2025

 

[Baltimore Orioles]

Orioles exhibition game vs. Nationals canceled due to weather

Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

This is the final tune-up game before the real action begins on Thursday.

This is it. Spring training is over and one final exhibition game remains to the Orioles. They’re in DC to play their southern neighbors. After this, they’ll have to figure out who’s going to make the roster than then put those people on a plane to Toronto.

Some teams have mostly set their rosters already. The Orioles have not officially done this yet. Maybe they’ll do it after today’s game, or maybe they won’t. They don’t have to set the roster until Thursday. Mike Elias has a demonstrated fondness for not deciding things until the last minute, because the situation could change between today and Thursday. That we don’t want anyone to get hurt today is no protection from anyone getting hurt.

We do already know that Gunnar Henderson will start the season on the injured list, and that Félix Bautista is not. No decision has been announced about Jorge Mateo, who may need some minor league rehab time as he works back from Tommy John surgery on his non-throwing arm. I’d say the signs are pointing towards Mateo hitting the IL, but I’ve been wrong before and will be wrong again.

Yesterday, the Orioles selected the contract of Maryland-born reliever Matt Bowman in order to prevent him from exercising an opt-out on his minor league contract. Bowman cannot be optioned, so does that mean he’s making the team ahead of out-of-options guys Bryan Baker and Roansy Contreras? Or that the O’s hope guaranteeing Bowman a big league salary will get him to pass through waivers?

Reminder: The Orioles-focused broadcast of this game will air on MASN 2.

Orioles lineup​

1. Colton Cowser - LF
2. Adley Rutschman - C
3. Jordan Westburg - 2B
4. Ryan O’Hearn - DH
5. Tyler O’Neill - RF
6. Ryan Mountcastle - 1B
7. Cedric Mullins - CF
8. Ramón Urías - 3B
9. Jackson Holliday - SS

Cade Povich is the starting pitcher. Also expected to pitch are Keegan Akin, Roansy Contreras, and Seranthony Domínguez.

What do you think? Is this the Opening Day lineup? It would certainly make sense to just go with the guys for Thursday in this final exhibition game. As ever, it is worth remembering that there is essentially no exact regular Orioles lineup. No specific lineup was repeated for more than three games last year.

There are always substitutions for the purpose of rest or injury. There’s tinkering with the order for performance reasons. There’s playing the platoon game. This will continue again in 2025. Even if this is the Orioles day 1 lineup, it might not be the day 2 lineup. Or it might! The Blue Jays expected rotation is all right-handed. There won’t be platoon games to play until relievers start coming in.

I think that the Orioles would like it if Holliday is performing in such a way that he makes sense as the leadoff hitter by June or so. No need to rush him there until he shows that’s where he belongs. It would be better if Mullins had a high enough OBP to lead off. He posted a .305 OBP the last two seasons. That’s not a good leadoff man. So at least for this game and perhaps for Thursday and some percentage of the early games, it is Cowser.

Nationals lineup​

1. CJ Abrams - SS
2. Dylan Crews - RF
3. James Wood - LF
4. Josh Bell - DH
5. Paul DeJong - 3B
6. Nathaniel Lowe - 1B
7. Keibert Ruiz - C
8. Luis García Jr. - 2B
9. Jacob Young - CF

The Nationals starting pitcher is Jake Irvin, who had a 4.48 ERA while starting 33 games a year ago. Teams are increasingly finding some value in the back of their rotations for guys who can make every start, even if those starts aren’t very good overall.

Source: https://www.camdenchat.com/2025/3/24/24392881/orioles-nationals-lineups-exhibition-game-chat

 

[Baltimore Orioles]

March and April’s gauntlet of a schedule gives the Orioles an early-season test

Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images

Six of the O’s’ first 10 series are against teams projected to have a winning record, providing the perfect proving ground for an Orioles team facing adversity.

If you’re anything like me, then the remaining 2+ days between now and Opening Day can’t pass fast enough. While the luster of this Orioles team has faded somewhat thanks to offseason departures and a minor injury crisis, this is still a Baltimore squad with sky-high potential. Opening Day in Toronto is when the speculation begins to end and the play on the field starts to speak for itself.

The last two seasons, hot starts to the year laid the foundation that O’s ultimately turned into the first pair of consecutive playoff appearances in nearly 30 years. Across 2023 and 2024, Baltimore went 38-19 in March and April. In 2023, that fast start kept them within striking distance of a scorching hot Rays team. Last year, the O’s found themselves a game ahead of the Yankees in first place.

In both seasons, a hot offense is what powered Baltimore to their highly successful opening months. In 2023, they got out of the gates with 34 HRs in the first month—the most homers they hit in any month that season. Last year, the Orioles launched 45 HRs and posted a .762 OPS, both the second-best marks of any month in 2024. After the offense fell asleep during the last two months of last season, Birdland will hope 2025’s team can erase those memories with early offensive eruptions.

However, given the Orioles’ opening slate of games across their first month, a hot start will be tough to come by. Baltimore plays three of their four AL East rivals in their first 10 series, including two sets against the Blue Jays. They’ll play road series against 2024 playoff teams in the Royals and Tigers, as well as a visit to Corbin Burnes’ new team in Arizona. Of the nine teams they’ll face in the opening month, FanDuel projects only the Jays, Nationals and Reds to finish the season below .500.

However, the could be an upside to stress testing this Orioles team early into the season. The offense is expected to be good—perhaps even better than last season’s team that finished fourth in runs/game and second in total home runs. Across the first 10 series, this newly fine-tuned lineup will be put to the test against All-Stars, a reigning Cy Young winner and some of the newest star pitching additions in the AL East. How the Orioles’ established stars, rising talents and newcomers fare in these early marquee matchups should tell us if this offense has a chance to be elite, or just pretty good.

What Birdland will surely be more anxious about—in both the positive and negative sense of the word—is seeing how the somewhat makeshift starting rotation fares in these early clashes. As we recently highlighted, this is a rotation with experience and depth, but its overall quality is up for debate. In the Diamondbacks, Yankees and Red Sox, Baltimore will face three of the top 10 run producers from last season. The O’s will face off against rising star Bobby Witt Jr. when they head to KC for a playoff rematch. They’ll also get two cracks at Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as he heads into a contract season in Toronto.

Several key matchups should define this opening month as the O’s look to remain hot in March and April.

Pitcher matchups to watch:​

LHP Garrett Crochet, BOS (in Baltimore, 3/31-4/3), LHP Cole Ragans, KC (in Kansas City, 4/4-4/6), LHP Tarik Skubal, DET (in Detroit, 4/25-4/27) LHP Max Fried, NYY (in Baltimore, 4/28-4/30)

It’s not a coincidence that all the most telling pitching matchups in the early season are against left-handed starters. The Orioles were one of the best teams in baseball last year at hitting lefties, leading the American League in slugging percentage and wRC+ against southpaws. The additions of Tyler O’Neill and Gary Sánchez should only make the O’s lineup more potent against lefties. O’Neill led baseball last year with an absurd .750 slugging percentage off lefties and Sánchez has a career .476 slugging percentage against southpaws.

