The Orioles made the obvious choice official on Friday afternoon.
Opening Day is 13 days away for the Orioles. On Friday afternoon, the O’s made it official which of their starting pitchers will get the ball for the first game. Manager Brandon Hyde announced Zach Eflin as the choice.
Eflin was really the only choice, especially after Grayson Rodriguez injured his elbow. Eflin’s nine starts with the Orioles last year were just that good. He was getting #1 starter results with his 2.60 ERA while averaging more than six innings per start. So, in some sense, this is just a formality, with no more surprise than a year ago when Corbin Burnes was named as the Opening Day starter.
Now that the #1 choice is out of the way, it’s going to be interesting to see how the Orioles line everybody else up. You could make the case in just about any order for Dean Kremer, Charlie Morton, and Tomoyuki Sugano, depending on which of those guys you think is more interesting or dependable or whatever criteria is important to you. It’s also going to be interesting to see who gets the #5 spot, Cade Povich or Albert Suárez.
Hyde confirmed that one person will be out on Opening Day. That’s Jorge Mateo, whose recovery from elbow surgery is in the later parts but not advanced enough for him to ramp up enough in games by the time Opening Day rolls around.
Still to be determined is when the Orioles will get Gunnar Henderson back into the spring lineups. He’s not in for Friday night’s game against the Twins and there’s still no indication when he’ll return from his intercostal strain.