I fly down to Sarasota each March looking for answers about the Orioles just before the beginning of the season. And more times than not I feel as though I come back a bit smarter having sniffed around at how I see things.
I saw my last game of this trip on Sunday, March 8. I am heading home a little more than two weeks until the opener with more questions than when I came down.
The biggest reason for the uncertainty surrounds two very significant injuries in the infield — second baseman Jackson Holliday’s broken hamate bone and Jordan Westburg’s partial UCL tear in his right elbow. Holliday’s timetable for a return is clearer. He’ll likely be back at some point in mid-April.
Everything I’ve read about Westburg’s prognosis following his PRP injection is that he’ll miss the month of April. I am not a doctor — although I could say I slept at a Holiday Inn — but that prognosis of a return around May 1 seems overly optimistic.
As I see it, if all goes well and the PRP helps heal the tear, June 1 is a much more likely return date. If this thing is not better by then, the alternative is Tommy John surgery, which would not allow him to return at all in 2026.
Fortunately for Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias, he pulled off a trade with Arizona to bring in Blaze Alexander, who can play any of the three infield spots to the left of first base as well as the outfield.
Alexander figures to play a lot of second base while Holliday is out, but third base is another huge uncertainty. Manager Craig Albernaz is not going to throw any of his players under the bus, but Coby Mayo has — to put it mildly — been challenged at third base. Bryan Ramos looks to be the best defender at the position.
Mayo started camp hot as a pistol, but the smoking gun has cooled and his only hope to fill in at third was for him to out-hit his mistakes at the hot corner.
Two players I really wanted to see play at a high level during my brief trip were catcher Adley Rutschman and center fielder Colton Cowser. These two up-the-middle guys need to really put the self-doubts behind them and simply carve out regular roles. Again, awfully small sample size, but neither has really erased the doubts I have that they can stick that stake in the ground and claim those roles.
Samuel Basallo looks like a masher and carries the type of personality that can help him become a face-of-the-franchise type of player. Is he ready to catch 40 games and serve as the designated hitter for 80-plus games? Come back to me around May 1 for a more informed answer. If a veteran like James McCann were still here, Basallo might be better served with six to eight weeks at Triple-A.
Shortstop Gunnar Henderson and outfielder Tyler O’Neill have been away from camp with the U.S. and Canadian teams in the World Baseball Classic. O’Neill in particular looked good in the early going this spring after such a disappointing and injury-plagued 2025.
Even in the spring, having four significant batters in Holliday, Westburg, O’Neill and Henderson absent takes an awful lot of pop out of the lineup.
Not everything is a riddle. Taylor Ward looks solid, as does Pete Alonso. Dylan Beavers has a big-league feel to his game. Heston Kjerstad, one of the forgotten guys, has risen from the ashes with two home runs, but his defense still hurts his shot at making the Opening Day roster. Kjerstad has a perplexing issue of hustling to get to balls and then being unable to actually catch the ball. For an outfielder, that’s a problem.
Ryan Mountcastle has looked solid in Sarasota but continues to hit singles and a few doubles. When he came up, he was supposed to be a power source.
There’s also good news on the rotation front. The ‘pen should be just fine, with closer Ryan Helsley looking strong and Tyler Wells looking to take on a major role in relief.
I feel comfortable in saying Alonso, Henderson, Holliday, O’Neill and Ward will make the lineup go. The difference-makers need to be Rutschman, Basallo, Cowser and Mayo, but the jury is out on all of them.
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