The Orioles are tampering with their roster again, with two more players coming in and two more going out.

Roansy Contreras was activated from the taxi squad and had his contract selected from Triple-A Norfolk, and he’ll work in bulk relief tonight, his first major league appearance since Sept. 29, 2024 with the Angels. He posted a 3.73 ERA in 28 appearances (14 starts) with Norfolk.

Infielder Emmanuel Rivera also had his contract selected.

To create room, the Orioles optioned Yaramil Hiraldo, who was charged with three runs last night in 1 1/3 innings and has a 5.65 ERA in 12 games, and they designated infielder Vimael Machín for assignment. They also transferred pitcher Brandon Young (hamstring) to the 60-day injured list, which ends his season.

Contreras will be the 64^th player used by the Orioles this season, two more than the franchise record set in 2021.

Before the Orioles played their 117^th game of the season tonight, they switched up the usual routine at home by gathering in the dugout to watch the latest Hall of Fame inductions. They stood at the railing, eyes locked on former center fielder Adam Jones as he addressed the crowd and tried to control his emotions.

"I took tremendous pride playing for you guys,” he said. “I took tremendous pride playing more for the name on the front of the chest than the name on the back."

Jones turned to the bench and reminded a team going through hard times that he was there, too, early in his career and to keep grinding.

“Trust me,” he said, “you do it long enough, you’ll be where I’m at.”

Rookie Brandon Young went to the mound and began warming for his 10^th major league start, walked the first batter he faced and surrendered a long home run to Shea Langeliers.

Colin Selby became the 27^th different Orioles player to go on the injured list, tossing a scoreless inning last night and being sidelined today with a left hamstring strain. Selby will undergo an MRI this morning.

Yaramil Hiraldo was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk after the Orioles optioned him yesterday.

The Orioles are playing a day-night doubleheader as a makeup for an April 11 postponement. Charlie Morton is starting Game 1 this afternoon, and Brandon Young will start or work in bulk relief in Game 2 after being summoned as the 27^th man.

Former Orioles minor league left-hander Easton Lucas is starting Game 1 for Toronto, and left-hander Eric Lauer is starting Game 2.

Morton could be making his last start with the Orioles, with the trade deadline 6 p.m. Thursday. He allowed three runs in 6 2/3 innings in Cleveland after surrendering seven over 5 1/3 in Tampa.

The Orioles could peel more players off their roster this week, but they’ve added two from the injured list.

Catcher Adley Rutschman (oblique) and reliever Keegan Akin (shoulder) were reinstated this afternoon, as expected. The Orioles designated catcher Jacob Stallings for assignment and optioned right-hander Yaramil Hiraldo to Triple-A Norfolk.

The 40-man roster has 38 players.

The Blue Jays are in town for a four-game series, including Tuesday’s split doubleheader. Rutschman is expected to catch for the first time since June 19 in Tampa. He has a .993 OPS in 47 career games against Toronto, the highest by any catcher all-time in a minimum 175 plate appearances, according to STATS.

Tyler O’Neill has homered in three consecutive games. Yesterday’s homer had an exit velocity of 113.6 mph, the hardest of his career.

The Orioles returned to having eight relievers in their bullpen today by optioning infielder Jeremiah Jackson and recalling right-hander Yaramil Hiraldo.

Hiraldo made his major league debut on May 27 against the Cardinals and tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings in his lone appearance.

Grant Wolfram remains the only left-hander in the ‘pen, but interim manager Tony Mansolino expects Keegan Akin to be reinstated from the injured list on Monday. Akin is pitching again tonight with Triple-A Norfolk.

Ryan O’Hearn is back at first base tonight and Coby Mayo heads to the bench after homering last night.

O’Hearn turns 32 today. He could become the third Oriole to homer on his birthday in the last 10 years after Ramón Urias last summer and Matt Wieters in 2016.

NEW YORK – Orioles reliever Yennier Cano struck out the side yesterday in the seventh inning and was optioned after the game. Overall production and limited bullpen flexibility doomed the 2023 All-Star.

