John Means, who was set to start Sunday’s first exhibition game in Philadelphia, has been scratched with what Orioles manager Brandon Hyde called “a little bit of a dead arm, a little bit of fatigue.”

Means could still start the Orioles’ opener against Boston in Fenway Park on Friday night, Hyde said.

“We just want to hold him off, just to be sure,” Hyde said in a Saturday video conference call. “That two-month season is the most important thing so we want to be overly cautious with him.”

Hyde says that it’s too early for him to make a decision on deferring Means’ start in Boston.

“The last few days, he just had a little fatigue in his arm,” Hyde said. “We just wanted to hold him. We’re just monitoring day-to-day, and we decided today to have him skip tomorrow and give him a little more rest.”

Hyde said that Means had arm fatigue around midseason last year, when he finished with a 12-11 record and 3.60 ERA.

“We care so much about him that I just want to make sure that we’re taking care of him,” Hyde said. “That we’re doing the right thing for him and that he is with us for two months, such an important part of the rotation.”

Thomas Eshelman will start the game against the Phillies, which will begin at 6:05 p.m. There will be no television or radio coverage.

MASN will televise the Orioles games against the Washington Nationals on Monday and Tuesday. Both will begin at 6:05 p.m.