2 standout performances from the Orioles' first spring training game

The Baltimore Orioles played their first spring training game yesterday. In a 2-0 victory over a Yankees team mostly made up of reserves, many of the Orioles most anticipated players had good moments. Trevor Rogers kept the momentum from last year going with two shutout innings, and Pete Alonso blasted a two-run homer. However, the most important performances came from two pitchers who were on the fringe of the roster, Grant Wolfram and Trey Gibson.

Everyone knows better than to overreact to spring training. Every year there are players who slump all camp and then are totally fine as soon as the season starts and vice versa. The Yankees didn't bring their A-team, and by the time Gibson, in particular, entered the game, the batters he faced were mostly lower-ranked prospects and non-roster invitees.

It's not so much the fact that Wolfram and Gibson combined for four shutout innings and six strikeouts that was impressive. It's how they went about it.

If Trey Gibson and Grant Wolfram keep this up, the Orioles' pitching staff may be stronger than previously believed

Grant Wolfram

The biggest hole on the Orioles' entire roster is the fact that they don't have a lefty in the bullpen with good splits against left-handed hitters. If Wolfram can pitch like he did yesterday, then that might be the role he ends up filling.

Wolfram had some grizzly-looking counting stats in 2025. A 5.40 ERA and 1.88 WHIP are not numbers that scream future high-leverage reliever, but the data on his individual pitches was good. Stuff+ rated 3 of his pitches as well above average, with his slider and cutter rating out over 120. That kind of stuff should play.

The main issue that Wolfram struggled with last season in his time in the majors was his command. In his 26 major league innings, he had a BB/9 over 5. That's not good. Looking at his game logs, almost every time he gave up a crooked number, there was a walk or two or three in the mix. Yesterday, he faced three batters, threw 13 pitches, and only two of them were balls.

If Wolfram has made a leap in the command department, he could quickly become a high-leverage weapon for the Orioles against lefties. Obviously, facing Duke Ellis and Ali Sanchez in spring training is easier than facing Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger in the bottom of the 8th. Still, it's something to watch as spring training goes on.

Trey Gibson

Gibson soared up prospect rankings last season when he dominated in Double-A, but upon his promotion to Triple-A, he struggled. This is extremely common, and there's no reason to sound the alarm over a pitcher experiencing growing pains as he gets promoted through the minors.

However, when he took the mound in the seventh inning of the Orioles' first spring training game, it felt like a big moment for him. If he had been hit around, it would have seemed like a continuation of his Triple-A struggles, and the impression left over would be that he was a ways away from contributing at the big league level.

He didn't get hit around. Instead, he pitched three shutout innings striking out three, walking none and allowing only two ground ball hits. He looked the way he looked when he was tearing up Double-A. People around the league took notice.

Gibson has an arsenal that looks more like what you would expect from a 10-year veteran. According to Prospect Savant, he threw seven different kinds of pitches last season. So it was interesting to see him pare down his pitch selection to just five pitches in his first game of the season. Most notably, his four-seam fastball, his primary pitch in 2025, did not make an appearance.

Instead, Gibson leaned on a sinker/slider/sweeper combination to get most of his outs, with his cutter and curveball popping in to help with lefties. The slider looked especially nasty and accounted for all three of his strikeouts.

As previously mentioned, these weren't the Bronx bombers that Gibson was up against, but if he continues to look like this through spring training, this camp could end up being a launching pad that gets him to the majors in the first couple months of the season rather than the late-season call-up he seemed destined for.