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

The Orioles announced their playoff roster ahead of their matchup with the Rangers and it contained some pretty bad news.
Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Birds Watcher

Boston Red Sox v Baltimore Orioles / G Fiume/GettyImages

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.

More Orioles News from Birds Watcher

Eric Cole

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.