Cowser on his return from injured list and the shrimp scandal, plus some rehab updates

SEATTLE – The Orioles are making their latest attempt to get healthy. This time, it involves Colton Cowser.

Cowser is in center field tonight for the first game against the Mariners at T-Mobile Park. He was reinstated from the injured list yesterday, leaving the Orioles with 11 players on the shelf.

Cowser hasn’t played for the Orioles since fracturing his left thumb on March 30 in Toronto. He completed a rehab assignment that consisted of three games with High-A Aberdeen and three with Triple-A Norfolk.

“Feeling good,” he said. “It was one of those things where, had to get some ABs and was able to do so. Was fighting the weather a little bit a couple of those days, but feeling good.”

Cowser went 6-for-11 with four doubles at Norfolk, but he wasn’t using statistics to measure his readiness.

“Honestly, I couldn’t have cared less about the numbers,” said Cowser, who’s 2-for-16 with the Orioles. “I could have struck out every at-bat and it was just one of those things, I wanted to get back out there and see some pitches. Get to play nine innings two games in a row was big, and just the results followed, so I think that working on simple approach down there, and hopefully it translates down here.

“The results, yeah, they were gratifying, but I think all of it was just to get back to this point.”

There could be plenty of starts for Cowser in center field with Cedric Mullins on the injured list with a hamstring strain. Dylan Carlson and Jorge Mateo also have filled in for Mullins, with Jordyn Adams serving as a defensive replacement.

“I haven’t been told anything,” Cowser said. “I’m just gonna come in and do what I’m told to do.”

“When he’s out there, I think there’s a good chance we see him there," said interim manager Tony Mansolino, "but we’ll kind of figure it out night-to-night.”

So much has changed with the Orioles since Cowser’s injury, including a hard fall into last place, a fired manager and a recent stretch of better baseball.

What’s it like to jump back into such a new environment?

“I think we’re gonna find out,” he said. “I don’t really know. I’ve been around the clubhouse a little bit, but haven’t been the last couple weeks. It seems we’ve got a good thing rolling, so my goal is just to come in and seamlessly get back in there, and hopefully we keep things rolling.”

The Orioles will be careful with Cowser after the long layoff.

“We’ll go day-by-day,” Mansolino said. “The thing with him right now is, coming off a rehab assignment, we’re not gonna run him out there 10 straight days. I don’t know if that would be wise. So there will be a little bit of kind of working his way back into the everyday responsibilities of an outfielder."

What’s important is having Cowser as an option for most games.

“We missed him,” Mansolino said. “I think we knew that we were gonna miss him, I think it was the fourth game in Toronto when he broke his thumb. So we knew it. To the extent? I’m not so sure. Even if everybody else stayed in the lineup and we avoided all the other injuries, I just think the outfield defense, the baserunning, the offense, the at-bat, the ability to draw walks, he can beat you in a lot of different ways. He can help you win games in a lot of different ways. He’s not just kind of a one-trick pony type of player.

“We’re excited for the personality. It’s a huge personality in the clubhouse, which we love. So the whole package is great and we’re excited to have him.”

The Orioles are still missing three outfielders and need Cowser on their roster.

“We’re a little thin right now,” Mansolino said. “We’ve gone through a lot of our depth in the outfield. When you start playing infielders out there and you’re playing young kids out there, I think there’s gonna be some mistakes, and we’ve lived it. We’ve hung in there and guys have gotten a little bit better out there, but you get a defender like Colton out there, it’s definitely gonna help the squad.”

Cowser couldn’t finish his media scrum without a question about the Topps baseball card that Gunnar Henderson signed, with the inscription that read, “Cowser is afraid of shrimp.”

“I didn’t know that,” Cowser replied.

Henderson apparently was signing a batch of cards in spring training and got the idea. Cowser wanted to set the record straight.

“One time, one jumped out of my hand and I had to grab it off the ground and it took a little bit longer because it was in the crevice of the deck,” Cowser said. “So he assumed I was afraid of it.

“Just one of the bay shrimps that we had, but it was a bigger one. It was jumping around quite a bit, so it was one of those things where I had to get a good grip on it and he just assumed I was scared of it, so it was kind of dumb, but also it was kind of funny, so I’m cool with it.”

More of Henderson’s humor could surface at a later date.

“I heard he wrote a couple other things on some cards, so look out for that,” Cowser said. ”I know on one of the 1-of-1s he said something that, apparently he wrote it, I don’t know what he wrote, but he’s probably just trying to be funny.

“I’m not afraid of shrimp, by the way.”

Jordan Westburg is playing third base tonight with Norfolk in Louisville, and he has a double, RBI and run scored. He’ll likely stay with the Tides on Wednesday.

“And then we’ll probably regroup and go from there,” Mansolino said.

“Jordan’s good,” Cowser said. “We got to play down there, it was kind of fun, and he’s doing what he needs to do.”

Outfielder Tyler O’Neill is with the Orioles and should begin his rehab assignment this weekend while the club is in Sacramento. He's taking batting practice on the field, sans sleeves, of course.

“He wanted to be with us here on this trip,” Mansolino said. “We wanted him to be with the players here on this trip. And it’s a little bit easier to go through BP and balls off the bat and to have the visuals of a major league stadium. So he made the trip out here and then he will probably take off.”

Outfielder Ramón Laureano will begin his rehab assignment Wednesday with Norfolk.

Norfolk catcher Samuel Basallo has homered twice tonight to give him 12, including a solo shot off former Oriole Adam Plutko in the first. Plutko was in Korea for a couple years and hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2021 with the Orioles.

Jud Fabian hit his 11^th homer, also off Plutko, and Luis Vázquez is 3-for-3 with a homer.