A look at the potential of the O's offense

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde has said he believes his team will score some runs and has some real upside on offense. He's got a point, with players like Austin Hays, Ryan Mountcastle, Trey Mancini and Anthony Santander.

You can add to that the speed of Cedric Mullins and the hope to get some offense out of other spots that would exceed what was produced there last year.

Here is a look at where the Orioles ranked by position last year in OPS in the American League and I'll list which player or players started the most games at those spots. Surprisingly, they ranked first in two spots.

First base: .654, which was 15th and last in the AL. Renato Núñez started 28 and Chris Davis 13 games.

Second base: .761, which was fourth. Hanser Alberto started 48 games.

Shortstop: .785, which was fourth. José Iglesias started 22 games and Andrew Velazquez 19.

Third base: .698, which was 11th. Rio Ruiz led with 50 starts at third.

Catcher: .683, which was eighth. Pedro Severino started 32 games and Chance Sisco 22.

Left field: .771, which was fifth. Mountcastle had 23 starts and Dwight Smith Jr. 14.

Center field: .678, which was 13th. Mullins started 36 and Hays 20.

Right field: .928, which was first. Santander started 35 and DJ Stewart 20 games.

Designated hitter: .796, which was first. Núñez with 21 starts and next was Iglesias with 13.

The 2019 Orioles, playing 162 games, ranked 11th in the AL in runs (729); 12th in average (.246), OBP (.310) and slugging (.415); and 13th in OPS (.725).

The 2020 Orioles, playing 60 games, ranked third in average (.258), sixth in slugging (.429), seventh in OPS (.750), eighth in OBP (.321) and tied for eighth in runs scored (.274).

The 2019 Orioles averaged 4.50 runs per game and the 2020 team was at 4.57. And after ranking 11th and eighth in runs the past two years, I would think this O's edition should rank middle of the pack in the AL in runs, maybe a bit above that. They don't seem likely to challenge the best-hitting clubs in the league, but should separate themselves by a good margin from the bottom of the league on offense.

The 2020 Orioles had big offensive numbers when facing National League teams in 20 games, producing an OPS of .837. And much more modest numbers in their 40 games versus the AL East at .704. They'll play more games versus the NL East this year, of course, but also a much lower percentage of their schedule will be within the division.

The hope would be this team gets solid production on offense from DH, first base and the outfield. Freddy Galvis has a .707 OPS over his past three years. That would be well shy of what the O's got at short last summer. Maikel Franco averaged a .752 OPS over his last three years. If he got the bulk of the starts at third this year and produced that, it would be a big upgrade from last year. If Pat Valaika gets a lot of starts at second, and who knows how that will play out, they could upgrade the offense there. The catchers should be able to at least produce .683 again. That is not a high bar.

If Hays stays healthy all year, and if the O's outfielders and Mancini stay on the field, this club should put up some runs. Last year, Mancini, Santander and Mountcastle never played together because Mancini was out all year. Now they could spend most of six months together in the lineup.

It could be fun to watch.

Rays and Jays win openers: The AL East leaders after Thursday are the Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays at 1-0.

Tampa Bay opened defense of its American League title beating Miami 1-0 in a game that featured just eight hits. Four Rays hurlers combined on a three-hitter with nine strikeouts. Starter Tyler Glasnow allowed just one hit in six innings on 76 pitches.

Austin Meadows hit a solo homer in the eighth. The 419-foot blast produced the game's only run. The Rays are now 12-12 all-time in openers and 11-1 in their last 12 games against Miami since July 22, 2018.

Toronto beat the New York Yankees 3-2 in 10 innings. The limited attendance crowd was a sellout of 10,850 at Yankee Stadium. It was New York's first opening day extra-inning game since 1987. Both starters, Hyun-Jin Ryu of Toronto and New York's Gerrit Cole, allowed two runs over 5 1/3 innings.

Randal Grichuk's RBI double in the top of the 10th broke the 2-2 tie. In the last of the 10th, Toronto right-hander Julian Merryweather struck out the side, getting Aaron Hicks, Giancarlo Stanton and Gleyber Torres. Merryweeather's slider was plus and his fastball touched 99 mph, as he needed just 11 pitches to end the game.