The Orioles have reassigned RHP Wandisson Charles, RHP Ofreidy Gómez, INF Coby Mayo, RHP Morgan McSweeney, OF Robert Neustrom, INF César Prieto, C Ramón Rodriguez, RHP Kade Strowd, INF Curtis Terry, RHP Cole Uvila, RHP Chris Vallimont, and RHP Ryan Watson to minor league camp.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Kyle Gibson didn’t overwork his outfielders today during his three innings on the mound. Two balls made it through the infield for singles. Colton Cowser, playing center, fielded one of them and fired to second base to prevent a double.

Greed might be good, but it also can cost you.

Gibson is costing the Orioles $10 million after signing as a free agent, the largest contract negotiated by executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias. He could be the Opening Day starter, an honor he wants but isn’t obsessing over.

The Pirates managed two hits off Gibson, didn’t draw a walk and struck out twice. He threw 40 pitches, 23 for strikes, and got more work in the bullpen.

The veteran right-hander sat down with pitching coach Chris Holt and assistant pitching coach Darren Holmes to study video of a delivery that didn’t satisfy him.

The Orioles today announced that Oriole Park at Camden Yards will host a NCAA Division I baseball game between the United States Naval Academy and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County baseball teams on Wednesday, March 29 at 6:00 p.m. ET.

Tickets are $10 for general admission in the lower level seating bowl. Current Navy and UMBC students will receive a free ticket by presenting a valid student ID at the Oriole Park Box Office. Members of the military in uniform can visit the Oriole Park Box Office to receive free admission. Additionally, Birdland Members interested in attending will receive two free tickets and can purchase additional tickets for $5 each through their My Orioles Tickets account. Parking will be available in Lots B and C for $5. All fans must enter through Gate C, which will open at 5:00 p.m. To purchase tickets and parking, visit Orioles.com/Navy.

A portion of ticket proceeds will benefit the Yellow Ribbon Fund. A 501(c)(3) veteran service organization, the Yellow Ribbon Fund provides housing, transportation, and caregiver and family support to severely wounded, ill, and injured post-9/11 service members from every branch of the United States Military, following unexpected medical crises. For more information, visit YellowRibbonFund.org. 

Fans in attendance will have the first opportunity to try new concessions items from Levy, Oriole Park’s recently announced hospitality partner. The market leader in creating unforgettable hospitality experiences at sports and entertainment venues, Levy crafted an elevated food and beverage experience for fans visiting Camden Yards.

All credential requests must be coordinated through the Navy Athletics Sports Information Department. If your media organization is interested in covering the event, please contact Marshal Filipowicz (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). In your email, please include your organization and the names of those covering the event, how many parking spots are needed, as well as any accompanying photo or video requests. All requests should be sent to Filipowicz by Thursday, March 23.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Orioles manager Brandon Hyde provided some significant health and workout updates this morning, rattling off the morning advancements from a sheet of paper.

Got to keep it straight, and there were quite a few.

Left-hander DL Hall, who’s recovered from the discomfort in his lower back, completed a bullpen session today. Hyde said it “went well,” and Hall will throw live batting practice in a few days.

Closer Félix Bautista, who’s been restricted to bullpens while receiving treatments on his left knee and working to strengthen his right shoulder, also will threw live BP in the next few days.

Left-hander Nick Vespi, who underwent hernia surgery in January, will pitch in a simulated game later this week. Vespi remains confident that he’ll be ready for Opening Day if the Orioles want to bring him north.

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Grayson Rodriguez left his glove on the ground as the crowd reacted today to a line drive hit up the middle of the field. Rodriguez hustled after the ball, threw out the Twins’ Donovan Solano and began flexing his hand. The Orioles dugout began to hyperventilate.

The medical check from manager Brandon Hyde and an athletic trainer kept Rodriguez in the game, and he finished the second inning with back-to-back strikeouts with his changeup. A scary moment but nothing that would prompt executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias, sitting behind home plate, to again scan the starting pitching market.

Rodriguez returned for the third as the club intended, but he exited with two outs and his pitch count at 55. He allowed one run, on José Miranda’s leadoff homer to left field in the second, and three hits with two walks and four strikeouts, the last against Carlos Correa.

The Twins loaded the bases in the third and Blaine Knight struck out Solano.

“Hit the palm of my glove, so I was able to get leather on it, ultimately make the play,” Rodriguez said. “Just glad nothing is injured.”

