How LeBlanc could adjust rotation projections

The reaction is the same each time that the Orioles announce the signing of a starting pitcher.

Are they done?

The minor league deal with Brady Rodgers didn't end their search. The minor league deal earlier this week with Wade LeBlanc didn't end their search.

They aren't done.

A major league contract remains available to a veteran starter if the price is right, which can further increase the camp competition and make a crowded field almost suffocating.

The Orioles are up in arms. They have 21 pitchers on their 40-man roster and 13 on their list of camp invites with LeBlanc's agreement, which includes an opt-out clause and hasn't been announced by the team. He'll undergo a physical in Sarasota before it becomes official.

One of those pitchers could fall off the 40-man to make room for another.

The rotation is lacking five certainties, but LeBlanc and another pending veteran increase the difficulty in carrying Rule 5 right-handers Brandon Bailey and Michael Rucker.

Bailey has been a popular choice in mock rotations, with Rucker's transition to relief making him a possibility to be stashed in the bullpen. Bailey could be squeezed out by LeBlanc, John Means, Alex Cobb, Asher Wojciechowski and the unknown veteran.

We've heard for years that competition is a good thing. The Orioles will be neck-deep in it.

LeBlanc won't be handed a job, but he immediately has become a favorite and disrupts projections that put Bailey and Kohl Stewart in the back end of the rotation.

Prospect Keegan Akin averaged 4.9 walks per nine innings last season with Triple-A Norfolk. His major league debut likely will be put on hold until later in the summer, the area most in need of improvement pretty clear to everyone in the organization.

He hasn't been eliminated, but the number of pitchers ahead of him is growing. And that's fine. There's no rush.

To be determined later is how the Orioles fit the excess into the organization. Whether the bullpen can hold a few of the eliminated starters. Whether the Triple-A rotation will be stocked only with younger prospects - and the numbers certainly would allow for it - or if a few veterans are sprinkled in as insurance.

The non-roster invitees include three pitchers who made starts for the Orioles in 2019 and later were outrighted - Chandler Shepherd, Tom Eshelman and Ty Blach. One or more could be retained, with Shepherd making the more positive impression in his small sample size. Or the club could trim the fat.

There's a lot at steak.

(See what I did there?)

The omission of Luis Ortiz from the camp roster was a bit of a stunner, and not because he earned another chance. I just figured that he'd get it. Assumptions were made about Ortiz after executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias stated at the Winter Meetings that the spring competition would include pitchers who were outrighted off the 40-man roster.

Check some of the other names, with their 2019 statistics. What made the Orioles punch his ticket for Twin Lakes Park?

Ortiz, 24, didn't pitch for Norfolk after July 2 due to an undisclosed injury. He rehabbed at the Ed Smith Stadium complex and made an Aug. 15 relief appearance with the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League team, striking out the side in the fifth inning.

He didn't get into another game. The GCL season was cut short due to Hurricane Dorian.

Ortiz came to the Orioles as part of the Jonathan Schoop trade with the Brewers at the 2018 deadline and made only one appearance last summer, with the former first-round pick allowing four runs in 3 1/3 innings in a June 14 start against the Red Sox at Camden Yards. He registered a 6.38 ERA and 1.628 WHIP in 66 1/3 innings with Norfolk.

No one claimed him off waivers. His stock has landed with a thud.