With an Opening Day roster featuring only six players who were part of last year’s season-opening squad, it’s clear the Orioles are a different club and hope to turn the page from a forgettable 2025.
Of course, they’re also dealing with the all-too-familiar injury bug right out of the gate with infielders Jackson Holliday and Jordan Westburg and relievers Andrew Kittredge and Keegan Akin beginning the season on the injured list. But there’s still much to like about the offseason work done by president of baseball operations Mike Elias. That includes the hiring of new manager Craig Albernaz, who seemed to reinvigorate a group that was beaten down by a miserable start and a last-place finish one year ago.
With Opening Day upon us, below is a look at the initial 26-man roster:
POSITION PLAYERS
C Adley Rutschman
Skinny: After producing an impressive .274/.365/.447 slash line over his first 1,514 plate appearances in the majors, the former first overall pick has slashed .209/.294/.332 over his last 646 plate appearances going back to July 2024, making this season pivotal for his career and remaining time in Baltimore.
C Samuel Basallo
Skinny: We make too much of spring numbers in trying to predict success, but the 21-year-old rookie’s 97.2 mph average exit velocity, 64% hard-hit rate, and 32% barrel rate were among the best in baseball and speak to the potential he has to become a significant part of this lineup as the season progresses.
1B Pete Alonso
Skinny: While Alonso wasted no time making his mark from a leadership standpoint during spring training, the Orioles made the largest free-agent commitment — in terms of average annual value — in club history to someone who’s hit 34 or more home runs in every 162-game season of his career.
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2B/UTL Blaze Alexander
Skinny: Acquired in early February to add more versatility to the bench, Alexander made Grapefruit League starts at second base, shortstop, third base, and center field and has a chance to carve out a very meaningful role with both Holliday and Westburg on the shelf to begin the season.
SS Gunnar Henderson
Skinny: After a down year that was still worth 4.8 wins above replacement despite health challenges, the 24-year-old Henderson is poised to rebound in a big way if he can improve on last year’s .603 OPS against lefties, which proved to be a sticking point for his playing time in the World Baseball Classic.
3B/1B Coby Mayo
Skinny: Despite following up a strong September with an excellent spring that included five extra-base hits and a 1.026 OPS at the plate, Mayo will be under the microscope for his defense at third base after Alonso’s offseason arrival and Westburg’s elbow injury prompted his move back to the hot corner.
OF Taylor Ward
Skinny: Ward’s acquisition was completely overshadowed by Alonso’s signing, but the 32-year-old hit 61 homers over the last two seasons and produced an 11.3% walk rate in 2025 that will make him a sneaky candidate to lead off against left-handed starters this season.
OF Colton Cowser
Skinny: After striking out a league-worst 35.6% of the time among players with 350 plate appearances last year, Cowser struck out 36% of the time in the Grapefruit League, but his top priority is showing the ability to play center field on a daily basis, which will be critical when considering the alternatives.
OF Tyler O’Neill
Skinny: There’s no sugarcoating how disappointing O’Neill’s first season in Baltimore was, but we’re still talking about someone who is only 30 and owns a career .894 OPS against southpaw pitching, which makes him an appealing option as a platoon outfielder and designated hitter at the very least.
OF Dylan Beavers
Skinny: While his .227 batting average was nothing special, Beavers walked 26 times in his 137 plate appearances upon making his debut last August, which could make him a legitimate option atop the batting order if he comes anywhere close to sustaining that over his first full season in the majors.
8OF Leody Taveras
Skinny: The 27-year-old has extensive major league experience playing center field and posted a career-high .733 OPS in 2023, but a combined .613 OPS over the last two years left him hovering around replacement level and resulted in him concluding 2025 at the Triple-A level.
1B Ryan Mountcastle
Skinny: The decision to tender the 29-year-old Mountcastle and sign him to a $6.787 million deal was a curious one with there being other options at first base behind the very durable Alonso, so it’ll be interesting to see how much playing time he receives after producing a career-low .653 OPS last year.
