The Orioles injury stubbornness continues to put them at a disadvantage

The Baltimore Orioles are weird about injuries. They attempt to minimize whatever the injury is to the media, dodge any follow-up questions, and won't give timelines for when injured players will return. The latest example of this is Jackson Holliday's groin issue, as he’s set to miss his fourth straight game.

Holliday was removed from the Orioles Saturday win over the Dodgers in the sixth inning. The next day, Holliday was out of the lineup, which caused some concern, but he spoke with the media and said that his not playing was a precautionary measure. That answer quelled much of the concern for Holliday's health. That concern was reignited on Monday night when Blaze Alexander had to be taken out of the game in the third inning after fouling a ball off his leg, and rather than put Holliday at third, a position he has actually played, they opted to play career outfielder Leody Taveras at third.

Post game, Craig Albernaz was asked if Holliday was considered an option to play third, and his response was a very serious "absolutely not". Very serious, as in Albernaz was laughing from his response to the previous question, and as soon as Holliday was mentioned, all the laughter left him.

The Orioles have punted on having infield depth this week and have paid the price

On Tuesday, now three days removed from the injury, Holliday was once again not in the lineup, and when the camera panned and found him in the dugout, it was clear he was not wearing a uniform. He was just out. So, with Alexander recovering from his knee injury the night before and Holliday dealing with his "not serious" groin injury, Coby Mayo was the Orioles third baseman despite the fact that there was a right-handed pitcher on the mound and Mayo has been the Orioles worst hitter against righties.

Combine Mayo's splits against righties with his defensive ability at third, and the Orioles might have been better off just starting Taveras at the hot corner again. That's not a serious option, though, and with Alexander and Holliday both down, Mayo was the only real option the Orioles had to play third base.

This brings up the question of why? Based on Holliday not even putting on a uniform the last few days, it's clear that the Orioles know that his injury is more serious than they are letting on. If the Orioles knew that there was no shot at Holliday playing, why haven't they called up another infielder to have on the bench as depth?

You could maybe excuse them not having any infield depth on Monday, as Jeremiah Jackson and Blaze Alexander have both been very healthy this year, and you wouldn't assume to lose one of them in the third inning, but once Alexander is hurt and Holliday is unavailable, why hasn't there been a roster move to get more infield depth?

There are lots of different things they could do. They could DFA Chadwick Tromp, who has been on the roster the last few days but hasn't played, or they could put Holliday on the IL backdated to Sunday and get him back on Wednesday. Either of those would work, and they could call up Christian Encarnacion Strand if they want some offense, or Luis Vasquez if they want some defense, or Peyton Eeles if they want to try something new.

Instead, the Orioles put themselves in a position where their only option at third was Coby Mayo, and they reaped the rewards of that as he went 0-3 with two strikeouts and looked incredibly shaky at third all night.

Even if Holliday is going to be just fine by the time the Orioles play the Nationals on Friday, it's not like he's playing so well right now that the Orioles wouldn't survive him being on the 10-day IL. Overlooking the importance of depth and defense is how you end up with Mayo as your everyday third baseman. If they were just more decisive when it came to injuries, these kinds of situations could be avoided.

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