The 26-man roster that starts the season will not be the one that ends the season
Opening Day is finally here, and with it, the official first Orioles 26-man roster of the year. The team announced its last set of roster moves to get the active roster to the correct size on Thursday morning, a few hours ahead of the first pitch of the first game of the season.
For those who were paying attention to the last rounds of cuts at the end of spring training, there aren’t any surprises to be found on the roster. If you weren’t paying attention, that’s okay, but I’m sorry if I’m somehow the first person to inform you that Grayson Rodriguez didn’t make the team and he’s starting out in the minors.
The Orioles placed four players on the injured list to start the season. John Means is on the 60-day injured list, as expected, while he goes through the final months of his rehab from Tommy John surgery. Additionally, three Orioles are on either the 10-day or 15-day injured list retroactive to March 27: James McCann (left oblique strain), Mychal Givens (left knee inflammation), and Dillon Tate (right elbow flexor strain).
Means being placed on the 60-day injured list opens up a 40-man roster spot, which has been taken by Anthony Bemboom. The injury to McCann necessitated adding a third catcher to the 40-man roster, so his contract was selected. Additionally, reliever Joey Krehbiel was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk. He did not have a good spring training and that seems to have been a factor in his being displaced to start the season.
That leaves us with this roster to start off the 2023 Orioles:
Right-handed pitchers:
- Bryan Baker
- Mike Baumann
- Félix Bautista
- Kyle Bradish
- Kyle Gibson
- Logan Gillaspie
- Dean Kremer
- Austin Voth
- Tyler Wells
Left-handed pitchers
- Keegan Akin
- Danny Coulombe
- Cole Irvin
- Cionel Pérez
Catchers
- Anthony Bemboom
- Adley Rutschman
Infielders
- Adam Frazier
- Gunnar Henderson
- Jorge Mateo
- Ryan Mountcastle
- Ramón Urías
- Terrin Vavra
Outfielders
- Austin Hays
- Ryan McKenna
- Cedric Mullins
- Anthony Santander
- Kyle Stowers
Is this the beginning of a playoff roster? Let’s hope.