Drew Rom and a host of non-roster pitchers scheduled to take the mound for spring opener

SARASOTA, Fla. – The Orioles' 2023 spring training schedule begins today at Ed Smith Stadium. They host the Minnesota Twins at 1:05 this afternoon to begin a Grapefruit League schedule that runs through March 27 in advance of the club’s March 30th regular-season opener at Boston.

So the battle for rotation spots and pitching staff jobs takes another step today with the start of spring games. While veterans like Cole Irvin and Kyle Gibson – barring injury – almost certainly have a starting-five spot secure, there are a host of others battling for only three other spots.

There are more strong candidates than just three for those jobs, including Grayson Rodriguez, Kyle Bradish, Dean Kremer, Tyler Wells and DL Hall. And then there are Spenser Watkins, who made 20 O’s starts last year, Austin Voth, who made 17, and Bruce Zimmermann, who took the mound as a starter 13 times.

On Thursday night I hosted the "Orioles Hot Stove" radio show on WBAL and one of the guests was assistant pitching coach Darren Holmes, who is beginning his fourth season with the club and third in his current role.

Holmes said the entire pitching staff seemed to report in pretty good shape, and all did good work on their games and pitches over the winter.

I asked Holmes how deep starters could go in the very early spring training games.

“Some will go two, some will go three (innings),” he said. “Some guys have been, you know, doing sides and some live BPs. We will push a couple of guys back a little bit just to give them a bit more runway. But, I mean, everybody is ready.

“The first couple of games are going to be a lot of our young guys, our minor league guys in the first two or three games, and then we'll get more of our big league guys in there as they progress through.

“So you will see a lot of minor league guys early on that we want to see. They are out there battling and some could have a chance to make our team. We want to look at them.”

I asked Holmes how deep the starters will likely be pitching by the end of spring.

“I mean, to finish spring you want your guys at at least five-plus innings, hoping to get into six innings. That is where we’d like to see them," he said on WBAL. "I believe we are on track for that right now, and maybe even six-plus. There are some guys that could go six-plus as we get to the end of that."

Lefty Drew Rom is today’s scheduled starter for the Orioles. Rom, who has yet to pitch in the majors, went a combined 8-3 with a 4.43 ERA in 120 innings between Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Norfolk in 2022. He ended the year with seven starts for the Tides, going 1-1 with a 4.54 ERA. In his first four games after joining Norfolk, his ERA was 1.66.

The Orioles added Rom to the 40-man roster last November, and he is currently the organization’s No. 24 prospect, according to Baseball America, which has ranked him as high as No. 15. That was in 2020.

The club drafted the southpaw in round four in 2018 out of a high school in Fort Thomas, Ky., near Cincinnati. Rom, 23, is 25-9 with a 3.41 ERA over his minor league career.

Among others scheduled to pitch today are right-hander Morgan McSweeney, the club’s 17th-round selection in the 2019 draft out of Wake Forest. In 38 games last season between Double-A and Triple-A, McSweeney, whose fastball can sit in the mid-90s, went 5-4 with a 4.05 ERA and .236 opponents' batting average.

Right-hander Eduard Bazardo is also listed to pitch. The O’s signed the 27-year-old Bazardo on Dec. 19 as a minor league free agent. In very limited time - just 19 1/3 innings over the 2021 and 2022 seasons - he has good major league numbers. The Venezuelan is 1-0 with a 2.33 ERA as a big leaguer, with six walks, 14 strikeouts and 0.983 WHIP. His fastball has averaged 94.1 mph in his big league outings.   

Tune in today: Today's game and tomorrow's game at Lakeland against Detroit, will be broadcast live on WBAL Radio and 98 Rock, beginning at 1 p.m. Join me and Brett Hollander for the coverage this weekend from spring training.