2 Orioles players who will make the opening day roster but will be gone by May

Injuries to Andrew Kittredge, Jackson Holliday, and Jordan Westburg have opened up a few spots on the Baltimore Orioles opening day roster, giving some unexpected players a real chance at making the team.

For players who come into camp on the fringes of the roster, making the opening day roster is a big accomplishment, but with the Holliday and Kittredge injuries looking to be short-term stents on the IL, several members of the Orioles opening day roster might not last a whole month with the team.

2 Orioles players who will make the opening day roster but will be gone by May

Jackson Kowar

With Kowar, the Orioles' options are to add him to the active roster or risk putting him on waivers. With those being the options, the Orioles are going to start the season with Kowar in the bullpen. When Kittredge comes back, the corresponding roster move will be one of the Orioles' right-handed relievers. That puts five guys on the chopping block. Ryan Helsley, Tyler Wells, Yennier Cano, Rico Garcia, and Kowar.

Of those five, Helsley is obviously safe, Wells and Cano are both tenured on the Orioles and not likely to be moved to Triple-A two weeks into the season. Meaning it is really about Jackson Kowar vs Rico Garcia. Both Garcia and Kowar are out of options, so the Orioles can't make the decision based on that. It will come down to who is better of those two pitchers. If it's just about who is better, Garcia was better last year, Garcia has better career numbers, and every single projection system says he'll be better in the future. It'll be an easy choice.

Bryan Ramos

With Holliday set to miss the first week of the season, few players on the Orioles ' 40-man roster could fill in. Blaze Alexander will get most of the starting reps at second base, but he was going to make the roster anyway. So the question is, who will come up and be the Orioles' utility man for the first few weeks of the season? That's where Ramos comes in.

Like Kowar, Ramos is out of minor league options, so the Orioles will have to keep him or cut him loose at the end of camp. If they give him an opening day roster spot, that gives them just a bit more time before they have to make that decision. With Holliday set to come back so quickly, it also doesn't make that much sense to burn one of Jeremiah Jackson's options just to have him on the roster for a week, make one or two starts, and then go back down to the minors.

The Orioles already DFA'd Ramos once this year, and even though he got claimed, they eventually got him back. They won't have an issue doing it again 10 days into the season.