Baltimore Orioles begin workouts

To some of us, pitchers and catchers reporting is date that we still circle on the calendar. At the very least, it’s a day where we feel that spring and eventually summer are both within reach. Needless to say, it’s the unofficial beginning of the baseball season for pitchers, catchers, and injured players. The first workouts are today for those players, Buck Showalter, and the coaching staff. They’ll all be together from now until whenever the season ends.

Courtesy of Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

However the fact is that many players have been at the Ed Smith Stadium complex for some time working out already. Heck, knowing Buck Showalter he’s probably already been there for two weeks. But ultimately, yesterday was the official report date which of course means that today will be the first workouts for those players as I said above. Position players will report on Tuesday, and the first full team workout will be Wednesday.

The Orioles won’t actually take the field until one week from Tuesday against Detroit, but the time between now and then is just as important as anything else. It helps players to work on their fundamentals, as well as to get some semblance of their timing back. I found it interesting that earlier in the week the Birds signed Jayson Nix and Evereth Cabrera to minor league deals so as to provide depth in the infield. So perhaps the utility infielder battle will be something worth watching once Grapefruit League play begins.

Ultimately I would submit that the likes of Matt Wieters and Manny Machado will be watched more so than anyone else in these workouts, as their maneuverability will be directly impacting their playing time once the games start. And of course the number of games that they play in spring training will decide whether or not they can start the season with the team or on the DL. Time will tell, but what happens over the course of the next week-and-a-half or so will have direct implications in the regular season.