Orioles inching closer to opening day

The Orioles are holding their pre-opening day workout this afternoon beginning at 3:15 p.m. at Camden Yards. It's starting to get real.

Trey Mancini will catch about 5,000 fly balls in right field to get used to the third deck. There's no way to prepare for it in the Grapefruit League.

Mancini also will be surrounded by the media, a new wave on hand to seek his reaction to breaking camp with the team and learning a new position. All those weeks in Sarasota prepared him for it.

Manager Buck Showalter probably will withhold his opening day lineup until Monday morning, but he may drop a few hints.

The Orioles are facing Blue Jays right-hander Marco Estrada, which probably puts Hyun Soo Kim in left field and Seth Smith in right. Smith would appear to be the favorite to bat leadoff based on how he's been used most recently, but never bet the ranch on anything.

The Orioles are batting .195 against Estrada, with Smith collecting only two hits in 12 at-bats with five strikeouts. But catcher Welington Castillo is 7-for-23 (.304) with four home runs and eight RBIs.

Let's take a stab at the lineup, written in pencil to be safe.

Seth Smith RF
Adam Jones CF
Manny Machado 3B
Chris Davis 1B
Mark Trumbo DH
Jonathan Schoop 2B
Hyun Soo Kim LF
Welington Castillo C
J.J. Hardy SS

I'd be fine with Kim leading off and Smith batting lower, but I'm sensing that it's more likely to be the other way. Kim offers some of the best at-bats on the team. And no one in a left-handed lineup is a prototypical leadoff guy.

The Orioles face southpaw J.A. Happ on Wednesday, which likely puts Joey Rickard in left field and Craig Gentry in right. One of them will lead off and I'll guess it's Rickard. Trumbo probably inherits the cleanup spot ahead of Davis.

Rickard batted .313/.367/.494 against left-handers last season and .247/.296/.322 against right-handers. In an odd twist, he was 6-for-32 (.188) against left-handers this spring, including a double and home run, and 10-for-23 (.435) with two homers and a .618 on-base percentage against right-handers.

A viewer of "Wall to Wall Baseball" on MASN asked yesterday whether Rickard's development could be stunted by being a platoon player in his second major league season. It shouldn't be an issue. He's going to get plenty of at-bats as long as he plays at an acceptable level - he can be optioned if he slumps - and his speed is a much-needed tool on this club.

Kim can become a free agent following the season. Perhaps Rickard is auditioning for a full-time role in 2018.

I decided on a whim to check on some former Orioles, beginning with pitcher Yovani Gallardo, who was traded to the Mariners for Smith. Gallardo went 0-2 with a 7.47 ERA and 1.66 WHIP in five Cactus League starts, with 13 runs and 19 hits in 15 2/3 innings. He tossed three scoreless innings yesterday and on March 4, but there were a few duds in there, including a March 27 start against the Padres when he surrendered seven runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings.

Left-hander T.J. McFarland, who signed with the Diamondbacks, made six one-inning appearances and allowed three runs and 14 hits for a 4.50 ERA and 2.50 WHIP.

Fourteen hits in six innings. That's some serious scattering.

McFarland and teammate Brian Matusz were reassigned to minor league camp. Matusz was 1-0 with a 5.68 ERA and 1.74 WHIP in eight games, with four earned runs (five total), 10 hits, one walk and nine strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings.

Catcher Matt Wieters was 5-for-35 with no home runs or RBIs and 12 strikeouts after signing with the Nationals.

Outfielder Nolan Reimold remains on the market and may consider playing independent ball.