masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgSARASOTA, Fla. – Orioles manager Buck Showalter confirmed that first baseman Derrek Lee won’t travel to Fort Myers tomorrow. The earliest he can debut is Monday, but nothing is certain at this point.

Lee is dealing with some mild soreness above his right wrist.

Brian Matusz threw a bullpen session today and is convinced that he’ll be ready to start on Tuesday after having a wart removed yesterday from his left middle finger.

“It felt fine,” he said. “It doesn’t feel irritated at all….SARASOTA, Fla. – Orioles manager Buck Showalter confirmed that first baseman Derrek Lee won’t travel to Fort Myers tomorrow. The earliest he can debut is Monday, but nothing is certain at this point.

Lee is dealing with some mild soreness above his right wrist.

Brian Matusz threw a bullpen session today and is convinced that he’ll be ready to start on Tuesday after having a wart removed yesterday from his left middle finger.

“It felt fine,” he said. “It doesn’t feel irritated at all. It feels normal.”

I’ll have more from Matusz later.

Also, Justin Duchscherer threw 22 pitches off the regular mound and headed to the Camden Yards field to throw batting practice to minor leaguers Tyler Henson, Ryan Adams and Pedro Florimon. He seemed satisfied afterward, but wasn’t immediately available to reporters.

Showalter said he’ll likely start left-hander Zach Britton in Monday night’s game against the Yankees in Sarasota, which will air on MASN. Chris Tillman makes the trip to Fort Myers for the other split-squad game against the Red Sox.

Here’s more from Matusz:

“It felt fine,” he said. “We weren’t sure going into the laser process if it was going to be irritated the next couple days or not. It feels fine. It doesn’t feel irritated at all. It feels normal. Like I said before, it never affected me on the mound. It didn’t affect any of my pitches. We just wanted to fix it before it became a problem. It felt good. I threw all of my pitches and it was fine. I didn’t feel like I had to hold back at all, so I’m on schedule.”

“We’ll see how it feels tomorrow. I’m playing catch again. I don’t foresee it being a problem. I should be able to stay on track and stay on schedule.

“Before, it’s not that I felt it on the curveball, it’s just that I knew that when I gripped the curveball, the wart slightly touched the seam. Didn’t affect it, didn’t hurt when I threw it multiple times in the game the other day. Didn’t feel it, didn’t hurt, didn’t affect me at all. It was just there. You want to take the right precaution to make sure it doesn’t get bigger in the future. Threw in the bullpen today. The curveball, it still touches the seam but it’s not irritated. It doesn’t hurt at all, so it’s fine. I should be in good shape.”