Sometimes I wish I’d called this newsletter The Dugout Rail, which is where the conversation I’m about to relay took place.

Early last season, I was standing at said dugout rail talking to an Orioles coach about the team’s lineup flexibility and how it was hard for players to get back into a rhythm when they were not playing regularly. He said the hope was that one day they wouldn’t be so platoon-heavy and would just have seven or eight guys to pencil in as everyday players, who could hit lefties and righties, and that would be that.

Well, this season isn’t going to be that. The Orioles are probably going to be a platoon-heavy outfit again, and the ability to feature Ryan O’Hearn and Heston Kjerstad and all their other lefties against right-handed starters and not miss a beat when they highlight Ramón Laureano, Tyler O’Neill and Ramón Urías against lefties is going to be the team’s carrying strength this year.

And that compels me to just put this out there, for better or worse. I think the Orioles are going to go as far as their offense can take them, and I think that offense is going to be the game’s best.

This probably doesn’t come as a surprise from someone who was blindly betting on the Orioles remembering how to score runs in bunches come October after months of not doing so last year. The Orioles’ offense of the first half of the year was among the league’s best, and the reasons why that wasn’t the case in the second half do not need to be further recounted. (But for the sake of acknowledging them, they include: Adley Rutschman’s collapse; injuries to Ryan Mountcastle, Jordan Westburg, Jorge Mateo, Kjerstad and Urías; and collectively poor situational hitting.)

It is a dangerous game to simply expect players to stay the same or get better from year to year, especially players who are still on the younger side. I’m sure there are going to be players who regress that cause us to collectively slap our foreheads and realize it was obviously going to happen in retrospect. But you don’t have to squint to see the ways in which this team is going to be better offensively.

A full year of Rutschman being himself will be the foundation, and same goes for a full year of the steady, .800-or-better OPS version of Westburg. Getting Gunnar Henderson back as quickly as possible will help as well. But a steadier season from Colton Cowser and some real contribution from Jackson Holliday to give the Orioles production they badly lacked at second base will lift the team’s offensive floor as well.

Beyond all of them, the ability to keep hitters who may hit one side or the other better will be a meaningful downside protector. If O’Neill ends up just mashing lefties this year and Kjerstad gets the big side of the platoon, the Orioles will end up with more aggregate production in right field than they had when it was Anthony Santander’s domain. Cedric Mullins being the primary center fielder and sitting against some lefties so Laureano can play would do the same to elevate center field, and every Gary Sánchez at-bat will be better than the James McCann ones that preceded them.

A lot can happen over the course of a long season. All the players mentioned in the preceding paragraph won’t hurt the Orioles if they’re everyday players as opposed to platoon guys, and there will certainly be stretches where that’s required.

In the interim, they’ll be deployed in favorable spots, and I expect them to produce as such. That’s why I’m bullish on the Orioles offense, and I feel like I just needed to get that out there before the season starts.

Ballpark chatter

“No ligament injury or ligamentous or whatever term it is that I’ve learned and read. He has some inflammation and impingement in the back area of his elbow. We’re hopeful that rest and cortisone can kind of clear it out of the way.”

— Mike Elias on Grayson Rodriguez

For a variety of reasons, I believe this — mostly because cortisone shots aren’t typically used to treat the elbow injuries that lead to Tommy John. I just am a bit torn between always fearing the worst on elbow injuries, this not feeling like one of those and wanting to throw reason out the window because a lot rides on this not being a season-ender for Rodriguez. The Orioles need him, and they need the rest and cortisone to do what Elias hopes for that reason.

On the farm

Cameron Weston

We can probably guess much of the Triple-A Norfolk roster ahead of opening day Friday, but there was a little scoop over at On The Verge this weekend as they reported right-hander Cameron Weston is starting the year with the Tides. Weston is the reason Orioles pitching folks don’t say they have a type; he’s a two-seam guy, not a four-seam guy, but he has an elite set of weapons that helped him to a 2.97 ERA with 10.5 strikeouts per nine and a 1.01 WHIP between High-A Aberdeen and Double-A Bowie last year. Like many on the starter track in the Orioles’ system, Weston’s ultimate major league role is hard to predict. But he has the stuff to get outs in the majors, and is starting this season on the cusp of the big leagues.

By the numbers

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Santander, who will face the Orioles for the first time this week as he makes his home debut for the Blue Jays, is a career 3-for-18 with a home run and five strikeouts against Zach Eflin and Charlie Morton, the first two Orioles starters he’ll face. I don’t really believe that means anything. I mostly just was curious.

For further reading

🦪 Chesapeake Baysox: “If I speak, I am in big trouble,” said football manager Jose Mourinho, who I should note I do not like one bit. Anyway, here’s this about the Baysox’s alternate identity that got them in trouble.

🎙️ On the podcast: Last week, Paul and I talked Coby Mayo’s comments upon being optioned to minor league camp and broke down some stats that, for better or worse, could change for the 2025 Orioles. We talked a lot about baserunning, Colton Cowser and pitching. This week, you’ll get our season predictions.

🟠 Those new uniforms: My podcast co-host Paul told me he had this story on the Orioles’ orange uniforms cooking last week, and I think all I did was nod and say, “Yes.” Needless to say, it’s great.

👏 You can’t help but cheer for him: Andy did some good work telling the story of Riley Cooper, a reliever in the Orioles’ system who ended up getting some run in major league camp.