SARASOTA – The Orioles were ready to leave.

They love calling Sarasota their spring training home – the facility, the city and the surrounding areas. What used to feel like a sleepy town has become overly caffeinated with the amount of people and traffic lured here in no small part by a baseball team.

Players are pampered at every turn, especially the ones that lead to the new $23 million development complex that bloomed less than a year after they broke camp last year.

There might not be a better location and setup to get ready for a season and to unwind, but it was time to go. Too much of a good thing is real.

Actually, it’s more about starting the regular season, and the Orioles are champing at the bit. Boxes were packed and put on trucks for transport to Baltimore. Arrangements were made to have their vehicles shipped back, with the club setting up a desk outside the clubhouse to expedite the process. Players arrived at the complex this morning wearing dress shirts and pants – closer Ryan Helsley went full suit – for the flight home.

Left-hander Trevor Rogers estimated on Thursday that the urge struck about 10 days ago.

“I don’t know if it’s more of, guys are tired of waking up at 6:30 in the morning or just getting to games that matter. But you know, the guys are ready,” said Rogers, who starts the March 26 opener against the Twins at Camden Yards.

“The hitters, they’re on time, they’re seeing the baseball well. All the starting staff, they’re good to go. So I think everybody’s just getting antsy to get up to Baltimore and get going.”

“This is a really special group,” said first baseman Pete Alonso. “There’s a lot of talent and I feel like there’s a lot connections going on, and that’s a really positive thing. I think we’re getting to the point where it’s like, ‘Hey, spring training, as great as it is, we’re ready for the year.’ And it’s exciting.”

Getting out healthy always is a major goal and the Orioles mostly did it, but they ran into some rotten luck the past few days that must have conjured memories they’d rather bury.

Jordan Westburg strained his oblique before the report date and he had a preexisting tear in his right ulnar collateral ligament that prompted the platelet-rich plasma injection. Returning on May 1 is “unrealistic,” said president of baseball operations Mike Elias. Jackson Holliday broke his right hamate bone during live batting practice, also prior to the report date. But reliever Andrew Kittredge experienced right shoulder soreness in camp that’s also forcing him onto the injured list.

And then, there was this:

Outfielder Dylan Beavers was scratched from Friday night’s game in Tampa with right knee discomfort. It’s more precautionary and he’s expected to be fine. Outfielder Heston Kjerstad came out of Thursday night’s game in Sarasota after running out a ground ball in the seventh inning and grabbing his hamstring. He made the final out and might have been removed anyway, but he’s undergoing an MRI today in Baltimore.

Reliever Keegan Akin, the primary left-hander in the bullpen, warmed yesterday but didn’t pitch due to some adductor muscle discomfort. His status suddenly is in question.

Don’t mess with the mojo. This team is convinced that it can make the playoffs, and a deep run. That the 2025 mess is cleaned up and forgotten until the media brings it up again.

“Really talented team,” said catcher Adley Rutschman. “Love where our team’s at just like chemistry-wise. I think we’ve got a lot of really quality people and we’ve added really quality people, so it’s fun. Guys are laughing a lot in the clubhouse. It’s a lot of chatter going on. It’s just seems like a great vibe in the clubhouse.”

“I think right now we’re really united,” catcher Samuel Basallo said through interpreter Brandon Quinones. “We’re all rallying around each other. Everyone has each other’s backs. Everyone’s just spending a lot more time together and maybe that’s something we lacked a little bit in last year. But we’re doing that a lot more right now.”

Asked who led the unifying effort, Basallo singled out veterans like Alonso and pitchers Chris Bassitt and Zach Eflin. He wasn’t sharing a comprehensive list, but those players were the first who came to mind.

“Really, all of us have come in with a renewed mindset coming into this camp and into this season,” he said. “So I think we’re all playing our part, but I would say it starts with those guys.”

