Orioles news: Kittredge out for Opening Day, Wells stepping up

Hello, friends.

There are now three weeks remaining until Orioles Opening Day. Between now and March 23 are more exhibition games that will hopefully help the team set a successful roster. They travel to play the Rays today, a game that will not be televised by either team and will only have a radio broadcast from the Rays side. Those are not my favorite spring training games.

Yesterday’s contest saw the Orioles lose to the Astros, 4-2. There was some sloppiness, including two runs that scored on the same strikeout – yeah, really – Pete Alonso getting thrown out by a mile trying to score, and Colton Cowser getting picked off first base. Reliever Keegan Akin gave up another run. The results aren’t there for him so far this spring. There is time to turn it around, but it seems like there’s some reliever every year who stinks in spring training and that’s just who he is this year. Akin would only be following in Cionel Pérez’s footsteps if he ended up that way.

One guy who IS getting the results is Vance Honeycutt. Oh yeah, he did it again. The outfield prospect whose 2025 season made him look like a complete bust hit another homer yesterday, which makes it four home runs in four at-bats. If you haven’t seen the video yet, trust me and watch this:

Holy mackerel. This latest blast from Honeycutt came off of a Triple-A pitcher for the Astros named Miguel Ullola. That’s not quite as impressive as hitting a homer off an MLB-experienced pitcher – which Honeycutt has done before, just to be clear – but it’s still a tougher pitcher than he was facing last year in High-A. It’s early yet to proclaim there’s something real going on here. He’s going to have to do this in real games, at multiple levels, before he can overcome last year’s track record. But, you know, maybe?

Not all news was good in Orioles camp yesterday. Manager Craig Albernaz revealed before Wednesday’s game that reliever Andrew Kittredge, who the Orioles went out of their way to re-acquire back in November, is suffering from shoulder inflammation. Kittredge is “a low probability for Opening Day,” and Albernaz also said “we don’t want to put any timetable on him,” which probably means a while. A bullpen that is light on proven names gets even thinner. Time will tell us if “sign only Ryan Helsley to improve the relief corps” was a good offseason strategy.

Helsley pitched a scoreless inning yesterday. So did Dietrich Enns, another expected Opening Day reliever. Tyler Wells struck out three batters over two scoreless innings. He’s yet to allow a run this spring. People have wanted Wells in the Orioles bullpen for a few years now and it might be happening this year at last, out of necessity but hopefully also because of performance.

Orioles stuff you might have missed

Vance Honeycutt’s stunning home run streak gives hope for a slow-starting career (The Baltimore Banner)
The general sports columnists, too, have taken note of Honeycutt’s fascinating little spring accomplishment. He’s the only guy in all of spring training with four homers!

Kittredge’s shoulder injury, Wells’s role out of bullpen, Bautista’s progress after surgery (School of Roch)
It would be pretty funny, in a morbid way, if the Orioles traded Kittredge away at the right time only to trade for him again at the wrong time. At least they’ve still got prospect Wilfri De La Cruz out of the deal.

Do the Orioles have enough in the back end of their bullpen? (Steve on Baseball)
Steve Melewski observes there isn’t much of a backup plan if Helsley comes out of the gate looking as bad as he did with the Mets to close out last season.

Jackson Holliday to begin hitting with surgically repaired hand (The Baltimore Sun)
A solid incremental update, although not one that’s going to change the picture that he’s going to miss some time in the regular season.

Guest coaches Ben McDonald and Scott McGregor share their wisdom (Baltimore Baseball)
Albernaz said of these two and other guest coaches, “They’re great mental skills coaches.” McDonald is apparently a lot more excited about Orioles minor league pitchers than he was four or five years ago.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Today in 1996, the Veterans Committee selected Earl Weaver for the Baseball Hall of Fame. His legend needs no elaboration in Birdland.

There are a few former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2012-13 three-gamer L.J. Hoes, 2002-07 pitcher Érik Bédard, 1993-98 outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds, and 2000-01 pitcher José Mercedes. Today is Mercedes’s 55th birthday, so an extra happy birthday to him.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: cartographer Gerardus Mercator (1512), magician Penn Jillette (1955), voice actor Yuri Lowenthal (1971), and singer-songwriter Madison Beer (1999).

On this day in history…

In 1770, British soldiers opened fire on a crowd of colonists in Boston, Massachusetts, killing five people. Though several years passed before ongoing open hostilities, this event proved a key rallying cry in the drive for independence for the North American colonies.

In 1872, engineer George Westinghouse received a patent for his air brake, the principle of which still forms the core of brakes on trains to this day.

In 1946, once and future British prime minister Winston Churchill gave a speech at Westminster College in Missouri where he coined the now-famous phrase “Iron Curtain” regarding the wall separating Soviet-controlled countries from the rest of the world.

In 1953, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who had been in power for more than 30 years, died days after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage.

A random Orioles trivia question

I received a little book of Orioles trivia questions for Christmas. I’ll ask a question in this space each time it’s my turn until I run out of questions or forget. I’ve been skipping stupid or incredibly easy questions, so we’re already on #56. In the book, they’re multiple choice answers, but that would be too easy here, wouldn’t it? Here’s today’s question:

How many members of the 500 home run club played for the Orioles during their careers?

Manny Machado, sitting on 369 home runs heading into his age 33 season, might well add one more to the tally before he’s done. He sure doesn’t count yet, though. If you were wondering, our recently signed Polar Bear Pete Alonso has 264 home runs. If he averages at least 35 home runs per year with the Orioles, he might get on the list before his career is done too.

And that’s the way it is in Birdland on March 5. Have a safe Thursday.

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