SARASOTA, Fla. – Gunnar Henderson is batting leadoff this afternoon and Jackson Holliday is the second baseman for today’s exhibition opener against the Pirates at Ed Smith Stadium.

Left fielder Dylan Carlson is the only player in the lineup who isn’t projected to make the Opening Day roster, though he’s competing for a job.

Cedric Mullins is batting second. Jordan Westburg is playing third base and batting third. Ryan O’Hearn is the cleanup hitter and designated hitter.

Ramón Laureano is in right field.

Gary Sánchez is catching Albert Súarez.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said yesterday that a “handful” of his regulars will be in this afternoon’s lineup for the first exhibition game against the Pirates at Ed Smith Stadium.

“I’m gonna give a few guys the weekend,” he said. “We’ve got some back-field stuff going, too. Not in any hurry to get any of these guys in there right now, to be honest with you.

“Couple guys going to Clearwater (Sunday), a few guys, but weekend’s gonna be … we’re slowly getting into this.”

The lineup will be posted later this morning for a game that airs on MASN. Viewers might see Jackson Holliday at second base. Viewers might have to wait a little longer.

We don’t know.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Tomoyuki Sugano reported to Orioles camp on Saturday, but today felt like the beginning of spring training. Three different hitters stood at the plate against him in live batting practice at Ed Smith Stadium, rotating until he faced eight during his session. A lengthy mound conference followed with catcher Adley Rutschman, pitching coach Drew French, guest instructor and former pitcher Ben McDonald, and interpreter Yuto Sakurai.

Sugano lingered for a little bit longer as the session broke up, sweeping his foot across the dirt and measuring his stride. The mounds in Japan have a softer composition and the rubber sits further back. Just one more adjustment.

The Orioles scheduled only one live BP today and arranged for Sugano to face prospects Enrique Bradfield Jr., Dylan Beavers and Jud Fabian. Beavers flied out and doubled twice on a pair of hard-hit line drives. Fabian struck out twice and singled or doubled into left field – players don’t run the bases – and Bradfield grounded out and lined to left field.

Here’s what they’re saying about the session:

Sugano (via Sakurai)

SARASOTA, Fla. – Jordyn Adams had a choice to make and he doesn’t regret the outcome.

Adams committed to the University of North Carolina to play baseball and football. He was a four- or five-star recruit as a wide receiver, depending on the source, but Major League Baseball viewed him as one of the top prospects in the 2018 draft.

The first decision for Adams involved picking a college, and the North Carolina native chose the Tar Heels over Alabama, Ohio State, LSU and Clemson. Still to come was whether to immerse himself in campus life or join a team’s farm system.

Adams never stepped foot on campus as a student. The Angels made him the 17^th overall pick, and the common perception was that he’d need to go in the first or maybe the second round to catch fly balls in center field instead of footballs on the gridiron.

The result so far is 28 games with the Angels over the past two seasons and a .176/.205/.216 slash line. He can play everywhere in the outfield and he’s hoping to play for the Orioles in 2025 after signing a minor league contract on Dec. 23.

SARASOTA, Fla. – One more day of live and cage batting practices, bullpens and fielding drills before the Orioles play their first spring training game. Overreacting to workouts can be replaced by overreacting to exhibitions.

The club seems to have avoided injuries in camp other than some knuckles bloodied from knocking on wood.

Jorge Mateo is recovering from his elbow-reconstructive surgery and won’t be ready for Opening Day. That was probably the most important news to come from executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias’ first-day media scrum, since it provided confirmation of Mateo’s status and shaped the projected Opening Day roster.

Got to be six infielders and Heston Kjerstad and Ramón Laureano as the last two outfielders with Colton Cowser, Cedric Mullins and Tyler O’Neill. Right?

Left-hander Trevor Rogers reported with a kneecap subluxation and also won’t be ready for Opening Day. That one came out of nowhere, but Rogers appeared to be a longshot based on the additions of Charlie Morton and Tomoyuki Sugano to the rotation. Pitcher Chayce McDermott showed up with a mild lat/teres strain that manager Brandon Hyde said could push him back 10-14 days. He was expected to begin the season at Triple-A Norfolk.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Because he didn’t play winter ball, Orioles pitcher Albert Suárez is in the best shape of his life.

He really means it.

Suárez didn’t join Caracas in Venezuela after making 32 appearances with the Orioles last season and totaling a career-high 133 2/3 innings in his return to the majors. He rested, he worked out and he earned the first exhibition start Saturday afternoon against the Pirates in Sarasota.

