Health is the biggest key for some on the roster

The Orioles will continue their slate of exhibition games this afternoon, hosting the Tampa Bay Rays at Ed Smith Stadium. It will be the third time in four days fans will file into the Orioles Spring Training home, padding the total attendance numbers on the way to cracking the one million mark. The announced attendance for the weekend contests was just over 11,500.

Fans were treated to back-to-back Grapefruit League victories over the weekend, as the Orioles offense crossed the plate 16 times in 18 innings. However, they came up short yesterday in Fort Myers, losing to the Minnesota Twins, 7-1. While it’s fun winning at any point during the Major League Baseball season, the results of the early exhibition contests are far less important than the health of the players getting into game action.

The current 40-man roster has a handful of players that are far more concerned with getting through their appearances healthy. Mark Trumbo, who has yet to enter Grapefruit League play is still recovering from his knee injury last season. He’s projected to be ready for Opening Day and but seems to still be a few weeks away from making his spring debut.

“There’s going to be a few tests to pass before. A safe bet would probably be two weeks from now,” Trumbo told MASN’s Roch Kubatko. “We still haven’t totally ramped up. The full-speed sprint and kind of the breakdown will be, at least for me, one of the huge hurdles. And being able to repeat it a few times. Not just doing single reps.”

Andrew Cashner, projected to be the third starter in the rotation this season, has also yet to make his debut this spring. It’s not known when he will get into game action. Mike Wright will start today against the Rays, non-roster invitee Gabriel Ynoa will start tomorrow in Fort Myers against the Boston Red Sox and Dylan Bundy will go on Thursday in Clearwater versus the Philadelphia Phillies.

Cashner landed on the Injured List two separate times last season. He was eventually shut down in mid-September due to a knee injury, after a lower back strain sidelined him in June and a neck strain kept him out of action in July. Looking for better results this season, Roch Kubatko reported that Cashner threw a simulated game on Sunday morning, building himself back up to being game-ready.

Two fellow pitchers in the organization that are looking for healthy springs are right-handers Branden Kline and Hunter Harvey. Both of their injury reports have been well documented over the years. Kline was a second round pick in 2012 and Harvey was the 22nd overall pick the following season. Neither have stepped on a big league mound yet.

Kline was protected from the Rule-5 draft back in December, being placed on the 40-man roster. He was a guest on the Hot Stove Show on 105.7 The Fan last month and told MASN reporters, “Guys don’t dream as kids saying ‘my goal is get on the 40-man.’ No, it’s to be in the big leagues. It’s a great opportunity, but at the same time, the goal has not been reached.”

Pitching the ninth inning of Sunday’s 9-8 victory over the Blue Jays, Kline became the first Orioles pitcher to strikeout the side this spring. After the game, Brandon Hyde had just one word to say about Kline’s outing, “Wow!”

Harvey made his spring debut yesterday and wasn’t as fortunate as Kline was the day before. Elbow issues ended his Minor League season last August, however, after seeing a specialist it was determined there was no structural damage and he had a minor setback in his road to the show. Allowing two earned runs, including a home run to Twins center fielder Byron Buxton, Harvey’s fastball topped out at 98mph in his only inning of work.

“Body felt good, arm felt good,” he told the media after his outing. He also said the main objective is to, “get off the field,” during his first outing of the spring.

Nate Karns started yesterday’s game, pitching an inning and two-thirds, and giving up three runs (two earned) on 48 pitches. He hadn’t pitched in a game since May 19, 2017 – while pitching for Kansas City – against the Twins, of all teams. Yet, he too was more concerned with how he felt during the outing, rather than his final line.

He told Roch Kubatko, “I feel like today I kind of came in like, I may not get the results that I wanted, but that’s not what we were focused on right now. That’s getting out there and trying to figure out where you’re at and then improve between starts and try to keep going in that direction until the season gets here.”

The theme conveyed in the 785 words before this sentence is health. Baseball is a six-month long endeavor and if a pitcher throws 45 pitches in two innings of an exhibition game in February, it means nothing in mid-August. The goal for these players is to make it through the spring healthy and hopefully, play hard enough to earn a shot on the 25-man Opening Day roster. With weeks to go before a decision is made, the opportunities will continue for players to state their case for slots as the spring goes on.