SARASOTA, Fla. – Grayson Rodriguez climbed the mound today at Ed Smith Stadium for his live batting practice session. Adley Rutschman crouched behind the plate. They were together again, and the interest level in the second full-squad workout of spring training soared like the temperature.

Rodriguez froze Jordan Westburg with a fastball, which Rutschman framed, and broke James McCann’s bat. The organization’s top pitching prospect brought some series heat, along with everything else in his arsenal.

“It felt great,” Rodriguez said afterward. “Obviously, anytime you can get out there, see hitters in the box, it’s a lot different from the offseason. Today, we’re just another step closer to spring games.”

A five-pitch repertoire was laid out to a group of hitters that also included outfielders Kyle Stowers and Colton Cowser and shortstop Joey Ortiz. So much young talent in camp.

“We wanted to throw everything today to see how it plays against the hitters,” Rodriguez said.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Left-hander Nick Vespi is certain that he can be ready for Opening Day. Nothing in camp has dented his confidence.

Vespi threw off a mound for the first time yesterday since undergoing hernia surgery Jan. 5 at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. He threw only fastballs, between 20 and 25 of them by his estimation, and was encouraged.

“Everything felt normal,” he said this morning. “I’ve got a couple more and then I’ll be in games.”

Vespi’s next bullpen session is Friday, one day before the Orioles play the Twins in their first exhibition game. They close out the Grapefruit League schedule on March 27.

Plenty of time for Vespi to get ready for Opening Day on the 30^th at Fenway Park.

SARASOTA, Fla. - The 12 pitchers on the Orioles’ 40-man roster competing for starting jobs remain in camp. The first cuts aren’t happening anytime soon. The first exhibition game isn’t until Saturday afternoon against the Twins in Sarasota.

Don’t rush it.

Kyle Bradish isn’t checking the calendar or crunching the numbers. He isn’t worried about his spot in the rotation. What good would that do?

“I’m not really thinking about that too much,” he said. “All the guys in the rotation, they’re all my friends, so just going out there and compete and whatever happens happens. I trust the work I put in this offseason and going off what I did the second half.”

He did plenty after the break, posting a 3.28 ERA and 1.164 WHIP in 13 starts. He had a 2.76 ERA in his last eight games and became the fourth rookie in club history to toss at least seven scoreless innings in back-to-back starts.

SARASOTA, Fla. – The Orioles moved to the next phase of spring training today with the first full-squad workout. Drills of every kind, with players grouped by position. Live batting practice sessions on multiple fields, including inside Ed Smith Stadium.

“I feel like we’ve been out here a couple weeks,” manager Brandon Hyde said with a laugh.

“Guys are really excited. Really love the talent here. It’s a great character group. Just walking around, talking to guys this morning, they’re excited to get going. Saturday’s going to come quick, so we’ve got to get ready to go.”

Hyde gathered everyone in the clubhouse before the workout began for the traditional talk, covering how the team exceeded expectations last summer and what he expects from it in 2023.

“Honestly, just want us to build off last year,” he said. “We have a (large) core group of guys, they got a lot of confidence from last year. It’s pretty much just building off a season where nobody expected us to do anything.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Lewin Díaz noticed that his friends stopped contacting him. The excitement shared over finding a new team was replaced by awkward silence.

The Pirates claimed Díaz off waivers in November. The Orioles claimed him less than two weeks later. And the insanity was building momentum.

A trade to the Braves, another claim by the Orioles, and a DFA six days later.

This time, it worked. Teams passed on Díaz and the Orioles outrighted him to Triple-A Norfolk.

It’s safe to congratulate him.

SARASOTA, Fla. - Outfielder Nomar Mazara is new to the Orioles, signing a minor league contract on Dec. 6. He knows catcher James McCann and non-roster outfielder Daz Cameron from previous stops, but it’s one of the team’s former hitting coaches who’s created the strongest ties.

