There are spring-training projections, and then there’s whatever this is. Bleacher Report’s latest Orioles lineup guess has Colton Cowser leading off, followed by Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson. It’s the kind of tweak that looks harmless on a graphic, then starts feeling like a self-inflicted headache the moment you think about who’s losing plate appearances.
And look, Cowser is athletic, he can run, and he’s a left-handed bat you can talk yourself into as a table-setter. But for Baltimore, it’s a truly bizarre wrinkle because it asks the Orioles to ignore the one thing their lineup shouldn’t be messing with: clarity.