It’s still very early in spring training but never too early to take a shot at guesses – and that is what they truly are, guesses – at the makeup of the Opening Day roster.

Today I will take a shot at projecting an eight-man bullpen that would work behind a starting group of five pitching in some order to include Corbin Burnes, Grayson Rodriguez, Dean Kremer, Cole Irvin and Tyler Wells beginning March 28.

At the back-end closing games is righty Craig Kimbrel, who will have that job for the opener barring a big surprise or an injury issue.

The Orioles, minus Félix Bautista for this season after his surgery, will be turning over the job to a very experienced pitcher who is a nine-time All Star that ranks eighth all-time with 417 saves.

He led the NL in saves four straight years from 2011-2014 and has 11 seasons of 20 or more saves.

SARASOTA, Fla. – The 10^th day of Orioles spring training also brings the first exhibition game. Blowing past another mile marker. A home game for a team that wants to do more traveling in the playoffs after October’s brief stay in Arlington, Texas.

Corbin Burnes is the surprise starter this afternoon against the Red Sox in Sarasota. Manager Brandon Hyde explained that Burnes is lined up in camp to pitch today. And Burnes obviously had some input in it.

He wanted to ball on the stadium mound instead of a back field. And Hyde clearly has no qualms about a division opponent seeing Burnes.

Yeah, let’s do away with that concern. Teams have scouts and video, and certainly a working knowledge of an ace like Burnes. There are no secrets here.

The lineup will be posted later this morning, along with other pitchers available behind Burnes. We only know that Adley Rutschman is catching, but many of the regulars are expected to play. It’s the first game and it’s airing on MASN. Don’t hold back.

The evolution of a baseball season touches a team’s roster, and the Orioles underwent some interesting and important changes in 2023.

James McCann was on the injured list Opening Day with a strained oblique, but he served as a trusted backup to All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman and a veteran leader in the clubhouse. A media favorite for his availability and thoughtful responses, for being a standup guy even while seated at his locker. A manager favorite for his toughness.

The kind of positive influence that organizations appreciate.

Other exclusions from the Opening Day roster had nothing to do with injuries and might be forgotten, considering their impact on the first division title since 2014.

Reliever Yennier Cano appeared in three games in 2022, allowed nine runs and nine hits with five walks in 4 1/3 innings and didn’t make the club out of spring training this year. He allowed four runs over seven exhibition innings, but walked only one batter and struck out 10 after tweaking his delivery and discovering how to repeat his arm slot.

A few weeks back, I wrote about three players that surprised us in a good way with their play during the 2023 season. It was easy to note Ryan O'Hearn and Yennier Cano, both were huge surprises and so big for the 2023 Birds.

I added Kyle Bradish and not that we didn't think he could be a good pitcher. But maybe not that good. But he was and he wound up fourth in the Cy Young Award voting.

Here is that earlier blog here. 

Here are a few more surprises from the season. 

Outfielder Aaron Hicks: On the same day the Orioles put Cedric Mullins on the injured list for the first time - May 30 - they signed Aaron Hicks. A few days before that he had been designated for assignment by the Yankees and later released.

Gunnar Henderson needs to build a wing onto his trophy case. The kind that also can't be clipped.

Henderson will be named American League Rookie of the Year tonight in voting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. The first Oriole since closer Gregg Olson in 1989 and the seventh overall.

I believe in miracles, but there isn’t one that can deny Henderson of the honor.

Henderson already won The Sporting News and Major League Baseball Players Association Players Choice Award as the league's top rookie. His competition tonight is the Red Sox’s Tristan Casas and the Guardians’ Tanner Bibee.

I can’t reveal my ballot until tonight’s announcement, but yeah, those three sound right to me.

With the Orioles set to play the entire 2024 season without closer Félix Bautista, which pitchers replace him in the ninth inning and how well they do next year will have a lot to say about the O’s team performance for the year.

Obviously, we don’t know yet the makeup of the 2024 bullpen and if the team will look to acquire via trade or free agency someone that could pitch the ninth. But one pitcher that will be in that late-inning mix is right-hander Yennier Cano, mentioned in this space yesterday as a player that surprised us in the 2023 season.

He sure did. He was not even on the Opening Day roster and in the 2022 season, between the Twins and Orioles in brief action, he had posted an 11.50 ERA and 2.333 WHIP. Then that same guy began his 2023 O’s season with 17 straight scoreless outings. That is about as surprising as it can get.

After Cano became more hittable in the second half – somewhat expected when you are almost unhittable – he no doubt has some doubters entering the winter.

But let’s look at some numbers first.

I rolled out three unexpected developments a few weeks ago relating to the Orioles’ 2023 season. Looking beyond the posting of the best record in the American League.

Austin Voth wasn’t impactful. Dillon Tate wasn’t able to pitch. Mike Baumann wasn’t big only in size.

Here are three more that come to mind.

Yennier Cano was an All-Star.

Cano staying on the 40-man roster over the winter qualified as surprising to me. It also illustrated why I’m not paid for my talent evaluating skills.

On their way to 101 wins, an American League East championship and the club's first playoff berth since 2016, the Orioles featured several players who had strong seasons ranging from good to great. Some were expected, some came as surprises. Some were big surprises.

