4 key Spring Training takeaways for Orioles

When baseball went on hold, along with much of the world, due to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, the Orioles were in the process of learning about themselves ahead of the 2020 season.

• Each club's key takeaway from Spring Training

Let's refresh some of those lessons given everything else happening recently, with the hope that they’ll remain true once the team reconvenes in official capacity.

The kids are all right … but not ready yet
With half of the club’s Top 30 prospects, per MLB Pipeline, in camp, glimpses of the Orioles’ future were plentiful. That was especially true early, with regards to Ryan Mountcastle's power, Dean Kremer's ability to miss bats, Adley Rutschman's all-around ability and others' tools apparent. But the struggles even the higher-level prospects eventually underwent as the Grapefruit League schedule went on, drove home the reality that, at this point in the rebuild, patience is still required.

Austin Hays and Hunter Harvey arrived in camp with Major League jobs all but assured, and still have them once play resumes. Mountcastle, Keegan Akin, Kremer, potentially Yusniel Díaz and others are expected to be in Baltimore by season’s end. But the fact that none made a real run at the Opening Day roster underscored how there is still seasoning required.

Want a better ‘pen? Improve from within
The odd truth about the Orioles’ bullpen is that, for a unit that struggled so often a year ago, there really weren’t many jobs to win heading into camp. We count two at the most, since new roster expansion rules limit pitching staffs to eight-man bullpens, which for Baltimore figures to consist of Mychal Givens, Harvey, Miguel Castro, Paul Fry, Shawn Armstrong, Richard Bleier … and two others.

That lack of flexibility forced the Orioles to return Rule 5 Draft picks Brandon Bailey and Michael Rucker to their former clubs before giving them real looks, and all but guarantees the O's will use one of the remaining spots on a longman-type like Tommy Milone or Hector Velázquez. It also means that when it comes to getting outs late in the game, manager Brandon Hyde is most often going to return to holdovers to do so. He simply has no other choice.

“I hope guys improve from last year’s experiences, and I hope we have guys pushing others too,” Hyde said in early March. “To be honest with you, I think sometimes our bullpen guys last year were trying too hard at times. I just want guys who can compete. I want as much competition as possible to push other people.”

Grab a glove, or four
Upon taking the job two winters ago, general manager and executive vice president Mike Elias hinted at the idea of position-less baseball, speaking generally about a world where traditional labels didn’t matter and players were athletic enough to play all over the field. A few months later, Stevie Wilkerson arrived in camp joking (or was he?) that he brought 10 gloves with him, a natural infielder not knowing at the time he’d spend much of the summer in center field. Versatility was all the rage in Baltimore in 2019, as it was many places across baseball.

But this spring brought it to another level. The Orioles opened camp with 24 non-catcher position players; 17 had played multiple positions and nine could play either infield or outfield. They then went out and claimed the versatile Ramón Urías and Andrew Velazquez off waivers, and closed camp with seven legitimate utility players still in the fold. In the process, versatility turned from a hot commodity to the hottest position battle in camp.

Sometimes, it’s bigger than baseball
The Orioles learned that twice in the span of two hours on Thursday, when MLB suspended Spring Training due to coronavirus concerns and it was revealed that Trey Mancini had undergone surgery to remove a malignant tumor in his colon. The O's will learn more about Mancini’s status in the days and weeks to come, after lab results on the tumor come back and a treatment plan is outlined.

Mancini is the face of the franchise and their undisputed best player who was growing into a clubhouse leader. No matter how long this keeps him off the field, it’s clear his health status will hang over the Orioles’ entire season, both until and when baseball resumes again.

“I think we’re going to have a lot more information on Trey and the outlook and the timeline soon, and we will certainly provide all of that information once it becomes available and fully understood, but I can say that he’s doing really well,” Elias said Friday. “I think his procedure, and where he’s at right now, is about as positive as possible with his spirits and his physical feeling right now, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed and take this as it comes. But he’s doing really well and the operation went very well.”