“For me, just how I prepared in the offseason,” he said of receiving the honor. “I think I’m well prepared to be able to start the first game of spring training. So it means a lot.”

Times can change quickly and Suárez is a baseball example. He reported to camp last spring as a non-roster invite and impressed the Orioles to the point that they selected his contract in April. Now he’s practically a lock to be introduced on Opening Day in Toronto.

SARASOTA, Fla. – The drama was building. Manager Brandon Hyde walked to the entrance of the baseball operations center, where media gathers for his morning scrum, and teased the day’s big news.

Who’s starting the exhibition opener Saturday afternoon against the Pirates at Ed Smith Stadium?

Hyde asked for everyone’s predictions, which were written down on a notepad. He listened to the names and confirmed that one person got it right.

Albert Suárez will do the honors on the MASN broadcast.

“Just lining things up, honestly,” Hyde said. “Albert’s ready to go and we’re just kind of going in order a little bit. Like I said, don’t read anything into it. Big Al is ready and you work back from the first day of the season and do the best you can, and things change all the way through that. You shuffle some things around. But we’re stretching Al as a starter and we’ll see how it goes.”

SARASOTA, Fla. – The transition is in such a young phase that some players don’t know whether changes are forthcoming in the way that the Orioles teach hitting or to what extent. Whether the general philosophy will be tweaked. If the approach will be scrambled a bit from the past.

The full squad didn’t have its first workout until Tuesday. Meetings are on the docket. But the early impressions are that the key attributes will go untouched.

Co-hitting coaches Ryan Fuller and Matt Borgschulte are gone. Fuller is the White Sox’s director of hitting and Borgschulte returned to the Twins as hitting coach. The entire setup is scrambled with Cody Asche promoted to offensive strategy coach and the Orioles employing Tommy Joseph and Sherman Johnson as co-coaches. Johnson also remains in his role as upper-level hitting coordinator. Joseph is the lone outsider after spending last summer with the Mariners.

“I think we’ve got a good lineup, so I think they’re just gonna let us do most of our own thing but give us some feedback here and there and whatever information they can to help us succeed,” said first baseman Ryan Mountcastle. “I think last year they did a really good job of it and I’m sure this group will, too.”

“Obviously, one new face,” said shortstop Gunnar Henderson. “Asche and Sherm, they’ve been here It’s familiar to us. We still have kind of a core of the same teachings, but just other things we’re going to try out and continue to work at.”

SARASOTA, Fla. – Zack Britton stood behind the row of bullpen mounds Tuesday morning with another former Orioles pitcher, Ben McDonald, and watched the side sessions. He went indoors earlier with a fungo bat in hand to retrieve his glove, unsure whether he might actually use it.

This is Britton’s first experience as a guest instructor, and the enjoyment is amplified with older brother Buck in camp as the new major league coach. The former All-Star closer is settling into a new role and admiring the Orioles’ progress since they traded him to the Yankees at the 2018 deadline and began their rebuild.

“It’s been great, I think just getting around everybody again, getting back in the organization,” he said earlier today. “A lot of memories here, a lot of good ones. Nice to meet a lot of the new front office people, a lot of the new coaches. Fun to see my brother out here interacting with the guys.”

Britton spent 7 ½ of his 12 major league seasons with the Orioles after they drafted him in the third round in 2006. They turned him into a closer and watched him earn back-to-back All-Star selections, his peak season in 2016 with 47 saves in 47 chances, a 0.54 ERA and 0.836 WHIP in 69 appearances, and a fourth-place finish in Cy Young voting. It was one of the finest performances by a reliever in baseball history.

The Orioles played in the Wild Card Game in Toronto, didn’t use Britton in an 11-inning, walk-off loss, and began tearing down the team in the summer of ’18. They didn’t return to the postseason until 2023, the same year that Britton was first out of baseball.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Gary Sánchez’s experience catching Japanese pitchers won’t necessarily give him regular starts on days that Tomoyuki Sugano is on the mound.

Maybe it evolves that way.

Sánchez was behind the plate yesterday for Sugano’s bullpen session, and he’s caught Masahiro Tanaka with the Yankees and Yu Darvish with the Padres.

“Post-bullpen, Gary and I sat on the mound and kind of talked about his experience with Tanaka and some of the other guys that he’s caught,” said pitching coach Drew French. “The versatility that they have and what their preferences are and how they talk about themselves, and I definitely think there are some parallels from his prior years in the game with what Tomo features.”

