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SARASOTA, Fla. -- The Orioles made a round of roster cuts on Friday afternoon that featured the following notable players:

• The No. 1 overall prospect in baseball per MLB Pipeline -- infielder Jackson Holliday.

• Three more of Baltimore’s top prospects -- infielders Coby Mayo (No. 4) and Connor Norby (No. 7) and outfielder Heston Kjerstad (No. 5).

• A talented, young outfielder and former top prospect with seven home runs this spring, tied for the most in MLB -- Kyle Stowers.

It’s an entirely different landscape for Baltimore from the early days of Mike Elias’ tenure as general manager. From 2019-21, it was challenging for the O’s to find enough big league-caliber players to round out a 26-man roster.

Now, there are more deserving players than available spots.

"It’s just crazy. A lot of good players got optioned,” said infielder Ramón Urías, who has played for the Orioles since 2020. “It looks so different from the years before that I’ve been here. But for sure they’re going to make an impact on this team at some point in the season.”

Elias expressed a similar sentiment. Spring Training roster cuts are “not permanent decisions.” Players who open the season at Triple-A Norfolk could be in the big leagues not long after.

“This isn’t something that is etched in stone for the rest of the year or the rest of the month or the rest of anything,” Elias said. “We’ll just take it day by day, see how our health is, see how players perform in Triple-A, see how players perform in the Majors, see what’s going on around the league and keep making the best moves we can for the organization as a whole.”

It doesn’t make it any easier to tell a player he won’t break camp with the big league team and get to experience the pageantry of Opening Day. Especially ones who had such strong springs.

Holliday hit .311 and recorded a .954 OPS in 15 games while also showing he can play second base at a high level. Stowers led Baltimore in home runs and RBIs (14) and had a 1.011 OPS over 19 games.

Mayo hit .326 with a .969 OPS in 22 games and played a greatly improved third base. Norby hit .269 and had an .807 OPS in 13 games.

“It just shows how far the organization’s come and where we’re at now,” said outfielder Austin Hays, who has played for the Orioles since 2017. “Guys that have really good camps -- and there’s nothing that they did to not make the team -- there’s just unfortunately not enough spots.”

Holliday should make his big league debut this year, probably even during the first half of the season. Mayo and Norby could also arrive in Baltimore this summer, while Kjerstad has already reached MLB (a 13-game debut stint last fall) and could be back soon.

Stowers has 48 games of big league experience over the past two seasons, but the 26-year-old hasn’t been in the Majors since last May. However, Elias remains confident he’ll be an impactful contributor down the line.

For now, though, these young players will head to Norfolk, continue to work and wait for their opportunity.

“You’ve got to have depth, especially at the Triple-A level,” Hays said. “It’s a long season. It’s 162 games. Injuries happen. Ups and downs happen. Those guys are going to have their names called on at some point this year under a lot of different circumstances.”