Four things I think matter from the first quarter of the Orioles season

Adley Rutschman's debut killed all the well-planned quarter-pole content. But 45 games into this season, there are some meaningful developments underway at Camden Yards.

Adley Rutschman’s debut this weekend makes it feel like the Orioles’ season just began, even though it’s already over a quarter finished.

That’s a lot of baseball left, and depending on the perspective one takes on the first 45 games of the season, which the Orioles went 18-27 in, that could be a good thing or a bad thing. Every team in the division is still better than the Orioles, but they’re giving those AL East opponents tougher games this year and entered this gauntlet of a road trip on pace to win 66 games–a vast improvement over years past.

Following the Orioles, though, is an exercise in cherry-picking what matters to you, and that’s what I figured I’d do here as the window is slamming shut on any kind of meaningful quarter-season analysis.

Here are four things that have stood out to me through the first quarter-plus of this Orioles season.