So what about becoming Sugano’s personal backstop?

SARASOTA, Fla. – Orioles pitching coach Drew French was eager to begin working with Tomoyuki Sugano even before the Japanese right-hander agreed to a $13 million contract. The deal became official and French approached interpreter Yuto Sakurai with a favor. Simple in nature but hugely meaningful.

“I said I need to start learning his language a little bit,” French said. “I’ve done some things to try to help myself, but ultimately woke up the next day and forgot them.”

French had a specific translation request. He wanted to know how to say, “good job.” It’s like he anticipated what would happen during the first bullpen session.

“Ultimately, that’s the phrase I went with today,” French said, “and hopefully tomorrow I can learn another one.”

Might I suggest “great job?”

SARASOTA, Fla. – Tomoyuki Sugano can work through a lineup and jet lag with similar ease.

The first bullpen session for Sugano this morning lived up to the tremendous hype. He threw 35 pitches and exhibited his usual pinpoint control. Only the slider was omitted from a repertoire that consisted of a four-seam fastball, cutter, splitter, sinker and curveball.

“It’s everything that was advertised when we started vetting him in free agency,” said pitching coach Drew French. “That’s what our scouts said and our org loves... We think at times it’s going to be 80 command. It’s really, really good. Definitely sides of the plate, he understands horizontal game, and how he mixed his pitches. It was just nice to finally be in person and see him do his work.”

Sugano was late to camp while obtaining his visa in Tokyo, his arrival delayed until Saturday, and he requested that his debut in the 'pen be pushed back from yesterday. He was totally worth the wait.

“I was happy to have good command in today’s session, so that was good,” he said via interpreter Yuto Sakurai.

SARASOTA, Fla. – The Orioles are hoping to catch Albert Suárez in a bottle.

They signed pitcher Rodolfo Martinez to a minor league contract on Nov. 1, the magnitude of it pretty much lost on the baseball world. He hadn’t been with an affiliated team since 2019 in the Giants system, with his travels taking him to the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Japan.

Sounds kind of familiar, except Suárez signed with the Orioles in September 2023 after pitching in Japan and Korea, his last affiliated ball was 2018 and he appeared in 40 major league games with the Giants from 2016-17.

“I was in San Francisco before the pandemic and then they sent us home for two weeks while everything was supposed to get cleared out, but as we all know, that didn’t happen,” Martinez said. “The Giants cleared house and they didn’t want me there anymore.”

The most important similarity would be for Martinez to have the same success as Suárez, who made 24 starts and eight relief appearances for the Orioles last season after reporting to camp as a non-roster invitee and registered a 3.70 ERA in 133 2/3 innings. He was in come-to-the-rescue mode as rotation injuries piled up, and he could provide length out of the bullpen.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Scott McGregor won big games for the Orioles, including his shutout against the Phillies to clinch the 1983 World Series. He served in a variety of roles upon his retirement, including rehab pitching coordinator for eight seasons before his dismissal in 2019. He had worked as a pitching coach in the minors and fill-in bullpen coach for the Orioles. He’s seen a lot.

His eyes presently are locked onto pitchers and players at the spring training complex with his return as a guest instructor.

“When I was let go, Mike (Elias) said, ‘Listen, we know what you’ve done for the organization and we’ll always let you come back as a visiting guy,’ so it’s been good,” McGregor recalled yesterday. “These guys are the ones that I coached before. I’m very good with them and they like seeing me and I like seeing them. It’s fun to stay in touch.

“I’m just really impressed with what’s going on with the whole Elias regime and with Hyder (Brandon Hyde) and them. They’ve done a great job. So, you’ve just got to win a playoff game.”

Maybe this year.

SARASOTA, Fla. – The most popular figure this morning on the back fields at the Ed Smith Stadium complex wasn’t one of the players. It was the man who signs their checks.

Owner and control person David Rubenstein reported to camp, toured the complex and signed autographs for fans behind the fences. The scene usually plays out at Camden Yards during games, at times with Orioles cap tossed to the crowd from the front row.

“In life you have to do what you’re good at,” he said. “I’m not good at certain things, so when I bought the team, I said, ‘What can I help the team with?’ It probably isn’t by trying to second-guess the sabermetrics of some of our experts on things, so I thought I could be engaged with the community and try to make speeches around the community, be philanthropically engaged and show up at the games, engage the fans, sign autographs, selfies or things like that, and I try to do as much of that as I physically can.

