BRADENTON, Fla. -- At the start of Spring Training, new Orioles manager Craig Albernaz didn’t mince words when talking about the potential of Shane Baz, the 26-year-old right-hander and former top prospect who was acquired in a trade with the Rays on Dec. 19.
“Shane Baz's upside is a Cy Young Award winner,” Albernaz said at the time.
Baltimore believes Baz can develop into a frontline starter, and it’s easy to see why.
Baz made his O’s debut on Friday afternoon at LECOM Park in Bradenton, tossing 2 1/3 scoreless innings in a 6-1 Grapefruit League loss to the Pirates. The righty retired seven of the nine batters he faced without allowing a hit, notching four strikeouts and working around a pair of first-inning walks.
It may not have been regular-season action, but Baz had been heavily anticipating his first start wearing orange.
“I definitely woke up with a lot of excitement and just eager to get out there,” Baz said. “Just trying to take it slow all day, but it was great. My body feels good, stuff feels like it’s in a good spot. Really good to see in the first one.”
Although Baz walked both Brandon Lowe and Ryan O’Hearn in the opening frame, he also struck out the side, getting Jake Mangum, Bryan Reynolds and Nick Gonzales to each go down swinging. Baz generated six of his eight whiffs in the first.
In the second, Baz retired the side in order, striking out Enmanuel Valdez swinging, inducing a popout from Henry Davis and getting Konnor Griffin (MLB Pipeline’s No. 1 overall prospect) to ground out to short. Baz faced only one batter in the third -- Dominic Fletcher, who flied out to center field -- to cap his 39-pitch outing.
Baz was locating all four of his pitches (four-seam fastball, knuckle curve, cutter and changeup), but the four-seamer was the most impressive. His heater averaged 96.7 mph and hit 98-plus twice -- a pair of fastballs thrown to Griffin that registered 98.2 and 98.6.
“I felt like it had a lot of good life today, and I felt like I spotted it well, so that’s really nice,” Baz said. “Especially just being this early.”
"It was good to see him get some work in," Albernaz added. "Working on some spin in the zone, which he was landing, and the fastball was just coming out easy. So it was good to see him out there attacking the strike zone."
Another one of the Orioles’ offseason trade acquisitions was also excited by what he saw from Baz.
Blaze Alexander, who came over from the D-backs on Feb. 5, started at second base behind Baz. But it wasn’t Alexander’s first time watching the hard-throwing righty up close, as he recalled seeing Baz pitch for Single-A Bowling Green on July 19, 2019, when Alexander was playing for Kane County.
Alexander didn’t face Baz that day, but he did so earlier this spring during live batting practice -- and Alexander got a hit, which he made sure to note, because it isn’t an easy feat.
“He was electric then, electric now,” Alexander said. “He’s just real fun to watch, man.”
A breakout season could be on the horizon for Baz in 2026. Last year, he stayed healthy for a full season for the first time in his four-year MLB career, pitching to a 4.87 ERA over 31 starts for Tampa Bay. But the stuff and advanced metrics have looked better than those numbers, which is why the O’s dealt four prospects and a 2026 Competitive Balance Round A Draft pick to acquire Baz.
The Orioles are confident in Baz’s ability to become a top-of-the-rotation starter alongside co-aces Kyle Bradish and Trevor Rogers, and Baz is bullish on Baltimore’s chances to have a bounce-back season.
“I think just the group of guys that we have were so welcoming, and even the guys that we’ve brought in seem like they mesh really well,” Baz said. “So it’s been a lot of fun. I’m just really blessed to be with such a great clubhouse.”