3 Orioles storylines to follow this spring

This story was excerpted from Jake Rill's Orioles Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

BALTIMORE -- During a community event in Baltimore on Jan. 31, Orioles general manager Mike Elias was asked if any players were dealing with new injuries this offseason.

¡°Not to the level that I would get into here,¡± Elias said. ¡°Traditionally, I forecast anybody who¡¯s off on an abnormal schedule when we get down to Sarasota, so I¡¯ll probably do that in a couple weeks.¡±

Elias¡¯ camp-opening media scrum -- the 2025 edition of which will occur later this week -- has brought news in recent seasons. Last year, he divulged information on several injuries, the most significant being Kyle Bradish¡¯s right UCL sprain that led to Tommy John surgery on June 19.

So it¡¯s always possible that the first day of O¡¯s Spring Training can shift the expected storylines for the spring. For example, Dean Kremer went from being on the rotation bubble to firmly on the staff following the Bradish news last February.

But for now, here are three storylines that appear relevant as the O¡¯s prepare for camp.

1. Is the starting rotation strong enough?
Baltimore lost its ace over the winter when right-hander Corbin Burnes signed a six-year, $210 million deal with the D-backs. That leaves righties Zach Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez as the top starters expected to anchor Baltimore¡¯s staff.

There will be plenty of other arms in the rotation mix this spring, too. Charlie Morton ($15 million) and Tomoyuki Sugano ($13 million) signed one-year deals this offseason. Morton (41 years old with 17 years of MLB experience) and Sugano (35 with 12 years of Nippon Professional Baseball experience) are veterans who should provide depth.

Kremer is also a front-runner for a spot, with Albert Su¨¢rez, Cade Povich, Trevor Rogers and Chayce McDermott (the O¡¯s No. 5 prospect per MLB Pipeline) in the fold as well.

Baltimore will need to find out whether its collection of arms is strong enough, while also figuring out how to slot each of them in. (The Opening Day assignment for March 27 at Toronto is seemingly up for grabs.)

Of course, there¡¯s the potential for trades to happen during Spring Training, meaning the Orioles could still be on the lookout for a frontline starter.

2. The return of The Mountain
Félix Bautista¡¯s absence was felt by the O¡¯s quite often during the 2024 season. The 6-foot-8, 285-pound right-hander was among baseball¡¯s best closers in '23 (a 1.48 ERA and 33 saves in 56 appearances) before a season-ending right elbow injury on Aug. 25 led to Tommy John surgery that October.

The Orioles had hoped veteran Craig Kimbrel would serve as a strong one-year stopgap, but he struggled to a 5.33 ERA in 57 games before he was designated for assignment in September.

Bautista is back now, and The Mountain should be ready to go for Opening Day 2025.

¡°I¡¯ve been in Sarasota the last couple of weeks. He¡¯s been there. Fun walking into the clubhouse and seeing him in the training room and the weight room and throwing on the field,¡± manager Brandon Hyde said earlier this month. "We missed him, obviously, in a huge way last year. ...

¡°He looks great right now.¡±

The O¡¯s also plan to be cautious with Bautista by easing him into action and carefully building him up in Spring Training. They hope he¡¯ll look like himself by late March and will be ready to close out games at the start of the season. Baltimore has a contingency plan -- possibly right-handed setup man Seranthony Dom¨ªnguez -- ready in case it would benefit Bautista to work lower-leverage spots at first.

3. Holliday -- again

The No. 1 storyline of Spring Training for the Orioles in 2024 was whether Jackson Holliday (MLB Pipeline¡¯s No. 1 overall prospect at the time) would break camp with Baltimore¡¯s big league squad as a 20-year-old. He did not, though he was still in the Majors for his debut by April 10.

Holliday couldn¡¯t stick in the big leagues at first, and his rookie season came in two stints sandwiched around a return to Triple-A Norfolk. His 60-game debut campaign featured plenty of struggles, as he hit .189 with a .566 OPS. But there were flashes of the tools that made the 2022 No. 1 overall Draft pick so highly regarded in the O¡¯s system.

Now 21, Holliday aims to make his first Opening Day roster in 2025. He¡¯ll have the chance to be the starter at second base, a position that would likely need to be handled by a combination of Jordan Westburg (the probable starter at third), Ram¨®n Ur¨ªas and Jorge Mateo (if healthy) if Holliday doesn¡¯t seize the job in camp.

Holliday said in January that he¡¯s ¡°pretty confident¡± he can produce better results in his sophomore season. The Orioles feel that way, too.

But first, Holliday will need to go out and prove that he¡¯s ready to take the next step forward.