When the Orioles needed a first baseman Friday because Trey Mancini and Ryan Mountcastle were out after being hit by pitches, they called up Tyler Nevin from Norfolk. Nevin’s debut was delayed when the Orioles-White Sox game was postponed because of rain.
Nevin, who was one of three players the Orioles received from the Colorado Rockies in last August’s trade for right-handed reliever Mychal Givens, was an obvious choice.
The Orioles had just six position players on the 40-man roster who had been optioned to Triple-A Norfolk — Nevin, outfielder Yusniel Diaz, and infielders Rylan Bannon, Jahmai Jones, Richie Martin and Ramón Urías.
Diaz, Jones and Martin are on the minor league injured list. On Friday, Norfolk announced that Bannon, who can play third and second base, had been placed on the seven-day injured list because of a strained left oblique.
That meant that Nevin and Urias were the only healthy position players available to be recalled from Norfolk. Both were batting .212 entering Friday’s games.
Urias had been with the Orioles until they optioned him to the Tides on May 16th.
If the Orioles had chosen to use Pat Valaika and Stevie Wilkerson as first basemen while Mancini and Mountcastle heal, they could have called up Urías.
Manager Brandon Hyde said that Mancini and Mountcastle should both be able to play in the next few days. Mancini suffered a bruised right elbow when he was hit by a pitch from Chicago’s Dylan Cease on Thursday night and left the game in the first inning. Mountcastle was hit on his left hand on Tuesday night and suffered a bruise. He hasn’t played since.
When he or Mancini return, Nevin’s first stay with the Orioles is likely to end.
Already this season, outfielders Austin Hays, Anthony Santander and DJ Stewart have been on the 10-day injured list. Hays is on it for the second time because of a strained left hamstring. Ryan McKenna has gotten a lot more major league service time than the team imagined, and he was in the lineup for Friday’s game.
With a four-man bench, McKenna could provide outfield insurance and serve as a pinch-runner, but the team has had only three position players as reserves for much of the season.
The Orioles don’t have a third catcher on the 40-man roster. If there’s an injury to Pedro Severino or Chance Sisco, an opening will have to be created for another catcher, most likely Austin Wynns.
After the minor league season got under way, the Orioles decided not to carry the five-man taxi squad they’d taken on road trips for the first month of the season. McKenna was twice plucked from the taxi squad when Hays and Santander were injured.
Hyde said that the team would rather have players participating in minor league games than taking batting practice and then returning to the team hotel for the games. Unless a taxi squad catcher is used to catch pitchers in the bullpen, taxi squad players can’t be in uniform for a game.
Meanwhile, Hunter Harvey, who’s on the 60-day injured list because of a strained left oblique muscle, started Friday night’s game for Norfolk. He allowed three runs, two unearned, in 1 2/3 innings. Harvey walked a batter in his third appearance for the Tides.
When the Orioles want to activate Harvey, which could be on the next homestand that begins Monday, they’ll have to create additional space on the 40-man roster.
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HH doesn’t sound like he has done that well since he started throwing again, he’ll fit right in...go O’s...
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are grey
You'll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away
Just a daily reminder from the Angelos family and Elias: "iT's a rEbUiLd!"
A process.
Mancini and Mountcastle and pray for rain. It's not only for pitchers.
Speaking of pitchers, does a starter still have to go five to get a win in a 7-inning game?
Yes, a starter needs to go five.
Thanks, Rich.
Two 7 inning games. Hmmm less bullpen use? Maybe there is a ray of hope. No Martin,no Jones,no Diaz,no Bannon. Unbelievable this injury outbreak in professional baseball--wish it wasn't such a "contact" sport. I guess Rich you explained the no-call for Wynns reasoning--not on 40 man roster. A little creative finagling would have to be done to get him up here. Advice to the Warehouse--start finagling. Never thought I'd see the day that the O's would have a shortage at 1B/DH. Yes these are "special" times. With all these injuries befallen these so-called arhletes one player breaks through the film to stay safe and ready--our hero Stevie Wilkerson. God bless him.
We could be seeing the fallout down on the farm from no season last year. As for the big club no idea why we are seeing so many injuries; especially those of the oblique variety.
I thought we were going to get to get some and competitive baseball this season instead we’re watching a bunch of scrubs play I’m tired of this losing they bring up another guy Tyler Nevin I mean why don’t they bring up the whole minor-league system it’s going to be better to watch them than the bull crap we’re watching now
Got to get back to 28 man roster. Soon maybe 30. The game eats up so many pitchers now you’re gonna need 16 arms out there soon, once SPs start to average 4 IP/ st (coming soon!)
