Jackson Holliday, Heston Kjerstad, and Colin Selby will be part of the Orioles’ postseason crew. Albert Suárez will not, at least for this round.
The Orioles this morning announced their 26-man roster for the Wild Card Series against the Royals, with only a couple of mild surprises.
Starting pitchers (3): RHP Corbin Burnes, RHP Zach Eflin, RHP Dean Kremer
Relief pitchers (9): LHP Keegan Akin, RHP Yennier Cano, LHP Danny Coulombe, RHP Seranthony Dominguez, LHP Cionel Pérez, LHP Cade Povich, RHP Colin Selby, LHP Gregory Soto, RHP Jacob Webb
Catchers (2): James McCann, Adley Rutschman
Infielders (7): Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday, Ryan Mountcastle, Ryan O’Hearn, Emmanuel Rivera, Ramón Urías, Jordan Westburg
Outfielders (5): Colton Cowser, Heston Kjerstad, Cedric Mullins, Anthony Santander, Austin Slater
The O’s, who need only three starters for the series, are rolling with a 12-man pitching staff and 14 position players. (Their opponents are going even more extreme, with the Royals carrying just 11 pitchers and 15 position players on their Wild Card roster.)
Perhaps the biggest surprise inclusion is Colin Selby, the gloriously bearded reliever who spent just five days on the Orioles’ roster this season, appearing in three games, all scoreless. (Selby also pitched two games in May for…the Royals. The Colin Selby Revenge Series begins.) He pitched on Aug. 19 and Aug. 21, went back to the minors for a month, and then returned to eat an inning in the Orioles’ final game of the year.
That performance was enough to earn Selby a playoff spot instead of the pride of Chevy Chase, righty Matt Bowman, who had a 0.69 ERA in his first 12 games for the Orioles before a couple of blow-ups at Yankee Stadium in the final week.
Rookie lefty Cade Povich made the team after his strong September performance, likely serving as a long reliever unless the O’s get wacky and have him start a game instead of Kremer. Povich is one of five lefties in the bullpen.
Albert Suárez, as expected, is not included on the roster after pitching six innings in the season finale on Sunday. If the O’s use all three starting pitchers in the Wild Card Series and advance, Suárez would be the most likely option to start Game 1 of the Division Series at Yankee Stadium on Saturday.
There are no real surprises on the position player side, where the O’s are carrying the same 14 players with whom they finished the regular season. Rookies Jackson Holliday and Heston Kjerstad both made the roster, though neither should expect to start; Kjerstad is a lefty bat off the bench while Holliday will serve mainly as a pinch-runner. Right-handed bench guys Austin Slater and Emmanuel Rivera will give Brandon Hyde some matchup options as well.
Ten of the 14 position players on the Wild Card roster were also part of last year’s Division Series roster, the only newcomers being Cowser, Holliday, Rivera, and Slater (in place of Austin Hays, Aaron Hicks, Jorge Mateo, and Adam Frazier, the latter who is on the Royals’ roster for this series).
There’s much more turnover on the pitching side, where only five of this year’s O’s playoff roster — Cano, Coulombe, Kremer, Pérez, and Webb — are holdovers from last year’s Division Series. New 2024 Orioles Burnes and Eflin are the Game 1 and 2 starters instead of last year’s now-injured duo of Kyle Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez. A revamped bullpen that includes Akin, Dominguez, Povich, Selby, and Soto replaces the crew of Bryan Baker, Jack Flaherty, Kyle Gibson, DL Hall, and Tyler Wells.
On paper, it’s a strong roster. But so is the Royals’, which includes the surprise inclusion of slugger Vinnie Pasquantino, back quicker than expected from a broken thumb he suffered on Aug. 29. The Orioles will need to be on their A game for these next two (or three) games to keep their postseason journey alive.