Opt-outs for a couple of veterans will be settled today and more cuts are coming before Opening Day
Hello, friends.
There are now four days remaining until Orioles Opening Day. I’m feeling less excited about it than I was 72 hours ago. I hope they get a win that’s fun enough to ward off the “no Jackson Holliday for an unknown amount of time” gloom.
If you missed the news yesterday, the Orioles announced that owner Peter Angelos passed away at age 94. It’s a complicated legacy for Angelos, with a number of unambiguously good things but also multiple dark eras of O’s baseball mixed in there. You can read my immediate reaction to the news if you click here.
Today is the final day of spring training. The Orioles will play one last Grapefruit League game today, a 1:05 road affair against the Twins, and that will be it. That does not mean that they will cut down the roster to 26 players as soon as camp ends. Manager Brandon Hyde has suggested that the team could bring more than 26 guys north and then make some decisions once people have gotten to Baltimore.
There were two games yesterday, with the Orioles having the usual format with a split squad of one set of guys going on the road and one staying at home. The road Orioles beat the Rays, with Colton Cowser hitting his sixth home run of spring training and Julio Teheran pitching four scoreless innings. Kolten Wong also homered in the game.
Today’s a notable day regarding Wong, because he opted out of his contract on Friday so he has to be added to the roster or granted his release today. Teheran is also, according to The Baltimore Banner’s Andy Kostka, going to exercise an opt-out if he doesn’t make the roster. It would annoy me less if Teheran made the roster; this team could use a long relief/spot starter. It doesn’t need a 33-year-old lefty batter who only plays second base and hit really, really badly last year.
In the evening game in Sarasota, Corbin Burnes and Tyler Wells combined to allow two runs on the way to a 3-2 win over a Blue Jays team that, uh, wasn’t exactly the A-list of their roster. Anthony Santander homered, his sixth of the spring, and drove in two of the three runs. Austin Hays left the game early with a shoulder contusion after being hit by a pitch. After the game, Hyde said the team is planning for Hays to play tomorrow but recognizes that may not be possible.
All in all, the Orioles finished with 22 wins, a record for them in Grapefruit League play. It means little if they don’t translate that spring success into regular season success but at least the meaningless stuff went well.
Around the blogO’sphere
For Peter Angelos, the Orioles were only part of his story (The Athletic)
Ken Rosenthal’s column on the death of Peter Angelos closes with this line: “Angelos, never one to back down from a fight, had beaten this insolent twit at his own game.” Truthfully, it’s more magnanimous than I expected.
Cal Ripken Jr., Rob Manfred, and others react to the death of Peter Angelos (The Baltimore Banner)
The Banner rounded up a number of statements and other quotes about Angelos from a variety of local and national figures.
Burnes: “Overall, great spot and looking forward to Thursday” (School of Roch)
The Orioles ace reacted to his outing from last night. I’m looking forward to seeing him pitch on Thursday.
Tough spring cuts suggest Orioles trajectory rising (Orioles.com)
Jake Rill writes about one sign of the Orioles being in a position to choose to send Jackson Holliday, Heston Kjerstad, and others to the minors: The franchise is in a better place than it was. I don’t think he’s wrong, I just don’t think that’s the whole story, especially about Holliday.
Advice for incoming owner David Rubenstein (Press Box Online)
Were I choosing to type out some words that Rubenstein might hypothetically read, I’d choose something much more important than airing out complaints about how the Orioles Hall of Fame choices are made.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
There are a pair of former Orioles who were born on this day, and they are from the old days of the franchise: 1954 first baseman Dick Kryhoski, and 1955 pitcher Saul Rogovin.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: legendary admiral Michiel de Ruyter (1607), clockmaker John Harrison (1693), magician Harry Houdini (1874), baseball Hall of Famer George Sisler (1893), animator Joseph Barbera (1911), actor Steve McQueen (1930), designer Tommy Hilfiger (1951), wrestler The Undertaker (1965), actress Alyson Hannigan (1974), and footballer Peyton Manning (1976).
On this day in history…
In 1603, the daimyo Tokugawa Ieyasu received the title of shōgun from the reigning emperor, whose authority he effectively supplanted. This established a shogunate that ruled over Japan until 1868.
In 1721, Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated a series of concertos to a Prussian noble. One half of the noble’s title included Brandenburg, so these are now recognized as the Brandenburg Concertos. Though famous now, these works were largely obscure for nearly 200 years after Bach’s death.
In 1944, Allied POWs began “The Great Escape” from the German prison camp Stalag Luft III. Birthday boy McQueen starred in the movie of the same name that dramatized the attempted escape.
In 1989, the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground, leading to 240,000 barrels worth of crude oil spilling into the ecosystem around Prince William Sound, Alaska.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on March 24. Have a safe Sunday.