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Hello, friends.
Today marks exactly one month until Orioles Opening Day! The team will be playing exhibition games from now through March 23 to get ready for that. After yesterday’s 4-3 victory over the Rays, the Orioles are now 3-2-1 in Grapefruit League action. Awaiting today is a 1:05 game against the Tigers that will be broadcast on MASN. Dean Kremer is lined up as today’s starter. A day farther out, Shane Baz will get into his first organized spring game as Friday’s starting pitcher.
Yesterday’s win saw three scoreless innings from Trevor Rogers, who’s yet to allow a run in spring action. For anyone who was looking for a reason to believe that he’ll be able to pick up where he left off at the end of last season, that’s really not a bad thing to latch onto. It’s less outlandish of a belief now that we’ve seen him do what he did last year.
Another early spring standout is Tyler O’Neill. There’s a guy who was not exactly showing us success last year. It’s early and it doesn’t matter yet, and staying healthy might be his biggest issue rather than performance anyway. Still, O’Neill seems to be taking good at-bats and getting good results early on. One path to a better team in 2026 is to have last winter’s big signing start to get that contract out from being a waste.
If you’d already given up prospect Vance Honeycutt, the 2024 first rounder, as a bust, you might not have noticed that he’s gotten a pair of spring training homers, including one yesterday. He stunk in 2025, there’s no getting around that, and same as any of these other guys, it doesn’t matter yet. Still, it has to be nice for him after a tough year to get a positive early vibe from 2026. It will take a lot more homering in real games for this to connect into anything. I like the start.
With a few players leaving camp to participate in the World Baseball Classic – including O’Neill, who’ll be joining Team Canada – there’s going to be a bit more room for prospects to get playing time this year. If Honeycutt or others are able to take advantage of that, good for them.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
More notes from Orioles 4-3 win over Rays (School of Roch)
Roch Kubatko runs through more of the stuff from yesterday’s game. It wasn’t all positive, with Andrew Kittredge having a bit of a clunker.
Orioles believe bullpen’s a strength: “I think we’re going to surprise some people” (Baltimore Baseball)
Gotta love a dose of spring training optimism.
Pete Alonso broke this comedian’s son’s heart, and now wants him to be an Orioles fan (Orioles.com)
This is about the son of John Oliver, host of Last Week Tonight and a Mets fan, now getting a personal appeal from the Polar Bear to change fandoms with him. I’ve watched Oliver’s show and I think he’s absolutely ready to experience Orioles fandom.
Taylor Ward learned to embrace change. Then he got traded. (The Baltimore Sun)
I keep forgetting that the Orioles traded for Taylor Ward. I hope he doesn’t make me wish I could forget when the season happens. Although that’s also up to Grayson Rodriguez, who the O’s traded to the Angels.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Nothing of particular note has happened on this day in Orioles history. Unless there’s bad news, that probably won’t be changing today.
There is one lone former Oriole with a birthday today. Happy 49th birthday to 2001-02 pitcher Josh Towers, who had a 5.05 ERA in 29 games across his two seasons with the team.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: playwright/poet Christopher Marlowe (1564), author Victor Hugo (1802), blue jeans manufacturer Levi Strauss (1829), cereal creator John Harvey Kellogg (1852), chemical maker Herbert Henry Dow (1866), animator Tex Avery (1908), musician Fats Domino (1928), and musician Johnny Cash (1932).
On this day in history…
In 1616, the Catholic Church officially banned Galileo Galilei from teaching that the Earth orbits the sun.
In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from the island of Elba, where he had been exiled following his defeat a year prior.
In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation that established Grand Canyon National Park. Exactly a decade later, President Calvin Coolidge signed legislation establishing Grand Teton National Park.
A random Orioles trivia question
I received a random book of Orioles trivia for Christmas. I’ll ask a question each time it’s my turn in this space until I run out of questions or I forget. I’m skipping stupid questions; we’re already on question 48 today. The book gives multiple choice answers but that would be too easy for us, wouldn’t it? Here’s today’s question:
Which pitcher’s 15 wins led the 2005 Orioles?
If you are answering the question early in the day, please be considerate and place your guess behind spoiler text so that others arriving later can still make a fresh guess. Thank you!
The answer to Sunday’s question: which year did the B&O Warehouse open? 1904!
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on February 26. Have a safe Thursday.