More Showalter on Jones and other notes

Orioles manager Buck Showalter isn't taking any chances with center fielder Adam Jones, who's out of today's lineup with a sore left ankle.

"The play at the plate (Thursday), it was very fortunate his spike gave on him," Showalter said. "Woke up this morning sore, a little swelling, so I take it out of his hands. I'm not saying he couldn't Kirk Gibson some time today.

"I've been looking for a spot to give him a day anyway and he's one of those guys you don't ask, you just do it. Today's the day."

Showalter won't predict whether Jones returns on Sunday.

"I'm not going to be that assured of it, cavalier about it, but we'll see what tomorrow brings," he said. "Short turnaround today. Any time Adam even admits to a little soreness there, you can probably multiply it times two.

"Adam plays a very physical game. It lends more credence to how remarkable his availability is. You get to know players. If he even brings something up, you know it's something you should pay attention to. He fouls balls off his feet, his shin, hit by pitch. Comparatively speaking, that's one thing about a guy that you count on like him to have that ... It's so elusive, and it kind of brings it to life a little bit more. You know that he's always there."

Is it difficult to evaluate a Jones injury due to his toughness?

"I think I and we have a pretty good feel for Adam," Showalter said. "We've been around him for a while. You can tell certain little things. If there's no joking at all, 'Hey skip that was a long run for you out here to center field,' that's usually a good indicator. He can't hide it. He tries to. He's not a very good actor when he comes to that. I've seen some of his commercials. He's pretty good at everything else.

"When you have a player who plays the game like Adam does, I don't apologize for being very sensitive to the safety of ballparks. How some of these ballparks get away with not padding their walls, I don't get it."

Showalter planned on speaking to Bud Norris today regarding the pitcher's next start.

"We're going to talk to him after batting practice today," Showalter said. "Between the fireworks and everything that was going on last night, everybody got out of here. We were going to talk after the game and we said we'll just do it today. Wally (Dave Wallace) and Dom (Chiti) have been out in the bullpen with two sides, so we're going to talk after batting practice."

Asked whether Norris goes back into the Orioles rotation, Showalter replied, "That's the plan right now. If something had happened that's really drastic, we could conceivably have brought him back for a day to pitch out of the 'pen just to get us through a certain challenge.

"That's what the plan hopefully is, but things change from day to day, whatever the needs of our club are."

Norris has made three career relief appearances, losing twice and allowing three runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings. He's walked five and struck out eight.

"I think he would be effective in any role we'd use him in, or will be," Showalter said. "He can do it in the bullpen. Don't know how he's going to recover, but Bud's always recovered well from outings. I think he could do it. I think all starters, you're pitching every fifth day, it's just your recovery period."

It would take a special set of circumstances for Showalter to consider a six-man rotation.

"Maybe for a given matchup, if there's really a strong matchup there," Showalter said. "As strong as Cleveland is left-handed, they're actually doing better against left-handed pitching than they are right-handed pitching this year, statistically. You look at all those things. You look at how Boston matches up, how Houston matches up. If there's a tweak, the problem is with no off-days, there's not a whole lot of tweaking you can do until after next Monday. That's a pretty long stretch.

"In order to pitch like that, you're going to have to move some chairs around, which we've contemplated already."

Rookie Mike Wright could transition into the bullpen at some point.

"Not yet, not yet," Showalter said. "I'm intrigued by his three starts, but also keep an eye on his innings, making sure that a guy like him is available for us without any governors on it in September or October. Kind of like trying to get ahead.

"You know how valuable (Kevin) Gausman was last year for us. You've got to make sure everybody's got their bullets as the season goes forward."

Catcher Ryan Lavarnway reportedly has signed a minor league deal with the Braves. Lavarnway refused his outright assignment to Triple-A Norfolk.