The Orioles will reveal their 2021 opening day roster Thursday morning, but the final strokes are applied now to provide a full picture. There's just one more to go. Third baseman Maikel Franco and outfielder Anthony Santander will be on the roster and avoid a trip to the alternate camp site. Santander won't have any restrictions after missing the last six exhibition games with oblique soreness. Relievers Dillon Tate and Cole Sulser also are traveling to Boston after today's workout, but...

The Nationals went 93-69 in 2019 and won the World Series, then returned in 2020 to go 24-36 and finish tied for last place in the National League East. There are two lines of thought when trying to analyze what happened last season. Either this was the start of an inevitable downward trend for an organization that spent so long climbing the mountain to finally reach the ultimate peak, or it was a complete and utter aberration because of the unprecedented circumstances of the pandemic-shortened...

Now, it's back to work for the Orioles. A league-mandated off-day is followed this morning by a workout at Sarasota and flight to Boston for Thursday's opener at Fenway Park. Some pitchers will throw. Some hitters will hit. Anthony Santander apparently won't have to convince the Orioles that his oblique is fine and his status on the active roster is unaffected. He's taken more swings this week, getting dozens of at-bats, and is definitely on the opening day roster. Could an outsider crash...

In looking at the roster resource section of the FanGraphs.com website, we can note a few things about the start of the 2021 regular season. For one, the Orioles will have the youngest starting rotation in the American League East and the fourth-youngest in the AL. With the understanding that this is a good resource for roster information and usually very accurate, yes, there could be a pitcher or two not listed where they should be. But they got all five in the Baltimore rotation correct. The...

The Orioles today announced that the club has entered into a multi-year agreement with MedStar Health as the Official Medical Team of the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles have chosen to continue their medical partnership with MedStar Health because of the expertise and specialization provided by one of the premier sports medicine programs in the country. The multi-year partnership will ensure that Orioles players continue to receive the highly specialized care of the MedStar Health team while the...

The Nationals woke up this morning in Washington. Spring training is officially over, and the final countdown to opening night is on. This was a spring unlike any previous one, with protocols, reduced fan capacities and reduced travel across Florida. But it still was, first and foremost, about baseball. The Nats avoided any real COVID-19 issues and were able to keep their focus on the field, which is exactly how every team should want it to be. To that end, we spent a lot of time talking about...

The minor soreness in Anthony Santander's side is beginning to feel like the slight tweak of DJ Stewart's hamstring. As the late Joe Strauss used to tell me after we joined The Baltimore Sun baseball beat in 1997, never underwrite or downplay an injury. Of course, that also leads to overwriting an actual day-to-day situation, but it's the risk you take. Stewart won't be ready for opening day because he hasn't played since March 5 and accumulated only eight at-bats. We're just waiting for...

He is a bit of a marked man as the No. 2 ranked prospect in baseball by MLBPipeline.com, by Baseball America and by ESPN. And at No. 2, catcher Adley Rutschman joins just three other Orioles that have ever been as highly rated by the major prospect analysts. No one has been at the top 100 rankings business as long as Baseball America. The first Baseball America list had O's right-hander Ben McDonald ranked second in 1990 behind Atlanta's Steve Avery. In 2009, Matt Wieters became the one and...

The final day of spring training is about a starter building up his pitch count, a few relievers getting some last-minute work in and everybody else just avoiding injury. The Nationals, it would appear, survived today's Grapefruit League finale, a 2-2 tie with the Astros at their shared complex in West Palm Beach, Fla. Next up: a charter flight to Washington, a day off so everyone can get settled in, a workout and simulated game at Nationals Park on Wednesday evening, and then it's go...

Today's spring training finale began on a down note for the Orioles. Lefty Bruce Zimmermann's run of nine spring scoreless innings ended when he allowed a leadoff homer. The rough start for O's pitching didn't end there, as Zimmermann was charged with seven runs today against the Tampa Bay Rays. This was the final spring outing for Zimmermann, the Baltimorean who will make his third big league appearance when he starts the season's third game, on Sunday in Boston. Zimmermann and Rich Hill,...