The Orioles made their Opening Day roster official on Wednesday afternoon. They will head into the 2026 season looking like this:
This group was settled several days ago when the Orioles optioned Dean Kremer to the minor league camp.
Keegan Akin is starting the season on the injured list due to an adductor strain. For the time being, it seems that Anthony Nunez is the beneficiary of that. Or maybe Yaramil Hiraldo is, and Nunez is the beneficiary of the team not choosing the out-of-options Jackson Kowar to make the team.
This was the easiest one to predict of all of them.
Up until a couple of days ago, it seemed like Luis Vázquez might get the last bench spot here, but his broken thumb takes him out of the mix. Jackson gets the nod instead, with hot spring bat Bryan Ramos missing out.
I don’t think that the Orioles were going to go with Heston Kjerstad instead of Taveras anyway, but Kjerstad’s hamstring injury settles that. He, too, is starting the season on the injured list.
The official roster moves that set things up this way:
Apparently, despite some noise that Suárez might exercise his opt-out clause because of other teams having interest in him, that interest did not materialize and he decided his best bet was to wait around in Norfolk.
