Orioles star Gunnar Henderson provided a positive update on the status of his intercostal strain yesterday, telling reporters (including Roch Kubatko of MASN) that he’s “feeling good” as he works his way back to the field in hopes of being ready for Opening Day. Henderson first suffered the injury in late February, and after nearly three weeks of rehab the shortstop expressed some optimism about his situation.
“It’s getting there,” Henderson said, as relayed by Kubatko. “It’s a lot better than what it originally felt like.”
He went on to add that his “plan” is to be active and in the lineup for Opening Day against the Blue Jays on March 27, and hopefully get into some Spring Training games before then as well. While he wasn’t in either lineup for today’s set to split squad Grapefruit League games, Opening Day is still almost two weeks away which should offer the Orioles a bit of time to work with as they look to get Henderson up to speed in time for the start of the regular season.
Losing the shortstop for any amount of time would be devastating given that he was one of the top players in the entire sport last year. After impressing in a 32-game cup of coffee during the 2022 season, Henderson won the AL Rookie of the Year award in 2023 before making his first All-Star game last year and finishing fourth in a stacked AL MVP class behind Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr. and Juan Soto. If Henderson were to miss time, the club could slide Jackson Holliday over to shortstop from second base, with a potential bench player like Livan Soto handling second or perhaps Jordan Westburg moving to the keystone to make room for Coby Mayo at the hot corner. Of course, for now the Orioles seem to be focused on preparing Henderson for the start of the season rather than potential alternatives.
While Henderson seemingly remains on track to break camp with the club, the same cannot be said for utility man Jorge Mateo. As noted by Kubatko, manager Brandon Hyde told reporters Friday that it’s “very doubtful” Mateo will be ready for Opening Day. The versatile hitter has spent the spring recovering from elbow surgery, and recently expressed optimism that he’d be able to make it back in time for Opening Day. That optimism isn’t entirely unfounded, as Mateo is making his spring debut today. With that being said, the final decision of Mateo’s readiness will come down to Hyde and GM Mike Elias, both of whom have now expressed doubt about Mateo’s odds of breaking camp with the club.
Back to more promising injury news, infielder Ramon Urias has been slowed in recent days by a sore hamstring but is not expected to miss significant time due to the issue. Kubatko writes that the 30-year-old went through a full slate of defensive work and took batting practice yesterday, while MLB.com’s Jake Rill notes that Urias told reporters this morning that his hamstring is feeling better and that there’s “no concern” about his ability to be ready for Opening Day. Urias is in neither lineup for today’s split squad games, but both he and Hyde expressed optimism that he would be back in the lineup for Baltimore in relatively short order.
When will Ramon Urias get his respect? Just looked and saw he’s been worth 9.1 rWAR over 1465 career PA. What a waiver claim.
WAR is the most pointless, garbage ‘stat’ ever created.
Well that sucks for you!
@lowenstein
Everyday i see another abbreviation. War, rwar, fip, xfip, xera, woba. zztop.. ok last 1 is a rockband but could very well be a computer nerd statistic. And they are so passionate about it too, they will fight you tooth & nail til the death to prove that their new stat is better & smarter than anything else
I agree Bing. Some can be useful, but they get these obscure metrics that are truly worthless. The funny part is someone will come up with a new metric and then apply it to past players as proof the metric works. They will be like look my new metric says Lou Gehrig was a good player compared to his peers. Wow really that’s amazing I didn’t know that before your metric.
I always find it funny when someone says you are wrong but they can’t explain why
I don’t remember once mentioning WAR as good or bad. Are you grouping WAR as useless?
@harrisstan
Nice defensive posture. If someone disagrees with your position, insult them. Psychology 100.
Look at Skubal’s War prior to 2024. Tell me how it predicted his Cy Young season. Look at TA’s War in the seasons before his collapse, and tell me how War predicted it. I see it as a tool for measuring current production, not as predictive.
Again I never mentioned WAR. You projected that on me for whatever reason made sense in your head to do so.
Letitbe and chandler, at least we know for sure to ignore your opinion now. Thanks for that.
The thing they don’t understand is decisions in virtually any successful organization today of any field has become data-driven. If they don’t grasp that part of the decision-making process, that’s on them.
It’s complicated these advanced stats. Bubblegum cards stats are easier to understand. I always hear rbis don’t matter because it matters where you bat. Well the flip side is you get those opportunities because you take advantage of them when you get them.
