A drastically revamped O’s squad begins a three-game series at Wrigley Field.
Welcome to the post-fire sale era of Orioles baseball. Don’t feel bad if you need name tags to identify half the players on this revamped team.
Yesterday’s flurry of trades capped a frenzied week before the deadline in which the O’s dealt eight veteran players off of their active roster, including two everyday outfielders, their primary 1B/DH, their utility infielder, a starting pitcher, and three relievers. You can review the full round-up of deals on Camden Chat’s trade tracker in case you missed anything.
It’ll be years before we can assess how well those trades have panned out, but for now, we’ll be seeing a drastically different O’s roster than the one we saw for the first four months. The Birds called up a number of replacements from the minors ahead of today’s game, which inexplicably did not include top outfield prospect Dylan Beavers despite his excellent performance at Triple-A Norfolk. I’ll just echo Mark Brown’s comments that it’s an insult to O’s fans (and to Beavers, I’ll add) not to call him up. The sooner that Beavers can start getting acclimated to the major league level, the better. Seriously, Orioles. What are you doing?
Instead of promoting an promising young prospect, the Orioles called up journeymen bench guys Luis Vazquez, Terrin Vavra, and Jordyn Adams. Get excited!
In the absence of Beavers, there will at least be one Oriole making his MLB debut today. Jeremiah Jackson, who’s been tearing up the minors with a .313/.343/.537 line and 15 home runs, will be DH’ing and batting ninth. The 25-year-old, a former second round pick of the Angels, is in his first year in the O’s organization after signing as a minor league free agent. Let’s see what the kid can do.
It’s sure to be an emotional weekend at Wrigley Field for the Cubs’ first home series since the death of franchise icon and Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg. All Cubs players will wear Sandberg’s #23 on the back of their jerseys for tomorrow’s game.
Orioles lineup:
2B Jackson Holliday
3B Jordan Westburg
SS Gunnar Henderson
C Adley Rutschman
RF Tyler O’Neill
LF Colton Cowser
1B Coby Mayo
CF Dylan Carlson
DH Jeremiah Jackson
LHP Trevor Rogers
Cubs lineup:
2B Nico Hoerner
RF Kyle Tucker
DH Seiya Suzuki
C Carson Kelly
CF Pete Crow-Armstrong
SS Dansby Swanson
LF Ian Happ
1B Michael Busch
3B Matt Shaw
RHP Cade Horton