The matchup with Ragans will be a chance at revenge. Ragans dominated the Orioles twice last year in Baltimore, pitching 6.1 scoreless in April before coming back with six more scoreless innings in October. In both outings, the rising Royals ace befuddled the Orioles with his changeup, so Baltimore’s new-look lineup will have to show patience and attack Ragans’ fastball when given the chance.

Against Skubal, the Orioles don’t have any bad memories as they didn’t face the reigning Cy Young winner in 2024. The best left-hander in the American League hasn’t faced Baltimore since May of 2022, when he punched out 11 Orioles over six shutout innings. Facing Skubal in Comerica Park—where the Orioles are 6-8 over the last four seasons—is about as big of a test as this lefty-mashing lineup can get.

Finally, facing off against Crochet and Fried will give the Orioles a chance to rudely welcome the Red Sox and Yankees’ marquee pitching additions to the AL East. At one point, Crochet and Fried were both rumored to be Orioles trade/free agent targets—Crochet at last season’s trade deadline and Fried this winter. Instead, the O’s will get to test Camden Yards’ new left field dimensions against two of the AL East’s best southpaws.

(Worth noting: as the Diamondbacks rotation currently sets up, the Orioles will not face Corbin Burnes when they head to the desert 4/7-4/9.)

Hitter matchups to watch:​

Charlie Morton vs. Anthony Santander (3/27-3/30 & 4/11-4/13), Tomoyuki Sugano vs. Elly De La Cruz (4/18-4/20), Cade Povich vs. Aaron Judge (4/28-4/30)

While we don’t know exactly how good Morton will be in black and orange, we know he’s going to throw a lot of curveballs. His reliance on his breaking ball makes for an interesting matchup against the former Oriole, Mr. Tony Taters himself. Santander was one of the best power hitters in baseball on curveballs last season, slugging .558 off opposing pitcher’s curves with a 41.5 % hard-hit rate. The truth is, too, that every Santander vs. the Orioles at-bat will be both exciting and confusing for O’s fans early on. They’ll all be a mixture of wanting the club’s long-time slugger to do well with his new team, while also hoping he doesn’t do too well and cost Baltimore some games.

For Sugano, every start will be a chance for O’s fans to get to know him better and for him to prove he can be effective against MLB’s best hitters. The former NPB MVP’s pitching approach is built on working his sinker/two-seamer to both sides of the plate and building his secondary pitches off of that. De La Cruz is not only one of the NL’s most electric rising stars but also excels at hitting sinkers. He was third in baseball last year with a .774 slugging percentage against sinkers and should provide the perfect “prove yourself” matchup for the 35-year-old rookie pitcher.

Just how good Orioles pitchers are is often defined by their ability to get the two-time AL MVP out, but that’ll especially be true for Povich in 2025. In the only game he faced Judge last year, Povich gave up a solo HR to the Yankees slugger on a hanging curveball. With his improved changeup, Povich shouldn’t have to throw as many breaking balls to hitters like Judge. However, Judge also excelled at hitting changes last year, finishing 6th in all of baseball with a .625 slugging percentage off opponent’s cambios. If Povich is going to prove he can get good right-handed hitters out, he needs to prove he can throw them his changeup and Judge will be his most telling test.

Source: https://www.camdenchat.com/2025/3/2...son-baltimore-orioles-opening-day-first-month

 

[Baltimore Orioles]

The Orioles are running with another stitched together bullpen and it just might work

Ready for this site soon? | Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images

Buoyed by the return of All-Star closer Félix Bautista, this bullpen already looks better than last year’s

In at least two ways, the bullpen is the least of the Orioles’ worries right now. I know that expression makes it sound like the Orioles have a LOT of other worries, but that’s not what I mean. The Orioles are not that concerned about the state of the ‘pen right now. Nor should they be.

First of all, the tough decisions (the Opening Day roster is due at noon Tuesday) lie elsewhere. That is, regarding the starting rotation—how long Grayson Rodriguez will be on the shelf, whether Cade Povich is ready, how quickly to bring back Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells—and the position players—how to try and replace Gunnar Henderson while he recovers from an intercostal strain, what to do with all those outfielders, who to include as utility infield depth. Despite losing one portended relief arm to injury this spring, the 35-year-old Andrew Kittredge, who will do an extended IL stay after having had left knee debridement recently, most of the injuries have little to do with the relief.

Second of all, this bullpen is shaping up to quite good. If you don’t believe me, believe Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen, who ranks them a projected second-best of all teams, with an expected 4.3 WAR. Back to that in a second; let’s talk personnel first.

Most of the mystery on the roster, like I said, lies elsewhere. The O’s will likely carry eight relief pitchers, and there’s not too much suspense about who they will be.

First of all, with G-Rod’s injury thrusting Cade Povich into the No. 5 starter role, the bullpen will include the steady stalwart Albert Suárez in a swingman role. Félix Bautista has come back from Tommy John surgery looking mostly like himself, and even 70% of a “Montaña” is pretty scary. Yennier Cano, the “Roca” to Bautista’s Montaña, looks good, as well, with a 1.50 ERA in six outings this spring. Seranthony Domínguez had a bad start to the preseason but is righting the ship of late. Keegan Akin has quietly put together a very nice spring training. Gregory Soto walks too many people (four in seven innings this spring) but he’s a lefty with a scary fastball, so he gets some room for error. Same, to a lesser extent, with southpaw Cionel Pérez, now in his fourth season with the O’s.

The excitement should come down to one spot, then—and even so it’s not like this is forever. The Orioles’ 26-man regularly involves a lot of shuffling around, so we should expect to see appearances from several people who don’t make the initial cut. That includes righties Bryan Baker, Matt Bowman and Roansy Contreras. Bowman, a 33-year-old journeyman, had his contract selected by the Orioles on Sunday, a good sign for him. In parts of six seasons, Bowman has a combined 4.17 ERA and 3.93 FIP. It’s not wow, but it could work.

Meanwhile, the fourth-season Oriole Bryan Baker had a down year last season, with a 5.01 ERA and an -0.1 WAR in 19 games. But he’s come back stronger this spring and people are saying the fastball looks electric.

I’d be surprised if the 25-year-old Roansy Contreras cracks the roster, but stranger things have happened. Contreras has been waived five times this offseason, and has a springtime ERA of 6.76. Yet he’s still in camp, and his stuff is reportedly electric.

Now, to performance. If the Orioles did nothing else, then replacing the highly flawed Craig Kimbrel with Félix Bautista at closer is already a massive improvement. In 57 appearances, the All-Star and potential future Hall of Famer was dreadful: he was worth -1.1 WAR and had 11 losses or blown saves combined. By contrast, Bautista is slated to produce 1.6 WAR, an ERA of 2.66, and a delightful 12.8 K/9 rate.

Among other arms, Fangraphs is also high on Seranthony Domínguez, “a fit second fiddle to Bautista” who “has closer-quality stuff” when he’s on. For that, he’ll have to cut down on last season’s 3.6 BB/9 rate. Reportedly this spring, Seranthony has been throwing in the 96-98 mph range with a huge sliders. Predicts Fangraphs, “A healthy Domínguez is this bullpen’s X-factor, the thing that will elevate it to a great group rather than a merely good one.”