The Nationals have made the following roster moves:

Optioned to Triple-A: RHP Joan Adon

Re-assigned to minor league camp: LHP Alberto Baldonado, RHP Gerardo Carrillo, LHP Evan Lee, LHP Francisco Perez, RHP Tommy Romero, C Brady Lindsly, INF Lucius Fox, INF Erick Mejia, OF Yasel Antuna OF Donovan Casey, RHP Jackson Tetreault, RHP Anthony Castro, OF Derek Hill and RHP Zach Brzykcy

FORT MYERS, Fla. – John Means is getting back to baseball normal.

Means threw his first half-mound session yesterday morning in Sarasota, tossing 20 fastballs with no discomfort in his surgically repaired left elbow. He’ll do it again Wednesday and progress to a full mound Friday morning.

“Felt great, felt awesome,” Means said. “Kind of felt like a baseball player again yesterday. Got some dirt on my cleats, so it was great. Everything felt good.”

Means said he threw with 50 percent intensity and will gradually increase it.

“Just feeling the slope again,” he said.

LAKELAND, Fla. – Before Adley Rutschman crouched behind the plate today and set his first target for Grayson Rodriguez, he needed to give his friend an early lead.

Rutschman hit a long home run to left field, put his gear on and went to work - catching one of baseball’s top pitching prospects, guiding the right-hander through his first spring training start.

The stuff he really enjoys doing. A collaboration that Orioles fans have craved for years.

“Anytime you know he’s back there, you know it’s going to be a good game,” Rodriguez said. “I think he knows me better than myself. I’ve learned in the past not to shake him.”

Rodriguez said something later that should make the rest of the league quiver.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Bruce Zimmermann broke camp with the Orioles last spring and spent the offseason trying to repair himself.

The Baltimore native understood that he had to do a better job of separating the two-seam fastball from the four-seamer, which he introduced in 2022. It became an issue.

There was more work to be done.

Zimmermann also adjusted his slider grip, going back to the shape of it from a few years ago that was getting many more swings and misses.

Maintaining consistency in his delivery also became an issue for Zimmermann, who didn’t allow a run in his first two starts, held the Angels to two earned over six innings in Anaheim, and couldn’t sustain it. The Orioles optioned in June and he made only two more appearances in the majors, an inning of relief in July, and a Game 2 start in a September doubleheader.

SARASOTA, Fla. – The Orioles are two days away from playing their first exhibition game and they’ve chosen left-hander Drew Rom to make the start.

Rom, 23, made a combined 26 appearances between Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Norfolk and posted a 4.43 ERA and 1.475 WHIP with 144 strikeouts in 120 innings. He’s ticketed for the Tides after spring training but gets the assignment against the Twins in Sarasota.

Being the first starter in camp doesn’t provide a sneak preview of the team’s plans moving forward. Manager Brandon Hyde quipped, “not (Thomas) Eshelman” while announcing his choice.

“He’s a starting candidate and a guy, just kind of how things line up, honestly,” Hyde said.

“Some of the guys that were starters here last year will be a couple days after that. Drew’s going to get an opportunity to start our first Grapefruit League game.”

The Washington Nationals are back in West Palm Beach, Fla., for their seventh season of Spring Training at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. The Nationals open their spring schedule this week against the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday, Feb. 25, in Jupiter, Fla., before returning to The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches one day later to face the defending World Series champion Houston Astros in a split-squad matchup. Tickets for all games are available now at nationals.com/Spring.

Fans not making the trip to Florida can catch the action on TV and radio, as Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN), 106.7 The Fan, The Team 980 and nationals.com combine to present 15 games from Florida. The Nationals’ Spring Training schedule features three games televised by MASN and a combined 14 radio broadcasts airing on 106.7 The Fan, The Team 980 or streaming on nationals.com. MASN and 106.7 The Fan will also carry the Nationals final tune-up before the regular season, an exhibition vs. the New York Yankees on Tuesday, March 28, at Nationals Park.

In addition to game programming, 106.7 The Fan will host four editions of “Nats Spring Training Live!” from E.R. Bradley’s Saloon located at 104 S Clematis St. in downtown West Palm Beach. The 60-minute talk shows hosted by Nationals radio voices Dave Jageler and Charlie Slowes are live Sundays, Feb. 26, March 5, March 12 and March 19, from 6:00-7:00 p.m. “Nats Spring Training Live!” programs are free to attend in-person and feature special guest appearances by Nationals players, coaches and personalities.

Nationals 2023 Spring Training Broadcast Schedule*

We are grateful for the generous outpouring of love and support we have received since the passing of Ted Lerner – husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather and Nationals founding managing principal owner.

So much has been said about his accomplishments as a businessman and philanthropist. He, of course, would have been the first to acknowledge that none of it was achieved alone, and that is certainly true when it comes to the story of the Washington Nationals. It was a team effort to bring our national pastime back to the Nation’s capital; a team that consisted of City officials, business leaders and, most importantly, devoted fans from around the District, Maryland and Virginia.