“I hope to be able to continue to do that until the fans are tired of me. You never know when they may get tired of me.”

Rubenstein spoke to media for about 18 minutes outside the baseball operations center, making multiple assurances that the franchise is in strong financial condition and that his expectations for the 2025 season are lofty.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Kyle Bradish is throwing on flat ground and reported this morning that his surgically repaired right elbow is responding in a positive manner. He just can’t predict his return or look too far ahead.

The road traveled after a ligament-reconstructive procedure keeps him in the slow lane.

“Arm feels really good,” Bradish said this morning at his locker in his first interview since his final start on June 14. “No setbacks. Throwing program is going good.

“Right now I’m just focused on day-to-day throwing. Not really focused on mound or stuff like that.”

Bradish described his sessions as “standard catch.” No spin on the ball. Nothing that might tax the elbow.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Samuel Basallo won’t make the club out of spring training. He never stood a chance. He didn’t report thinking that it could happen. That isn’t why he’s here again.

The Orioles want Basallo to experience a full slate of workouts after he reported last February with a stress fracture in his elbow. They want to keep him near Adley Rutschman and Gary Sánchez, bench coach and former catcher Robinson Chirinos and catching instructor Tim Cossins, absorbing as much as he can hold.

“I want him to get the experience of major league camp,” manager Brandon Hyde said yesterday. “Last year, he was here but he wasn’t playing, so getting into some major league spring training games behind the plate, getting at-bats against major league spring training arms. And just kind of soaking it in a little bit.

“And then being in groups with the guys he’s in groups with that are having good seasons in the major leagues. Just him being around and taking it all in. He’s getting a lot of at-bats. I’m going to play him.”

Basallo is receiving the most attention in the first week of anyone who isn’t competing for a job. He’s one of the top prospects in baseball and he’s only 20 years old, so he wasn’t going to sneak in and out each day. But his batting practices, work behind the plate, size and maturity also get him noticed.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Tommy Joseph noticed it right away.

After spending the 2024 season as assistant hitting coach in Seattle, Joseph accepted the same job with the Orioles and immediately was struck by the positive atmosphere and tight bonds formed among players who genuinely care about each other. They’re teammates but also friends. They have the same goals and each other’s backs.

The hitting philosophies are almost universal, with Joseph saying, “You try to score more runs as the other team. You’ve just got to find as many ways to do that as you can every day.”

And then, there’s this:

“In terms of the environment and the culture, just being here a couple days, you can tell it’s very special. They’ve built something very special and the players really bought in on everything here," he said.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Zack Britton reports to Orioles spring training in two days to serve as a guest instructor. His older brother is excited to see him again. They have lots to talk about beyond their families.

Buck Britton spent the last three seasons as Triple-A Norfolk manager before the Orioles promoted him this winter to major league coach. He began coaching in 2017 with Single-A Delmarva, managed the Shorebirds for one year and held the job for three with Double-A Bowie.

The call to the majors never arrived while playing from 2008-16 after the Orioles drafted him in the 35^th round. Zack, meanwhile, went from third-round pick and failed starter to two-time All-Star closer who converted all 47 save chances in 2016.

“He was super fired up for me,” Buck said this morning.

“It will be cool. We got to spend some time on the field together in Triple-A when we were playing, but he was a little more serious back then. He’s unemployed, by the way. I’m the guy who’s still hanging on here. But it will be fun. I’ll get to tell stories, probably lie a little bit about them, but in my favor. I just want to see him hit a fungo because I don’t know if he can handle that.”

SARASOTA, Fla. – Heston Kjerstad sat quietly at his locker yesterday morning, staring at his phone with legs stretched out and empty chairs on both sides of him. An isolated figure. Pretty much how he likes it.

Kjerstad isn’t anti-social. He just doesn’t command a lot of attention in a clubhouse with some extremely high-profile young players.

The bat, however, can get loud.

The Orioles want to hear it a lot this season. No more breakdowns in his quest to become a regular contributor at the major league level. No injuries or illnesses. No interruptions and options. It’s time to find out what they have in Kjerstad beyond sick power and potential.

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias told the media last week that this is a “big opportunity” for Kjerstad and the second-overall pick in the 2020 draft “earned the right to get a lot of at-bats in the corner outfield and in the DH spot, specifically against right-handed pitching.”