SARASOTA – The Orioles made their first move to counter the multiple injuries in their infield by acquiring Bryan Ramos from the Cardinals. A source confirmed the waiver claim, which occurred on the same day that the club announced that Jordan Westburg will join Jackson Holliday on the IL.

Westburg has a partial tear in the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and received a platelet-rich plasma injection today in Los Angeles. He’s expected to be out through April, at least, but is trying to avoid surgery.

Holliday underwent surgery to remove a broken hamate bone in his right wrist. The cast is off and the stitches come out Monday, but he isn’t cleared to swing a bat or throw.

Ramos is back in the organization after the Orioles acquired him from the White Sox for cash considerations on Feb. 1 and lost him to St. Louis five days later in a waiver claim. He can play third base, second and first.

“I think we have good alternatives here and we’ll be exploring those guys and assessing them during camp, and I’m pretty happy with that, but certainly this has picked up our conversations outside the organization when it comes to infielders,” president of baseball operations Mike Elias said this morning. “And like I said, the concurrent Holliday outage adds to that.”

A corresponding move is needed on the 40-man roster. Closer Félix Bautista is one candidate for the 60-day injured list.

Francys Romero of BeisbolFR was first with the Ramos news.

Coby Mayo started at third base and Jeremiah Jackson at second. Trevor Rogers said he has “100  percent confidence” in them.

“Those guys can move around the infield, too. They’re great athletes. So it doesn’t change the way I pitch. I know they’re gonna get the job done,” Rogers said.

“We’ve got Blaze Alexander, too, so we’ve got three guys who can step up for us and help us win games.”

Rogers retired six of his seven batters this afternoon. He tossed a scoreless first inning, allowing a two-out, 82.7 mph single to Jazz Chisholm Jr. Amed Rosario flied to the edge of the left field warning track, with Heston Kjerstad running it down.

Seventeen pitches, 13 strikes. The four-seam fastball topped out at 93.7 mph.

Rogers struck out the side in the second, beginning with a called third strike on Ernesto Martinez Jr. with a 92.8 mph sinker. Marco Luciano struck out on a 94.1 mph fastball – the previous pitch was 94.5 – and Duke Ellis fanned on a 93.2 mph heater.

That’s a strong finish.

Last season’s Most Valuable Oriole threw 32 pitches, 23 for strikes.

“The body was really moving efficiently out there, my velo was in a good spot this early in camp, and probably the biggest thing I was really happy with the way both of my breaking balls were playing,” he said. “They were competitive around the zone, and now as camp moves on we can kind of tighten the location and get more strikes out of it. I got some good swings and misses, weak contact, so I was really happy with that.

“We all say the results don’t matter, but in the back of your head we want a clean first outing of spring and kind of build up to it. The results were there, I was happy with it, and I accomplished everything I wanted to this go-around.

“It was awesome to see the fans pack this place out. I got chills there in the National Anthem when they yelled ‘O’ again. I needed to hear that.”

Kyle Bradish quipped that there’s no longer a competition for Opening Day starter after Rogers struck out seven of the 10 batters he faced in a live batting practice session. How does Rogers feel about it?

“Bradish, he’s the man. He’s got some of the most elite stuff in baseball,” Rogers said.

“I don’t really look at it as a competition. He’s my teammate, I’ll always root for him. If he gets the nod, I’ll be rooting for him. If I get the nod, that’s great. All I want is I want to pitch in Camden. That’s all I care about. Whatever gives this team the best opportunity to win, I’m all for it.”

Keegan Akin worked around a leadoff walk in the third. He struck out two. Rico Garcia also had a leadoff walk, and he retired the next three batters on a pop up and two fly balls. Grant Wolfram struck out the side in the fifth.

Tyler O’Neill led off the second with a single and Adley Rutschman singled with one out, but Heston Kjerstad grounded into a double play. O’Neill  reached on an infield hit in the fourth but Colton Cowser grounded into a double play.

Closer Ryan Helsley threw live batting practice earlier today on a back field.

Shane Baz will throw live BP on Saturday before making his first exhibition start next week.

Chayce McDermott, in camp as a reliever, will pitch Saturday against the Pirates behind starter Dean Kremer.

Ryan Ripken, son of Orioles Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. and occasional on-air personality on 105.7 The Fan, will be serving as color analyst for select MASN games this year. His debut came this afternoon with lead broadcaster Kevin Brown.

This story will be updated.