Wednesday Bird Droppings: Gunnar Henderson has resumed “baseball activities”

The star shortstop is progressing, as is Jorge Mateo, the O’s beat the Yankees, and hotly-contested ping pong battles.

Good morning Birdland,

The Orioles were due for some positive injury news, and they finally got it on Tuesday. It was reported that both Gunnar Henderson and Jorge Mateo were easing back into baseball activities.

Henderson did “light hitting progressions” and was planning to field balls sometime today. Mateo is ramped up even more, doing full defensive work on Monday and on-field batting practice Tuesday.

There was no indication that either player has seen their time table for return altered in any way, but that could change. Henderson has two weeks to get himself sorted out before Opening Day. That may be asking a lot unless things go really well with workouts this week and he can get into games by the weekend. Mateo is expected to begin the season on the IL—which would actually help the Orioles from a roster crunch perspective—but his update is pretty promising. If he does head to the IL, he could start a rehab stint rather early on.

There were no other major updates on injuries elsewhere in Orioles camp, and that’s OK. We will take some good news for a day.

Links

Henderson starts hitting progression, more on Basallo’s baseball bashing | Roch Kubatko
Quotes from Brandon Hyde on Henderson’s improvement. It all sounds positive, but Hyde is also not committing to Henderson being ready for Opening Day. It feels like this has all gone a bit slow. Then again, Henderson is the most important player on this team. They cannot afford a setback.

Mountcastle, Adley among O’s starters on Steinbrenner Field scouting trip | Orioles.com
Beating the Yankees is fun any time of year, and yesterday was no exception. As pointed out in the article, this is a stadium we should all get used to. The Orioles will be visiting it a few times this summer as it serves as the Rays home stadium following hurrican damage to Tropicana Field.

The most captivating battle at Orioles spring training occurs on the pingpong table | The Baltimore Banner
Of course Dean Kremer is good at ping pong. It’s obvious now. He has a similar body type to J.J. Hardy, who was said to be the team’s best table tennis player a decade ago. Life, they say, is cyclical.

Orioles birthdays

Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!

• Cole Sulser turns 35 today. The righty spent parts of two seasons with the Orioles from 2020-21. He was traded (along with Tanner Scott) to the Marlins right before the start of the 2022 for a trio of prospects. At this point, the O’s would be pinning their hopes on 21-year-old Yaqui Rivera turning into something to make that trade worth something.
• Steve Finley is 60. A really productive big leaguer for nearly 20 years, his career began with the Orioles from 1989-90. At the time, he was a glove-first outfielder with the ability to swipe bases. The O’s added him to the package that landed Glenn Davis in Baltimore. It’s still one of the worst trades in the franchise’s history.
• It’s a posthumous birthday for Ray Barker (b. 1936, 2018). He made his MLB debut with the Orioles, and played in five total games for them during the 1960 season.
• The late Chuck Oertel (b. 1931, d. 2000) was born on this day. He played in 14 games for the 1958 Orioles, his only big league experience. Oertel got just two hits, but one of them was a home run.

This day in O’s history

March 12 has been a slow day in Orioles history, according to Baseball Reference. So, instead, here are some thing that have happened on this date beyond Birdland.

1933 – Franklin D. Roosevelt address the nation for the first time as President of the United States in what would be become a series of “fireside chats.”

1989 – Tim Berners-Lee submits his proposal for an information management system. This would eventually develop into the World Wide Web.