We know he was grateful for all of the hard work that made it possible for him to realize a lifelong dream. Today we want to express our gratitude as well, for the support from so many, for the enthusiasm of Nationals fans, for the love and sympathy we have felt over the past number of days, and for the incomparable life lived by Ted Lerner.

The Family of Theodore N. Lerner

The Orioles today announced the return of the “Athletes & Artists Play for Kids” charity event, which will take place at Ed Smith Stadium from March 10-12. The event, which combines song and sport to support creativity and music and arts education will feature the return of “Nashville’s Music Row Comes to the Ballpark” VIP charity event, as well as two Orioles home games.

Proceeds from the weekend’s events will benefit the Orioles Charitable Foundation’s Music & Arts Education Scholarship, which was created in 2019 to support deserving students and programs in Baltimore, Sarasota, and Nashville. The beneficiary for the 2023 event is Intersection of Change’s Jubilee Arts Program in Baltimore. Jubilee Arts provides comprehensive arts programs to children and adults, using art as a catalyst for social change, a tool for empowerment, and an alternative to drugs and violence in the community. To date, the “Athletes & Artists” series has raised more than $400,000 for various charities.

This year’s weekend-long series of events will begin Friday, March 10, when the Orioles host the Minnesota Twins at 6:05 p.m. ET. Charitable donors will return to Ed Smith Stadium Saturday evening for the sixth “Athletes & Artists” VIP charity event. This one-of-a-kind, all-access event, hosted by event founder and singer-songwriter MARGARET VALENTINE, brings baseball groups and Nashville artists together in support of music education.

The event will celebrate current country, rock, and pop hits, featuring an all-star line-up including SiriusXM “Highway Find” and “CMT Next Women of County” KALIE SHORR, lead guitarist of Matchbox Twenty KYLE COOK, and New York City-based singer-songwriter QUEEN V, as well as other special guests. More information about each performer can be found at Orioles.com/AthletesAndArtists.

The annual “Athletes & Artists Play for Kids” weekend fundraiser began in 2015 with the first “Nashville Comes to the Ballpark” charity event and has steadily grown to include more programming, including in 2019 when the ballpark hosted an on-field concert by country music rising superstar and 11-time No. 1 singer-songwriter COLE SWINDELL, to support selected charitable efforts. The Orioles also welcomed Billboard chart-topping and Platinum-certified country artist RAELYNN in 2020. In 2019, proceeds from the mid-summer “Athletes & Artists Play for Kids” fundraiser, held the evening before the historic BILLY JOEL concert at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, were used to fund community grants from the Orioles Charitable Foundation to JUBILEE ARTS and BALTIMORE SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS. Past beneficiaries include the MUSIC HEALTH ALLIANCE, SARASOTA YMCA, LIBRARY FOUNDATION FOR SARASOTA COUNTY, and GIRLS, INC.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Tanner Rainey knows the date. It was Aug. 3 when he underwent Tommy John surgery, saw his 2022 season come to an early conclusion and realized his 2023 season would be significantly delayed.

As much as he’s tried not to look at specific dates throughout the long rehab program, the Nationals reliever knows the two most significant mileposts. At the six-month mark, he was allowed to begin throwing again. At the 12-month mark, he hopes to be allowed to begin pitching in a big league game again.

“It’s been tough, I will say,” Rainey remarked of the mental challenge of returning from elbow ligament replacement surgery. “But at the same time, I know I have six more months now. I’m six months through. I’ve got six more months to continue to prepare, whether it’s physically or mentally, to be better than I was.”

Rainey entered the 2022 season as the Nationals’ closer, and things went swimmingly for a while. He didn’t give up a run in his first eight appearances, going 3-for-3 in save situations. And as late as July 1, he sported a 2.88 ERA, 30 strikeouts in 25 innings and 11 saves in 14 opportunities.

But then his elbow ligament gave out shortly before the All-Star break. And after consultations with doctors, it was determined he needed Tommy John surgery.

SARASOTA, Fla. – The Orioles held a light workout this morning leading into Tuesday’s first full-squad gathering. No bullpen sessions or live batting practice. Mostly some conditioning and fielding drills, followed by an early exit from the complex.

Manager Brandon Hyde said Anthony Santander will get some work at first base after returning from the World Baseball Classic, though it isn’t a priority. Santander took ground balls before games last season.

“A little bit maybe toward the end, maybe when he comes back. Probably not too much early,” Hyde said.

“Definitely want to keep it an option for him when he comes back.”