Longenhagen is also high on Yennier Cano, “a Cuban groundball machine with rare fastball velocity for a side-armer.” Last year was a downer for Cano by the All-Star standards of his 2023 turn, when he started the year with an impressive 21 1/3 innings scoreless and had a 1.005 WHIP. Last season, his ERA was a comparatively elevated 3.15 but he still generated a career-high 62.9% groundball rate and a 9.8 strikeout rate last year.

Journeyman-swingman Albert Suárez was one of the Orioles’ best stories in 2024, after spending 2019-23 pitching in Asia. He’s not the flashiest thrower the Orioles have, but he was a rock last season, working between the rotation and the bullpen. He’s earned a right to show his stuff from opening day.

Then there’s Keegan Akin, whom Fangraphs picks to have a nice year: a 3.42 ERA, 0.9 WAR, and 10.2 K/9 rate. Akin was one of the bullpen’s finest last season, despite getting little attention.

“They’re deep on lefties in Bal’mur,” says Fangraphs. Nice as that is, we’ll see a lot more arms out of the ‘pen this season and keep tinkering around looking for bullpen stability, no matter what.

Source: https://www.camdenchat.com/2025/3/25/24393454/orioles-position-preview-bullpen

 

[Baltimore Orioles]

Cade Povich quietly became the biggest story in Sarasota this season

Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

The 24-year-old pitched his way into the starting rotation and shouldn’t be leaving anytime soon.

They say no news is good news, and that’s almost always true during spring training. A healthy team feeds reporters fluff pieces on offseason workouts and nutrition plans. Unfortunately, injuries steal the show far too often.

The Orioles were unable to dodge those headlines this spring. Gunnar Henderson failed to make the Opening Day roster after straining an intercostal muscle. Grayson Rodriguez suffered from inflammation in his elbow, and new reliever Andrew Kittredge underwent a knee procedure that will require multiple months to recover.

These events definitely qualified as news and not the good kind either. However, if the projected recovery times hold true, they shouldn’t represent the biggest story stemming from Sarasota.

Rodriguez’s injury directly generated a two-man competition for the fifth spot in Baltimore’s rotation between Cade Povich and Albert Suárez. Chayce McDermott and Trevor Rogers were already ruled out with their own injuries, and the Orioles had four starters all but guaranteed to take the ball every fifth day.

Suárez appeared to be the early favorite. The 35-year-old journeyman earned the advantage by posting a 9-7 record and a 3.70 ERA over 133.2 innings last season. He benefited from an early opportunity after a slew of pitching injuries in 2024, and he took advantage when called upon. Brandon Hyde and Baltimore’s front office appeared confident that the righty could do it again.

Povich debuted on June 6 and posted a 3-9 record with a 5.20 ERA. Nobody expected a Paul Skenes-like debut from the former Minnesota prospect. The Orioles needed a healthy pitcher capable of providing the team a chance to win, and Povich quickly filled the role. He took his lumps, flashed potential, and appeared to adjust as the season unfolded.

Povich allowed 23 earned runs and seven homers in his first 33 innings pitched. After the All Star break, Povich limited opponents to 23 earned runs and only five homers over 46.2 innings. He issued fewer walks and saw his K/9 rate increase from 6.5 to 8.7. Over his final five starts, Povich held hitters to a 2.60 ERA and 0.868 WHIP while striking out 10.4 batters per nine innings.

Still, Suárez put together a more complete season. The Orioles could have rolled with the veteran while asking the 24-year-old to keep developing at Triple-A, but that’s not what happened. Povich became the story.

Povich posted a 3.07 ERA and 0.89 WHIP over four spring starts. He held opponents to a .167 batting average while posting a 15/4 strikeout-to-walk ratio. More importantly, he looked the part of a pitcher capable of keeping big league hitters off balance.

Cade Povich, Wicked 84mph Sweeper. pic.twitter.com/5N7im0kCcV

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 13, 2025​

While Povich shined, Suárez struggled. The veteran posted a 7.89 ERA and 1.75 WHIP over 21.2 innings. Suárez earned some leeway with sustained success last year, but Povich went out and took the spot. Hyde granted the final rotation spot to the youngster in the final week of camp.

Povich pitched his way into the rotation, but the story represents more than just a few impressive spring outings. Povich’s success allowed Hyde to shift Suárez back to a swingman role in the bullpen. The decision will provide the skipper another trusted option capable of delivering multiple innings early in the season.

The Orioles wouldn’t have asked Povich to pitch out of the bullpen at this point in his career. Povich and McDermott represent the top of a development class thin on starting pitching. Baltimore has notoriously avoided selecting pitchers at the top of the draft under Mike Elias, and the Birds need at least one of the two to hit for the “wait and see” strategy to pay off.

The Orioles will need more than five starting pitchers to grind through 162 games. Suárez could easily return to the rotation before Kyle Bradish, Tyler Wells, Rodriguez, Rogers or McDermott make their way back, but Povich officially transitioned from pitching depth to pitching now.

The former top pitching prospect in Baltimore’s system has officially graduated. Povich arrived in Sarasota with a legitimate chance to break camp with a big league roster for the first time and he made the most of the opportunity. He still has plenty left to prove, but he looks ready for moment.

The Orioles are heading north with a talented 24-year-old lefty in their starting rotation. That’s the story of the spring in my book.

Source: https://www.camdenchat.com/2025/3/2...ch-starting-rotation-sarasota-spring-training

 

[Baltimore Orioles]

The Orioles added lefty-masher Tyler O’Neill to their already solid outfield

Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The Orioles brought in Tyler O’Neill to beef up their game against lefties.

The Orioles have undergone many changes over the past few seasons. As the rebuild began to bear fruit, things began to shift. But even as the Orioles got a new hotshot catcher, a superstar shortstop, and other potential All-Stars, the outfield remained comfortable. We could look out there and see Austin Hays, Cedric Mullins, and Anthony Santander.

Then, last year, Colton Cowser took over for Hays. Santander was lost to a big free-agent deal north of the border. He’s replaced by Tyler O’Neill, who is, funnily enough, Canadian. Cedric Mullins remains in center field as a key piece of this team, but he will reach free agency at the end of the season.

This outfield has the potential to be one of the most well-rounded in baseball. Cowser is coming off a 2nd place finish in the Rookie of the Year voting (and let’s be honest, he should have won). O’Neill mashed 31 home runs in 113 games for the Red Sox last year. And Mullins remains one of the more solid center fielders in the game. None of these outfielders are superstars, but together they provide a solid offense and defense. Expect Ramón Laureano and Heston Kjerstad to have supporting roles.

Colton Cowser​

Cower was the primary left fielder in 2024 after Hays was sidelined with injury and ineffectiveness. It was a sad end to Hays’s Orioles chapter, but Cowser stepped up incredibly. He made 91 starts in left field and got off to a scorching start with an OPS over 1.000 in March and April. He followed with a terrible May but evened out over the rest of the year.

