Surprised to see O's put Mayo at shortstop? So was he!

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Before leaving Orioles camp on Sunday to join Team USA ahead of the upcoming World Baseball Classic, Gunnar Henderson wanted to get a few reps at third base in Saturday’s 7-5 Grapefruit League loss to the Braves. The 24-year-old shortstop hadn’t played third in a game since 2023, but he could get time there in the WBC, so he wanted to be prepared.

The O’s coaching staff put a plan in place -- one with a contingency option that would come as a surprise to one of the players involved. It’s always important to have a little fun in Spring Training after all, right?

At the start of the fifth inning, Henderson would move from shortstop to third, with third baseman Coby Mayo moving to first to replace Pete Alonso. That’s all Mayo was told. He was not informed, however, that if Alonso wanted to stay in the game to get an extra at-bat -- which, of course, he would -- then Mayo would not be moving to first, but rather a different position.

Instead, Henderson and Mayo would be making a straight swap. Henderson would move to third, with Mayo moving to shortstop -- a position he played during his time at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., but hadn’t played since getting two-thirds of an inning there in the Rookie-level Florida Complex League on July 5, 2021, his fourth pro game.

Mayo was informed of the actual plan shortly following the conclusion of the fourth, with manager Craig Albernaz telling Mayo, “Hey, go have fun. Go have fun with it, and whatever happens, happens.”

“I think they were kind of trying to play a trick on me in telling me last minute, so I didn’t get too nervous,” Mayo said. “But it was cool.”

As the baseball adage goes, “the ball will find you.” And sure enough, the Braves hit two ground balls to the left side of the infield during Mayo’s lone inning at short.

After a one-out double by Brett Wisely, Mauricio Dubón hit a grounder that rolled to the middle of Henderson and Mayo, but Henderson charged in front of it and made the play. Henderson later got a bit more action at the hot corner, fielding a DaShawn Keirsey Jr. grounder that went directly to him and placing a tag on Wisely for the final out of the inning.

Mayo may not have touched the ball while at shortstop, but he enjoyed the nostalgia of it.

“It was definitely different to be there, you kind of feel like you’re monitoring the infield. You have every ball, technically,” Mayo said. “It was cool. It was different.”

Many players in the Orioles’ first-base dugout got a kick out of it, with smiles and chuckles abound. Adley Rutschman was later asked about it and still couldn’t keep a straight face.

“Always good to get a laugh,” said a grinning Rutschman, who previously slugged his first home run of the spring in the fourth.

Over the past two weeks, Henderson had been putting in a little bit of work at third on the back fields. Team USA could start Bobby Witt Jr. at shortstop, and in order to get both players in the same lineup, Henderson may play third, where he spent three innings on Saturday.

But Henderson didn’t move over until Mayo got in his own work at third. The 24-year-old former top prospect is the front-runner to start at third base in place of the injured Jordan Westburg (partial right UCL tear) to open the 2026 season.

Although Mayo came up through the Minor Leagues as a primary third baseman, most of his big league career has been spent at first, where he’s made 69 of his 81 defensive starts (including 67 last season). So there’s been an adjustment period as the 2020 fourth-round Draft pick gets reacclimated to the hot corner this spring.

Mayo has been putting in a lot of time with infield coach Miguel Cairo and third-base coach Buck Britton, and it’s paying dividends. After committing a pair of errors over his first four games this spring, Mayo looked more comfortable on Saturday, when he got his glove on two balls deep in the hole, completing a throw to get the out on one and preventing extra bases on the other.

“I can’t thank enough people for all the work that they’ve been putting in with me,” Mayo said. “I feel like I’m in a good spot where I’m at on defense. I think my footwork has been a lot better this year over there, and it’s just going to continue to get better the more I’m working over there.”