With no bench there’s no strategy (platoons, pinch hitting, pinch running) like you had even as recently as the early 2000s. And with no bench there’s no rest, so more injuries.
MLB is a mess. The product is not improving. We are in one of the dullest stretches in baseball history. Apparently fans even found the Deadball Era enthralling (at the time) so we may right now be at the actual bottom, all time.
Nothing can fix the no-stamina pitching and mass strikeout batting or the no fundamentals base running or the no baseball IQ fielding (rundowns between 1sr and home? Lol. We’d have gotten our butts chewed in little league for that). The only real change we can make to at least superficially improve the game is adding players to the active roster.
You make too much sense with your suggestions 33. I agree with all your assessments regarding the state of the game.
One thing in particular that I noticed, was your 2nd to last sentence regarding little league.
I've posted here before that I believe the current little league configuration is the biggest problem the sport of baseball faces today. We, you & I and others of our generation(s), played Little League when the league ran ALL summer long. On top of that, we lived in a time when kids could ride their bikes across town, to meet up with their friends and play pickup games. We've lost a couple of generations of fans because unless your kid is an all star type player on the town's travel team, Little League ends at the end of the school year. And in todays society, they really can't just hop on a bike and head across town for several reasons I won't touch on.
We were the lucky ones when as children, ball season stretched throughout the entire summer. And yes I agree with you 33 ... baseball need fixin'.
I have noticed the same thing ... You can drive by parks and schoolyards in any community during the summer, and you never observe a pickup baseball game anymore ... I suspect its a very different situation in the Dominican Republic and elsewhere in Latin America.
I bet it is. Another good point Bman
I follow the O’s minor league teams and up last year attended many Baysox games. The majority of posts here lament the lack of talent on the ML team but if you want to see the results of a really inept team just follow the Tides. Last night the pitchers (maybe they should be called “tossers” because they surely aren’t “pitching”) gave up 25 hits. Unbelievable! I asked in a post last week “Where are the coaches?” because there is an obvious disconnect between them and the players... or they don’t know what they’re doing. The regression of Wells and Lowther is a good example. The whole organization is a question mark. And yet they expect us to pay money to go see them.
I might add that grew up in Brooklyn NY from 1942 to 1954. My father was stationed in the Brooklyn Navy Yard during WWII and when it was over worked in the shipyard. My first baseball game was at Ebbets field for my 10th birthday. The one thing I remember from the game was my father’s favorite player was Pete Reiser.
I was hooked on baseball from that day on. I lived and suffered with “Wait ‘till next year!” until we moved and I was in the Navy when the Dodgers finally won it all but couldn’t really celebrate. Upon separation I got married and bought a house on Long Island just in time for the creation of the NY Mets. They were awful! But, a funny kind of awful. There was NO expectation of competitive baseball but we went to see what outrageous thing they would pull off and then laugh about it. But with the O’s it’s different. There’s nothing funny about them. It just pains me to read about them (With the rules changes for 2020 I swore I wouldn’t watch... and I didn’t.) knowing their rich history. Reading the “pap” emanating from Elias added to the mealy mouthed comments from Hyde just makes me madder. Sorry to take up so much space but I do feel better... Just saying...
Ekim, thanks so much for sharing, saw my 1st O’s game in 1966 w/my grandmother, been a lifetime fan, 3 generations now with the 4th due in 3 weeks, also remember all the pick up games as a kid, from daybreak to son down, nasty fields, WOOD bats, wouldn’t change a thing, they’ve changed almost the entire game, lil unnecessary things, it is what it is, just like for my son to see the O’s win a WS...go O’s...
Insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again why is the Disaster named Armstrong in the end of a 1 run game? The. Orioles want to lose? Don't answer that question
Part of the process...LMAO...go O’s...
Hey ... don't knock the process.
Our team did have an option to promote someone other than Nevin. Chris Shaw is a true first baseman and is on Norfolk's roster. He was the Giants' first round draft pick in 2015. Elias shrewdly claimed him off waivers last year. I'm guessing the reason he was not called up is that his batting average so far this year at Norfolk is 0.026 (not a typo, 0.026--source is MILB.com). Imagine the comments here if he had been added to the O's roster.
Probably warranted if Mikey had done that...go O’s...
Close the training room this team is as soft as a bunch of marshmallows . This again is a philosophy born of losing and complacency that they’ll always have a job because their is no other option .