Orioles 2016 schedule unveiled: NL West on tap for next year

The Orioles unveiled their 2016 schedule on Tuesday afternoon. There are no surprises about who an MLB team will play in a given year. That's all set up ahead of time. Next year, the NL West will be on tap, which will hopefully go better than it did when the Orioles played that division in 2013.

Since the Orioles opened on the road this season and are closing at home, the reverse will be true next year. They open 2016 at home against the Twins on Monday, April 4, which will unfortunately be followed by the off day immediately after Opening Day. They will remain at home for a weekend series against the Rays before heading out on their first road trip.

The longest homestand of the year comes from September 15-25, 11 games against the Rays, Red Sox, and Diamondbacks, which will be the final regular season home games of the year. There are also 10-game homestands running from April 28-May 8 and May 30-June 8. Each of May and June have 16 home games scheduled.

On the other hand, the Orioles will be on the road for most of July - of the 25 games scheduled, 16 will be on the road.

One quirk of this year's schedule is there will have to be three separate west coast trips on the schedule for the season. They fly out to Los Angeles in May, immediately after a three-game series against the Mariners at home. That particular trip, which spans May 20-29, will also see them swing through Houston and Cleveland on the way back towards Baltimore.

The team will be back out west in late June and early July, swinging through San Diego, Seattle, and Los Angeles (Dodgers) for eight games from June 28-July 6. Still late, in August, they will head out west again, swinging through Chicago, Oakland, and San Francisco from August 5-14.

They will host the Padres on June 21 and 22, a series which is sandwiched by off days, something that I always find silly. Like, really, you couldn't have given us another one later? Oh well. They'll also host the Rockies on July 25-27 and the Diamondbacks in a weekend series from September 23-25.

Much like this year, the season will close out with games against the Blue Jays and the Yankees, only those games will be on the road. The last game of the regular season will be played on October 2.

The All-Star Break, easily the four worst days of any given baseball season, runs from July 11-14. Next year, it'll come at close enough to the halfway point, after 88 games played. Before the break, 47 of 88 games will be played at home. The O's come out of the break with a seven game road trip, three games in Tampa Bay and four in New York.