4 takeaways from O's early spring slate of games
Jake Rill
@JakeDRillThis 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.
SARASOTA, Fla. -- The results of Spring Training games may not matter, but there are often important developments that can come from exhibition action around Florida and Arizona.
Here are some highlights and takeaways from the first week of the Orioles¡¯ Grapefruit League schedule.
Heston Kjerstad's opposite-field power
General manager Mike Elias indicated on the first day of camp that Kjerstad wouldn¡¯t need to put up eye-popping numbers to earn a spot on Baltimore¡¯s Opening Day roster. The 26-year-old outfielder was already on the inside track because of his experience the past two seasons.
With that said, it couldn¡¯t hurt for the 2020 first-round Draft pick to have a strong spring.
Kjerstad¡¯s best swing of the past week came on Tuesday, when he hit a two-run homer off Tigers right-hander Jackson Jobe, MLB Pipeline¡¯s No. 5 overall prospect. Kjerstad muscled it the opposite way over the left-field wall, perhaps getting himself ready for the more hitter-friendly dimensions coming to Camden Yards this year.
¡°Hopefully, it¡¯ll get out there,¡± Kjerstad said. ¡°If I can hit the ball like that away, it should be good.¡±
Grayson Rodriguez¡¯s sweeper
As pitchers tend to do during the spring, Rodriguez is tinkering with his arsenal and trying to find ways to further improve it. The 25-year-old right-hander is looking to potentially reincorporate a sweeper, which he used as a rookie in 2023 before not deploying it at all in ¡®24, per Statcast.
Rodriguez already threw a changeup, slider and curveball, but a sweeper could fit in well.
During his first Grapefruit League outing of the season on Thursday, Rodriguez used only one sweeper while tossing 1 2/3 scoreless innings. However, he induced a bad swing when throwing it to Toronto¡¯s Davis Schneider in the second, which was an encouraging sign to Rodriguez.
¡°I was pretty excited about that,¡± Rodriguez said. ¡°Getting more comfortable with it day by day. Really playing catch with it, throwing it in the ¡®pens. It¡¯s kind of the same hand position as my curveball. Right now, the learning part is just where to start it in the strike zone, I think, is the big thing. Just getting more familiar with how it moves and being able to throw it for strikes.¡±
A notable three-homer day
Ram¨®n Ur¨ªas, Tyler O¡¯Neill and Samuel Basallo (MLB Pipeline¡¯s No. 13 overall prospect) all went deep in Thursday¡¯s game vs. the Blue Jays. For O¡¯Neill and Basallo, it marked their first homers in O¡¯s uniforms.
O¡¯Neill (who signed a three-year, $49.5 million deal in December) has prodigious right-handed power. The 29-year-old showed that by clobbering a three-run home run off Blue Jays Minor League righty Andrew Bash, with the ball landing well past the left-field concourse at Ed Smith Stadium.
¡°It¡¯s good to get the first one out of the way,¡± O¡¯Neill said. ¡°I¡¯m just trying to fit in how I can, where I can. I think I fit in really well here, and I just want to continue the good work.¡±
The 20-year-old Basallo added a seventh-inning solo shot that cleared the scoreboard in right-center field.
¡°It¡¯s probably in my top-three [longest] now,¡± Basallo said via team interpreter Brandon Quinones.
More power for Enrique Bradfield Jr.?
Bradfield, the Orioles¡¯ No. 4 prospect and 2023 first-round Draft pick, hit only four home runs in 133 Minor League games over his first two professional seasons. His game is more about speed and defense, though he has also proven he can swing the bat a bit, too, even if balls don¡¯t typically clear the fence after leaving the lumber.
However, Bradfield went deep on Tuesday, blasting a two-run homer well over the right-field wall during the eighth inning of an exhibition vs. the Tigers.
Was that the product of the 12 pounds of muscle he put on in the weight room this past winter?
¡°It might, it could,¡± Bradfield said. ¡°Obviously, it¡¯s so early, there¡¯s still a lot more at-bats to be able to determine that. But to be honest, I feel healthy, I feel strong. So whether it turns into more power, whether it turns into a lot more line drives, that¡¯s going to be a plus for me. I¡¯m going to be able to hit the ball how I want to, be able to hit it in the gap, and if I run into a couple that leave the yard, that¡¯s going to be good.¡±