SARASOTA, Fla. -- Echoing comments he’s made for years regarding the Orioles’ long-term future in Baltimore, team chairman and CEO John Angelos reiterated the club isn’t going anywhere. 

“The team would never move,” Angelos said on 105.7 The Fan on Wednesday night. “It will never move. It’s here. It’s here forever. It’s been here for 66-odd years. It will be here for 66 more or longer.”

Angelos added: “What I can say without any speculation, I’ve said it before, is the Orioles will never leave Baltimore. No one in this partnership group, who are local, homegrown folks, would allow that to happen or would want that to happen, and that will not happen.”

Rumors of potential relocation have popped up since principal owner Peter Angelos, 91, fell into declining health several years ago, spawned by uncertainty over the club’s future ownership. MLB owners voted to designate John Angelos as the Orioles' “control person” in November, officially transitioning leadership of the team he and his older brother, Louis, had been overseeing for some time.

Meanwhile, John Angelos has repeatedly tamped down talk of relocation, famously promising a luncheon of city business leaders in 2019 the Orioles would stay in Baltimore “as long as Fort McHenry is standing watch over the Inner Harbor.”

This past November, O’s executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias wrote “there is nothing uncertain about the future of your Orioles in Baltimore” in a letter to season ticket holders. The O’s and the Maryland Stadium Authority recently extended the lease at Oriole Park through 2023, in an agreement widely characterized as a placeholder until the two sides can negotiate a longer deal.

On the radio Wednesday, Angelos spoke of plans to “enhance” the stadium in a plan he called “Camden Yards 2.0,” outlining a vision for the almost 30-year-old stadium to remain a destination “for the next 30 years.”

“There’s no sense in doing a five- or 10-year extension, because what that tends to do, because we’re all human, is we all put it on the back shelf for the first two, three, four or five years,” Angelos said. “That’s going to let things deteriorate. This partnership is too important to Baltimore, too important to the economy of Maryland. We’re going to reinvest, we’re all going to carry the load, and we’re going to get it done, and this just gives us the runway to do that.”

From the game
The Orioles got their first in-game look of the spring at rotation candidate Dean Kremer, their No. 10 prospect per MLB Pipeline, early in their 6-3 win over the Red Sox on Thursday at Ed Smith Stadium. Kremer threw 39 pitches to 10 batters over 1 2/3 innings in his spring debut, allowing three runs on three hits, two walks and one strikeout. The 25-year-old righty is eyeing a strong spring after he went 1-1 with a 4.82 ERA in four starts as a rookie down the stretch last season.

• Things went more smoothly for rookie left-hander Bruce Zimmermann, who struck out four over two innings in relief of Kremer. Ellicott City, Md., native Zimmermann is being stretched out this spring and is a dark-horse candidate to make the team in a swingman role after debuting late last season.

• Are spring stats usually reflective? No. But the Orioles are encouraged anyway by the batting eye Anthony Santander has shown in camp, after Santander posted a five percent walk rate over parts of his first four big league seasons. With two walks on Thursday, Santander has now drawn five walks in his first two Grapefruit League games.

From the trainer’s room
• Freddy Galvis was a late scratch Thursday due to hip soreness, manager Brandon Hyde said. Hyde characterized it as precautionary. Ramón Urías made the most of the assignment in Galvis’ place, hitting a tiebreaking, opposite-field three-run homer off Stephen Gonsalves in the fifth. Urías, 26, turned heads in a 10-game sample last September, going 9-for-25 (.360) with two doubles and one home run as a rookie. He’s looking to make the team in a utility role.

• Sidelined early in camp with an oblique strain, left-handed prospect Alexander Wells progressed to playing catch, Hyde said. The O’s No. 20 prospect is yet to appear in Grapefruit League play.

• Richie Martin’s return to game action is approaching. Hyde said Martin, who is rehabbing from right hamate surgery, resumed batting practice this week and could appear in Grapefruit League games by next week. Martin hit .208 with six homers as a rookie in 2019, then missed all of '20 with a broken left wrist.

Up next
Former All-Star righty Matt Harvey begins his push for an Orioles rotation job when the Birds travel to Dunedin, Fla., on Friday to face the Blue Jays. Rookie rotation candidate Keegan Akin is also slated to debut in the game, with first pitch scheduled for 1:07 p.m. ET from TD Ballpark. The game will not be televised or available on radio.