Yennier Cano: No one, I mean no one, could have predicted that Cano, who was not even on the Opening Day roster, would begin his season with 17 consecutive scoreless appearances. 

They were not just scoreless, impressive in itself. They were completely dominant.

He was almost unhittable from his April 14 season debut through May 19. Over 21 2/3 scoreless, Cano allowed just four hits with no walks and 25 strikeouts. He allowed an .061 batting average and .150 OPS against.

Cano tied the club record set by Fred Holdsworth in 1976 by setting down the first 24 batters he faced to start the season in order. He set the O’s record with 32 hitless at-bats to begin a season, the most by a major league pitcher since Milwaukee's Josh Hader (35) to begin 2020. His streak of 20 straight games without a walk to start the season was the second-longest in O’s history, behind a 22-game streak by Jamie Walker to open the 2009 campaign.

A World Series that supposedly was going to be boring and a ratings killer began last night with Corey Seager’s game-tying two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning and Adolis García’s walk-off homer in the 11th that gave the Rangers a 6-5 win over the Diamondbacks.

The first extra-inning game of the 2023 postseason, and it was an instant classic.

The Diamondbacks’ lineup included first baseman Christian Walker, the Orioles’ fourth-round draft pick in 2012 out of the University of South Carolina. A delayed success story.

Walker appeared in only 13 games in 2014-15, his path blocked by expensive veteran Chris Davis and prospect Trey Mancini. He made only six starts at first.

The Braves claimed Walker off waivers in February 2017, and the Reds claimed him a month later. Arizona claimed him three weeks after that.

It used to be said that the Orioles worrying about a closer was akin – as opposed to Keegan Akin, which wasn’t said – to putting shiny hubcaps on a rusted Ford Pinto.

They had far bigger issues than worrying about ninth inning leads. Like, trying to get a ninth inning lead.

But we’ve moved past bad teams. The Orioles won 101 games this season. They are expected to be the favorites to win the division again in 2024. Their odds to win the World Series won’t be 100/1.

The Orioles have tried their own relievers in the past, most recently Félix Bautista, who went from imposing setup man to imposing closer and made the All-Star team. Averaged an obscene 16.2 strikeouts per nine innings and entered the Cy Young conversation before tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and undergoing surgery that removes him from next year’s roster.

Jorge López went from starter to closer before Bautista replaced him. Jim Johnson was a minor league starter in the Orioles’ system and later a closer who saved 50-plus games in back-to-back seasons. Zack Britton was Zach Britton while starting and later closing for the Orioles, going 47-for-47 in 2016 and finishing fourth in Cy Young voting.

The Orioles haven’t clinched the American League East, and that’s the item on manager Brandon Hyde’s mind. That’s where his focus lies this week. The unfinished business before the playoffs begin.

Has he thought about specific roles for players during the postseason?

“No,” he said.

Short and to the point.

I’m sure that the club has considered various options regarding the roster, who might be added depending on health, how the rotation could line up. But Hyde, while trying to be accommodating to the media, doesn’t want to get too far ahead of himself.

CLEVELAND – The Orioles are holding onto their optimism regarding Ryan Mountcastle’s return from the injured list.

Mountcastle is performing some baseball activities to test his left shoulder and stay sharp. He’s eligible to return on Wednesday at Camden Yards.

During Félix Bautista’s bullpen session yesterday, Mountcastle stood at the plate to simulate an at-bat and work on his timing. He didn’t swing the bat.

Mountcastle is also taking ground balls at first base.

“I think he’s going to be ready when the IL date’s up,” said manager Brandon Hyde.

CLEVELAND – Dean Kremer struck out Kole Calhoun tonight to leave the bases loaded in the second inning and shouted as he began his walk to the visiting dugout. Maybe frustrated with himself for allowing 13 batters to reach base and surrendering an early lead. Maybe reacting to the importance of the pitch and how it kept the game from getting away from him.

Maybe right on both counts.

The Orioles responded by scoring three runs against Shane Bieber in the top of the third inning, but two errors in the fourth led to three unearned runs and another Guardians advantage. Kremer didn’t scream at the top of his lungs, but he would have been justified.

The game was filled with frustrations that could have led to a group vent, culminating in David Fry's two-run walk-off double against Yennier Cano in the Guardians' 9-8 win over the Orioles before an announced crowd of 22,567 at Progressive Field.

Despite suffering their third straight defeat, the Orioles (95-59) saw their magic number for clinching the American League East shrink to six as the the Blue Jays beat the Rays 6-2 in St. Petersburg.

HOUSTON – Orioles manager Brandon Hyde ran out of pitching. He also was running out of ideas.

His club regained the lead over the Astros tonight on Cedric Mullins’ three-run homer in the top of the ninth inning, and he had to get creative to avoid losing control of the situation. But typical of the 2023 Orioles, they figured it out.

They seem to thrive on weird.

Aaron Hicks came out of the game in the bottom half of the inning with a cramp, creating a chain reaction and some confusion in the Orioles’ 8-7 win before a stunned crowd of 34,456 at Minute Maid Park.

