O’s make key roster moves with Opening Day on the horizon
The Baltimore Orioles made several roster decisions prior to their March 28th opener against the LA Angels. Baltimore constructed their pitching rotation to start the season and figured out the backlog in the middle infield.
The team announced Corbin Burnes as their Opening Day starter next week against the Angels. Grayson Rodriguez will pitch game two and Tyler Wells will start game three. The Kansas City Royals travel to Baltimore afterwards, where they’ll face Tyler Wells and Cole Irvin to start.
Baltimore will look to this rotation until Kyle Bradish and John Means can return. Bradish will start the season on the IL with a sprained UCL, while Means is still returning from Tommy John surgery.
The O’s also made some key position player moves on Friday. The team optioned OF’s Heston Kjerstad and Kyle Stowers to the minors. They also sent down Coby Mayo, Connor Norby, and #1 prospect Jackson Holliday.
The Orioles decided to start Jackson Holliday at triple-A in 2024 despite a strong spring. The 20-year-old hit .311/.354/.600 in 15 games in Sarasota. Holliday was seen by many as a pencil-in for an Opening Day spot, but they’ll have to wait to see baseball’s best prospect. He will start 2024 back in the minors where he hit .323/.442/.499 across four levels.
I know everyone (me included) wanted to see Jackson make the big-league club, but let’s trust Elias on this one. Most of the moves he’s made since coming to Birdland have worked so far. Don’t forget he brought in Cano and O’Hearn who had major contributions last season. Their old clubs cut them loose, and Elias found diamonds in the rough. To think he doesn’t know what he’s doing is silly, so let’s be patient. There’s one thing we can all agree on: baseball is back, and it’s amazing.
