BALTIMORE—When the Orioles needed another reliever after sending Cade Povich down to Triple-A Norfolk after Saturday’s impressive start against the Boston Red Sox, they chose right-hander Colin Selby.
Selby was recalled from Norfolk, and he has some big league experience. In 23 games with Pittsburgh last year and Kansas City this year, he’s 2-2 with an 8.67 ERA.
The Pirates traded him to the Royals in early April, and the Orioles purchased him from Kansas City on July 11th. In nine games with the Tides, he was 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA, striking out 11 and walking five in 10 innings.
“It’s a little bumpy,” Selby said. “It’s the first time I’ve experienced this, being traded almost out of spring training. It’s settled down now and I’m comfortable where I’m at. I[m ready to push forward and help the team any way I can.”
What stands out about Selby isn’t his stats or that he’s only the third player who went to Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, but his luxuriant beard.
“It does need some care when I wake up and when I go to bed,” Selby said. “I wake up and it smashes out of my face half the time. I’ve been working on it for coming up on three years now. I don’t really have a plan for it, just going to keep it going, I guess.
“In college, we always had to shave in the fall and then when we were ranked, we were allowed to keep it. When I first got drafted by the Pirates, we had to have clean shaved faces until right after Covid, so I would usually have a beard and then shave it to a mustache in the offseason and restart, and then about three years ago, I let it ride.”