![\"Orioles](\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/YzVfLtCR0lPSUPIz9IRNtgu6Udk=\/0x0:4593x6889\/1200x800\/filters:focal(1833x928:2567x1662)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/73987878\/2203706280.0.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThese will look a lot better once Gunnar Henderson is back, but it\u2019s not a bad one for now.<\/p>\n
The Orioles lineup that everybody might have assumed at the start of spring training was blown up with the injury to Gunnar Henderson.<\/p>\n
If the team\u2019s optimism about his returning soon bears out, there won\u2019t be too many lineups without him, but at least for the first week, they\u2019ve got to figure out what to do.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For Opening Day, that\u2019s Jackson Holliday at shortstop, Jordan Westburg at second base, and Ram\u00f3n Ur\u00edas as the third baseman.<\/p>\n
This may not be the exact solution on a daily basis; the most frequently-used Orioles lineup of the 2024 season was used for all of three games. Things are moving around all of the time due to injuries, performance, and platoon splits.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how they line up for the first game:<\/strong><\/p>\n Colton Cowser – LF<\/em> Zach Eflin remains the Opening Day starting pitcher. Not every team was so lucky to have their announced #1 pitcher be ready to pitch. Cleveland\u2019s Tanner Bibee was a late scratch due to food poisoning.<\/p>\n The lineup would look better with Henderson in it. There\u2019s no getting around it. The Orioles will have to do the best that they can without him.<\/p>\n As far as platoon-oriented lineups go, the Blue Jays entire rotation is right-handed, so today and the three games afterwards will all have a tendency to have the lineup geared towards that.<\/p>\n Hopefully that means a couple of starts for Heston Kjerstad.<\/p>\n Mountcastle tending to be a destroyer of Canadian dreams will keep him in the lineup even when it\u2019s righty-righty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" These will look a lot better once Gunnar Henderson is back, but it\u2019s not a bad one for now. The Orioles lineup that everybody might have assumed… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":44731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nAdley Rutschman – C<\/em>
\nJordan Westburg – 2B<\/em>
\nRyan O\u2019Hearn – DH<\/em>
\nTyler O\u2019Neill – RF<\/em>
\nRyan Mountcastle – 1B<\/em>
\nCedric Mullins – CF<\/em>
\nRam\u00f3n Ur\u00edas – 3B<\/em>
\nJackson Holliday – SS<\/em><\/p>\n