The passion for baseball that flows through Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino rises in temperature and fluidity as he delves into a particular topic.
Bring up one of the infielders that he’s instructed, and listeners won’t get the short answer.
Mansolino is writing out the lineups after replacing Brandon Hyde and he hasn’t let Ramón Urías vanish from them. Jordan Westburg was reinstated from the injured list on Tuesday, but they were paired again last night, with Urías making another start at third base.
Urías belted a two-run homer Wednesday and made a couple of impressive plays in the field. He had eight hits in 26 at-bats this month before going 0-for-3 last night against Tarik Skubal.
During yesterday’s pregame media session, Mansolino wondered whether his audience knew “Ramón’s story.” The retelling brought him tremendous joy.
“He’s an easy one to brag about as a coach,” Mansolino said.
The Orioles selected Urías on waivers from the Cardinals in February of the 2020 COVID season, making an under-the-radar transaction even less visible. Urías signed with the Rangers at age 16, had his contract purchased by Mexico City in 2013 and didn’t return to the U.S. until signing with St. Louis in ’18.
“You talk about coming back from the dead,” Mansolino said. “He was done. You go to Mexico for six years, even being a native, you’re done in professional baseball for the American side of it. He ends up over here. I got him in ’21. Kind of up, down, probably truthfully on his way out at that point, right? Probably getting close to coming off the roster. Not a lot of opportunity.
“No reason why he’s coming off the roster. Just how things worked at that time. And then he got an opportunity, and off he went. If you guys remember that year, at the end of the year, he played a lot of shortstop for us before he got hurt and he played it good. He swung the bat. You look up now, it’s 2025 and this guy is a really valuable player.”
The resume includes a Gold Glove at third base in 2022 and stretches where he’s a really tough out.
Urías was batting .278/.343/.476 in 44 games after the break last season before spraining his ankle on Aug. 31 in Colorado, which cost him almost a month. Only the locals seemed to notice it.
“It’s Jackson (Holliday) and it’s Gunnar (Henderson) and all these young stars that are nationally recognized, and nobody talks about Ramón,” Mansolino said. “We know how good he is in here. I don’t think the national media understands his value, but certainly here we see it every night.”
A late bloomer or the industry whiffed on him. Take your pick.
“Maybe he shouldn’t have been released at 18. I don’t know,” Mansolino said.
“You don’t know how he got to that point. I think the bigger thing to realize is he didn’t give up, he kept getting better. Went to Mexico, he put up numbers. He kept fighting for his career. And then he came here, he fought for us career. He performed.
“It’s not easy to do. And there’s a lot of pressure I’m sure from him at home to be who he is now at this point. And he’s become the guy that I’m sure a lot of people thought he could, so he’s an easy one to brag about. And he doesn’t get to this point by cutting corners. The guy does absolutely everything right.”
* The Orioles aren’t toying with the rotation, again keeping their starters in order and intact. Charlie Morton opens the series against the Angels, followed by Tomoyuki Sugano and Cade Povich.
Left-hander Trevor Rogers remains at Triple-A Norfolk, where he started yesterday and allowed two earned runs (three total) in four innings. He’s waiting for a second opportunity with the Orioles after tossing 6 1/3 scoreless innings in Game 2 of a doubleheader at Fenway Park.
The organization isn’t necessarily waiting for Rogers to check another box.
“I think right now with how things are structured, we’re kind of rolling with our guys,” Mansolino said. “Now, things change rapidly in this game and I think everybody understands that, but it is rare that you have depth in starting pitching, and I think we thought we had a ton of it going into the year and we quickly ran out. So I think as long as Trev continues to do exactly what he’s doing, I think good things will happen for him going forward.”
* The Orioles usually have three left-handers in their bullpen, but Cionel Pérez was outrighted to Norfolk and Keegan Akin served last night as the opener. Gregory Soto stood alone.
Or he sat. Soto didn’t warm up.
Akin lowered his ERA to 2.79 in 31 appearances, and opponents are batting .217, which makes him the pitching version of Urías. He tends to go unnoticed around the league.
A career-high 66 appearances last season produced a 3.32 ERA and 0.941 WHIP over 78 2/3 innings. The biggest issue with Akin this year is the walks - 15 already as opposed to 19 in 2024.