UTL Jeremiah Jackson
Skinny: A strong finish to the spring after a rock-solid debut last summer won Jackson the final bench spot as an option at second and third base as well as the corner outfield spots in a pinch, so we’ll see how much he pushes Alexander and Mayo for playing time over the early weeks of the season.
STARTING ROTATION
LHP Trevor Rogers
Skinny: The peripheral numbers suggest the Opening Day starter and 2025 Most Valuable Oriole won’t come close to duplicating his 1.81 ERA from last year, but the Orioles would happily take an ERA resembling last season’s 2.82 FIP over 30 starts.
RHP Kyle Bradish
Skinny: After posting a 3.68 ERA over his first two seasons before an elbow injury led to 2024 Tommy John surgery, the 29-year-old returned last year to strike out 47 batters and pitch to a 2.53 ERA over six starts spanning 32 innings, which speaks to him having the most upside of any pitcher on the staff.
RHP Shane Baz
Skinny: Elias gave up a host of prospects to acquire the 26-year-old from Tampa Bay, and he essentially replaces Grayson Rodriguez’s upside with the difference being Baz staying healthy over the last 1 1/2 seasons and producing a 3.86 ERA away from hitter-friendly Steinbrenner Field last year.
8RHP Chris Bassitt
Skinny: The 37-year-old’s 4.06 ERA over the last two seasons may not wow you, but adding an influential veteran who’s logged 170 or more innings in four straight campaigns is extremely valuable, especially when you don’t know how hard Baltimore will be able to lean on Bradish this season.
RHP Zach Eflin
Skinny: Considering Dean Kremer led the club in innings pitched last year and Eflin was widely expected to be slow-played coming off August back surgery, the Orioles must have really liked what they saw from the 31-year-old, whose stuff ticked up this spring from where it was last year.
BULLPEN
RHP Ryan Helsley
Skinny: Despite Helsley’s well-documented struggles upon joining the New York Mets at last summer’s trade deadline, Elias and the Orioles made a two-year, $28 million bet on that being a blip on the radar for the two-time All-Star closer, and it better be when considering the overall state of this bullpen.
RHP Yennier Cano
Skinny: Even if a return to his 2023 All-Star form isn’t realistic after a 5.12 ERA last season, Cano pitching more like the 2024 version of himself that posted a 3.15 ERA and struck out more than a batter per inning over 70 appearances would go a long way in calming this club’s later-inning questions.
RHP Tyler Wells
Skinny: Many have envisioned a late-inning bullpen role as the optimal spot for Wells for a few years now, but it’s fair to wonder how much you can count on the 31-year-old when weighing his injury history and how little he’s pitched in relief since he was a Rule 5 pick back in 2021.
LHP Dietrich Enns
Skinny: After faring much better against right-handed hitters than lefties in his two-month audition to conclude the 2025 season, Enns might be the best option to pitch multiple innings in a bullpen that doesn’t have a clearcut long man.
8RHP Rico Garcia
Skinny: The 32-year-old had bounced around with little major league success in his career and even had a nondescript 2022 campaign pitching in Baltimore’s system, but a 2.84 ERA in 20 appearances last August and September earned him this opportunity.
LHP Grant Wolfram
Skinny: The 6-foot-7 southpaw flashed good stuff despite an unimpressive 5.40 ERA in 26 2/3 innings last season and followed that up with a dominant spring to win a spot in a group lacking experience and needing a couple upside options to pop.
RHP Yaramil Hiraldo
Skinny: Nothing about Hiraldo’s 18 appearances last season suggested he’d be part of the Opening Day bullpen before the injuries to Kittredge and Akin, but FanGraphs recently offered very favorable reviews of his changeup and improved movement on his fastball this spring.
RHP Anthony Nunez
Skinny: Though the 24-year-old began pitching professionally just two years ago and was optioned to the minors weeks before Akin’s late-camp injury, Nunez flashed the sweeper and changeup that explained why Elias targeted him as part of the Cedric Mullins trade, making him an intriguing sleeper.
