Wells won't rule out making team as Rule 5, and other notes

The Orioles could announce their next round of cuts as early as this afternoon. Manager Brandon Hyde told the media on Monday that nothing was coming over the next few days.

Maybe he meant Thursday or Friday. Soon but not imminent.

Rule 5 pitchers Mac Sceroler and Tyler Wells are outlasting last year's Rule 5 pitchers, Brandon Bailey and Michael Rucker. Then again, the Orioles have 57 players in camp. They aren't in a roster cutting frenzy.

Both right-handers impressed in their last outings, always paired together, and really have only one major dud. They combined for four scoreless innings Saturday night against the Yankees, with Wells striking out three batters.

One lousy day in Dunedin - as most of them tend to be for media traveling - wrecked their stats. Sceroler allowed five runs and three hits with two walks in one-third of an inning on March 5, and Wells was charged with a run and two hits.

Sceroler's wreck was more of a pileup. Wells dented the fender.

Selected from the Twins organization, Wells has allowed just the one run and six hits with six strikeouts over six innings. There's more to impress than just his 6-foot-8, 265-lb frame.

"Camp has actually been going really well. It's been a learning experience for sure," Wells, who didn't pitch in 2019 while recovering from Tommy John surgery, said in yesterday's Zoom call.

"Adopting more of a relief role in spring training is something that I haven't done in the past. I've been a starter my entire career, so I've talked a lot with Shawn Armstrong about that, Tanner Scott, Paul Fry, picking their brains on adopting a bit of a reliever role during spring. It's been going very well, I will say that. I will say it's been very progressive in my experience. Each outing that I've had, I've gotten better each time. I feel more comfortable each time, so it's been fantastic so far."

Many of the conversations with Armstrong center on the mental side of the game.

"Control what you can control and just be ready to go," Wells said.

"A relief role takes a lot of the thinking out of pitching, which kind of goes against what a lot of the starter mentality really is. There's a lot of preparation involved with being the starter. With a reliever it's get up and go and get ready. Being able to really just kind of take a step back, learn from a guy like that who's been established and him sharing different experiences are also very good.

"Talking to Tanner Scott, obviously a very physical guy, and he talks about the preparation just for the body as a reliever in major league baseball. Being the activities that you have to do just to be ready to go out there and pitch every day. So, these lessons are very, very valuable for me."

Rule 5s always seem to bond in camp and it's true with Wells and Sceroler, the nephew of former Orioles pitcher Ben McDonald who was chosen from the Reds. Pitching on the same day only tightens that bond.

"Me and Mac have actually grown really close. He's been a great dude away from the field and he's also been an awesome dude on the field," Wells said.

"Me and him talk quite a bit each and every day about what we learned, what we're trying to apply each day, and we really bounce a lot of different stuff off each other. We also talk a lot about different pitching. We're catch partners, so we talk to each other about how we can make our pitches better, how we can execute pitches better. We talk about our outing and we're really trying to learn through his own personal experiences, through my own personal experiences, and it kind of goes the same way with how we talk with a lot of the other guys."

The Orioles are being more deliberate in finalizing their plans for the two pitchers. Whether to expose them to waivers or try to carry at least one on the opening day roster.

"I think we feel like they both have a lot of upside," Hyde said yesterday in his Zoom call. "They both pitched very well in camp. Thought their last outing against the Yankees was very impressive. Both showed that they can throw strikes at this level in that outing. We're going to continue to take a look at them in the next week.

"I like both their stuff. I think Tyler Wells, he's (6-foot-8) and throws 95 (mph). He's got some good secondary stuff. His fastball really can get on hitters and get by hitters. I like the four-pitch mix from Mac and a potential starter down the road type. He's got that kind of ability. So we're going to continue to take a look at them this week and they've been impressive so far."

Wells hasn't studied the history of the Rule 5 draft and how many players stay in the majors. He isn't computing the odds. He isn't overthinking it.

He's just pitching and waiting to find out.

"The choice for me to stay is completely out of my control," he said. "All I'm really able to do is give myself the best opportunity to compete for a spot and to help the team win. So I'm really just trying to stick with what I can control and not really focus on whether stats are in my favor or against my favor."

His fate could be tied to whether the Orioles keep 13 or 14 pitches. Whether they need more room on the 40-man. Or maybe it won't matter.

Hints aren't dropped at his feet.

"The team has been open and honest with me about my outings," he said. "We don't really talk about where I'm going to be at. We simply just talk about how my outings are, what my next outing is going to be, what we can do to improve on those next outings and what we can do to improve each and every time in bullpens and whatnot. We don't really talk about what the future holds, because like I said, it's something that's out of my control and I like the way they've gone about it so far."

* Maikel Franco won't have the final say in whether he breaks camp with the team or is optioned, but he's getting five or six at-bats today in an intrasquad game after homering last night, and returns to third base Thursday night against the Pirates.

To Franco, there's no reason to keep talking about it. He's ready. And if the Orioles agree, it certainly impacts the construction of their bench - especially if they go with 14 pitchers.

"At the end of the day, it's about how you feel and I feel well," he said. "I'm seeing the ball really well, I feel my body is really well. At the end of the day, it's about getting the timing, getting the rhythm, and I feel my timing, my rhythm is there. So I've just got to continue to do that, continue to work hard every day and try to get better. I'm feeling really good."

* The Orioles didn't have an obvious choice for closer before camp started and nothing has changed beyond Hunter Harvey's oblique strain removing him from the mix.

Will it eventually be one guy or spreading the wealth?

"I have no idea at this point," Hyde said.

"I'm going to be giving guys opportunity to pitch the backend of our games, just because we don't have established closers. We've had guys who have had a little bit of a taste of it the past couple years, but nobody that's saved a bunch of games in the big leagues or pitched a ton of high-leverage spots. So all these guys are going to get an opportunity to pitch at the end of games.

"I'll probably just go with the hot hand and go with matchups."