Hello, friends.
The Orioles just can’t let us feel good about them for long, huh? The vibes were great yesterday afternoon around the Shane Baz contract extension, with excitement for the near future of the team from the front office and from a good number of the players. If only they could have sustained those good vibes through even one more game after that. Instead, the Orioles turned in a stinker of a 4-1 loss to the Twins to fall to 1-1 on the year. Check out my recap of the game for more of the not-so-lovely totals.
Anybody who is my age or younger has been prepared for this kind of thing by a lifetime of being Orioles fans. Nothing good lasts for long and plenty of times things have come along within 24 hours to squash fun vibes. This is only the latest example. Baz has the opportunity to bring the good vibes back here this afternoon, if he can turn in a good outing in his first game in an Orioles uniform.
It’s still kind of wild for me to think about, but Baz got that contract extension before ever throwing a pitch for the team. Mike Elias really likes this guy. This is not a guarantee of success. Sometimes Elias likes guys based on thinking they’ll be better than they have been and it doesn’t work out that way. Sometimes he likes guys based on thinking they’ll be about what they have been in the past and that doesn’t work out either. The guy has a solid track record overall, but there are glaring gaps and one of those is building a quality starting rotation.
Getting Baz locked up could be the first sign of starting to bring some stability into that group. Getting way ahead of ourselves, just based on who has major league experience and will still be available to the Orioles next year, they’ve got Kyle Bradish, Baz, and Dean Kremer. That’s potentially not a bad 60% of a rotation. If one of the team’s pitching prospects can fill a spot better than the previous wave’s guys like Cade Povich and Brandon Young did, then there’s only one hole to fill. That’s a whole lot better than having to sign two guys and trade for a third guy every winter.
Of course, two games into this 2026 season, there hasn’t been too much cause for worrying about the rotation yet. It’s an offense that’s not looking like much has changed from the last season and a half worth of Orioles baseball that feels like a problem. You can make excuses for this if you want, particularly yesterday when it was the 10th-coldest game start temperature in Oriole Park at Camden Yards history. Warmer weather is coming as soon as today, so this excuse pretty much expired already. Until they do enough to change the story, it’s the same story.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
You know who wants to talk some about the Shane Baz press conference? Everybody whose job it is to cover the Orioles on a regular basis.
More extensions coming? Rubenstein says O’s are ‘open for business’ (Orioles.com)
Orioles celebrate Shane Baz extension (School of Roch)
Baz says Orioles extension was ‘no-brainer’ (Baltimore Baseball)
After Baz, Basallo, who could be next? (The Baltimore Sun)
Different days in Birdland: Baz extension followed Basallo, Alonso contracts (Steve on Baseball)
By doubling down on Shane Baz, the Orioles can turn their rotation into a long-term strength (The Baltimore Banner)
There really is a lot to digest about it. Yes, it’s a further sign that something different is happening now than we got accustomed to with contracts before Rubenstein took over. It shows that the Orioles might actually invest in their rotation. There is hope for extensions for any non-Boras client who the O’s deem worth it. It seems like there is excitement both in the Orioles clubhouse and front office for these things happening. That’s all cool. It would just be a lot more cool if they built on these good feelings with how they played on the field yesterday.
Joseph Dzierwa headlines the Orioles next wave of pitching prospects (Baseball America)
Subscription required for this one. The pitcher had a phenomenal appearance in the Spring Breakout game and if he carries that forward into the minor league season, that’s going to get mighty interesting in a hurry.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
The Orioles last won a game on this day just last year, when they beat the Blue Jays, 9-5, to improve to 2-1 for the season. Just four of the seventeen players who appeared for the Orioles that day are on the 26-man roster right now. Jordan Westburg had four hits, including a pair of homers.
One lone former Oriole was born on this day: 1989-91 infielder Juan Bell. He passed away in 2016 at the age of 48.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: 10th president John Tyler (1790), baseball Hall of Famer Cy Young (1867), actress Amy Sedaris (1961), model Elle Macpherson (1964), and actress Lucy Lawless (1968).
On this day in history…
In 1461, the two sides of England’s Wars of the Roses fought the Battle of Towton. The York contingent, led by Edward, defeated the Lancastrian force of Queen Margaret, leading to Edward being crowned as Edward IV and the wars being interrupted for nine years.
In 1847, during the Mexican-American War, American military forces captured the city of Veracruz following a siege.
In 1961, upon ratification by the state of Ohio, the Twenty-third Amendment to the Constitution, which grants electoral votes to the District of Columbia, took effect. Maryland was seventh to ratify, about two months earlier.
In 1971, Lt. William Calley was convicted of 22 counts of premeditated murder for his role in the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam three years earlier. He served three days in prison before being released to house arrest under order of President Nixon, and ultimately served three years of house arrest for these murders.
In 1984, the Mayflower vans pulled out from the Baltimore Colts facility, marking the end of the Baltimore Colts and the beginning of the Indianapolis team that bears the same name.
A random Orioles trivia question
I received a random book of Orioles trivia questions for Christmas. I’ll ask a question each time it’s my turn in this space until I run out of questions or forget. It’s probably going to be run out of questions. Since I’m skipping stupid questions, repeat questions, and questions about the St. Louis Browns (it’s not a good book of trivia), we’re already up to 77, which is this:
Who had the lowest earned run average on the 1970 Orioles staff?
I will add the hint that this is inclusive of relievers.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on March 29. Have a safe Sunday. Go O’s!
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