Scott Coolbaugh, who held the job with the Orioles for the last four seasons of manager Buck Showalter’s tenure, has worked with Mazara in three organizations – the Rangers in various capacities after they signed him as an amateur free agent in July 2011, the White Sox in 2020 and Tigers in 2021.

Has to be some sort of record, or darn close to it.

Mazara appeared in 55 games with the Padres last summer and he just missed another reunion with Coolbaugh, who was hired in January to serve as an assistant hitting coach.

“Nomar Mazara is a great guy, good character and usually very quiet and goes about his business,” Coolbaugh wrote in a text message. “I’ve known him since he was 16. Offensively, he is very capable of being a threat versus right-handed pitching and is less versus left-handed pitching. His biggest issue is that he has slowed down defensively with range and speed. Very accurate with his arm but slow to transfer.

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.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Orioles outfielder Anthony Santander is leaving camp on March 6 to join Team Venezuela in Miami for the World Baseball Classic. He’s jumping into a talent-heavy roster that includes Ronald Acuña Jr., Jose Altuve, Luis Arraez, Miguel Cabrera, Andrés Giménez, Gleyber Torres and Salvador Perez. He also can reunite with former Orioles catcher Robinson Chirinos, who remains a free agent.

Which team is better, the Orioles or Venezuela?

“Oh, that’s a tough question, man,” Santander said, smiling. “I think both are kind of the same. Yeah.”  

Santander mentioned an “MVP-caliber player” on his WBC team. Is Santander that guy?

“Could be, yeah,” he said, smiling again.

SARASOTA, Fla. – The Orioles re-signed catcher Anthony Bemboom to a split contract in October, removing him from minor league free agency and putting him on the 40-man roster, and outrighted him to Triple-A a few weeks later. Go ahead and compete for the backup job, but as a non-roster invite to spring training. We’re saying there’s still a chance.

The flurry of catcher activity in the offseason suddenly left the Orioles with six of them on the 40-man, but they whittled it to one before trading for veteran James McCann, who’s under team control for the next two seasons.

The hurdles for Bemboom became much taller. McCann is the overwhelming favorite to break camp with the team, and no one is replacing Adley Rutschman. Only an injury could disrupt the plan.

As if a catcher would ever get hurt in camp. Be real.

Bemboom wasn’t blindsided by the Orioles’ interest in keeping him in the organization. They were transparent about it.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Orioles chairman and CEO John Angelos granted a rare and lengthy interview with beat writers this morning next to the bullpen area on the back fields at the Ed Smith Stadium complex.

The session lasted 37 minutes and covered topics such as payroll, the work toward a new stadium lease, how Angelos, executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias and manager Brandon Hyde are here “for the long haul," how there's no intention of changing principal ownership, how the Orioles “are always going to be in Baltimore,” the conclusion of his family’s litigation, and a promise to share the financials with the media in spring training.

The workout became secondary.

The scrum was unplanned and just evolved. Angelos and wife Margaret Valentine were visiting the complex when approached by reporters. This was the fourth time that he spoke with a group of Baltimore media members since Elias’ introductory presser in November 2018.

Angelos declined a five-year extension on the current stadium lease that expires Dec. 31. He expressed confidence that a new and substantial deal will get done over the summer.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Orioles spring training is entering its fourth day of workouts for pitchers, catchers and most of the position players who aren’t actually due until Monday.

The first day was hectic based on the injury news relayed by executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias – reliever Dillon Tate’s pending placement on the injured list with a strained flexor/forearm and possible absence through April qualifying as the biggie.

The second day was uneventful, as you’d expect under normal circumstances. And we’re back to normal for the first time since early 2020.

Can't help but notice it.

Adley Rutschman caught Grayson Rodriguez’s bullpen session, with photos and videos plastered all over social media. We know our audience.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Cedric Mullins, Anthony Santander and Dean Kremer will be leaving Orioles camp in a few weeks to get ready for the World Baseball Classic. They got together this morning on the Camden Yards replica field and played their own game.

