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Four weeks from Sunday, the Orioles regular season comes to an end. The postseason follows, and if you check Baseballreference.com, they assign the Orioles a 98.3 percent chance of playing in the postseason. FanGraphs is even more bullish, with a 99.3 chance.
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Sunday is September 1st, and let’s take a look at some of the questions about the Orioles in the last month of the regular season.
Who will be added to the roster?
The Orioles must add two players to their roster. One can be a pitcher, and it should be Zach Eflin, who’s been on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation.
They may also make additional moves unless manager Brandon Hyde chooses to keep a six-man rotation and stay with an eight-pitcher bullpen. That doesn’t seem likely because there are four offdays in September, the first one coming on Thursday.
Hyde could put Cole Irvin or Cade Povich in the bullpen. Povich can be sent back to Triple-A Norfolk. Irvin, who passed through waivers early this month, would have to go through the waiver process again.
The Orioles signed right-hander Nick Anderson to a minor league contract on Thursday. He threw a scoreless inning on Thursday night and could come up soon.
The position player could be outfielder Forrest Wall, who was claimed off waivers from Miami this week, or it could be third baseman Coby Mayo. The Orioles could bring them both up. Infielder Liván Soto, who’s in his third stint with the club, has been active for 11 games and has been used only once, as a pinch-runner.
Many happy returns
The last few months have been difficult for he Orioles. In the past three months, they’ve lost starters Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells and infielder Jorge Mateo to season-ending elbow surgeries, Grayson Rodriguez has right lat/teres discomfort and reliever Jacob Webb right elbow inflammation.
Danny Coulombe has been out for nearly three months after surgery to remove bone chips from his left elbow, and third baseman Jordan Westburg has missed the last month after fracturing his right hand when he was hit by a pitch. This week, first baseman Ryan Mountcastle went to the injured list with a sprained left wrist.
Webb is supposed to begin a rehab assignment at Norfolk soon. Coulombe and Rodriguez should be back sometime later in September. So should Westburg. The regular season ends on September 29th, and Norfolk’s season concludes on September 22nd, complicating rehab assignment timetables.
Heston Kjerstad, who suffered a concussion on July 12th after he was hit on the helmet by a pitch, is still on the injured list, his second stint. Hyde said he’s doing better, but concussions are tricky, and there’s no timetable for his return.
Juggling the roster
The Orioles have already used 58 players, four short of the team record of 62 set in 2021. If Anderson, Wall and perhaps recently acquired reliever Brooks Kriske, who briefly was one of those 61 three years ago make it to Baltimore, that will make it 61.
The roster maneuvering should continue, and it’s possible that executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias could acquire additional players after September 1st, though they wouldn’t be eligible for the postseason.
Last year, Elias claimed reliever Jorge López off waivers on September 2nd. He had traded López 13 months before.
Once Coulombe, Mountcastle, Rodriguez, Webb and Westburg get back, room will have to be found on the 28-man roster. Coulombe is on the 60-day injured list, so a player will have to be dropped from the 40-man.
Even with the expanded September rosters, players optioned to Norfolk still must remain for 10 days if they’re position players and 15 days if they’re pitchers.
What’s on the schedule?
Fans are looking forward to the final-week showdown at Yankee Stadium, but every game is important.
According to FanGraphs, the Orioles could have a slight advantage over the Yankees. Their final month’s opponents are a bit weaker. Their cumulative winning percentage is .491. The Yankees’ are .509.
It helps that the Orioles have two more games at Colorado, who have baseball’s third-worst record and three with the woeful Chicago White Sox, who already have 105 losses and are on pace for the worst record in modern major league history.