A few thoughts as Orioles welcome pitchers and catchers into camp

Report day has arrived for Orioles pitchers and catchers. No media access until Thursday morning, but spring training is underway.

Players are taking their physicals, a process that probably started earlier with the group that beat the deadline. The first official workout is Thursday but the fields and cages aren’t off-limits.

John Means said his first half-mound session is Monday, so we’ll have to wait.

I can’t wait for the next person to ask, “So, when do you leave for spring break?”

Let me put this as succinctly as possible, and in the spirit intended. It is not spring break. I am not chugging beers through a funnel and dancing on the beach at Siesta Key.

All of that happens back in my room.

Yes, it’s watching baseball in sunny (mostly) Sarasota, but it’s also setting the alarm to go off every morning while it’s still pitch-black outside. It’s working all day, seven days a week. It’s being away from home, and loved ones, for a really long time. It’s driving all over the state of Florida after the fake games begin.

You think that you’re going to hell if you sin? Wrong. Someone hands you a map to Dunedin.

Enjoy getting from Clearwater to Sarasota in rush hour traffic. See you in three days. Pack some provisions. Be sure to stay hydrated, but also carry an empty Snapple bottle.

You’ll know why when it’s time.

Enjoy the retired employees at the Yankees facility in Tampa who act like they’re working in the Bronx and demand bodily fluids, which they’ll enthusiastically extract from you, before confirming that you’re allowed into the media parking lot.

I suggest MMA training before you fight for the two available seats in the Bradenton press box. North Port is now the second-shortest drive, but the Orioles play only one game on the Braves’ home turf and it’s a split-squad that will be ignored because there’s also a game at Ed Smith Stadium at the exact same time.

Port Charlotte is the third-shortest trek but the Rays moved their games to Tropicana Field, so that’s also out.

But I digress …

I’ll concede that it does become routine in a short amount of time. The early wakeups, the videoing of bullpen sessions and fielding practices, the in-game hustling from the press box to the interview area outside the baseball operations building and ensuing attempts to get caught up on what was missed, the Publix runs, the six-week membership to LA Fitness and phone calls later to remind them that the contract clearly stated it would end after I returned home, the stressful choices between upscale and dive bars.

I’m the Ramón Urías of bar patrons, coveted for my versatility.

Speaking of Urías, he was excited to play for Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic. He talked about the thrill of joining his brother Luis of the Brewers. And then the rosters were announced and Ramón didn’t make it.

He’ll be asked about it after he reports to camp, where he’ll now remain throughout spring training rather than leaving for the WBC.

Dillon Tate was supposed to pitch for Team USA. He talked about it during Sunday’s caravan stop in Odenton. But he’s also missing from the roster.

“WBC’s, it’s an honor to be selected to that and I’m looking forward to it and I’m thankful, really,” Tate said at Crooked Crab Brewing Company.

So what happened? More on that later.

WBC or no WBC, Tate is focused on the 2023 season and building on what the Orioles accomplished, quite unexpectedly, the previous summer.

“I think everybody’s just looking forward to taking it up a notch,” he said. “We did exactly what we needed to do last year and I felt like our presence was felt amongst the division and other teams in baseball, so I think they know that we mean business. It’s just time to take it up another notch.”

Tate is one of the bullpen locks with Félix Bautista, Mychal Givens, Cionel Pérez and Bryan Baker, returning to a unit that far exceeded industry expectations with the ninth-lowest ERA in baseball.

The slate is clean in 2023. Can’t live off last summer’s accomplishments.

“I think for a lot of us it’s just building off what we did the previous year but at the same time looking forward and pushing forward and not being too far in the past,” Tate said.

“2022 was a good year and it’s done, and now this is the only year that really matters.”

Givens’ return should be impactful, providing the Orioles with a durable reliever who’s a big strikeout guy and accustomed to life in the American League East.

“I think he just gives us that veteran presence in the bullpen,” Tate said. “I think we saw that with the starting rotation when we had Jordan Lyles, and now we have that piece in the bullpen. Just that veteran presence, that veteran leadership I think is going to be important to us.”