WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – If this was one final opportunity for Shinnosuke Ogasawara to make his case for a spot in the Nationals’ rotation, he was going to have to do something eye-opening tonight against a tough Mets lineup. Instead, the Japanese left-hander provided more of the same. And in the process probably sealed his fate. Unable to put hitte

SARASOTA, Fla. – Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman found a different way to bond with Japanese pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano and to learn more about his new teammate. They got away from the field and the clubhouse. They got away from baseball. They played a round of golf this week. “He’s a funny guy, just a cool dude,” Rutschman said tonight. “I know with

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – It was one simulated inning against a couple of teammates on a back field with a few interested onlookers. Nothing to get too excited about. For Cade Cavalli, though, this was a significant step toward the ultimate goal of regularly pitching for the Nationals this season. Cavalli, still trying to make it all the way back fro

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – We’ve got quite a matchup tonight at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches, not just for fans in Washington and New York, but also in Japan. The stars aligned perfectly to give us a head-to-head pitching showdown between Shinnosuke Ogasawara and Kodai Senga. These two guys are in very different situations. Senga has already establi

SARASOTA, Fla. – Charlie Morton will start the second game of the season on March 28 against the Blue Jays in Toronto. Two-thirds of the rotation is confirmed. Zach Eflin is the Opening Day starter on March 27. Dean Kremer and Tomoyuki Sugano, who pitches tonight, will slot further down. Morton, 41, has tossed six scoreless innings in his three spr

SARASOTA, Fla. – The penultimate home game of the exhibition season finds Ramón Urías in tonight’s lineup for the Orioles. Gunnar Henderson, however, remains out of it. Urías is playing third base, Jackson Holliday is at shortstop and Jordan Westburg is at second base. Tyler O’Neill is in left field, Colton Cowser is in center and Heston Kjerstad i

The top two picks were obvious.  Gunnar Henderson was always going to be the first selection in “The Bird’s Nest’s” 2025 Orioles fantasy draft.  As Annie Klaff and I attempted to construct two teams of the upcoming season’s top contributors, Henderson was a slam dunk. Fresh off a fourth-place AL MVP finish and a 9.1 bWAR season, the superstar carri

JUPITER, Fla. – It was never really a question whether Robert Hassell III and Brady House would make the Nationals’ Opening Day roster. That wasn’t going to happen, not without some combination of exceptional performance on their part and calamity to a big league regular to open up a spot in the lineup. The real question all along was: How close ar

SARASOTA, Fla. – Three more days and the Orioles break camp, play the Nationals in D.C., fly to Toronto, work out and begin a season that could deliver their first playoff win since 2014. Congratulations, it's an oh boy! Tucked somewhere within this stretch is a finalized roster for March 27, with media curious whether it’s safe to report by Sunday

JUPITER, Fla. – The results on the scoreboard – six runs, 10 hits, two homers – did not look good. Neither did the radar gun, which showed Jake Irvin averaging just 91.4 mph on his fastball, down 2.5 mph from his 2024 average velocity. This is spring training, though, so you always have to be careful reading too much into the numbers. No, Irvin did