masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgWill the Orioles have at least two rookies in their starting rotation on opening day?
Manager Brandon Hyde isn’t handing out jobs a day before pitchers and catchers report to spring training. Keegan Akin and Dean Kremer are expected to earn them, but that’s exactly what they’ll have to do.
For now, Hyde is saying only that they’ve earned the opportunity. That is all.
The rest is up to them.
“I like to keep guys competitive,” Hyde said during our recent video Q&A that’s going to be…

Will the Orioles have at least two rookies in their starting rotation on opening day?

Manager Brandon Hyde isn’t handing out jobs a day before pitchers and catchers report to spring training. Keegan Akin and Dean Kremer are expected to earn them, but that’s exactly what they’ll have to do.

For now, Hyde is saying only that they’ve earned the opportunity. That is all.

The rest is up to them.

“I like to keep guys competitive,” Hyde said during our recent video Q&A that’s going to be used by the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum for its first virtual Birthday Bash later this month.

“Their debuts last year, their last four or five starts, they proved that they can pitch in the big leagues and I’m just looking forward to them getting better.”

John Means should be on the Fenway Park mound for the April 1 opener against the Red Sox. What happens beyond his start is going to be settled in camp.

Veterans Félix Hernández, Wade LeBlanc and Matt Harvey, signed to minor league deals, are pressing the rookies. However it shakes out, Hyde and pitching coach/director of pitching Chris Holt must determine the order behind Means.

Thumbnail image for Lopez-Throws-White-Sidebar.jpgExecutive vice president/general manager Mike Elias could find one more candidate, though nothing is imminent, to further increase the depth in a group that also includes Jorge López, Bruce Zimmermann, Thomas Eshelman, and Rule 5 picks Mac Sceroler and Tyler Wells.

It was almost unthinkable a month ago that Akin or Kremer could begin the season in the minors. I’m still penciling them into the rotation, but the Harvey signing creates at least a sliver of doubt.

Reclamation projects might not excite many fans, but the Orioles are trying to ease the workload on starters coming off a 60-game season with a limited amount of innings. There’s potential danger in ramping up guys for 162 games as if 2020 provided a normal schedule and routine.

This is uncharted territory and this is how the Orioles have chosen to navigate it.

Will catcher Adley Rutschman make his major league debut in 2021?

“I think it’s too soon,” Hyde said, “and I think that would honestly be a question that I would forward to the front office.”

We joked about the front office rejecting my question and kicking it back to Hyde, who said he used his racket to hit it over the net to me.

Serve and folly.

The 27th annual Birthday Bash will offer seven programs from Feb. 23-25, beginning with Hyde’s interview. Click here to learn more and purchase tickets.

* Harvey signed with the Royals as a free agent on July 28, 2020. He made seven appearances, including four starts, and didn’t eclipse three innings or 54 pitches.

The Orioles will try to expose Harvey to a full spring training and lessen the restrictions on him.

A scout from another organization who tracked Harvey with the Royals said the veteran was good for a couple of innings.

“I would think with a full spring he should build up arm strength,” the scout said.

BrooksBaseball.net has Harvey’s four-seam fastball averaging 95.3 mph in his last two games – relief appearances lasting one inning and two-thirds of an inning.

The Orioles are looking for a lot more out of him, but at a minimal financial risk.

* Dilson Herrera remains tied to the Orioles in Internet searches, but he’s still a free agent and won’t be coming back to the organization.

There appeared to be some early interest in re-signing him, but they seem to have moved on from him.

Herrera impressed at the summer training camp but didn’t have his contract selected until Sept. 1 and received only six at-bats, going 0-for-5 with four strikeouts.

His work in left and right field got him noticed at the summer training camp and he moved around the infield while playing winter ball in Colombia, with extra work at third base to increase his value.

* On this date in 2018, the Orioles signed veteran pitcher Andrew Cashner to a two-year, $16 million contract and placed closer Zack Britton on the 60-day disabled list following his right Achilles surgery.

Cashner received salaries of $5 million and $8 million. The remaining $3 was a signing bonus deferred to 2020-22.

The $10 million vesting option required Cashner to log 340 innings in two seasons. It would become a player option if he reached 360 innings.

Cashner went 13-18 with a 4.73 ERA and 1.432 WHIP in 45 starts totaling 249 1/3 innings. The Orioles traded him to the Red Sox on July 13, 2019 for Rookie-level Dominican Summer League outfielder Elio Prado and infielder Noelberth Romero.

“It’s a shocking moment, but I kind of saw it coming just the way our club is trending,” Cashner said while standing outside the clubhouse at Camden Yards. “I think it will maybe sink in tonight and once I leave tomorrow. You make a lot of relationships in this game and just saying goodbye to a lot of people is maybe the toughest thing.”

It was a lot harder for Cashner in Boston. He had a 6.20 ERA, a 1.621 WHIP and his first major league save in 25 appearances, including six starts, and didn’t pitch in 2020 after returning to the free agent market.

The Orioles held some interest in him last winter, but the Cashner ship apparently has sailed.