The backup first baseman could be a joint effort, with Santander, catchers Adley Rutschman and James McCann, and perhaps infielder Terrin Vavra if he’s on the club.

The Orioles have agreed to terms on a 2023 minor league contract with INF Gilbert Lara.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Sixty-seven players (27 of those non-roster invitees) will participate in big league camp for the Nationals this spring, a list that includes a combination of familiar names of the past and newcomers looking to make a name for themselves for the first time.

With the first official workout of spring training underway this afternoon, the Nats announced their full list of non-roster invitees to major league camp. Among those here are 11 players who have been in the majors with the team before: pitchers Sean Doolittle, Andres Machado, Evan Lee, Jackson Tetreault, Francisco Perez, Alberto Baldonado and Tommy Romero; first baseman Matt Adams; infielder Lucius Fox; and outfielders Yadiel Hernández and Donovan Casey.

Doolittle, who returns on a minor league deal after missing the majority of 2022 with an elbow injury, and Adams, who is back with the club three years after winning a World Series ring, are familiar veterans hoping to force their way onto the Opening Day roster.

The others all were in the big leagues at some point in the last two seasons but were designated for assignment and dropped off the 40-man roster. They’ll now attempt to make it back, albeit as non-roster invitees.

The Nationals added several veterans this winter with major league experience on minor league contracts, headlined by pitchers Wily Peralta, Alex Colomé and Chad Kuhl; plus infielder Michael Chavis.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have announced additional North American dates on their 2023 international tour in 18 cities, with newly-added shows beginning at Chicago's Wrigley Field on August 9 and running through December 8 at San Francisco's Chase Center. Multiple nights have been scheduled for Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park (August 16 and 18), New Jersey's MetLife Stadium (August 30 and September 1), Toronto's Scotiabank Arena (November 14 and 16) and Los Angeles' Kia Forum (December 4 and 6). Tickets for the 22 added North American shows will go on sale over the course of the next two weeks, with the first onsale beginning this Friday February 19 at 10am local time (full details below). 

 “As a lifelong fan of Bruce Springsteen and of my hometown, it’s an honor to announce that on September 9, 2023, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band will play their first ever outdoor stadium show in Baltimore at Oriole Park at Camden Yards,” said Orioles Chairman and CEO, John Angelos. 

The 2023 international tour began February 1 in Tampa, Florida with Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band's first North American show in seven years. Opening night featured a high-energy 28-song set which included rocking fan favorites like "Born To Run," "Prove It All Night," and "Wrecking Ball," with The E Street Band effortlessly shifting to soul and R&B while complemented by a horn section and backing vocalists. Rolling Stone called the band's return "ecstatic and emotional," and SPIN added it was a "must-see." USA Today said they "rocked like their lives depended on it" and the Associated Press noted the "energy was as high as ever...every song seemed epic.”

For many cities, the tour will be using Verified Fan via Ticketmaster. Verified Fan requires pre-registration at https://verifiedfan.ticketmaster.com/springsteen and is open through Sunday February 19 at 11:59pm ET. Verified Fan is intended to make it easier for fans to get tickets, and harder for resellers and bots.

For more information about Verified Fan visit: https://blog.ticketmaster.com/bruce-springsteen-e-street-band-2023/.

He is one of a host of Orioles' rotation candidates that number about 10 to 12 as spring training is set to begin, but right-hander Kyle Bradish may have a leg up on some of his competition. His strong finish to the 2022 season is one big reason for that.

On the year, over 23 games and 117 2/3 innings, he went 4-7 with a 4.90 ERA, allowing 119 hits with 46 walks and 111 strikeouts. He recorded a 1.402 WHIP with a 3.5 walk rate, 8.5 K rate and 1.3 homer rate. He had a 45.3 groundball rate and his Fielding Independent Pitching of 4.39 was an improvement on his overall ERA.

But late in the year he was throwing quite well. Over his last 13 games, after returning in late July from right shoulder inflammation, he went 3-3 with a 3.28 ERA and 1.16 WHIP. In those games he allowed a batting average of .212 and .607 OPS.

But in his last eight games he really had a strong finishing kick, going 3-2 with a 2.76 ERA and he allowed just two homers over 45 2/3 innings. In those eight games, he recorded four quality starts, posted a 1.01 WHIP, allowing a .169 batting average and OPS of .500. All just about dominant numbers.

And those eight games were against in order Houston, Cleveland, Toronto, Boston, Toronto, Houston, Boston and the New York Yankees. In the two starts versus the eventual World Series winning Astros, he pitched a combined 16 2/3 scoreless innings allowing just four hits with two walks and 16 strikeouts.