SARASOTA, Fla. - Bruce Zimmermann used to dream about slipping on an Orioles uniform while growing up in Baltimore. The fantasy didn't include a first-pitch home run, but it's spring training and wouldn't kill the moment. Zimmermann replaced starter Asher Wojciechowski today in the top of the third inning on an overcast and windy day at Ed Smith Stadium. Bryce Ball, sitting at the bottom of the Braves' lineup, greeted him with a shot to deep left-center field. Baseball can be heart-warming...

SARASOTA, Fla. - Minor league left-hander Alex Wells hasn't been cleared to pitch this spring due to a sore right oblique muscle, according to manager Brandon Hyde. There's no timetable for getting him on the mound. Wells is a non-roster invitee to camp who's likely to begin the 2020 season at Triple-A Norfolk. He posted a 2.95 ERA and 1.07 WHIP last summer in 24 starts with Double-A Bowie. "We're just being cautious with him," Hyde said. Kohl Stewart and Brady Rodgers, who are recovering...

TAMPA, Fla. - Davey Martinez has been talking about it much of the winter and through the first two weeks of the spring. Today the Nationals manager will finally see his unconventional lineup idea in action: Trea Turner is batting third against the Yankees. It's not a perfect way to evaluate this lineup wrinkle, because only three players guaranteed to be in the opening day lineup (Turner, Victor Robles, Starlin Castro) made the 3 1/2-hour trip from West Palm Beach for today's exhibition...

SARASOTA, Fla. - The Orioles' versatile infielder and outfielder Stevie Wilkerson was designated for assignment last March 23 when the club added catcher Pedro Severino via waivers. But in this case the DFA was not very damaging for his career. Less than a month later - on April 22 - Wilkerson was called up from the minors and added back to the major league roster. He didn't know it then, but after playing 16 games for Triple-A Norfolk, he would go on to play 117 for the 2019 Orioles. He...

SARASOTA, Fla. - The major league education of Adley Rutschman involves more than his at-bats and reps behind the plate. One of baseball's top prospects, the first overall selection in the 2019 First-Year Player Draft, has to take some teasing when he isn't behind the dish. (Dish it out, take it. That's where I was going.) As a small cluster of media members waited this morning to speak with Rutschman at his locker, a veteran teammate asked whether he got a hit yesterday. Someone else...

SARASOTA, Fla. - The Orioles are sitting a few of their regulars today for a home game against the Braves, the bench crew including first baseman Chris Davis, shortstop José Iglesias and outfielders Austin Hays, Trey Mancini and Anthony Santander. Ryan McKenna is patrolling center field, with Dwight Smith Jr. in left and Dilson Herrera in right. Herrera played first base yesterday. Andrew Velazquez is making his first start at shortstop. Stevie Wilkerson has been used in center field, but...

JUPITER, Fla. - It was a home run off a minor league reliever on Feb. 25. It's not going to make Juan Soto any money or help the Nationals win any games that actually matter. And yet it was impossible to watch Soto's blast off Cardinals right-hander Seth Elledge during Tuesday's 9-6 exhibition win and not react with the same astonishment and approval that accompanies any gargantuan blast by the 21-year-old star slugger. Soto's homer, the first by a Nationals batter so far this spring, came...

TAMPA - The Nationals' spring relocation from Viera to West Palm Beach three years ago dramatically reduced the amount of time players have to spend on buses traveling to road games. But it didn't completely eliminate long trips from the Grapefruit League schedule. Today the Nats make their longest trek of the spring, a full 204-mile jaunt across the state of Florida to Tampa, where they are scheduled to face the Yankees this afternoon. Scheduled, that is, weather permitting. There's rain...

SARASOTA, Fla. - The Orioles might have lost 108 games last year, but for 26-year-old catcher Pedro Severino, the season was still special. He was given his first chance to play extensively in the major leagues. He was not even in the organization this time last year. He was claimed on waivers from Washington on March 23, 2019 and then made his first opening day roster. In parts of four seasons with the Nationals through 2018, Severino got a total of 282 plate appearances. In 2019 he got 341...

SARASOTA, Fla. - Trying to detect patterns and search for clues in spring training lineups can be an exercise in futility. Roster crunches of a different sort. Calisthenics that still leave you clueless. Working up a sweat for a bigger waste. You get the picture, but maybe not the pitcher. Manager Brandon Hyde keeps batting Austin Hays in the leadoff spot, but isn't necessarily showing his hand. Hanser Alberto batted leadoff again yesterday in the other split-squad game. It's now happened...