This was the last thing the O’s could afford after a largely quiet offseason.
Spring training is a very scrutinized time of year around MLB.
Fans haven’t gotten to see their favorite team in action for months, and with a whole new season on the horizon, everyone’s awfully eager to see how all that optimism actually plays out on the field.
How will your big free-agent signing look in his new uniform? Which top prospect will make a name for themselves?
Who will win that key position battle?
Everyone’s got questions, and they’re desperate to find answers on a daily basis.
Really, though, the No. 1 goal of every team in spring camp is a simple one: Please, just stay healthy.
Sure, a few nice weeks can tell you something about a swing change or a breakout candidate, but more often than not this is just a way for everyone to get warmed up for a 162-game season. The only thing you should actually concern yourself with is everybody on the roster getting to Opening Day in one piece.
Baltimore Orioles fans learned that the hard way on Thursday afternoon, when star shortstop Gunnar Henderson was forced to leave the team’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays after just one inning.
It’s unclear exactly what went wrong, but for now the team is simply calling it “right side discomfort”.
It’s possible that this is much ado about nothing; teams are always overcautious this time of year, especially with players as important as Henderson, who finished fourth in AL MVP voting last season after hitting 37 homers and stealing 21 bases with an .893 OPS.
But it’s also possible that this is much ado about something, whether Henderson tweaked an oblique or an abdominal muscle or something else.
And if he has to miss any significant time, it will obviously have a massive impact on the O’s lineup for the start of the season.