Never too soon to look at O's batting orders and lineups

The Orioles will play a game, a spring training game, for the first time on February 22^nd at home versus the Pittsburgh Pirates. How their lineup will look that day is not important. Can’t read anything into a spring training lineup, especially not the first one of spring.

But how might that lineup look on Opening Day, March 27^th at 3:07 p.m. at Rogers Centre against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Rather than wait for that big day, we could make a guess today. Doesn’t cost anything and no matter what we project, no one will get hurt. Unless it’s a player’s feelings that we leave out. But that’s rather unlikely too, so let’s proceed.

First the Blue Jays project to have five righties in their rotation possibly starting with Kevin Gausman or Jose Berrios. So we know it’s likely going to be a right-hander versus the Orioles that day and we’ll go with that.

Everyone’s lineup might be different for different reasons. Here is mine as of Jan. 13.

SS – Gunnar Henderson

3B – Jordan Westburg

DH – Ryan O’Hearn

RF – Tyler O’Neill

1B – Ryan Mountcastle

LF – Colton Cowser

C – Adley Rutschman

CF – Cedric Mullins

2B – Jackson Holliday

For now, I keep Henderson at the top, where last season he hit .294 with 31 homers and a .941 OPS when batting first. When leading off an inning last year he hit .316 with a 1.102 OPS. In a bit of a quirk, for some reason, he went just 3-for-25 in seven games in Toronto in ’24 with no homers or RBIs. No worries, he's still the best they've got and should hit No. 1. One day when they have a productive, high OBP player to put in that top spot, Gunnar can move down.

Last season Westburg mostly batted fifth, but I like moving him up. A very solid hitter, who had an .808 OPS versus righty pitching. He could hit anywhere, but I like him here.

Just get some power bats in there third through fifth. O’Neil might not play against some right-handers and certainly not bat fourth against them, but I go with him here.

Here is one reason to bat him fourth: O’Neill has homered on Opening Day in each of the last five years, a major league record. The only players to homer on Opening Day in four consecutive years, per Elias Sports, are Yogi Berra (1955-58), Gary Carter (1977-80), and Todd Hundley (1994-97).

By starting O’Neill, it means Heston Kjerstad does not start. This season we could be seeing somewhat of a four-man rotation during the year with Mountcastle, O’Neill, O’Hearn and Kjerstad and three spots between first base, right field and DH.

O’Neill, by the way, is a Canadian native and with 109 homers, he ranks 10^th all-time in home runs by players born in Canada, but he is only the seventh to get to 100 or more before turning 30.

I have Rutschman starting out batting seventh. Last year he had 82 percent of his plate appearances batting second and if he returns to previous form, overcoming his poor second-half, he is a fine player to bat second. But I say let’s see some results first and I am confident we will. So is the club clearly.

In 2024, Rutschman almost never hit sixth or lower with just one plate appearance all year while batting sixth, one batting seventh and three batting ninth.

Then I have Mullins at No. 8, Holliday at No. 9 and grouped with Henderson at No. 1, this gives the lineup three fast players in a row and really four if Westburg did hit No. 2, in front of the big boppers.

This could work! What have you got Birdland?