Spring stats usually mean nothing, but I still prefer good numbers. Cowser batted .364/.462/.578 in 18 spring games.

Cowser thrived against right-handed pitchers last year and struggled with lefties. His .661 OPS against lefties was still quite a bit better than what Mullins could do, so expect to see him in the lineup against lefties even with the subpar numbers.

Cowser proved himself a plus defender in left field last year and even looked good when spelling Mullins in center. He could do the same this year or that role could go to Laureano, who has played center over his career.

Cowser posted an fWAR of 4.0 last season and ZiPS projects him to get to 3.3 this season.

Cedric Mullins​

Mullins will remain the primary center fielder for the Orioles this year and rightly so. He remains an above-average fielder, and his bat plays well against right-handed pitchers. Mullins has played in 578 games with the Orioles since the start of the 2021 season. He turned 30 years old last October.

It was mentioned above but Mullins has a problem with lefties. You might even call it a Problem. He’s never been good against lefties but things got especially dire in 2024 when he hit just .196/.228/.279 against them. That is incredibly bad.

Will the Orioles bench Mullins against lefties? The numbers support it but I wouldn’t be surprised if he saw some action against them. He is an everyday player and an asset in the field and on the basepaths. If those numbers from last year don’t go up it could become impossible to justify, however.

Mullins’s fWAR in 2024 was 2.4; ZiPS projects him at 2.8 this season.

Tyler O’Neill​

He’s the new kid! That’s not to say he looks like a kid. His muscles have muscles. It’s almost absurd. He used those muscles to mash quite a few taters last year with the Red Sox, an impressive performance that landed him in a possible three-year contract with the Orioles.

One of Mike Elias’s goals in the off-season was to get some outfielders who can hit lefties and O’Neill is exactly that. In his career, he has a .923 OPS against lefties. It was even better last year at 1.180. Those numbers dwarf his stat against right-handed pitchers, where he has a career mark below league average.

O’Neill figures to play right field mostly and could also see time in left. Though his numbers are much better against lefties than righties, I don’t expect he’ll be a platoon bat. He was signed to play. He may get a rest against tougher lefties or when the Orioles want to get Kjerstad in the mix.

The biggest question mark for O’Neill is his health. In seven major-league seasons, he has topped 100 games just twice. He played 138 in 2021, his best season in the majors to date. And he got into 113 games last year and hit the IL three times.

O’Neill’s fWAR in 2024 was 2.5; ZiPS projects 2.9 this season.

Heston Kjerstad​

Oh, what to do with Kjerstad? The Orioles are constantly saying that they want to find at-bats for him, but they have yet to find a place to consistently play him. Kjerstad bats lefty the same as Mullins and Cowser. Unlike those two, he doesn’t have a reputation for being good at defense.

In addition to getting playing time in right field this year, Kjerstad will see time at DH. Unfortunately for him, the team’s primary DH is Ryan O’Hearn, who is also a lefty batter. O’Hearn could step in some at first base for the righty Ryan Mouncastle which could make room for Kjerstad in the lineup.

Ramón Laureano​

The offseason signing of Laureano didn’t do much for me, but he does offer value as a backup outfielder. He has played 353 games in center field over his seven-year career, though it hasn’t been his primary position for several seasons.

Laureano has never had a bat worth paying attention to, but he is right-handed batter. On a team with so many lefties, that is valuable. In his career he’s got an .802 OPS against lefties with a .343 OBP. That’ll play. Last season his numbers were even better.

When the Orioles sit Mullins against lefties, Laureano will go into the lineup. We just have to wait and see if he plays center field, or if the Orioles prefer Cowser there.

Source: https://www.camdenchat.com/2025/3/26/24394151/orioles-outfield-preview-oneill-mullins-cowser

 

[Baltimore Orioles]

Orioles Opening Day game thread: at Blue Jays, 3:07

Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images

After an anxious offseason, it’s finally time to start seeing what the 2025 Orioles can do.

Friends, we’ve made it! It’s baseball season. The cold and boring winter is officially over, though of course depending on where you are located on or orbiting above the planet you might be experiencing differing weather conditions that don’t scream summer or even spring.

The Orioles could win the World Series this year. They probably won’t, but they could! It’s fun to be able to say that and that’s not something I will take for granted after we lived through the 2018-2021 O’s.

It would be nice to see the Orioles come out and really announce their presence for 2025 after an offseason of angst at the lack of big moves. Give us a sign that the formula is going to work. Good enough starting pitching, an offense that can pile on the runs, and a bullpen that doesn’t give us much reason to think about it.

That could happen today even with Gunnar Henderson on the injured list. Blue Jays nemesis Ryan Mountcastle could go nuts. Tyler O’Neill could ride a wave of patriotic fervor in his native Canada to hitting a home run for a sixth straight Opening Day. Adley Rutschman could quiet all of the doubters who’ve assembled since his second half struggle a year ago. Jackson Holliday could start to show he’s still headed for stardom.

A lot could go right with this team. A lot could go wrong too, but what’s the fun in thinking about that on Opening Day? No sense worrying about all of that unless they play so badly that they absolutely make us think about it.

Orioles lineup​

1. Colton Cowser - LF
2. Adley Rutschman - C
3. Jordan Westburg - 2B
4. Ryan O’Hearn - DH
5. Tyler O’Neill - RF
6. Ryan Mountcastle - 1B
7. Cedric Mullins - CF
8. Ramón Urías - 3B
9. Jackson Holliday - SS

Zach Eflin is getting the Opening Day start for the Orioles. I hope he can continue to make a nice impression, as he did in his first nine starts that he made after being acquired last July.

Blue Jays lineup​

1. Bo Bichette - SS
2. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. - 1B
3. Anthony Santander - LF
4. Andrés Giménez - 2B
5. Alejandro Kirk - C
6. George Springer - CF
7. Will Wagner - DH
8. Ernie Clement - 3B
9. Alan Roden - RF

I am a reasonably informed baseball observer and I have not in my life seen the names Will Wagner or Alan Roden before right now when I looked up this lineup. They’re going to homer today.

Jose Berríos is the Blue Jays #1 starter. He’s been solid for the last two seasons after stinking up the joint in his first full season in Toronto in 2022.

A note: We ask everyone to keep discussions of politics away from this website. Most of the time there’s no trouble keeping “today’s baseball game” and “recent events in politics” separate, but today’s Orioles game is being played in an environment where beat writers are already posting things like this:

Brandon Hyde said the Orioles are prepared for what could be a hostile reaction to the Star-Spangled Banner at Rogers Center. Orioles players have been briefed on what to expect

— Andy Kostka (@afkostka.bsky.social) 2025-03-27T17:05:33.488Z

The source of this expected sentiment being vented against symbols of the United States of America is the recent aggressive actions and words by Donald Trump that directly threaten the sovereignty of Canada as an independent country. If you think it is reprehensible to have a leader who is engaging in such behavior against our friendly northern neighbors: Yeah, me too. It sucks. Please don’t comment about it here. If you take the opposite view, don’t comment about it. Thank you.

