SARASOTA, Fla. — If the Orioles hadn’t said John Means was a month behind, it wouldn’t have been obvious watching him Friday.
He long-tossed a far distance to warm up, threw about a 25-pitch bullpen and joked with James McCann, who was standing in for the session, when the veteran catcher hit an imaginary home run off one of Means’ offerings.
“I feel great right now,” Means said despite the regressed timeline he’s on.
The veteran left-hander began his offseason throwing regimen a month later than normal as a way to fully recover from his late-season elbow flare-up that kept him out of the American League Division Series in October. Manager Brandon Hyde said the plan for Means, if all goes well this spring, is for him to make his season debut with the Orioles “sometime in April.”
“That’s a rough draft right now,” Hyde said. “That’s a long way away. We expect him to be ready sometime the beginning of the season.”
Means, who said it’s “unlikely” he could be ready for opening day, said he started playing catch in January and threw his first bullpen later that month. While the team wanted him to rest from throwing for an extra month in the offseason, the 30-year-old had a normal offseason with his workout routine.
The past two seasons have been challenging for Means. An All-Star in 2019 with another solid campaign in 2021, Means started opening day for the Orioles in 2022 before tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow in his next appearance. He returned after about 18 months from undergoing Tommy John elbow reconstruction and pitched well in four starts before going back on the shelf.
“At this point, I kind of understand to follow the process and do the best I can every day and try to be as prepared as I can,” Means said when asked if the past two years have been frustrating.
While executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias and manager Brandon Hyde haven’t given a specific reason for why Means began his offseason throwing program a month late, it’s possible the plan is to ease him into the season so he can be ready for the end of it. As a professional, Means has never pitched more than 160 innings in a season, and he’s thrown more than 45 frames just once in the past four seasons.
Hyde said there isn’t yet a plan to limit Means’ innings this year.
“We’ll get there and then watch him and monitor it closely throughout the season,” Hyde said.
Bradish believes he’ll be back
Learning that Kyle Bradish had a UCL injury was one of the worst possible pieces of news that could’ve come out of the Orioles’ first official day at Ed Smith Stadium on Thursday. Bradish, too, was “bummed” when he injured his elbow during the offseason.
“Based off the year we had last year [I was] coming into this year feeling really confident, so it’s a little bit of a setback,” he said. “But I feel very confident that I’ll be able to pitch and help this team out this year.”
Bradish, who blossomed into the Orioles’ No. 1 starter last year, played catch for the first time since receiving platelet-rich plasma injections for a sprained UCL — the ligament that is repaired by Tommy John surgery if torn. In some cases, PRP injections are used to prevent a procedure, but the severity of Bradish’s injury is unknown.
The 27-year-old right-hander played catch Friday for the first time since injuring his elbow about six weeks ago. It was a light session going out to approximately 60 feet.
“I’m feeling really good right now,” he said before throwing. “Just going to take it day by day and trust the process and the schedule and everything.”
Catcher Adley Rutschman expressed confidence in the Orioles’ pitching depth to fill in while Bradish is absent.
“I think we have a lot of tremendous arms, a great coaching staff. Last year I feel like the M.O. was guys were just always stepping up to fill in,” the All-Star backstop said. “I feel like that’s a character thing and that’s going to continue this year. Obviously, I love Bradish. It’s tough to hear. But, you know, we always got guys stepping up, and I trust in our guys and our coaching staff.”
Wells, Irvin have inside tracks
Elias said Thursday that Wells and Irvin, who pitched as starters and relievers for the Orioles in 2023, were set to have significant roles on the club before the news about Bradish and Means.
Now, it’s likely the pair will be in the rotation. Hyde said Friday that Wells, who was the club’s best starter in 2023’s first half, and Irvin, who had an up-and-down season after joining the team from the Oakland Athletics, should be seen at the front of the pack in the rotation competition.
“We’ll see what happens here the next month, but definitely give those two guys every opportunity,” Hyde said. “You know, Wells was one of our best starters the first half last year, and Cole was a quality starter for Oakland for a couple years. We feel confident that they both can handle it, but, yeah, they’re going to get as many starts as possible this spring.”
Other starting pitchers in camp include Bruce Zimmermann, Jonathan Heasley, Tucker Davidson and prospects Cade Povich, Chayce McDermott and Justin Armbruester.
“There’s a lot of depth on this team and a lot of good pitchers,” Bradish said. “I have full confidence that this team won’t miss a beat.”
“Everybody in this clubhouse trusts each other,” Means said. “We know that anybody we throw out there is going to be pretty dang good.”
Around the horn
- It appears all but a handful of the Orioles’ position players reported early to camp. Hyde said about half the team was already in Sarasota a week before spring training started. Position players, not including catchers, don’t have to report until Monday before the first full team workout Wednesday. “Our guys seem really excited to get this thing going,” Hyde said.
- Gunnar Henderson, who is rehabbing a left oblique strain, said he suffered the injury three weeks ago while long-tossing. He expects to be back soon and isn’t worried. “It’s all good,” he said.
- The Orioles claimed utilityman Diego Castillo off waivers from the Philadelphia Phillies and designated infielder Livan Soto for assignment. Castillo, 26, posted a .633 OPS with the Pittsburgh Pirates as a rookie in 2022 and appeared in just one game with the Arizona Diamondbacks last year. Castillo’s offseason has been an odyssey, as the Orioles are his fifth team in two months after being designated for assignment four times.