Hello, friends.<\/p>\n
The Orioles have gone and done it. They\u2019ve tied the major league record for players used in a single season. Last night\u2019s relief appearance by Jose Espada, who joined the Orioles on a minor league contract at the end of July, got them up to 70 players. That ties a record set only last year by the Marlins, who also used 70. If I\u2019ve counted right, there are six players who were part of both the 2024 Orioles and Marlins.<\/p>\n
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As for Saturday\u2019s game itself, it was dumb. The Orioles lost, 6-1. Check out Alex Church\u2019s recap of the game for the not-so-lovely totals.<\/a><\/p>\n There\u2019s not really any way to better illustrate the chaos that the team has gone through this year that they have shuffled through so many players. One might say that some of this chaos is brought on by Mike Elias holding a near-fanatical desire to always be tinkering around the edges of the roster, and I don\u2019t think one would be wrong about that. Of course, it\u2019s also a function of how many players have gone onto the injured list through the season, as well as how many roster-locked players were traded away in July.<\/p>\n There are 34 different position players who have taken an at-bat for the Orioles in 2025, and 36 different pitchers who have pitched to at least one batter. (It\u2019s actually 40 different pitchers, but four of them are position players who we\u2019re not double-counting.) That\u2019s how you get to a record-tying 70. For just one comparison, the AL East-leading Blue Jays have used 24 position players and 35 different pitchers. The Yankees have used only 20 position players while using 33 pitchers.<\/p>\n Without surveying the whole league\u2019s picture here, one suggestion from this limited sample is that everybody\u2019s pitching is chaotic to some degree, but what has really set apart the Orioles is how many different position players they\u2019ve run through. That they were, at one point in the season, on their fifth- and sixth-string catchers at the same time, is one illustration of this, though certainly it\u2019s not the only one. A lot of dudes who never would have been here in a better season have shuffled through.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Espada\u2019s debut for the team could hardly have gone any better than it did. He tossed three scoreless innings in last night\u2019s game, allowing just one hit while striking out four batters. We cannot rule out Elias, that aforementioned fanatic, rewarding Espada for this performance by optioning him to Triple-A Norfolk today in order to bring up a fresh reliever into the bullpen; three different relievers had to cover a combined six innings on Saturday.<\/p>\n It\u2019s Kyle Bradish Day today in Birdland as the teams close out this four-game set. That\u2019s been a good thing in his first four starts since returning from Tommy John surgery. Perhaps it will be a good thing again. Certainly it won\u2019t hurt if the Orioles hitters are able to get their heads out of their figurative butts as they go up against rookie Cam Schlittler \u2013 a very unfortunate-if-mispronounced name \u2013 in the 1:35 game.<\/p>\n Orioles stuff you might have missed<\/p>\n Trevor Rogers\u2019 turnaround wasn\u2019t easy. There\u2019s a lesson in it for the Orioles.<\/a> (The Baltimore Banner) Advertisement<\/p>\n Is Dylan Beavers\u2019s early MLB success providing a road map for future Orioles prospects?<\/a> (Steve on Baseball) Dom Hamel claimed on waivers<\/a> (School of Roch)
Jon Meoli\u2019s explanation, in very broad terms, is that Rogers had to \u201crebuild his body\u201d and \u201cfree his mind.\u201d Yeah, don\u2019t we all?<\/p>\n
Subscription required for the full article on Steve Melewski\u2019s Substack. Let\u2019s hope the answer to this question is yes. Need the road map to apply to some existing post-prospects too!<\/p>\n
Contenders are still in play for the Orioles to get to #71.<\/p>\n