Source: https://www.camdenchat.com/2025/3/27/24395325/orioles-blue-jays-lineups-probable-pitchers-game-chat

 

[Baltimore Orioles]

Orioles crush Blue Jays with club record six Opening Day home runs

Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images

The Orioles dominated from start to finish in a 12-2 victory.

Look, I don’t want to get too carried away after the Orioles have played 0.6% of their 2025 season or anything, but here’s the deal. You need to start saving up for those World Series tickets now. Figure it out. You’ve got six months and change, and you’re definitely going to need them because the O’s who showed up and demolished the Blue Jays, 12-2, on Opening Day, are surely going all the way.

After an offseason where nearly every fan in Birdland was consumed by questions like, “What if Adley Rutschman doesn’t bounce back?” and “What if the Orioles really needed to do more about the starting rotation?” you could hardly have scripted a better first game than this one. The Orioles set a new club record for home runs hit on Opening Day by hitting six homers. The old record was four.

Anthony Santander, who led the Orioles in homers a year ago, is now on the other team, and Gunnar Henderson, the runner-up, is on the injured list. That didn’t matter. Six dingers. Santander took an 0-4 against his former team.

Rutschman has been an Opening Day star in the two previous times he’s gotten to play. He kept that going in his very first at-bat of 2025. If you were like me and you were asking that question about Rutschman, he answered your doubt with a thunderous reply. Blue Jays starter José Berríos threw a pitch and Rutschman went off on it, blasting the ball an estimated 436 feet.

The traditional Orioles bullpen catch the ball was thrown off on account of the ball landing beyond the bullpen. Rutschman went far beyond it. This was, according to Statcast, the third-longest homer of Rutschman’s career to date. Rutschman later hit what was to me an even more impressive-looking homer (though Statcast claimed it was 21 feet shorter) in the eighth inning. These were two of the three hits for Rutschman on the day.

Home runs into or over the Orioles bullpen in right field proved to be the theme of the day for the offense. Canadian native Tyler O’Neill brought three runs across the plate at once with a third inning homer. This was notable for O’Neill because he’d homered in each of the past five Opening Days, an MLB record he held all to himself. Make it six in a row. That’s still a record and now it’s even tougher to break. O’Neill had three hits as well.

This would be a strong tally right there and there were still three more home runs than this. Cedric Mullins, meme-deemed inescapable one, planted a pair of home runs into the O’s bullpen: A solo home run in the fourth inning and a three-run shot in the seventh that put the game well and truly out of reach. Mullins also joined the three-hit club for the day. Just for fun, Jordan Westburg also homered in the eighth and his finally went towards left-center field instead.

Every Oriole in the starting lineup got on base at least one time. Seven of the nine batters had at least one hit. Mullins, for the time being, leads all MLB batters with five runs batted in. He and Rutschman are the only two players with multiple home runs as of this writing.

All of this was overkill because Orioles #1 starter Zach Eflin was very good. Eflin chewed through six innings on only 78 pitches and allowed just three Jays baserunners in this time. If you’re really looking to nitpick, Eflin only struck out two guys, so it was quiet dominance rather than highlight-reel stuff. If it wasn’t for wanting to keep some relievers loose, Eflin surely could have gone into the seventh.

The only thing that went wrong for Eflin is that, after he walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr., he gave up a homer to Jays second baseman Andrés Giménez. Even this didn’t make the game all that tense, because it took what was a 6-0 Orioles lead and made it 6-2. The Jays never got any closer than that because they never scored again.

It’s nice that the Orioles offense did so well because there was absolutely no sweat later in the game when Seranthony Domínguez and Keegan Akin each had some traffic on the bases. Don’t dwell on this too much. The Orioles kicked some butts today, and also neither one of those guys even allowed a run.

Bryan Baker pitched the ninth and he had a 1-2-3 inning, in part thanks to a strong, on-target throw and tag by late-inning replacements Heston Kjerstad from right field to Jorge Mateo at second base to nab Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk as he tried to stretch out a double. This was not ultimately all that relevant to the game, but there are people who sleep on Kjerstad’s defense and also I’m not nice about Baker when he sucks, so, I should mention when he doesn’t.

Since the Orioles are playing in a domed stadium, they will not be following Opening Day with a day off tomorrow. The O’s and Jays will be right back at it for a 7:07 start time. Note that the game will air on Apple TV+ only so you can’t watch if you don’t have that. It will still be on the radio as normal. Charlie Morton is set to start for the Orioles, with former Oriole Kevin Gausman on the mound for Toronto.

Good luck to the University of Maryland men’s basketball team tonight.

Source: https://www.camdenchat.com/2025/3/27/24395479/mlb-scores-orioles-blue-jays-game-recap

 

[Baltimore Orioles]

Are the Orioles already back to their long ball ways?

Photo by Peyton Stoike/Baltimore Orioles/Getty Images

The Opening Day home run barrage felt part throwback, part teaser of what this offense could be.

On Thursday afternoon, the Orioles bashed their way to a decisive 12-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, blasting a club Opening Day-record six home runs, including two apiece by Adley Rutschman and Cedric Mullins.

Here’s how the fun went down. With one out in the first, Rutschman crushed a José Berríos changeup 346 feet to right field, his team’s first of the season. New right fielder Tyler O’Neill hit an oppo-field three-run shot in the third inning, his sixth consecutive Opening Day home run. Cedric Mullins led off the fourth with a homer to right field that stretched the lead to 6-0, and he hit another, another three-run bomb, to make it 9-2 in the seventh. Not to be outdone, Rutschman hit another tank with one out in the eighth inning, and Jordan Westburg followed immediately with a wallscraper that had the Rodgers Centre booing as he rounded the bases.

The Orioles… ready to go undefeated this season?! Prove me wrong.

“You have to go back to it’s one of 162,” said Brandon Hyde after Thursday’s heroics. Sigh. Leave it to the skipper to talk some sense. “But I think,” he continued, “that we showed the type of offense that we can be.”

My point exactly. The Orioles are only just—good thing Mark Brown did the math—0.6% of the way through a long season. Good to keep perspective. But their Opening Day performance was also a pleasing rejoinder to two offseason nags: 1) The Orioles didn’t do enough to upgrade a pitching staff that lost an ace and has three starters on the shelf, 2) Ditto an offense that skidded to a 33-33 record in the second half and scored a grand total of one run in the playoffs.

Opening Day starter Zach Eflin’s quietly brilliant six-inning, two-hit effort shouldn’t be overlooked—maybe he doesn’t quite look like an ace, but he looks darn good—but for now, let’s focus on the bats.

Last year, the Orioles hit 235 team home runs, second-best in the Majors after the Yankees, buoyed by the historic 2024 season of Anthony Santander, who led his team in home runs while becoming just the eighth switch-hitter in MLB history to hit 40 or more long balls in a season.

Santander having left in free agency, a question has been whether the Birds would be able to make up for his lost production. After one game, all signs point to yes.

