Peter Schmuck’s Short Take: The Orioles’ surplus at first base might work to their advantage

At first glance the roster that the Orioles will open spring training with appears to be seriously out of balance, and that appearance is not deceiving.

They have too many first basemen and not enough proven relief pitchers after an offseason that appears to have fallen short of the team’s stated goals.

The failure to sign an elite starting pitcher to anchor the rotation – which came into sharp focus when former Astros ace Framber Valdez signed a three-year deal with the Detroit Tigers – has led to some tooth-gnashing among the Birdland faithful and leaves room to wonder if the O’s will be able to fight their way back to relevance in the tough American League East.

I think that’s premature.

I believe the logjam at first base is more of a blessing than a curse, and will position president baseball ops Mike Elias to take advantage of one of the many significant injury situations that develop around the major leagues over the six weeks of spring training.

Ryan Mountcastle and Coby Mayo both have value and neither may play a whole lot of first base here with Pete Alonso likely to play 150-or-so games. He’ll get the occasional DH day off his feet, but the hope is that top prospect Samuel Basallo will be getting playing time at DH and first base while backing up catcher Adley Rutschman during his first full major league season.

While it’s possible to imagine all three of them opening the season on the Orioles’ roster, it would not be the best use of that much talent. Elias knows that, but he isn’t likely to sell either Mountcastle or Mayo cheap.

Even packaged together, they probably would not bring back a quality starting pitcher with more than one year under control – he needs to sign one of the remaining free agents to fill that need – but the first base surplus could help him beef up the bullpen. In my mind, that’s actually more important.

In the meantime, it appears to insulate the Orioles against a troublesome injury situation of their own this spring. Heaven knows, they’ve had their share of them the past few years.