SARASOTA, Fla. — The bullpen is perhaps the Orioles’ most unsettled position group as spring training gets underway. Aside from offseason acquisitions Ryan Helsley and Andrew Kittredge as well as holdovers Yennier Cano and Keegan Akin, it’s anyone’s guess which seven or eight pitchers will be trotting out to the bullpen at Camden Yards on opening day.
Those who followed closely the lost second half of last season will recognize names such as Dietrich Enns and Rico Garcia, two veterans who impressed down the stretch. At least one of the Orioles’ starters is likely to wind up pitching in relief to start the season. Albert Suárez is back in camp as a nonroster invitee after Baltimore nontendered him this winter.
But while Suárez has plenty of history with the Orioles, he’s joined in camp by eight other journeymen-type pitchers vying to parlay a spring training invite into a roster spot by March. If there’s any corner of the team a nonroster player could crack, it’s in the bullpen. Here’s a look at the Orioles’ external camp invites trying to follow in Suárez’s footsteps.
RHP Jeisson Cabrera
The longtime Dodgers farmhand
Age: 27 | Born: La Vega, Dominican Republic | Height: 6-foot-2 | Weight: 170 lbs
Cabrera signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers as an international amateur free agent and spent eight years in their organization, but he never advanced past Double-A. The right-hander racked up impressive strikeout numbers (11.5 K/9 for his career) and did well to limit hard contact, with walks (5.3 BB/9) the primary culprit for his slow development.
Baltimore is the first organization to get a fresh set of eyes on Cabrera other than the Dodgers. The full-time reliever throws multiple fastballs, a slider and a cutter, but is also trying out a new changeup this spring. Cabrera is a longshot for the Orioles’ roster who will likely have to prove at Triple-A Norfolk he can find the strike zone enough.
RHP Hans Crouse
The former top prospect
Age: 27 | Born: Dana Point, California | Height: 6-foot-4 | Weight: 180 lbs
It’s been a difficult road for Crouse, who was a top 100 prospect in 2019 before a slew of injuries derailed his career. He underwent surgery for bone spurs in his elbow, dealt with symptoms of thoracic outlet syndrome, suffered a partial tear in his bicep and tore his lat muscle — the latter of which limited him to just one inning of work in 2025.
Crouse doesn’t throw 102 mph like he did when he was the Texas Rangers’ top pitching prospect, but he still can hit 97 mph on the radar gun and his last stint in the majors was impressive. He posted a 2.84 ERA with a 12.1 K/9 in 25 games for the Los Angeles Angels in 2024. However, the Orioles were one of only three teams interested in him this offseason, the latest in a series of humbling moments that have reshaped his outlook on the game.
“I know what I’m capable of when I’m fully healthy,” Crouse said. “Improved it in 2024, which was huge for my confidence. That was kind of like the last box to check for me in terms of my skill set, my way I go about my work, was to have that good runway of success up there. Just shot my confidence through the roof. So, the way I’m thinking now is I’m just going to go do it all over again. I’ve done it before. Why can’t I do it again? And I feel even better than I do when I was healthy back then, too.”
RHP Richard Guasch
The Mexican league turnaround
Age: 27 | Born: Santiago de Cuba, Cuba | Height: 6-foot-4 | Weight: 205 lbs
Guasch’s career appeared to be stagnating when, after being released by the Washington Nationals in 2024, he struggled mightily in the Venezuelan winter league. He then spent the first half of last season in Mexico, where he rebounded with a 1.93 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 16.1 K/9 in 13 appearances. The Detroit Tigers scooped him up in June and he carried over that success with their Double-A Erie affiliate, posting a 2.74 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 11.2 K/9.
Baltimore moved quickly this offseason and signed him to a minor-league deal in November. Though Guasch, like Cabrera, still hasn’t yet proven himself above Double-A, he picked up a few recommendations from his past few organizations that he plans to incorporate into his repertoire this spring to match up better against tougher competition.
“My slider is probably my best pitch and I would call it elite,” Guasch said through team interpreter Brandon Quinones. “But combining that with velo works really well for me. I think last year I was touching 98, so having that combination makes a lot of things work for me. Trying to locate pitches inside the zone is a big focus for me as well and right now I’m trying to work on a split change and trying to incorporate a new sinker as well.”
RHP Jean Henriquez
The debt-collector-turned-comeback-story
Age: 32 | Born: San Francisco de Macorís, Dominican Republic | Height: 6-foot-3 | Weight: 231
That’s right, Henriquez is attempting a comeback after working as a debt collector at a bank — 11 years since throwing his last pitch in affiliated baseball. Originally signed by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2014, Henriquez never made it past rookie ball and after just two years he returned to the DR, where he threw bullpen sessions at local academies.