Cionel Pérez inherited the ninth and recorded two outs after Hyde surrendered his designated hitter by putting Heston Kjerstad in left field and moving Austin Hays to right. Ramón Urías entered at third base and committed a throwing error on a routine chopper by Yordan Álvarez.

In a game in which they trailed by two runs in the eighth, and by one in the ninth and the 10th today, the Orioles produced a stirring comeback win.

One that lifted them back to a two-game lead atop the American League East at 93-56. They split the four-game series with the Rays, winning the last two games.

Cedric Mullins' sac fly with one out in the 11th scored Adley Rutschman from third and the O's had a walk-off win, 5-4 in 11 over Tampa Bay. An amazing comeback victory. And Mullins third career walk-off plate appearance. 

Before they sealed the win, Baltimore produced some late-game drama today. After Tampa Bay hit two homers to take a 3-1 lead in the eighth, the Orioles rallied to tie it with single runs in the eighth and ninth. They were down to their last out when they tied the score in the ninth and also in the tenth.

Down 3-2 to the last of the ninth, the Orioles rallied against Rays closer Pete Fairbanks. He came on in the last of the eighth with the Rays leading 3-1 and the O's pulled to within a run on Adley Rutschman's 19th homer.

BOSTON – Jack Flaherty walked to the bullpen for his pre-start warm-up this afternoon, reversed his tracks and headed back to the clubhouse. The claps of thunder, bolts of lightning and a warning for fans to leave the lower seating area and seek cover told Flaherty that he wasn’t going to throw his first pitch at the allotted time.

Any disruption could be unsettling for a guy with an 8.35 ERA in his previous four outings since an impressive debut with the Orioles. He was seeking calm, not the storm.

Justin Turner hit a two-run homer in the first inning, the damage lessened by Ryan Mountcastle’s diving stop and throw to rob Alex Verdugo. Flaherty got a new ball and stood halfway between the mound and second base to collect himself, tossing it in the air and catching it with his bare hand. He pounded his fist into his glove after Trevor Story’s fly ball to right field, the last out in a 26-pitch frame.

There’s more going on with Flaherty than the weather.

The Orioles scored five runs in the third, the last three on Aaron Hicks’ first homer since July 9, and two more in the fourth. They hit five home runs. They picked up their teammate, who was done after 3 1/3 innings. They wobbled but found their legs again.

After the final out is recorded in the World Series, and before the start of the Winter Meetings in Nashville, important business is conducted that can be downplayed or ignored in some circles.

The four Baseball Writers’ Association of America awards in November. A much bigger deal for the Orioles after they regained their contender status and inflated the level of talent on the roster.

I remember when I could skip the MLB Network programs, which run longer than the Oscars, because the Orioles didn’t have anyone in the discussion. My work was done. Let the other beat writers craft their stories while I tuned into "Jeopardy" or whatever was streaming on Netflix. Those poor fools.

Those days are over.

Gunnar Henderson has become the leading contender for Rookie of the Year in the American League. I won’t say he’s a runaway winner, but the kid sits in the driver’s seat - looking young enough to carry a learner’s permit.

The Orioles’ roster has changed again.

Get used to it.

Jorge López was activated this morning after the Orioles claimed him on waivers yesterday from the Marlins. Aaron Hicks was reinstated from the injured list.

To make room, outfielder Colton Cowser was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk and reliever Austin Voth was designated for assignment.

López enters a bullpen that includes Yennier Cano. They were involved in the 2022 deadline trade with the Twins.

Another day has passed without an update on Orioles closer Félix Bautista beyond the injury to his ulnar collateral ligament. He walked off the field Aug. 25 with two outs in the ninth inning and two strikes on his last batter, and he underwent further testing to determine the severity of the injury and whether surgery was necessary.

Bautista earned his first hold of the season. Everyone else remains on hold.

The Orioles went 3-2 heading into last night’s game in Arizona after placing Bautista on the 15-day injured list. The last three margins were nine, six and five runs, making Bautista’s absence less noticeable.

Yennier Cano earned a save the night after Bautista’s removal from the bullpen, but he would have been the designated closer anyway. Bautista had appeared in three of the past four games and gone back-to-back. Manager Brandon Hyde wasn’t put in a bind.

The Orioles lost 4-3 to conclude the Rockies series. An unearned run scored off Cano in the top of the ninth inning. No save situation.

The Orioles have not been swept in their past 81 series dating to last year. But today their bid to record their ninth sweep of 2023 came up short.

The Colorado Rockies pushed an unearned run across the plate in the top of the ninth to beat the Orioles 4-3 in front of 30,773 at Oriole Park.

Baltimore's four-game win streak came to an end, and the Orioles are now 81-49 after their 12th one-run loss in 36 such games.

Righty Yennier Cano, who got a save last night, came on for the ninth today, but this time in a 3-3 tie.

Hunter Goodman's grounder went for an infield single and he reached second on a throwing error charged to shortstop Gunnar Henderson. He moved to third with one out and the infield came in. But on pinch-hitter Elias Díaz's hi-chop grounder to third, there was no play at home. The out produced the go-ahead run and what turned out to be winning run. Cano took the loss.