Orioles Countdown: What Surprises Await Just One Week Before Opening Day?

In yesterday’s spring training action, the Orioles played the Blue Jays. They were victorious by a 3-2 score, with each of Ryan Mountcastle and Adley Rutschman recording multi-hit games and Jeremiah Jackson hitting his first homer of spring training. The starting pitcher, Albert Suárez, gave up a run in four innings while striking out five batters in what could be his last big audition to make the roster before camp is over. The O’s improved their Grapefruit League record to 9-11-3 with this win. Four games in Florida remain.

This deep into spring training, it’s around the point where I’d like to start seeing good results from players who are going to be on the roster and getting regular playing time. Some guys are doing pretty well and not giving much reason to worry about them. Others are more in the “Well, it’s a good thing that doesn’t count” category.

These guys who I think are likely to be in the Opening Day lineup are OPSing over .800:

Adley Rutschman (.880 OPS)
Samuel Basallo (.946)
Coby Mayo (1.131)
Taylor Ward (.960)

Additionally, Gunnar Henderson was a hot hitter in the World Baseball Classic when Team USA’s idiot manager put him in the lineup. He had not been doing well early on before leaving for Team USA. I am choosing to be more excited about the recent results. Tyler O’Neill, who only had 11 PA before joining Team Canada, has also had a split spring with interesting things going on.