Orioles' playoff roster announcement does not include John Means and that is bad news

In just a few hours, the Baltimore Orioles will begin their postseason run with an ALDS matchup with the Texas Rangers which will certainly put this young Baltimore team to the test. The Orioles were certainly the better team in the regular season, but Texas is dangerous and they also just easily dispatched the second best team in the AL in 2023, the Tampa Bay Rays.

The only remaining question outstanding is who the Orioles were going to include on their playoff roster and honestly, most of the roster spots appeared to be pretty set. There were a few odds and ends with the bullpen and bench to sort out, but there didn't seem to be any reason to expect any big surprises. Unfortunately, there was one big surprise as the Orioles announced their playoff roster and starting pitcher John Means is not on it.

Baltimore Orioles Playoff Roster for ALDS against the Rangers

The Orioles are going with 14 position players for their roster in the ALDS, but the big news is that John Means isn't on the ALDS roster at all. Means experienced some arm soreness this week and Baltimore decided to stay away from him for the first round, although the possibility remains that he will get added later on if the Orioles advance.

Other notable parts of the announced roster is that Heston Kjerstad did make the cut over Ryan McKenna, Jack Flaherty and Bryan Baker did make the roster, and Shintaro Fujinami isn't getting carried in the first round.

The roster is set and for better or worse, the Orioles are set to play the most meaningful baseball of their 2023 season very, very soon. While the news could have been a lot better considering Means' injury, Baltimore is still in good shape to make a deep run this postseason.

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