“It’s a lot about just intentionality,” Rutschman said. “Having a standard and just abiding to it. If it’s not said, sometimes guys are working hard but you don’t have that clear goal set in mind. And I think those guys do a really good job of just putting it out there and saying it.

“We want to be very competitive, we want to be intentional, we want to do the little things, but having guys who are just saying it all the time and putting it out there and be like, ‘Hey, this is what we’re about and we’re going to say it’ definitely makes a huge difference, because it just gives guys clear direction about how they go about their work, how we attack the day.”

Rogers says the “fun part” is considering just how good the Orioles can be following their last-place finish and the multitude of changes born from it, including new manager Craig Albernaz, seven coaches and players like Alonso, Bassitt, Helsley, outfielder Taylor Ward and starter Shane Baz.

“I think we can go a really long way, and that’s the tone that they set first day in camp,” Rogers said. “We want to be in October and we want to be the last team standing. But with that being said, we can’t control the future. We can’t control the past. Just focus on the present.

“Alby’s mantra is Day 1 every day, so that’s something we try to do and hopefully we can carry it into the season, because there’s going to be ups and downs. But I trust this club that we’re going to get through those times a lot quicker.”

The slow start in 2025 buried the club and cost manager Brandon Hyde his job. The Orioles were 15-28, the fourth-worst record in the majors, and coming off a sloppy 4-3 loss to the Nationals at Camden Yards.

“I think probably the biggest thing is, it’s always been said you can’t win a division in March and April but you can lose it,” Rogers said. “If we turn around that slow start, I think we’re pushing for the playoffs. I think they realize that. And they also realize how hard it is to get to the playoffs. So I think the guys are prepared for it. I think it really helped this team for the future and I think we’re ready to go.”

The tone was set in the late fall and winter months.

“Once I saw Pete and Taylor, then we got Baz, Bassitt, Helsley. We got a lot of pieces that we were missing last year,” Rogers said.

“This is a complete team. Bullpen’s solid, starting staff’s solid. One through nine is solid. We put us up against anybody, we’re gonna compete our (butts) off. So this team is gonna be really fun.”

“Just playing with these guys every day, the thing that impressed me as like, not just the consistency of work, but the focus every single day,” Alonso said. “And then also, too, just like the quality of talent, it’s pretty abundant with our group. So it’s really amazing.

“Our ownership and front office did a phenomenal job of accruing talent and personalities that know how to win, so it’s just up to us going and earning it over the course of 162 and rolling the dice and winning games in October. It’s up to us now.”

The rotation appears to be the best that Elias has built during his tenure. How else to explain optioning Dean Kremer, the innings leader in 2025? A team with a shallow starting five holds onto him until knuckles turn white.

“We’ll see,” Elias said. “We definitely have confidence in these guys and we’ve made a lot of moves to augment the rotation, so we feel really strong about it. And they also had good camps by and large, and knock on wood, we’ll finish healthy here the next couple of days.”

Be careful with those knuckles.

“It’s a rotation that has the potential to carry us to an AL East title and hopefully very deep into the playoffs,” Elias said.

Kittredge’s stay on the IL should be minimal. He’s coming to Baltimore for Opening Day before reporting to Triple-A Norfolk for his rehab assignment and believes the Orioles are built for the long haul.

“I think we all have aspirations of being the final team,” he said. “I think we have the talent to do that. It’s a long season. We’ve got to be good for a long part of that. I think we can and I’m hopeful that we do that.”

“It’s been a great camp,” Alonso said, “and I think this group together, it’s gonna do a lot of special things.”

It began with players trickling into the Sarasota complex, but the games are going to count and dreams can be fulfilled after the orange carpet is unrolled and the introductions are piped over the new sound system.

The Orioles are ready to start.

“Honestly, I’m beyond stoked,” Alonso said. “I don’t know what to fully expect. I’ve watched videos. I’ve plugged in some YouTube stuff. But to experience it and feel it, it’s obviously a different story.

“I’m beyond stoked.