The Orioles made it pretty clear at the onset of spring training that Matt Wieters wouldn’t be behind home plate on Opening Day.

Boy, did the best prospect in baseball try to mess up those plans.

Wieters, the fifth overall pick in the 2007 draft, was reassigned to Triple-A Norfolk over the weekend after doing everything in his power to stick with the big-league club short of chaining himself to the Orioles dugout at Camden Yards.

Equal parts savior and slugger to diehard Orioles fans — able to turn water into wine and turn on an outside fastball — Baltimore’s catcher of the future was one of the team’s hottest hitters this spring.

Wieters batted .333 with one home run and five RBIs in Grapefruit League play, and with a handful of clutch hits, showed that he has what it takes to come through in pressure situations.

Then again, most of Wieters’ time spent at the Orioles’ spring training camp in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. could probably be classified as a pressure situation.

Despite the lucrative extensions handed out to Nick Markakis and Brian Roberts and the signing of Japanese starting pitcher Koji Uehara in the offseason, the spring spotlight was on the 22-year-old Wieters, who was named Baseball America’s top major league prospect this spring and the publication’s 2008 Minor League Player of the Year after hitting .355 with 27 homers and 91 RBIs with Single-A Frederick and Double-A Bowie.

Yet, Wieters somehow seems surprisingly cool with being one of the most hyped prospects in Orioles history. He’s humble and hard-working, but he’s also confident in his abilities and eager to make his major league debut.

There is little doubt Wieters is ready for prime time. But Orioles president Andy MacPhail is making the right decision by having him start the season in Norfolk.

As much as Wieters wants to be in a Baltimore uniform on Opening Day and as much as Birdland was buzzing over the possibility, there wasn’t much to gain by rushing Wieters into the lineup.

Of course, Wieters could potentially pay immediate dividends for the Orioles, but with their chances of making the playoffs as likely as Peter Angelos opening up a roller disco in the Warehouse, there’s not much reason to run the risk of stunting Wieters’ development.

It’s unclear how long it will be until Wieters finally gets the call from MacPhail, but once he does, it will be impossible to take this future superstar off the diamond.

So what’s the big rush?

Matt Vensel is a content creator for b. Contact him at matt@bthesite.com.

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