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Orioles’ top pitching prospect Cade Povich to make MLB debut Thursday vs. Blue Jays

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TORONTO — Cade Povich, the Orioles’ No. 1 pitching prospect according to Baseball America, will make his major league debut Thursday afternoon against the host Toronto Blue Jays, manager Brandon Hyde announced Wednesday night.

Povich joined the Orioles’ taxi squad ahead of Wednesday’s 3-2 walk-off loss to Toronto. The left-hander was scheduled to make his next start with Triple-A Norfolk on Thursday, but he will instead take the mound at Rogers Centre in place of right-hander Kyle Bradish.

“He threw the ball great for us in spring,” Hyde said of Povich before Wednesday’s game. “I thought it was huge strides from the year before. It’s great stuff. It’s all about command and strikes with him and that’s something we talked about when we sent him out at the end of camp was just really want him to minimize walks, try to get hitters out early in the count. Because the stuff really plays. He’s done that in Triple-A. He took that and the walks are way down, the command, the fastball command, is better. It’s improved, so we’re excited about him.”

Povich, 24, has been among the most effective pitchers in Triple-A this season, recording a 3.18 ERA with 75 strikeouts and 21 walks in 56 2/3 innings (11 starts) with Norfolk. Baseball America ranks him the fifth overall prospect in the Orioles’ farm system and No. 99 in its updated top 100 list.

“Cade is definitely a guy who’s on the tip of our tongues right now,” Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said in a news conference Friday. “He’s having a tremendous season in Triple-A. … We are watching every little thing he does and as we enter this stretch now, with all of these games coming up, with no off days, we’ve had internal dialogue about six man’s for stretches and things like that and he’s put himself in position for that type of consideration and it’s something that’s become kind of a daily conversation for us.”

Whether Povich took the mound Thursday was dependent on Bradish. Hyde said Tuesday that the club was considering pushing Bradish’s scheduled start back a day or two to give him some extra rest after he allowed five runs in 2 2/3 innings against the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday. Bradish missed the first month of the season after partially tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow this winter. He underwent platelet-rich plasma injections and avoided Tommy John reconstruction surgery.

“We are considering giving him an extra day or two just kind of from how he’s feeling,” Hyde said. “We’re monitoring him daily and keeping everything TBA right now.”

Before Wednesday’s game, Hyde said the team’s current stretch of 30 games in 31 days has the Orioles looking at ways to give all their starters some extra rest to keep them healthy for the rest of the season.

“It’s really with everybody right now just in this stretch we’re going to be TBA probably a lot,” Hyde said when asked what led to considering some extra rest for Bradish. “We’re going to try to give guys days when we can and so that’s just [why] you’re going to see a lot of TBAs for this month.”

The Orioles declined to make Povich available to the media while he remained on the taxi squad.

Povich, whom the Orioles acquired from the Minnesota Twins in the Jorge López trade in August 2022, will be the second top prospect to make his debut in the Toronto series after second baseman Connor Norby played his first career game Monday. Norby collected his first hit with a two-run home run in the Orioles’ 10-1 win Tuesday night.

Povich is not on the Orioles’ 40-man roster, which has one open spot after Baltimore designated reliever Thyago Vieira for assignment Monday. The Orioles would still need to clear a spot on the active roster to make room for Povich. Relievers Nick Vespi, Dillon Tate and Keegan Akin all have minor league options remaining.

This story might be updated.


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