The Orioles had never hit more than four home runs on Opening Day, but on Thursday, that quickly changed. Sure, Toronto starter José Berríos looked out of sorts and was throwing up meatballs, but when every one of your starters gets on base once, that’s depth. Not to mention the swings that these Orioles put on, up-and-down the lineup. Cedric Mullins, the #7 hitter, bashed two. Tyler O’Neill, Santander’s intended replacement in right field, blasted one the other way (have you heard that he lifts?). Adley’s swings were things of beauty—especially his second home run, off a 96-mph inside fastball, which flashed the bat speed that had been missing in the latter half of last season.

Last year’s 235-homer effort and, tiny sample size though it is, the Orioles Opening Day performance have me wondering whether the script on offense is now a throwback one: the “Bash homers, strike out a lot, overcome mediocre pitching” approach of the late ‘90s and mid ‘10s.

The team’s 2024 home run total was third-most in team history, too, after 1996 (257) and 2016 (253). The former was the year Brady Anderson hit 50, and he was setting the table out there for the likes Cal Ripken Jr., Robbie Alomar, Rafael Palmeiro and Chris Hoiles, all of whom could go deep in bunches. The 2016 season was one where the Orioles got over 200 combined four-baggers from Mark Trumbo (with a league-leading 47), Chris Davis, Manny Machado, Adam Jones, Jonathan Schoop, Pedro Alvarez and Matt Weiters.

Put it this way: as a team, the Orioles have crossed the 200-home run mark thirteen times in club history. Twice were in the ‘80s (1985 and ’87), four times in the years between 1996 and 1999, every year in the ‘10s but 2018 (when they stunk), and last year, 2024. If home runs come in bunches, it looks like we can expect to pick some in 2025, too.

According Fangraphs’ predictions, this team will hit between 227 and 241 home runs this year. That lower mark would still rank in the team Top 5. Last season, the Orioles had three players cross the 20-HR threshold — Santander, Henderson (37), and Colton Cowser (24) — followed by six who hit ten or more. O’Neill wouldn’t have to match last year’s breakout (31) as long as hitters like Rutschman, Ryan O’Hearn, Ryan Mountcastle, Heston Kjerstad, Jordan Westburg and perhaps newcomers Coby Mayo and/or Samuel Basallo show up and bring average power.

One question is whether a team built this way will still play small ball. The Orioles’ big bashers of the ‘90s were not fast on the basepaths, and the Birds only started stealing bases when those guys left. For reference, since 2000, the team has only had seven 100-plus stolen base seasons, most of them were between 2000 and 2007, when they weren’t very good hitters. But over the last three seasons, the Orioles have swiped a respectable 95, 114 and 98 bags, their 2023 excellence at the plate a testament in part to high small-ball IQ. It remains to be seen whether they’ll sacrifice speed for power, but what they do have is an athletic, balanced lineup with power up and down the order.

As Hyde put it on Thursday, “I just thought we took great at-bats all the way through the game,” praising his team’s strike zone awareness, swings, and power. Could it be the magic of the Canadian donuts? “Whatever works, I’m good with it,” Hyde said. “Wear the same clothes, do whatever you did today, do it tomorrow.”

We’ll have to keep an eye on this.

Source: https://www.camdenchat.com/2025/3/28/24395721/orioles-opening-day-home-runs

 

[Baltimore Orioles]

Orioles fail on multiple levels in 8-2 loss to Blue Jays

Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images

It was a brutal one for the Orioles with bad pitching, hitting, and defense. The trifecta!

If you had to miss this game because it was only streaming on Apple TV+, that may have been a blessing in disguise. As dominant as the Orioles were yesterday, that’s how bad they were today. The pitching struggled. The offense sputtered. The defense was no great shakes.

I still think a day with bad baseball is better than a day with no baseball, but the second half of this game tested theory that quite a bit. The offense disappeared and the bullpen looked awful. The Blue Jays easily took game two of the series by a score of 8-2.

It’s fair to say that many people were skeptical when the Orioles signed the 41-year-old Charlie Morton to a contract. I’m not writing Morton off yet, it’s only one start, but his Orioles debut didn’t inspire any reason to think this signing was a great idea.

Morton was in trouble as soon as he entered the game. He allowed two baserunners in the first inning, including Anthony Santander’s first hit as a Blue Jay. He threw about 20 pitches. Will Wagner doubled in the second inning and Morton threw about another 20 pitches.

He faced four batters in the third and went to a three-ball count on three of them, including to Vladimir Guerrero, who doubled for his second hit of the game. Santander helped out his former team by popping up a 3-0 fastball down the middle.

Watching Morton was not fun, but as long as he kept the Blue Jays off the board, I was able to tell myself it might not be that bad. It helped that the Orioles put up two runs early in the game to take the lead.

Jays starter Kevin Gausman was dealing early and retired the first seven batters he faced. He did so with a little help from his defense on back-to-back plays in the second inning. Ryan O’Hearn was robbed of a hit by a diving catch from rookie Alan Rodin. And Tyler O’Neill hit a smash to third base that Will Wagner made a snazzy play on.

With one out in the third, Jackson Holliday hit a beauty to center field. The ball sailed over the fence for a 425-foot home run, his first of the season. Great to see that from Holliday, and he followed it up with a single in his next at-bat.

In the top of the fourth inning, the Orioles scored their second run with some small ball. Adley Rutschman walked and moved to third base on a single by O’Hearn. O’Neill followed with a long fly ball that brought Rutschman in.

And that was pretty much the last good thing that happened for the Orioles in the game.

The bottom of the fourth inning was just a big old mess. Morton’s struggles finally overtook him. He loaded the bases with no outs on three straight singles, then walked in a run for good measure. He finally got an out on the next batter, but it was a long fly ball that tied the game at 2-2.

Brandon Hyde and seen enough, and he turned to long-man Albert Suárez. Suárez was not much better. He immediately threw a wild pitch that scored the Jays’ third run. After a Bo Bichette single, Guerrero knocked in the fourth run on the second sac fly of the inning. The fifth came in thanks to shaky defense.

Santander singled through the right side, and Bichette raced for third. O’Neill made a strong throw from right field to Jorge Mateo. Bichette was almost to third, so Mateo fired the ball to first base to try and catch Santander. The ball flew into the O’s dugout where it hit a water bottle and rebounded to the field. Bichette was awarded home plate. 5-2 Blue Jays.

The Blue Jays didn’t score in the fifth inning but that doesn’t mean things didn’t get dicey. George Springer singled on a fly ball that Cedric Mullins maybe should have caught. Springer then stole second base, and Rutschman made a very wide throw that went into center field. Springer went to third on the error. It was ugly.

But Adley redeemed himself! On a strikeout to Will Wagner, Rutschman caught Springer leaning at third and picked him off. It was a close play, but it held up on review.

Another run came in the sixth as Suárez allowed Nathan Lukes to single and later get to third on another wild pitch. Bichette singled again to make the score 6-2, but they got another strike-’em-out-throw-’em-out double play to avoid more damage.

So if you’re keeping track, Morton allowed four runs in 3.1 innings and Suárez allowed two runs in 2.2 innings. But wait, there’s more!