Reliever Yaramil Hiraldo was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk. He’s using Cano’s locker at Yankee Stadium.

Cano has a 4.73 ERA and 1.388 WHIP in 32 games. He was scored upon once in nine appearances this month, but the Rays tallied four runs against him in two-thirds of an inning. He had a streak of nine scoreless outings out of 10 prior to the implosion.

“It starts, ultimately, with the amount of innings we’ve had to cover here recently with the bullpen,” said interim manager Tony Mansolino. “We need a fresh arm. You have a limited amount of bullpen guys who have options, so there’s really just a couple to choose from. You start to look at the big picture, right? The whole season for players, too, and where maybe a guy can take a break and go down and maybe work on something and get back to what they were.

“I know yesterday looks great where Cano comes in, probably has one of his best outings of the year for us. I think you’ve got to be very careful with the recency bias and just understand that we have to look at the last three, four months, last year. And understand that Yenni Cano has been good at times. He’s been up and down. I think everyone can admit that. And I think this could be a really good opportunity for Yenni to go down right now and kind of make the small adjustment, whatever needs to be made in order to get back to being Yenni Cano.”

Yaramil Hiraldo was a non-roster invitee to Orioles spring training who didn’t pitch in an exhibition game. He was included in an early round of cuts on March 2, his name buried behind outfield prospects Enrique Bradfield Jr., Dylan Beavers and Jud Fabian and major league reliever Colin Selby.

One of them is with the club this week – the reliever who was out of affiliated ball since 2021, pitching in Mexico and the independent Atlantic League until the Orioles signed him on Oct. 31.

Hiraldo had his contract selected on Saturday when the Orioles designated veteran left-hander Cionel Pérez for assignment in a bold bullpen move. He posted a combined 2.45 ERA in 11 games between Triple-A Norfolk (six), High-A Aberdeen (three) and Double-A Chesapeake (two).

“I found out during a practice day and they told me I was gonna come up to Boston and be on the taxi squad,” Hiraldo said via interpreter Brandon Quinones. “They told me to just be ready. There’s a chance I could be on the roster, a chance I might not be on the roster. And sure enough, it happened. So I’m here now, I’m ready to go and ready to help the team.”

There are plenty of interesting success stories floating around baseball. Albert Suárez provided a doozy with the Orioles. Hiraldo received a paltry $2,500 bonus from the Diamondbacks during the international signing period in 2017-18, the 11^th lowest among 1,176 players, according to baseball journalist Francys Romero. His adjusted salary with the Orioles is $523,008, per Spotrac.

BOSTON – The Orioles found a fresh arm for Game 2 of tonight’s doubleheader and parted with a former high-leverage lefty.

Reliever Cionel Pérez was designated for assignment, and the Orioles selected the contract of right-hander Yaramil Hiraldo from Triple-A Norfolk.

Hiraldo is wearing No. 76 and waiting to make his major league debut.

The 40-man roster has 39 players.

Pérez has been in a statistical decline since posting a 1.40 ERA in 66 appearances in 2022. His ERA rose to 3.54 with a 1.556 WHIP in 65 games in 2023 and 4.53 in 62 games last season.

Today’s Orioles activity centers on minor league depth.

The team announced that its signed catcher David Bañuelos and right-handers Yaramil Hiraldo and Rodolfo Martinez to minor league contracts for the 2025 season.

Bañuelos, 28, agreed to terms on Oct. 14, which I wrote about the following day. He could have become a free agent five days after the World Series, but the Orioles got an early start on negotiations.

The sides struck their first deal on Dec. 30, 2023 and Bañuelos spent most of this season on the Orioles’ taxi squad. He hopped on and off the 40-man roster a few times this season and received his first and only major league at-bat on April 16 against the Twins. He flied to right field in the ninth inning.

Appearing in only 22 games with Triple-A Norfolk, Bañuelos hit .225/.361/.352 with three doubles and two home runs. He’s playing in the Dominican Winter League.