Another look at possible Opening Day lineup and O's bullpen depth

It's getting closer and closer with each day that goes by. The start of the 2025 baseball season. We can now say spring training begins next month. The first spring game is set for Feb. 22 and Opening Day is March 27 at 3:07 p.m. at Rogers Centre, where the O's will play the Toronto Blue Jays. 

With the Blue Jays for now projecting an all right-handed rotation and the O's possibly to face Kevin Gausman or José Berríos in that opener, I took a look recently in this space at a possible O's lineup for Game 1.

This is what I came up with:

SS – Gunnar Henderson
3B – Jordan Westburg
DH – Ryan O’Hearn
RF – Tyler O’Neill
1B – Ryan Mountcastle
LF – Colton Cowser
C – Adley Rutschman
CF – Cedric Mullins
2B – Jackson Holliday

For now I don't see anyone better to put in the top spot than Henderson. At some point in his career he will probably move more into the middle of the order. But I don't think we are there yet. Readers, many of you, seemed to like Westburg being moved up to the No. 2 spot. He batted mostly fifth last year and could hit just about anywhere. He had an .808 OPS last season versus righty pitching.

This lineup leaves Heston Kjerstad out (just for one day, though) and no doubt he projects to get a lot of starts this season, especially against right-handers. And yes, most readers did not agree that Rutschman should fall to No. 7, even after his rough 2024 second half.

I still see a pretty solid lineup here and like the speed it would show at the bottom and top of the lineup.  

As for the 'pen: The O's bullpen looks pretty formidable right now with the recent signing of right-hander Andrew Kittredge and the return of All-Star closer Félix Bautista.

We can now project an Opening Day 'pen of eight that features the club welcoming back Bautista. From the right side, there is also Kittredge, Yennier Cano, Seranthony Domínguez and a long man in Albert Suárez, who right now projects more in the ‘pen than rotation.

From the left side the O’s have Keegan Akin, coming off his big 2024 year, along with Gregory Soto and Cionel Pérez.

The club will clearly be careful and cautious early on with Bautista coming back from Tommy John surgery. If he returns to previous form, that would be huge for this team. Remember, the guy has a 1.85 ERA, 0.924 WHIP with 14.1 strikeouts per nine innings in two major league seasons. At his best, he is among the best closers in the game. He was an All-Star in 2023, when he finished 11^th for the American League Cy Young Award.

The team also has some flamethrowers for that bullpen to go with Bautista, who, when last seen in 2023, was throwing his fastball 99.5 mph on average. There is also this group with their averages from last year:

97.9 mph – Seranthony Domínguez

97.8 mph – Gregory Soto

96.6 mph – Yennier Cano

96.5 mph – Cionel Pérez

Each of the eight projected to be in this year's bullpen has recorded at least one career big league save. Soto, an All-Star in 2021 and 2022, has 55 career saves, Bautista has 48, Domínguez has 38, Kittredge 16 and Cano 13. So there are some options if the club cannot use Bautista as often as they would like early on this season.

Right now, the lineup looks pretty solid, and so does the bullpen, two key units to count on for this coming year.