Cionel Pérez made his 2025 debut and it was a disaster. He walked Santander, then got a ground ball to second base Andrés Giménez. But Pérez tried to make a play on it and it deflected off of his glove. That kept Holliday from being able to get one out, let alone two. Great job, Cio. After a fly out, Pérez balked both runners over. Pinch hitter Ernie Clement doubled them both home for runs seven and eight.

Gregory Soto brought some dignity back to the role of relief pitcher by striking out the side in the eighth. So thanks for that, Gregory.

As for the O’s offense, after the sacrifice fly in the fourth inning, they had just one baserunner until the ninth inning. It was a Jackson Holliday

The offense made some noise with walks from Rutschman, O’Hearn, and Mullins. But Ryan Mountcastle struck out to end the game.

Kind of a crappy second game, but we still have 160 to go. Game three of the series is tomorrow at 3 p.m. with Dean Kremer facing off against Max Scherzer.

Source: https://www.camdenchat.com/2025/3/28/24396267/orioles-blue-jays-game-recap-score

 

[Baltimore Orioles]

Saturday afternoon Orioles game thread: at Blue Jays, 3:07

Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images

Dean Kremer makes his season debut as the O’s try to bounce back from last night’s ugly loss.

We’re only two games into the season and we’ve already seen both the best and worst that the Orioles have to offer.

Opening Day was a joyous rout that made the O’s look like world beaters, a six-homer, well-pitched blowout that rang in the new season with a bang. But just one night later, it was amateur hour for the Birds, who pitched horribly, bungled defensive plays, and could barely scrape any offense together in an uncompetitive loss.

So that’s the way this season is going to be, huh? Strap in, folks.

This afternoon the Orioles will try to show more of the Game 1 version of themselves than Game 2. Dean Kremer, the only active holdover from last year’s season-opening O’s rotation, will toe the rubber for his 2025 debut. He’ll look to improve from his most recent start at Rogers Centre last August, when he gave up five runs without getting out of the fifth inning. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. tagged him for a two-run homer and an RBI double. As mentioned in my series preview, Guerrero has absolutely destroyed Kremer in his career, hitting five dingers in 30 PAs.

Future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer makes his debut for the Blue Jays, his fifth team in the last five years. The 40-year-old has a lot of miles on his talented arm, and a lot of injuries in recent seasons, but could still have something left in the tank. Heston Kjerstad makes his first start of the season, playing right field to give Tyler O’Neill a break from the turf, and backup catcher Gary Sánchez makes his Orioles debut, with Adley Rutschman DH’ing. Ryan Mountcastle, who has taken some ugly looking swings in his first couple of games, gets the day off.

Orioles lineup:

LF Colton Cowser
DH Adley Rutschman
1B Ryan O’Hearn
2B Jordan Westburg
CF Cedric Mullins
RF Heston Kjerstad
C Gary Sánchez
SS Jackson Holliday
3B Ramón Urías

RHP Dean Kremer

Blue Jays lineup:

SS Bo Bichette
1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
RF Anthony Santander
2B Andrés Giménez
C Alejandro Kirk
DH Will Wagner
LF Davis Schneider
3B Ernie Clement
CF Nathan Lukes

RHP Max Scherzer

Source: https://www.camdenchat.com/2025/3/29/24396634/orioles-blue-jays-game-thread

 

[Baltimore Orioles]

Orioles bash three more HRs, Bautista makes return to the mound in 9-5 win

Photo by Cole Burston/Getty Images

Jordan Westburg homered twice, Colton Cowser socked a leadoff blast, and The Mountain made his long-awaited return as the Orioles outslugged the Blue Jays.

It’s official: The Mountain is back.

Félix Bautista made his much-anticipated return to the mound this afternoon in Toronto, striking out the side in a scoreless ninth inning to wrap up a 9-5 win. Before that, the O’s smacked three more home runs and overturned a fourth-inning deficit thanks to a Ramón Urías three-run double, putting them in position to win the series in tomorrow’s finale.

Hall of Fame-bound right-hander Max Scherzer was making his Blue Jays debut, but consider Colton Cowser unimpressed. The leadoff man lifted a 417-foot dinger to center field, and just two pitches into the game, the Orioles had a 1-0 lead. As far as today’s game-opening accomplishments around MLB, it wasn’t quite the equal of the Yankees hitting three home runs on the first three pitches, but it’ll do.

Later in the inning, Cowser’s BFF Jordan Westburg bopped a solo homer of his own, taking one out to left-center field for the second time in the series, and the Orioles had staked Dean Kremer to a 2-0 lead before he took the mound.

It, unfortunately, took only five batters for Kremer to squander the advantage. The first three batters greeted him with sharp singles, capped by Anthony Santander’s run-scoring knock that gave him his first RBI as a Blue Jay. Well...congrats, I guess. Two batters later, Alejandro Kirk’s sac fly knotted the score.

The tie carried into the bottom of the third, which Kremer began with a Bo Bichette walk. He buckled down to strike out his nemesis Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Santander, but of all people it was Andrés Giménez — who had just nine dingers and a .340 SLG last season — who burned him for a two-run homer, already his second of the series. That gave the Jays a 4-2 lead.

When the top of the fourth rolled around, Scherzer — who had settled down after his shaky first, retiring seven Orioles in a row — was no longer on the mound. The Blue Jays later announced that he left the game with right lat soreness. These things happen when you’re 40, Max. Welcome to the club. But what a bummer of a way for him to have to leave in his first start of the season.

Scherzer’s misfortune was a game-changing opportunity for the Orioles, who jumped all over his middle-relief replacements. First up was lefty Richard Lovelady, who couldn’t find the strike zone with a map and a compass. Ryan O’Hearn led off the inning with a left-on-left bloop double, and with one out, Lovelady drilled Cedric Mullins. Hey! Watch it, buddy. Don’t hurt our players.

The next batter was Heston Kjerstad, and Lovelady...plunked him too. HEY! WHAT DID I JUST SAY? DO WE HAVE A PROBLEM HERE, RICHARD?? With the bases loaded, Gary Sánchez delivered a POFO — productive out for Orioles — with a sac fly, and Lovelady re-loaded the bases by walking Jackson Holliday.

It was Ramón Urías who delivered the pivotal blow. The Birds’ #9 hitter lashed a shot to deep right with Santander in dogged pursuit. In his Orioles days, we saw Anthony make his share of awkward, twisting, lunging catches at the wall, but fortunately it didn’t happen here as the ball sailed over his head and off the fence. All three runners came home on the clutch Urías double, putting the Orioles back in front, 6-4.

The O’s continued to pile on in the fifth against righty Jacob Barnes, courtesy of an Adley Rutschman double, Westburg single, Mullins RBI single, and Kjerstad sac fly, extending the lead to 8-4. Kremer promptly allowed the first two batters of the Blue Jays’ fifth to reach base, but limited the damage to one run.

After retiring the first batter of the sixth inning, Kremer was done. He wasn’t good — five runs, five hits in 5.1 innings — but give him credit for getting into the sixth, at least. Kremer had a real problem with odd-numbered innings today; in the first, third, and fifth, he gave up five runs and seven baserunners. In the even-numbered innings, he retired all seven batters he faced.