Kremer threw live batting practice to Mullins and Santander, providing one of the most interesting scenes from the first three days of spring training workouts.

You can only watch so many bullpen sessions.

Mullins drove Kremer’s final pitch over the right field fence and the batting cage beyond it. Some observers gasped and hollered, but Mullins downplayed his achievement, saying Kremer told him what was coming.

An impressive blast, nonetheless.

SARASOTA, Fla. – With his fourth bullpen session completed, the intensity level on a gradual increase, Orioles closer Félix Bautista is gaining confidence that he’ll break camp with the team and be ready to pitch on Opening Day in Boston.

Bautista didn’t begin throwing until last month. The Orioles placed him on a rehab program for his left knee and worked to strengthen a right shoulder that became fatigued in September.

The delays in getting back on a mound put into question whether Bautista would be included in their eight-man bullpen.  

“Thank God I feel really good,” he said this morning via interpreter Brandon Quinones. “I don’t feel like I have any setbacks, I don’t feel any discomfort or pain in my shoulder or knee, so as right now I hope that I’ll be ready for opening day. I really do.”

Dillon Tate might miss the first month with a strained right flexor/forearm strain, and losing Bautista would strike another potentially damaging blow. Bautista threw again yesterday and headed back indoors, optimistic about his progress and the outlook for his spring training.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Seth Johnson has a locker inside the Orioles' spring training clubhouse, his seat at one end of a row that includes veteran Kyle Gibson and heralded rookies Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall. Johnson is on the 40-man roster and various organizational top-prospect lists, placing 10^th in the most recent rankings from MLBPipeline.com, 12^th on Prospects150 – which describes his upside as “immense”- and 16^th by The Athletic.

Where you won’t find Johnson after the Orioles break camp is on an affiliate’s roster. He can’t pitch following his Tommy John surgery in August, two days after they acquired him from the Rays in a three-team trade that sent clubhouse leader and inspiration Trey Mancini to the Astros.

The Orioles obviously knew of the pending procedure, which likely made him available, along with the deep pitching in Tampa Bay’s system, and deemed him as worth the wait.

Many baseball insiders regarded him as a steal.

Johnson, a 24-year-old right-hander and 40^th overall pick in the 2019 draft out of Campbell University, the same North Carolina school that produced center fielder Cedric Mullins, had a hunch that he might be traded. But he also knew the unique circumstances, his elbow injury hardly an industry secret, could dissuade some teams from pursuing him.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Being two days into workouts prevents Orioles manager Brandon Hyde from identifying many rock-solid certainties, including roles for some pitchers who are in the starters mix. However, it isn’t too soon for him to wonder how he’s going to replace Félix Bautista if the big right-hander isn’t on the opening day roster.

Bautista threw a bullpen session earlier today, but he’s on a rehabilitation program for the left knee that he injured in late September, and the Orioles are working to strengthen his right shoulder after a bout with fatigue that limited his use down the stretch.

Whether Bautista is in Boston on March 30 depends on more than his health. He must reach an innings total that satisfies the Orioles after being withheld from earlier exhibition games.

“He could be able to break for Opening Day,” executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias said yesterday, “depending on how much of a ramp-up we’re able to get him.”

Bautista became the Orioles’ saves leader with 15 after they traded Jorge López to the Twins at the deadline. López totaled 19 during his first All-Star season.

SARASOTA, Fla. – The wave of injury news yesterday that dampened an otherwise energetic atmosphere surrounding the first workout for pitchers and catchers, and a return to spring training normalcy after three years of chaos, didn’t carry DL Hall out of the Orioles’ opening day plans.

Not in Hall’s mind, anyway.

