Orioles executive vice president\/general manager Mike Elias sat on the dugout bench this afternoon, media crowded around him, and held a piece of paper that he referred to as his \u201ccrib notes.\u201d<\/p>\n
To memorize the injuries and updates would require a special skill that\u2019s rare in baseball circles, though the Orioles keep testing their front office and manager.<\/p>\n
Elias covered 11 players, including a pair of minor leaguers. The injured list has no limits. The same must apply to the Orioles\u2019 collective patience.<\/p>\n
Zach Eflin<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cHe continues to feel really good after coming out and hitting the IL with what we hope is a very mild lat strain. He\u2019s going to start playing catch in a few days. We\u2019ll have to see how that goes and kind of take it from there. But so far encouraging with the way he\u2019s felt since being injured and I\u2019m hopeful at this point that his stay on the IL will be measured more in weeks than in months. But again, kind of see how he responds. He\u2019s starting to play catch.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Grayson Rodriguez \u201cRecuperating from the sore tricep\/elbow injury that he had in spring training. He\u2019s thrown two bullpens now. His most recent one had off-speed pitches, spins as we say, and he\u2019s got another bullpen day after tomorrow. So far he is tolerating everything well physically, so that\u2019s good news, but we still have a lot ahead of us in terms of bullpens, buildup, live BP, ultimately rehab assignment, and I\u2019m not ready to assign a timetable to his recovery yet. I know that he\u2019s doing everything he can to strengthen up and get back to help the team as soon as possible, but we\u2019re not at the point yet of kind of ballparking when that\u2019s going to be. But he continues to feel pretty good.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Albert Su\u00e1rez<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAlbert Su\u00e1rez had a strain the first couple days of the season. Subscapularis muscle region in the front part of his shoulder. It\u2019s a large muscle strain. Fortunately it\u2019s not anything that portends sort of negatively long term. This is something that\u2019s gonna take a while to heal. He is still in the healing phase. He\u2019s a few weeks away from testing out playing catch. We\u2019ll just kind of let him rest and heal up. Not at the point yet of assigning a return ballpark date for him yet, but it\u2019s gonna be much later in the season, consistent with what we said originally.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Andrew Kittredge<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cAndrew Kittredge coming off the knee surgery, continues to fly along with the rehab. He is throwing bullpens. We could get him into a live BP the week after next, and once you\u2019re at that stage you start to talk about rehab assignments a few weeks after that. So all said, there is a possibility that he puts himself in position to be activated before the end of May, but there\u2019s a lot of time left there. But so far it\u2019s moving along at the front end of his recovery (window) from his knee surgery.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Kyle Bradish \u201cI don\u2019t have a lot to report there. He threw a bullpen the other day, went great, feels great. Knock on wood this is kind of flying along in terms of what you hope for from a Tommy John surgery. He\u2019s still another guy that with everything we\u2019d want to do to get him back in game shape and build him up and return to skill that we\u2019d be thinking about any sooner than kind of the later half of the summer, but he\u2019s very much on track.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Tyler Wells \u201cTyler Wells is in a similar boat. He has not started his mound progression yet, but that\u2019s going to come within the next two weeks, so he\u2019s a little bit behind Kyle in that regard, but everything moving along well in terms his Tommy John recovery. Also, somebody that we expect back well before the end of the season. In all hope and likelihood, in the latter part of the summer.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Chayce McDermott and Trevor Rogers \u201cChayce McDermott and Trevor Rogers are on similar timetables right now, so I\u2019m kind of lumping them together, but they\u2019re both multiple bullpens deep. Got their velocity built up. They\u2019re getting ready to face live hitters in Florida next week and we\u2019ll take it from there. But these are also guys that are potentials to put themselves in the conversation for activation before the end the month of May.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Colton Cowser \u201cI don\u2019t have much of an update. He\u2019s got a broken bone in the tip of his thumb. Got to let that heal up. He\u2019s in here working hard, he\u2019s staying in game shape, he\u2019s conditioning, but there\u2019s not a whole lot you can do when your thumb is broken. I can\u2019t predict exactly how quickly a bone is going to heal, but kind of hopeful for a late May, early June target for him, but we\u2019re going to have to take that as it comes with how quickly he heals.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Enrique Bradfield Jr. \u201cEnrique Bradfield last Thursday at Bowie. I was at the game. He hit a triple and was rounding second base and pulled up a little bit. We took an MRI. It is a mild hamstring strain. This is going to be a few weeks. It\u2019s not a huge deal. It\u2019s something that he could get back to active games by the middle part of May. We\u2019ve just got to let his hammy heal up a little bit. He’s not had one of these before and it doesn\u2019t look like too severe of an injury, so hopeful that it\u2019s just a run of the mill mild hamstring pull.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Samuel Basallo \u201cSam Basallo as we know right after camp broke had some elbow soreness. That recuperation is going well. However, on April 5, he pulled his hamstring while DHing in a game. Again, it\u2019s looking like a milder hamstring type of strain that\u2019s healing. I think we could see him back DHing in the Norfolk lineup within a couple of weeks and we\u2019re hopeful he\u2019ll be back to catching in the month of May.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAll these guys are more or less on track,\u201d Elias said. \u201cWe\u2019ve just got a lot of guys injured right now. Can\u2019t wait to get any number of them back, hopefully all of them back.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Kyle Gibson made his second rehab start today with Triple-A Norfolk and allowed three runs and six hits in 3 2\/3 innings. He threw 63 pitches and will remain with the Tides for at least one more outing, as the Orioles try to stretch him out further.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way that his contract is structured, we\u2019ll be counting on him as soon as May 1,\u201d Elias said, \u201cbut it\u2019s always a possibility earlier.