Burnes to start spring training opener
SARASOTA, Fla. — Orioles fans won’t have to wait for March 28 to watch Corbin Burnes pitch on their television screens.
Baltimore’s new ace will start the Orioles’ first spring training game Saturday, manager Brandon Hyde announced Thursday, in a game that will be aired on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network.
The Orioles are hosting their Grapefruit League opener at Ed Smith Stadium against the Boston Red Sox, who are also starting their No. 1 starter, right-hander Garrett Whitlock.
Who starts the first game of spring training is essentially meaningless aside from setting up the rotation schedule the best way the team sees fit.
“Just because it’s lining up to the beginning of the year, and we’re just trying to put guys in places,” Hyde said when asked about his reasoning for starting Burnes. “He’s on turn.”
But it doesn’t change the fact that the club’s first game — exhibition or not — since losing in the American League Division Series will feature its biggest offseason addition. The Orioles traded for Burnes three weeks ago, sending prospects DL Hall and Joey Ortiz to the Milwaukee Brewers for the former National League Cy Young Award winner.
The move to have Burnes start the first game is a stark contrast to how Hyde has begun spring training during his tenure. In 2019, Hyde’s first season at the helm, Yefry Ramírez got the first ball, followed by Chandler Shepherd, Thomas Eshelman, Spenser Watkins and Drew Rom in the subsequent four springs.
“Not Eshelman this year,” Hyde quipped as he often does about the rebuild days, noting after that Eshelman, a coach in the San Diego Padres’ organization, is a “great guy.”
Saturday’s Orioles game is the first of seven MASN is broadcasting this spring.
That number is an increase from recent years and a return to MASN’s pre-pandemic amount. However, the network’s television broadcasters will announce the games from the B&O Warehouse in Baltimore rather than in Florida.
Burnes said pitching the first spring game allows him to have an extra outing during camp to get acquainted with Adley Rutschman, James McCann and the rest of the Orioles’ catching and pitching staffs.
“The most important relationships are with the catching staff,” Burnes said. “The next is just with the pitching group in general, whether that’s the starters, relievers, coaches, analytics group, get on the same page as all those guys are far as game planning goes. How I go out and game plan and pitch Game 1 affects who throws Game 2 and Game 3 with how we attack hitters.
“You’ve just got to have the relationship with those guys so you can convey to them what you’re doing out there to help them better prepare for their start as well.”
Burnes has been an Oriole for less than a month and in Sarasota for just more than a week, but he can tell the players he shares a clubhouse with all have the same goal.
“It’s a close-knit group,” he said. “They’re all here, having the same thoughts, wanting to come in and win a World Series. There’s really no other way to say it. You come in and want to win games. Everyone is preparing the best they can to be ready opening day and go out and win as many games as we can.”
Hyde said Burnes will only pitch two or three innings as starters often do early in spring. The rest of the Orioles’ rotation isn’t set, although Grayson Rodriguez and Dean Kremer are locks and Tyler Wells and Cole Irvin have inside tracks to the final two spots.
But Burnes’ outing Saturday shouldn’t be his last opening day start this season, as the home opener March 28 at Camden Yards is just more than a month away. The 29-yearold right-hander has started opening day each of the past two seasons with the Brewers.
Will he make it three in a row?
“We’ll see. I’m not sure yet,” Hyde said sarcastically.
Around the horn
Injured starting pitcher Kyle Bradish “feels good” and everything is “progressing nicely,” Hyde said. The right-hander has played light catch a few times this spring after undergoing platelet-rich plasma injections after suffering a sprain, technically a partial tear, of his ulnar collateral ligament in January.
Gunnar Henderson said his oblique injury is improving. The infielder said his swinging and workouts are going well and that he doesn’t expect to miss too many Grapefruit League games. Henderson injured his oblique while long tossing during the offseason and has been recovering for the past month.
During live batting practice Thursday, Austin Hays hit a home run to right field off left-hander Cionel Pérez and a double off nonroster invitee Albert Suárez. Yennier Cano looked like his All-Star self, inducing groundouts of Heston Kjerstad and Jackson Holliday. On Wednesday, closer Craig Kimbrel had his first live appearance in front of the media and faced nine batters, allowing a double to Ryan O’Hearn and striking out Ryan Mountcastle, Anthony Santander and O’Hearn.
Kjerstad will focus on playing the corner outfield this year and won’t take reps at first base, Hyde said. Kjerstad, a bat-first, glove-second prospect, made his MLB debut in September but rarely played in the field. “Heston doesn’t have the major league experience in the corner outfield, so we’re going to give him all the experience we can out here,” Hyde said.
Nathan Webb, who signed a two-year minor league contract with the Orioles during the offseason, said his recovery from Tommy John elbow reconstruction last March has been seamless. He has begun throwing bullpens and hopes to return to game action in early May.