SARASOTA, Fla. — For a guy who thinks he knows a thing or two about the local baseball team, this has been a truly humbling trip to Sarasota. In fairness, I can’t remember when the Orioles last had roster-building dilemmas this late in camp.
When I arrived at camp, based on what I saw last year, I wouldn’t have given any chance for three players in particular to make the Orioles’ Opening Day roster.
Those three were Keegan Akin, Ramón Urías and Kyle Stowers. Now after two weeks down here, my head is spinning at the notion that all three may very well be in Baltimore on March 28 when the O’s play the Los Angeles Angels.
I came down and quickly wrote a piece about the nine players out of minor league options. Based on the assumption that Jackson Holliday was a shoo-in, I saw no way Urías would be kept. I then watched how Orioles manager Brandon Hyde played him just about every day. Could they be showcasing him for a possible deal? Sure, but perhaps Hyde is just enamored all over again about the professionalism of Urías’ game.
Part of my change on this revolves around my gut telling me that Holliday will not immediately be part of a team that won 101 games last year. Holliday has not flopped by any means this spring. He is holding his own and not drowning in the deep waters, but is that how you want him to hit the ground running at the start of his career?
There is no doubt he is going to be a great player. But listening to Hyde’s answer to a question about Holliday on March 17 left me with the impression the club is torn about where to start the infielder.
“We’re just evaluating him,” Hyde said after the Orioles’ 8-2 win against the Braves. “He played the second half of some games last [spring]. He obviously had an incredible minor league season, jumping all kinds of levels. Just wanted to see him face some major league pitching. We’re getting a little bit closer to realistic with the pitching that we’re going to see. We’re just watching him right now to figure out if we think he’s ready to break camp with us or not.”
That sounds torn to me, and to make a decision to put a 20-year-old in this pressure cooker may be a bit of a stretch right now. Remember, Holliday played at four levels of ball as a 19-year-old last season. He hit .323/.442/.499 in 581 plate appearances, ending the season with the Triple-A national champion Norfolk Tides.
I say he hasn’t drowned this spring, but one word of caution in an otherwise solid spring: Holliday has struck out 14 times and walked just twice. He struck out 118 times but walked 101 times a year ago.
Holliday is not going to get ruined if he stays in the big leagues. Nick Markakis struggled mightily as a rookie in 2006 but the club toughed it out and his struggles helped turn him into the player he became. But remember, Markakis did that with a bad ballclub, with no real team result imperative hanging over his head.
For me, I’d rather see Holliday go to Norfolk for 30 to 45 days and come back up when he is hitting his stride, not trying to avoid failing, which is how it feels to me right now.
The biggest surprise of the spring for me is Stowers. After his three-homer, four-RBI performance against the Tigers on March 17, he has seven homers and 13 RBIs. He is batting .297/.316/.865. One alarming stat is his 11-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. However, he looks like a much more controlled hitter so far this spring.
A total revelation has been Akin, who is in tremendous shape and it is showing. The lefty has pounded the strike zone the four or five times I have seen him down here. He has pitched six times, totaling 7.1 innings of scoreless baseball while allowing one hit and one walk.
There are still 10 days until Opening Day, but here is my current guess on the 26-man roster:
Starting Pitchers (5): Corbin Burnes, Grayson Rodriguez, Dean Kremer, Tyler Wells, Cole Irvin
Relief Pitchers (8): Craig Kimbrel, Dillon Tate, Yennier Cano, Mike Baumann, Danny Coulombe, Cionel Pérez, Julio Teheran, Keegan Akin
Infielders (6): Gunnar Henderson, Jorge Mateo, Ryan O’Hearn, Ramón Urías, Jordan Westburg, Kolten Wong
Outfielders (5): Austin Hays, Cedric Mullins, Anthony Santander, Colton Cowser, Kyle Stowers
Catchers (2): Adley Rutschman, James McCann
Injured List (4): Kyle Bradish, John Means, Ryan Mountcastle, Félix Bautista
As the late, great skipper Earl Weaver used to say, it’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Baltimore Orioles