The Orioles have set their Opening Day roster, unless there’s a surprise

With a last group of cuts following their Grapefruit League finale, the Orioles seem to have set their Opening Day roster, unless there’s a surprise from outside the organization between now and Opening Day. The guys they have now are going to be their guys, at least for the beginning of the season.

The last three players hanging around who did not make the roster were Cedric Mullins, Alex Presley, and Luis Sardinas, all reassigned to minor league camp to make it official. This leaves the Orioles with 29 players still on the roster, but three of those - Zach Britton, Mark Trumbo, and Gabriel Ynoa - are headed for the disabled list to start the season. Another, Alex Cobb, will be tuning up in the minors to start the year due to the Orioles signing him so late.

There will still be some roster movement to be done before the season, however. There are four non-40-man players who appear to have made the team: Pedro Alvarez, Craig Gentry, Colby Rasmus, and Danny Valencia. Some players who the Orioles have decided have no use at the present and for the future will be headed for the waiver wire or the great DFA in the sky.

This means the Orioles are rolling into the season with three Rule 5 picks, at least for the beginning of the season. That’s last year’s holdover, Anthony Santander, as well as two new pitchers, Nestor Cortes Jr. and Pedro Araujo.

The roster will not remain the roster for long. Trumbo is expected to miss just a week or two of the season. Cobb is targeting a mid-April debut. How the Orioles are going to make room for those guys when they’re ready is a problem for two weeks from now.

The three Rule 5 picks, the four non-roster veterans who have made the team, and the presence the out-of-options Mike Wright Jr. leaves little flexibility for the kind of almost daily roster shenanigans that have been a hallmark of the Dan Duquette/Buck Showalter era of the Orioles.

For now, these are the Orioles:

Starting rotation

• Dylan Bundy
• Andrew Cashner
• Kevin Gausman
• Chris Tillman
• (eventually) Alex Cobb
• (for now, presumably) Mike Wright Jr. or Nestor Cortes Jr.

Bullpen

• Brad Brach
• Darren O’Day
• Mychal Givens
• Richard Bleier
• Miguel Castro
• Pedro Araujo
• Wright Jr. or Cortes Jr.

Infielders

• Tim Beckham
• Manny Machado
• Jonathan Schoop
• Chris Davis

“Infielders”

• Danny Valencia
• Pedro Alvarez

Outfielders

• Adam Jones
• Trey Mancini
• Colby Rasmus
• Craig Gentry
• Anthony Santander

Catchers

• Caleb Joseph
• Chance Sisco

Some players will not be in the starting lineup each night due to the rules of baseball limiting the Orioles to nine players. Whether they have something resembling what is commonly referred to as a “bench” is something to be seen.