There is a reason Ramon has sticked around so long for the Orioles. Above average bat, above average glove that can play all 4 dirt spots. Great guy in clubhouse even if he doesn’t play for a while.
You want a totally pointless stat let me introduce you to WPA (Win Probability Added)…totally based on sequential events which was used as a pretext to negate the usefulness of the RBI stat. Well, make up your minds, quants!
One stat I need explained to me because I have never heard an adequate definition and it’s hard to Google is “Run Value.” As in “Bryan Woo was 93rd percentile in pitching run value, 95th percentile in fastball run value…” What does ‘run value’ attempt to convey?? Perplexing.
Ignorant SOB- I’ll ‘see that totally pointless stat then raise you’ ….haha,
When Apple TV (or YT streams) televise MLB games their TV Screen Page featured a batters Hit Chance % metric. The numbers fluctuate after each pitch is called a ball or strike. A 3-1 hitters count for ex would have a 75 or 85% hit chance or an 0-2 count would bring it down to a 10 or 20% chance! Is there anything more pointless than trying to calculate a hitters “chance” on the next pitch thrown!? That metric (and playoff odds that change after each game played,) are a total load of bollocks. Just white noise for your eyeballs!
Urias is one of the most consistently underrated and overlooked guys in the sport, even amongst O’s fans. He’s not a star or anything, but all he has done since arriving in Baltimore is produce- 108 career OPS+, 9.1 rWAR, GG, etc. He’s a starting-quality backup and yet many O’s fans want him gone.
…Urias turned into Jordan Westberg after the All Star break last year. When he got injured, that’s when the offense went from sputering to cold.
Love me some Ramon! He’s been the glue through so much of the rebuild. Big appreciation from this fan!
War this, war that. Ramon has seen the most action at 3B in each of 22, 23 and 24 over all other Os 3bs. All 3 seasons, winning ones. Sweet pick up by Elias after the Cardinals did the DFA thing to him back in early 2020.
A defensive whiz too
“Defensive whiz” indeed, and well done for neatly bringing that point back around to the original comment of him (R Urias) having a 9.1 WAR value. If you play a lot and play good defense you’ll find yourself at the center of a WAR value discussion!
U trust WAR as a measure of defensive ability?
Laughable garbage.
That is your opinion and you are definitely entitled to it however teams like the Orioles do not win as many games as they have the past two seasons by being “overrated”. Now granted they have failed in the post season, but they are a very young team and our still growing in to their success. I give the Red Sox some credit for improving their team they have made some good moves. And while it looks good on paper the real test will be at the end of season.
We will see who is laughing at the end.
wannabe know-it-all alert ^
Pipe down chowdahead.
lol no
Good news all around.
Looking forward to another great year of Orioles baseball!
I think we win 90+, but we’ll see.
If the orioles are looking at 86, the Red Sox are looking at maybe 78.
Feels like the best solution would be to move Westburg to SS if Gunnar misses time. Doesn’t interrupt Holliday learning 2nd. Doesn’t rush Mateo back. Allows Urias to play 3rd and gives them flexibility to keep Mayo up if they want to. Westburg was brought up as SS in the system. Doesn’t seem like that difficult of a decision.
That is the best decision. If they want to keep Holiday on that side then keep him there.
I’d move Gunnar off of SS permantly.Too aggressive for my liking. He hurt himself this year, put Mateo on the DL last year and led all AL fielders with 25 errors committed last year.
Gunnar’s natural position is hitter. He’s no good to the Birds nursing an injury on the bench. DH, 3B and/or 1b over SS every time.
Yankee fan here. Would gladly take Urias to play 3b if the O’s don’t want him.
He is slightly above average in OPS+, has a solid WAR and plays good defense (even won a GG a few years back). He doesn’t make a ton of money.
All the exact reasons they will hold onto him. He can play anywhere and hits great cold off the bench too
Why would the O’s ever give him up to the Yankees
I think he’s just acknowledging the value of urias in the context of the Yankees 3b situation – not suggesting an inter division trade.
@danum – Correct. As King Floch noted, there were O’s fans that wanted him gone but he’s performed well for the O’s.
The Orioles’ roster crunch could force an inefficient use of their infield talent, potentially stunting the development of Jackson Holliday or Coby Mayo.
The Red Sox are easily the most overrated team in the sport. They aren’t even close to the orioles. Thus is going to be a really embarrassing season for both the Red Sox and orioles haters.
Felling good aka all jacked up on mountain dew