Orioles demote reliever, delay all their most difficult roster decisions

Baltimore is taking their sweet time in making their sweet time in deciding on their roster.

Eric Cole

Baltimore Orioles v Oakland Athletics / Michael Zagaris/GettyImages

Normally at this point of spring training, teams have made sweeping rounds of roster cuts and their Opening Day roster choices have become pretty clear, even if the news hasn't been made official. For the Baltimore Orioles, however, it looks like their biggest roster decisions are apparently going down to the wire.

On Wednesday, Baltimore did make spring training cut, but it was only to send reliever Nick Vespi back to minor-league camp. That means the Orioles still have a whopping 45 players in big league camp with just a few days left in spring training, as of Thursday around lunch time. That means a LOT is going to change very, very soon.

Baltimore's Opening Day roster battles are going down to the wire

There are a number of factors in play here. First, the guys that are on the 40-man roster that are also in camp have minor-league options that are in play, so the Orioles are going to want to be deliberate with who they are keeping around and who they are going to send back to the minor leagues.

Another issue is that the Orioles have some really close battles for Opening Day roster spots. Jackson Holliday has done everything he can to force his way in, but Baltimore still won't make his inclusion official. The competition in the outfield is even murkier, as Colton Cowser and Kyle Stowers are still hitting the cover off the ball, and both Ryan McKenna and Heston Kjerstad are hanging around as well.

On the pitching side, Keegan Akin has shaken up the bullpen battle with his strong spring, and some of his chief competition has already been sent off the roster. Cole Irvin still seems like he's the favorite for the rotation, although Julio Teheran remains an option as well, especially since Irvin has not had the best spring.

The Orioles kicked the can down the road on all of those decisions until the very end of spring training here. However, they won't be able to for much longer, and we should finally get some roster clarity, even if it happens at the buzzer.

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Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.