Watch Pirates vs. Orioles Spring Breakout game live on Birds Watcher
UPDATE: Lineup! We got a lineup! If you're not ready for Enrique Bradfield Jr. leading into Jackson Holliday as a 1-2 punch, you're just not going to get excited for anything. Predictably, the Orioles are really bringing it into tonight's showcase.
Orioles Spring Breakout Lineup is Star-Studded
For the second year in a row, a Baltimore Orioles prospect sits at the top of MLB Pipeline's yearly prospect rankings. Gunnar Henderson has graduated to the big leagues, moving us into the era of Jackson Holliday. He's not alone, either — four other Orioles prospects (Samuel Basallo, Colton Cowser, Coby Mayo, and Heston Kjerstad), who are all at Baltimore's spring training this year, fell within the top 50.
All except Basallo, the youngest of the bunch, have made appearances in your run-of-the-mill spring games, but we should expect to see all five and more in the Orioles' Spring Breakout game against the Pirates on March 14 at 3:05 PM EST.
You'll be able to watch Holliday and more Orioles prospects take on Paul Skenes, five other Pirates prospects who cracked the Pipeline's top 100, and more, right here in this Birds Watcher article, thanks to a collaboration with MLB and STN.
MLB Spring Breakout: What to Expect from Pirates vs. Orioles
As previously mentioned, Holliday and Co. are all but guaranteed to be in the Orioles' starting lineup during the Spring Breakout game, along with even more Orioles prospects/NRIs. Holliday and Kjerstad, along with Adley Rutschman, already faced Skenes in his spring training debut against Baltimore on Feb. 29; Skenes took all three down in a six-pitch inning that led to a ground out and two fly outs while hitting 102 MPH on his fastball.
Holliday and Skenes are arguably the dueling faces of MLB's future, so hopefully the Pirates will leave Skenes in for more than an inning so we can really get a feeling for how they both navigate an at-bat.