Good morning, Camden Chatters.<\/p>\n
Even an off day didn\u2019t give the Orioles a break from the relentless injury news. Dean Kremer is the latest injured Oriole, just two starts into his major league season, as the club placed him on the 15-day injured list yesterday<\/a> with a right quad strain. The O\u2019s called up Brandon Young<\/a> from Triple-A Norfolk to take Kremer\u2019s rotation spot.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n It never seems to end. We\u2019re less than a month into the season and the O\u2019s now have 13 players on the injured list, including six on the 60-day IL. Other than F\u00e9lix Bautista<\/a>, all of these injuries have occurred since the start of spring training, robbing the Orioles of a slew of players they expected to be contributors this season. That kind of attrition is hard for any team to overcome. The O\u2019s front office did a somewhat better job of building the Birds\u2019 depth this offseason compared to last year, but they probably weren\u2019t expecting it to be put to the test quite this early.<\/p>\n Jackson Holliday<\/a> and Jordan Westburg<\/a> have yet to play a major league game this year, and the latter might miss the whole season. Zach Eflin<\/a> made a grand total of one appearance before his season ended. In some cases, the Orioles have shown remarkable resilience to overcome key absences. The bullpen in particular has outperformed expectations without late-inning relievers Andrew Kittredge<\/a> and Keegan Akin<\/a> (not to mention Bautista<\/a>), thanks to lesser-known names like Rico Garcia<\/a>, Anthony Nunez<\/a>, and Grant Wolfram<\/a> stepping up. Jeremiah Jackson<\/a> has superbly replaced Holliday at second base, to the point that I\u2019m not totally sure what the O\u2019s are going to do with Holliday once he\u2019s healthy.<\/p>\n Other injuries have led to some less-than-stellar replacements. Coby Mayo<\/a> has gotten everyday duty at third base in Westburg\u2019s absence and has been better than expected with the glove but miserable at the plate, his two long homers in Kansas City<\/a> notwithstanding. And Ryan Mountcastle<\/a> and Tyler O\u2019Neill, while not pivotal members of the team, were at least expected to boost the Birds against left-handed pitching. With that duo out of commission, the O\u2019s have cobbled together lineups against southpaws that include Johnathan Rodr\u00edguez and Blaze Alexander<\/a> in the outfield, with dismal results. And now the Kremer injury, on the heels of Eflin\u2019s surgery, has further stretched the Orioles\u2019 pitching depth.<\/p>\n For now, it\u2019ll be up to Young to try to prove himself as a capable replacement. He\u2019ll take the mound tonight as the Orioles begin a six-game homestand against the Red Sox<\/a> and Astros, two teams who were expected to contend but who currently sit in last place in their respective divisions. You love to see it. The O\u2019s went 3-3 on their first homestand, then 3-3 on their first road trip, then 3-3 on their next homestand, then 3-4 on their next road trip. There\u2019s simply no way to guess how many games they\u2019ll win during this homestand.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Links<\/p>\n Jon Meoli: Adley Rutschman returned to the Orioles without missing a beat. Having his \u2018comfortable\u2019 swing helps. \u2013 The Baltimore Banner<\/a><\/p>\n Last year around this time I declared that Adley was so back, only for him to spend the rest of the season being injured and\/or ineffective. But this time? Adley is so back.<\/p>\n Will Orioles ever retire Mike Mussina\u2019s No. 35? | MAILBAG \u2013 BaltimoreBaseball.com<\/a><\/p>\n I know what the answer should be. But Rich Dubroff\u2019s answer probably isn\u2019t the one you want to hear.<\/p>\n Leody Taveras has been the O\u2019s MVP so far. Here\u2019s how \u2013 MLB.com<\/a><\/p>\n File this under \u201cOrioles Headlines I Never Expected to Read This Year.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Orioles birthdays and history<\/p>\n Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! And happy 33rd birthday to former O\u2019s ace John Means<\/a>. The lefty hasn\u2019t pitched in the majors since May 2024, when he underwent his his second Tommy John surgery, and likely won\u2019t pitch this year after rupturing his Achilles this offseason, but he signed a two-year deal with his hometown Royals in hopes of returning in 2027. Good luck to Means in his recovery. The other ex-Oriole with an April 24 birthday is catcher Welington Castillo<\/a> (39).<\/p>\n On this day in 1965, the O\u2019s reunited with an original Oriole, acquiring veteran right-hander Don Larsen from Houston<\/a>. Larsen had pitched for the inaugural 1954 Orioles, coming over with the franchise from St. Louis<\/a>, but went 3-21 that season before joining the Yankees<\/a>, where he eventually threw a perfect game in the World Series. Larsen\u2019s second stint with the Birds in \u201965 was as a reliever, where he had a 2.67 ERA in 27 games.<\/p>\n Random Orioles game of the day<\/p>\n On April 24, 1996, the Orioles beat the Royals in an 11-8 barnburner at Kauffman Stadium. The O\u2019s pounded out 18 hits in the game, led by Cal Ripken\u2019s 4-for-5 performance. Chris Hoiles bashed two home runs while Ripken, Brady Anderson, and Mike Devereaux each went yard as well. O\u2019s starter Kent Mercker got the win despite giving up six runs in five innings, and closer Randy Myers stranded the bases loaded after a hairy ninth in which he walked three and gave up a hit. The win snapped the Orioles\u2019 six-game losing streak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good morning, Camden Chatters. Even an off day didn\u2019t give the Orioles a break from the relentless injury…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[1516,14169,22,143,47,2538,5,1980,30643,796,583,913,584,1074,139,1514,13459,367,581,2123,11038,4,4377,125,89,28982,1359,673,1362,48182,142,96],"class_list":["post-682024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baltimore-orioles","tag-andrew-kittredge","tag-anthony-nunez","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-baltimoreorioles","tag-baseball","tag-bautista","tag-blaze-alexander","tag-brandon-young","tag-coby-mayo","tag-dean-kremer","tag-felix-bautista","tag-grant-wolfram","tag-houston","tag-jackson-holliday","tag-jeremiah-jackson","tag-john-means","tag-jordan-westburg","tag-kansas-city","tag-keegan-akin","tag-mlb","tag-oriole-park-at-camden-yards","tag-orioles","tag-red-sox","tag-rico-garcia","tag-ryan-mountcastle","tag-st-louis","tag-the-orioles","tag-welington-castillo","tag-yankees","tag-zach-eflin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116459419997635512","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}