The Orioles capped their scoring in the seventh when Westburg socked yet another center-field home run, his second of the game and third of the year, and the 10th for the Orioles in just their first three games. These guys like dingers! Me too.

From there it was just a matter of sweating through the Orioles’ questionable bullpen. For the most part, the guys did a good job this afternoon — Keegan Akin got two outs, and Yennier Cano pitched a scoreless seventh in his season debut — but there always seems to be one guy who doesn’t have it on any given day. This time it was Gregory Soto, fresh off his three-strikeout performance on Friday, who walked two of the three batters he faced in the eighth. Seranthony Domínguez, though, bailed him out by retiring the next two.

And in the ninth, it was Mountain Time at long last. Félix Bautista’s first MLB game action since August 2023 wasn’t perfect — he allowed a Bichette double and walked Santander on four pitches nowhere near the zone — but he proved he still has dominant, strikeout-inducing stuff. In vintage Félix form, he fanned Nathan Lukes on a nasty 3-2 splitter in the dirt. Later he unleashed another unhittable split to whiff Guerrero, and finally got Giménez to chase — you guessed it — a splitter for a game-ending punchout. Good old Felix. There’s a sight for sore eyes for Orioles fans everywhere.

Winning 9 to 5 — what a way to make a living. And the Birds are back in the win column.

Source: https://www.camdenchat.com/2025/3/29/24396779/orioles-blue-jays-recap-felix-bautista

 

[Baltimore Orioles]

Sugano exits debut early, Orioles can’t hit Bassitt as series ends with 3-1 loss to Jays

Tomoyuki Sugano’s MLB debut could have gone worse—two runs allowed in four innings, and a hand cramp instead of a worse injury—but there was much left to be desired. | Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images

The Birds, undone by splitters and changeups, settle for the series split.

Does history matter in baseball? Yes and no. There are tendencies, sure, but pitcher-hitter matchups are stories from different teams, different seasons—heck, even different people, given that stuff and swings change from one year to another. The Baltimore Orioles had saddled Toronto’s Chris Bassitt with an 8.55 ERA in the past. Turns out, sometimes old stats are worth no more than a hill of beans.

On Sunday, the Blue Jays and the Orioles each sent a command pitcher to the mound, Toronto the righty Bassitt and Baltimore its new Japanese import Tomoyuki Sugano. In the end, it was Bassitt who got the better of the matchup, giving his team six strong innings on 106 pitches, surrendering just one run. Despite allowing traffic in every inning, Bassitt, to quote MASN’s Kevin Brown, was “cutting and sinking and splitting his way out of one jam after another.” The Orioles put some good swings on him, but could not get into a rhythm.

Would history mean something for Tomoyuki Sugano? This is a guy who’s done everything you could want in Japanese pro ball. In twelve seasons, he has a 136-74 record, a career 2.43 ERA and 1,596 strikeouts in 1,873 innings. He’s won their equivalent of the Cy Young twice. Would all that translate on an MLB mound?

We don’t know yet, but I can sum up the initial vibes like this. A pitcher who in twelve seasons in Japan walked just 1.7 batters per game walked his first MLB hitter on four pitches, then surrendered a 374-foot flyout to Vlad Guerrero Jr. and a ball Anthony Santander hit on the screws to right, where Tyler O’Neill made a great ranging catch. The camera cut to Sugano, who was sweating and grimacing visibly. Nerves are tough, huh. Even for a seasoned pro.

It was a very tightrope-y first inning, and debut, overall. It could have gone worse . . . but also better. After that leadoff walk and the noisy lineout, Sugano gave up consecutive hits to Andrés Giménez and George Springer, who singled home two runs for Toronto.

As bad as he looked at first, however, Sugano kept the lid on the Toronto offense for the most part. He looked MUCH better in the second: his breaking stuff wasn’t hanging out there with a “HIT ME” sign, and his command came back. His fastball is about 93 mph, but it has left-to-right movement, and he can really dot it in, glove-side. For the most part, Toronto managed only weak contact off him after that, although the defense had to save his bacon in the third (Cedric Mullins, reeling one in in center, and Ryan Mountcastle, with a leaping backhanded grab at first).

But just as Tommy Sugar looked like he was starting to get into a rhythm, suddenly he called for the trainer and was out—a hand cramp, it turns out. Sugano was still hanging around the dugout after leaving the mound, with no trainers attending to him, so it doesn’t seem like it’ll be too bad. It could be dehydration-related. He really was sweating profusely out there.

Ultimately, Toronto scored just two runs in the first six innings, but the O’s offense, alas, was even quieter. As Kevin Brown said, swarms of cutters, splitters, changeups and curveballs from Bassitt kept the Orioles from stringing together consecutive hits. They scored once in the first, then not again, despite having a runner or more on in every inning.

The single run came with two outs in the first inning, when a rally was strung together by the two most Irish-sounding Orioles. Ryan O’Hearn, who’d scorched the ball in vain all weekend, finally got a single for his troubles (at 102 mph) and Tyler O’Neill, who has not hit Bassitt well in the past, singled. O’Hearn gutsily—barely—took third, and that proved key when Bassitt uncorked a wild pitch to bring him home.

But that was it, with nine runners stranded on the day. The Birds wasted a Jackson Holliday bloop Bermuda single/stolen base in the second; a Colton Cowser single and a 102-mph O’Hearn double in the third; and in the fourth back-to-back singles by Ryan Mountcastle—at 116.7 mph, it was the the fastest-hit ball of his career, and fastest-hit ball by an Oriole since 2017 (!!)—and Ramón Urías. More stranded runners in the fifth, when Adley singled and O’Hearn walked, but O’Neill rashly hit into a grounder and Cedric Mullins struck out after fighting off eight pitches. And in the sixth, Urías walked and then stayed put.

It’s a 162-game season, and I get that the skipper has to rest his guys, but to Monday-morning quarterback for just a second, there were a few lineup decisions that you could raise an eyebrow at. Jordan Westburg, author of three home runs this weekend, never got into the game. Power-hitting lefty Heston Kjerstad also sat against a right-handed starter (for defensive reasons, apparently, even though O’Neill has never hit Bassitt well). Jorge Mateo was an automatic out, basically.

In silver linings news, recent callup Matt Bowman looked good through two innings, despite nearly beaning Anthony Santander. That was dicey. But his stuff looks elusive, so I’m looking forward to more from Bowman. Cionel Pérez allowed a bizarre home run, his first since June 2023 (!!), to 33-year-old Tyler Heineman who’s been a backup catcher in the league since 2019 and in 113 games had exactly… one home run to his name. Now it’s two. Ugh. But the sometimes-hittable power reliever Bryan Baker also looked good. And you can’t really complain about five innings of one-run ball from the ‘pen against a tough lineup like Toronto’s.

The O’s will have to settle for the split, and figure out a better approach to hitting offspeed pitches as they head back to Baltimore for tomorrow’s home opener against the Red Sox.

Source: https://www.camdenchat.com/2025/3/30/24397350/mlb-scores-orioles-blue-jays-game-recap