However, he decided to test out his arm in the Dominican winter league and he put up a 2.05 ERA and 1.03 WHIP in 17 games out of the bullpen. The Orioles were impressed enough to sign him to a minor-league deal early in the winter season. Henriquez has a long way to go before he’s on the Orioles’ radar for a role in the majors, but his story is one that he decided still has chapters left to be written.
LHP Andrew Magno
The Ohio State hero
Age: 27 | Born: Antioch, California | Height: 5-foot-11 | Weight: 190
The 2019 season was etched into Ohio State’s history books when the Buckeyes, despite entering the Big Ten tournament as the No. 7 seed, went on an unlikely run to win the conference championship and earn a spot in the NCAA tournament. Magno, a local kid who went to high school 20 minutes away from campus, joined the program as a walk-on and emerged as their closer that season, fueling Ohio State’s tear with four scoreless multi-inning saves to claim the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player Award.
He did his part in the regionals, earning the win in a 13-inning thriller over McNeese State by allowing one run in 7 1/3 relief innings with a dozen strikeouts. Though Ohio State’s season ended the following day, Magno was drafted the same week by the Tigers in the 15th round. He signed with Detroit and worked all the way up to Triple-A, but hit a wall in 2024 and was sent back to Erie last season where he had a 2.31 ERA and 10.3 K/9 in 42 games.
“I think I was just kind of getting stuck in the same spot,” Magno said. “So, coming here, fresh start and same thing, I think it’s just feels like a full-on opportunity to just earn what you get. So, just excited to do that and show what I can do.”
RHP Enoli Paredes
The Mike Elias and Drew French connection
Age: 30 | Born: El Limon, Dominican Republic | Height: 5-foot-11 | Weight: 171
Paredes has multiple connections with Orioles brass. He signed with the Houston Astros as an amateur international free agent when Baltimore’s president of baseball operations Mike Elias was their scouting director. The right-hander also overlapped with pitching coach Drew French in the Astros’ minor league system.
“It was a big smile to see him here, because he know me,” Paredes said of French. “If I need some help in some pitch or whatever, he’s the guy that knows me when I was starting being pro. So, glad that I got that type of help in this team.”
French has already talked to Paredes about bringing back his changeup, a pitch he used in the minor leagues but had moved away from. Paredes has the most MLB experience of the Orioles’ nonroster invitees — aside from Suárez — with a 3.00 ERA and 1.52 WHIP in 55 games over parts of four seasons. His fastball sits at 95 mph and he also throws a heavy dose of sliders and sinkers.
LHP Eric Torres
The independent and Puerto Rican winter ball standout
Age: 26 | Born: Milwaukee, Wisconsin | Height: 6 feet | Weight: 195
Torres appeared to be on a steady path to the majors with the Angels before hitting a wall in Triple-A. The left-hander posted a 9.44 ERA in 32 games at the level across the 2023 and 2024 seasons, and Los Angeles released him from minor league camp last spring. Torres then resorted to playing independent ball in the American Association and he dominated, compiling a 1.82 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and 14.5 K/9 in 39 games.
He then spent the winter in the Puerto Rican league and was even better, managing not to allow a single run across 20 appearances. The Orioles signed Torres in January and he has an outside shot of making the team, especially considering Baltimore’s only left-handed relievers on their 40-man roster are Akin, Enns and Grant Wolfram.
LHP Josh Walker
The guy who would give Tyler O’Neill a run for the title of biggest gym rat
Age: 31 | Born: Otisville, New York | Height: 6-foot-6 | Weight: 225
As imposing a stature on the mound as it gets, Walker towers over most of his Orioles teammates in the clubhouse and has the build of an NFL tight end. His extension — how close to the plate his hand gets before it releases the ball — is over seven feet, which gives hitters less time to react to his pitches. Though his fastball velocity sits in the low-to-mid 90 mph range, Walker has a big curveball that he throws over 50% of the time.
Walker was a victim of the waiver game over the past two years, bouncing between organizations — including Baltimore twice — before clearing waivers with the Orioles and accepting an assignment to Triple-A Norfolk. He has a career 6.59 ERA in a small sample of 27 games at the MLB level and struggled last season in Triple-A, but he was also dealing with shoulder and hip issues that have since cleared up.
“It’s definitely good that they seem to have continued interest in me and took the opportunity to keep me,” Walker said. “I know passing through waivers isn’t great and getting off the 40, but all you can do is ask for opportunity, and there’s opportunity here. And so I’m just going to try and seize that and do everything I can and that’s that.”
Have a news tip? Contact Matt Weyrich at [email protected], 410-332-6200, x.com/ByMattWeyrich and instagram.com/bymattweyrich. Matt appears as a regular host on The Sun’s “Early Birds” podcast.
