Baltimore Orioles: The Biggest Takeaways From Opening Day

The Baltimore Orioles fell on Opening Day to the New York Yankees, meaning we finally have real baseball to discuss. Here are the three biggest takeaways from game one.

It was only one game, but we finally have real Baltimore Orioles baseball to talk about after yesterday’s Opening Day loss to the New York Yankees. With a lineup full of inexperienced major leaguers and a Rule 5 pick making his MLB debut, there were sure to be Opening Day jitters, but we can’t chalk up everything that happened on Thursday to nerves.

I mentioned in yesterday’s recap that Trey Mancini looked good at the plate, working a few impressive at-bats and showing patience in the box. But I wanted to take a little deeper look into three more big takeaways from Opening Day.

It was just one game of a 162 game schedule, but this was Opening Day so we’re going to possibly overreact as we plan for watching this baseball team never win a game all year. Ok, that was a little dramatic, the Baltimore Orioles will eventually win some games, hopefully.

Mike Elias is going to give Chris Davis time with the Baltimore Orioles.

New general manager Mike Elias joined the MASN broadcast booth during yesterday’s game, touching on a few different topics and continuing to inject optimism and hope into the minds of Baltimore Orioles fans. From mentioning his immediate departure to spend the next few months focusing heavily on this year’s draft, to discussing his admiration of Rio Ruiz who had just struck out, only to drive in the first run of the season in his next at-bat on a solid hit up the middle.

However, Elias was also asked about first baseman Chris Davis and the current leash placed on the veteran. Elias responded by saying that Davis is “on this team, he’s on it for a while.” He mentioned that one thing the team is doing is to look at how pitchers are attacking Davis to help him make adjustments and that Davis will likely be given time off when facing some of the top pitchers in the league.

After striking out 19 times in spring training, Davis began the 2019 regular season 0-3 with three strikeouts and was pinch-hit for in his final at-bat of the game. He looked a lot like the Chris Davis we have come to know.

In any other scenario, we would look at this and move on, however, every single at-bat by Davis will be heavily scrutinized all season long. Based on his contract and what Elias had to say yesterday, I don’t believe Davis is going anywhere, anytime soon. Of course, Elias isn’t going throw one of his players under the bus in public, but when he says Davis will receive every opportunity to find success again, I think he means it.