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n It won\u2019t be Saturday when the Orioles need a fifth starter. Brandon Young was transferred from Norfolk to High-A Aberdeen to keep him close, and he\u2019s expected to debut.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s only so much in my position I can say about reading into things,\u201d Elias said. \u201cHe has pitched very well so far in Triple-A and I think you look at the landscape of guys that we have, and especially being on the 40-man roster, he\u2019s certainly at the forefront of the conversation if and when we need a starter. And it looks like we might need one pretty soon.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The Orioles lost their top two starters to injuries and Elias said there\u2019s \u201cstill chatter\u201d on the trade front. However, there isn\u2019t usually much activity in the first full month of the season.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, as recently as today, talking to other GMs, trying to line up on trades,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s just rare in April, the motivation and sort of the clarity is not usually there. Doesn’t mean you don’t try. Doesn’t mean you don’t have the conversations and certainly gathering the information helps. But we’re working. We’re always looking outside and inside to bolster the team. Inside, meaning bringing guys along to the minor leagues as best we can. Outside, whether it’s a major trade, which, again, it’s not typically something that happens in April, or it’s waiver moves, small trades, depth moves.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re working on them and we’ve done that throughout the years, throughout the season. But yeah, I think that it’s early for a flurry of major trade activity, but we are in touch with the other 29 teams.\u201d<\/p>\n The rotation needs better results from Charlie Morton and Dean Kremer, with ERAs of 8.78 and 8.16, respectively. Morton starts tonight in the series opener against the Guardians.<\/p>\n \u201cThey both look fine in terms of their stuff and velocity, and their track records that they’ve laid down at the major league level certainly suggest that there’s good reason to believe that this is an aberration,\u201d Elias said. \u201cBut yeah, especially while we have pitcher injuries, you also don’t want slow starts from some of your proven major league starters at the same time. But unfortunately, that’s what we’ve gotten. So they both have a chance to get the turnaround going this turn through the rotation, and I hope that happens.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The Orioles put special emphasis on deepening the rosters and increasing their options, but the rash of injuries has created a strain.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the pitching staff side, I feel like we\u2019ve already tapped into, basically, the depth. To say that on April 15 was not the plan,\u201d Elias said.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, we knew Bradish was going to be out, but to have Grayson and Eflin on the shelf simultaneously this quickly into the season, at no point were we forecasting that or expecting that. And that\u2019s just the truth. We\u2019ve also had a number of the depth starters go down during spring training or very late into the winter time, so there\u2019s a combination of things that I think just speak to the unpredictable nature of pitching.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are doing the best that we can to keep enough quality starting upright to navigate a baseball season. This is not something we\u2019re alone in. I think there\u2019s a lot of teams right now, contending teams, that don\u2019t have five of the guys they envisioned being part of their starting pitcher depth charts up and running right now, for whatever reason. I guess we count among those teams right now. We\u2019re doing the best we can. The good news is we\u2019re getting healthier and we expect to see some of these guys back. But certainly, this wasn\u2019t what we were hoping for this quickly. But this kind of stuff happens, and you\u2019ve got to be aware of that.\u201d<\/p>\n The Orioles tried to lure back ace Corbin Burnes with a four-year, $180 million offer, but he stayed close to home with his six-year, $210 deal with the Diamondbacks. He passed up a larger average annual value, and the Orioles brought in Morton and Tomoyuki Sugano at a combined $28 million.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we attempted all manner of things throughout the offseason,\u201d Elias said. \u201cIt is not feasible to land and execute every single thing that you want to do, try to do, in the offseason. And my entire job is balancing the needs of the team, the needs of the roster, versus the acquisition cost and what that might do to affect future seasons. That’s the job of being a general manager. That\u2019s the job of being a front office. To the degree with which that works out, we\u2019re certainly responsible for that and we\u2019re aware of it. To try to avoid the balance of that, you\u2019re not gonna do the job well, you\u2019re not gonna do the job responsibly. So we made moves that we wanted to and I think we had some unfortunate breaks here early on.<\/p>\n \u201cThe outlook for the rest of the season and for the organization continues to be really strong. And we\u2019re working on things behind the scenes to just keep getting better and keep the team on track or get people on track that need to be back on track. We\u2019re doing our jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n Elias isn\u2019t comfortable with sharing details on his negotiations, especially if the player rejects the offer, but some information leaked to the press and Burnes dropped a few hints. All that matters is that Burnes wanted more years and to be near his Scottsdale home, and the Orioles didn’t find another starter with No. 1 credentials. Rodriguez is supposed to develop into that guy but he’s hurt again.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel, in my position, that I should be quiet about business activities that don\u2019t come to fruition,\u201d Elias said. \u201cPlayers talk about stuff and get out there. We made a good offer and a good run, good effort to retain Corbin Burnes. We knew it was gonna be competitive. We knew it wasn\u2019t gonna be easy. It ultimately didn\u2019t end up with him staying with the team.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t criticize his going to the Diamondbacks. It makes sense to me. We had a great experience with him and I wish him very well but we move on and we\u2019ll be adding more quality pitching as the years go on. We\u2019ve got a great group here and a great team. It was something that we worked on and it didn\u2019t cross the finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Orioles executive vice president\/general manager Mike Elias sat on the dugout bench this afternoon, media crowded around him, and held a piece of paper that he referred… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":48709,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n
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