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias revealed that Hall began experiencing soreness in his lower right lumbar area about three weeks ago, putting the rookie behind other pitchers in camp. Not as serious as Dillon Tate’s strained right flexor/forearm that could cost him the first month of the season. Perhaps not as threatening as Félix Bautista’s rehab on his left knee and work to strengthen his right shoulder that might limit his innings to where he can’t break camp with the team. But a red flag nonetheless when it’s raised above one of the top pitching prospects.

Hall said this morning that he felt “some minor discomfort” in his lower back. “Nothing too crazy.”

“Obviously, I’m already on the way back up,” he said. “I’ve already started back throwing and everything. I just shut down for a couple weeks. I’m good to go now.”

SARASOTA, Fla. – Tyler Wells lost about 20 pounds during the offseason and gained a fiancée last month. Two big wins for the right-hander before he stepped onto a mound.

Wells proposed to girlfriend Melissa after taking a deep breath captured on video, the only evidence of his nervousness. He knew that she’d accept, but the moment still threatened to overwhelm him.

As he's done in his professional life, Wells came through in the clutch.

Prone to what he called “stress eating,” Wells said his weight ballooned to 275 pounds before a stricter devotion to conditioning, inspired also by his two stops on the injured list in 2022, enabled him to recapture his 38-inch waist.

The former Rule 5 pick wants to hold onto his rotation spot but insists that he hasn’t sized up the competition.  

SARASOTA, Fla. – The Orioles implemented a policy under their new regime that eliminated public consumption of the contract statuses of their front office and manager. Brandon Hyde has entered his option year after his hiring in December 2018, but anything beyond it remains under wraps.  

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias, who’s believed to be working under a five-year deal handed out a month before he selected Hyde, also is unwilling to share any details. However, he offered more hints this morning about their long-term futures in Baltimore.

Asked specifically about Hyde, Elias said, “It’s an area that for better or for worse, I don’t believe it’s in the club’s interests, in anyone working here’s interests, to know the expiration dates on the contracts of our baseball ops employees. That includes him.

“I think you can look at the job that we’ve done rebuilding this team and I know he and I are very proud of it. Obviously, we have an outstanding working relationship so far that’s been very successful, in my opinion, and productive for the team, and I think that people are, for better or worse, going to have to get used to he and I here for a while. I think we’re going to have a lot of success going forward, and he’s done a great job and I was glad to see him get some recognition last year.

“I also was very proud of the fact that, for maybe the first time in recent baseball history, we’ve had the same manager from the beginning of a rebuild through the point of competition, and I think that says a lot and is something he doesn’t get enough credit for.”

SARASOTA, Fla. – The opening day roster projections in Orioles camp took a huge hit before players filtered onto the back fields for the first workout with pitchers and catchers.

Reliever Dillon Tate will begin the season on the injured list after straining his right flexor/forearm in November. The explanation for why he isn’t pitching in the World Baseball Classic.

Closer Félix Bautista is questionable for opening day because he’s been rehabbing his left knee all winter and immersed in a strengthening program for his right shoulder, which will keep him out of games until later in spring training.

Left-hander DL Hall also is going to be slow-played in camp after experiencing lower right lumbar discomfort about three weeks ago.

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias began this morning’s media session by listing the injuries and trying to offer projections on time missed.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Now it’s getting serious.

Stories will be filed from Florida camps, beginning with this morning’s hour-long media access inside the clubhouse at the Ed Smith Stadium complex. Executive vice president/general manger Mike Elias and manager Brandon Hyde will be available before the first workout with pitchers and catchers.

The Birdland Caravan provided early access to Elias, Hyde and many of the players who would draw crowds at their lockers.

Other topics for them will develop later. I’m interested in getting some of the guys who didn’t make it to Maryland and the breweries.

Newly engaged Tyler Wells is staying on a starter’s routine but with no promises that he’s in the rotation. What are his expectations? How would he handle a switch back to the bullpen after he went through the process of converting from Rule 5 relief to starter – and impressing over the first half before the first of his two injuries?