SARASOTA, Fla. – No one in the Orioles organization is enjoying Colton Cowser’s hot start in exhibition games more than teammate and friend Heston Kjerstad, who doesn’t ponder how it might impact his own chances of making the Opening Day roster. Kjerstad isn’t wired that way. He wants everyone to be electric, to put up good numbers. And he remains

JUPITER, Fla. – This wasn’t Tanner Rainey’s return from Tommy John surgery. That came late last September, when he tossed a scoreless inning in Atlanta as a reward for all the time and effort he put in over the previous year-plus. What was the significance of Rainey’s 1-2-3 inning today at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium? Consider it his return to a n

SARASOTA, Fla. – Orioles leadoff hitter Jackson Holliday swung at the second pitch from Paul Skenes today and grounded to second baseman Nick Gonzales. The first-overall pick in the 2022 draft retired by the first-overall pick in the 2023 draft, with the assist going to the seventh-overall selection in 2020. And after catcher Henry Davis, the top s

JUPITER, Fla. – It’s not unusual for former players to speak to the Nationals and offer advice to the organization’s younger up-and-comers. Certainly not this spring, which has seen Ryan Zimmerman spend a week at camp and Sean Doolittle and Gerardo Parra take on full-time coaching positions. But those are all former Nationals, guys with distinct co

SARASOTA, Fla. – The Orioles might not be a last-chance stop for pitcher Julio Teheran and second baseman Kolten Wong. However, they’re grateful to be detached from the free-agent market and the uncertainty in their futures, and hope to seize the opportunity as late arrivals in camp. Their minor league deals became official yesterday and they found

JUPITER, Fla. – The temperature has slowly been rising each day this week, to the point where it’s starting to become a little bit steamy down here. It could crack 80 degrees this afternoon, with some humidity, when the Nationals face the Cardinals at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. This is the Nats’ sixth exhibition game, and for the sixth straight

SARASOTA, Fla. – Jackson Holliday is playing second base again and leading off this afternoon against the Pirates’ Paul Skenes, pitting the 2022 first-overall draft pick against the 2023 first-overall selection. The hype keeps building. Adley Rutschman, the first-overall selection in 2019, is catching and batting directly behind Holliday. Heston Kj

If there is one computer projection that seems consistently confounded by the Orioles, it is PECOTA. From Baseball Prospectus, that stands for Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm. PECOTA is the Baseball Prospectus proprietary system that projects player (and also team) performance based on comparison with historical player s

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Matt Barnes, born and raised in New England, spent the first nine years of his big league career pitching for the Red Sox. So why not continue to make his home in Connecticut, even during the offseason? Winters in the Northeast, of course, require some creativity for ballplayers who want to stay in shape. So it was that Barn

SARASOTA, Fla. – The Orioles are back home this afternoon to play the Pirates, with baseball’s No. 3 prospect, Paul Skenes, starting opposite Corbin Burnes. Yes, everyone is primed for the expected Skenes-Jackson Holliday matchup - the first-overall picks in the last two drafts going head-to-head. A potential sneak peek of the Spring Breakout game