O's open to Tyler Wells as a starter and updating John Means

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said "right around there" today when asked if his ace left-hander, John Means, was expected back around the All-Star break.

Means, who is 4-2 with a 2.28 ERA in 12 games, last pitched June 5 when he walked off the mound in the first inning against Cleveland. He went on the injured list with a left shoulder strain.

"Good. He's feeling good. He's starting to play catch. Kind of a slow progression back," Hyde said.

Speaking of starting pitchers, an outing as a starter could be in the future for Rule 5 pick right-hander Tyler Wells. The 26-year-old Wells is on quite a pitching roll. He retired all four batters he faced last night in his sixth straight scoreless appearance.

"I think we're open to it," Hyde said of using Wells as a starter at some point. "Yeah, we're open to it. I think we're really excited and pleased with how he's pitching right now and the role he is in, but we're not ruling out that starting is in his future.

"Tyler, I've seen a huge - he's progressed so much in the last couple of months. Improved so much from spring training. It was really fun to watch him last night. It was a really, really competitive and he's got a ton of confidence. Just hopefully continue to throw the way he threw last night."

Well is 2-0 with an ERA of 3.62 on the year with a WHIP of 0.959 with eight walks to 39 strikeouts in 32 1/3 innings. He has not been scored on since May 24. In six games this month, he's allowed four hits in 11 innings with no walks and 12 strikeouts. Opponents are batting .111 against him in June with an OPS of only .250.

So it's no surprise that now he is finding himself in high-leverage situations.

"Yeah, I think three or four appearances ago, I started using him when we were down one, down two middle of the game," Hyde said. "Try to keep the game right there where I felt the like was still in balance. And if we did get into a leverage spot - sixth, seventh inning - I was going to be open to use him and try to use him. But we haven't gotten to that spot. So last night I thought was a really good time to use him there and he came through. Huge punchout on (Marcus) Semien."

For a pitcher with just 32 2/3 innings under his belt as high as Double-A, Wells looks very much like a big league pitcher already and one that is going to stay here all year to shed his Rule 5 status.

"He walks around like, and he has from the beginning, like he belongs here," Hyde said. "And he's not in awe of the third deck. Yeah, he's got a great personality. He's very well liked. He's just extremely competitive with a ton of confidence and that's half the battle here to is to be able to trust your stuff. Trust your stuff against major league pitching. And he's done from the beginning and continues to make his slider and changeup better and the fastball - you know he hit 97 (mph) last night. So it's just been impressive to see him improve as well as having the confidence from the beginning."

In last night's 7-1 win, center fielder Cedric Mullins earned a curtain call after his three-run homer in the eighth. He hit two last night as part of a three-hit, four-RBI game. He produced his sixth career leadoff homer when he hit one out in the first inning and the contest marked his third career multi-homer game.

He's second on the team with 11 homers, but Hyde said there is no concern he'll try to start mashing more longballs. He loves Mullins' current batting approach.

"No. For me, his swing is even shorter. It's so short to the ball and it's such a compact, direct path to the baseball and he's so strong," Hyde said. "We see him generate the power. I've said before, we've seen the power in BP, and on occasion, he would square one up and do what he did last night. But you're seeing consistent, solid contact because the swing is so short to the baseball. It's really fun to watch him be able to hit line drives the other way and then get something middle in and stay inside it the way he's doing it. Incredibly impressive."