The only Orioles player moves this month were made last Monday when they signed left-handers Scarling Sterling and Christian Rojas to minor league contracts. The deals didn’t appear on the transactions page until the weekend.

Sterling was assigned to “Purple-South” in the MLB amateur scouting league in the Dominican Republic on May 5. That’s the extent of the results found in my research.

Meanwhile, Guardians associate manager Craig Albernaz is going to be hired as the next manager, with an announcement likely to come later in the week. That will have to do.

The choice of Albernaz after a search that didn’t take a full month – the Orioles were serious about making a decision ASAP – provides an answer to the question of who’s following interim manager Tony Mansolino, whether he’d get the full-time job and whether experience was really important.

Among the questions I’ve posed in recent weeks, besides wondering about the manager, involve cramming five starters into the rotation, who bats first, who’s in center field, does Tyler O’Neill homer again on Opening Day, will some starters be on innings limits, what happens to Albert Suárez, and if any starters could move to the bullpen.

Here are two more while we wait for Game 3 of the World Series.

What will the Orioles get from Trevor Rogers?

The skeptics kept waiting for Rogers to implode this summer. The clock would strike midnight and he’d turn into a pumpkin – except that he kept carving up opposing hitters.

What were the odds in March that Rogers would be voted Most Valuable Oriole? Something like 1,000-to-one? He didn’t even break camp with the team because of a right knee injury that he brought to spring training.

In a remarkable turnaround that floored the industry, Rogers posted a 1.81 ERA, 0.903 WHIP and team-leading 5.5 bWAR in 18 games that also was third-highest by an Orioles lefty behind Dave McNally’s 5.9 in 1968 and Erik Bedard’s 5.7 in 2007. He made 10 consecutive starts with six-plus innings and two runs or fewer allowed, the longest streak in club history and longest by any starter, excluding openers, since Félix Hernández (17) in 2014.

Batters slashed .180/.240/.263 against Rogers, and the Orioles were 13-5 in his starts. He’s going to get some down-ballot votes for the American league Cy Young Award.

Rogers became the first pitcher to earn the MVO award since Rodriguez Lopez in 2002, and the fourth left-hander, joining Randy Myers (1997), Mike Cuellar (1974) and McNally (1968).

All of this leads to the following question: What can Rogers do for an encore?

“First of all, really proud and admire what he did to build himself back up,” president of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias said at the season-ending press conference. “He did a lot of work, but our strength and pitching and medical people did a lot to put him in that position. In a rough year, he’s been one of the better success stories around the organization. One of the bright things as we look forward to 2026 to have him on the trajectory he’s at right now.

“I think it’s hard for anyone to repeat an ERA in the 1’s, especially in this day and age, so I’m not saying we’re expecting or needing that. But I do think he has cemented himself as a front-of-the rotation kind of starter going into next year. Whether that’s the 1, 2 or 3 starter is going to depend on what we do and who we get. He’s going to be one of our top guys in the rotation and we’re very excited about that.”

I’d expect Kyle Bradish to be the leading in-house candidate for Opening Day starter ahead of Rogers, but that decision could come down to spring results unless Elias brings in an undisputed No. 1, like he did with Corbin Burnes. However it plays out, the Orioles don’t expect Rogers to experience any sort of drop-off other than maybe posting an ERA above 1.

Who’s going to lead Orioles pitchers in innings?

The roster must be set before we really can plunge into this one.

At least one new starter is coming to Baltimore. If it’s someone in the Burnes’ mold, that guy is going to be the preseason favorite. Otherwise, it might be Bradish if he has the freedom to go deep into games.

If it’s Dean Kremer, he’d be the first repeat winner since Dylan Bundy in 2018-19.

Kremer led the Orioles with 171 2/3 innings this season, one shy of his career high. He was the seventh different starter to rank first in the last seven years, after Burnes in 2024, Kyle Gibson in 2023, Jordan Lyles in 2022, John Means in 2021, Alex Cobb in pandemic-shortened 2020, and Bundy in 2019.

Kevin Gausman led the Orioles in 2016-17.

The current streak of seven different starters is one short of the club record set over the course of the first eight seasons after the franchise moved from St. Louis to Baltimore.

You want those eight starters? Of course. Bob Turley (247 1/3) in 1954, Jim Wilson (235 1/3) in 1955, Ray Moore (185) in 1956, Connie Johnson (242) in 1957, Jack Harshman (236 1/3) in 1958, Hoyt Wilhelm (226) in 1959, Chuck Estrada (208 2/3) in 1960 and Steve Barber (248 1/3) in 1961.

Estrada also was first in 1962 with 223 1/3.

Times have changed.

Chris Tillman is the last Orioles starter to reach 200 innings with 207 1/3 in 2014.