Araujo getting noticed in crowded Rule 5 field

SARASOTA, Fla. - So much gets lost over the course of a game, especially when a top pitching prospect has overcome a series of injuries to make his first career Grapefruit League start and another promising hurler walks off the field after one batter with an oblique injury.

Hunter Harvey and Chris Lee overshadowed right-hander Pedro Araujo yesterday, for good and bad reasons.

No one is celebrating Lee's latest physical ailment, which requires an MRI this morning and likely will sideline him for many weeks. But Harvey provided a feel-good moment as he worked two innings and blew his 95 mph fastball past Rays hitters.

Araujo shouldn't be ignored, however. The box score shows that he was credited with the win after tossing a scoreless sixth inning. Rubén Tejada delivered a tie-breaking RBI single in the seventh and Araujo was the pitcher of record.

(David Hess put a runner on third base with one out in the eighth and didn't allow a run, enabling Araujo to get the decision and reminding us that a pitcher's won-loss record shouldn't define him. Also, James Teague retired the side in order in the ninth to record the save, but it seems like Hess deserves more than just a lame hold with his two scoreless innings and escape act. But I digress ...)

Araujo, 24, deserves our recognition because he's been really good this spring and few people are talking about him. The Rule 5 obsession blankets left-hander Nestor Cortes Jr. and José Mesa Jr. Cortes is a rotation candidate and the most likely to break camp with the team in whatever role. Mesa dominated in the Yankees system last summer and is viewed as starter material, and his father pitched for the Orioles and spent 19 seasons in the majors.

It may not seem fair, but Araujo is the "other" Rule 5 pick, though the second selection among the bunch.

Plucked from the Cubs system, Araujo is 26-9 with a 2.63 ERA in 145 games (22 starts) in the minors and has registered 394 strikeouts in 341 2/3 innings. He was 6-1 with a 1.76 ERA last year in 45 relief appearances with Single-A Myrtle Beach and Double-A Tennessee, striking out 87 batters in 66 2/3 innings.

The Orioles want to hold onto him. They also want to keep Cortes and Mesa. They know having three Rule 5 pitchers on their opening day roster, plus outfielder Anthony Santander, is about as realistic as Mesa's father closing in 2018.

Araujo has retired all six batters he's faced this spring with three strikeouts. He's plowing through them, collecting two of his strikeouts in his debut and getting two weak fly balls and a strikeout yesterday in Port Charlotte.

As manager Buck Showalter wrapped up his postgame media session yesterday, joking about his home run challenge to Garabez Rosa after the first baseman's ill-advised pursuit of a ground ball that belonged to pitcher Tanner Scott - Rosa did, indeed, hit a home run and later doubled - he chose to shift the spotlight under Araujo.

Somebody has to do it.

"Everyone seems to want to talk about Mesa because of his father and about Cortes because of the gaudy numbers a little bit, but Araujo's got a nice look to him," Showalter said. "He reminds me a lot of (Pedro) Strop."

Unlike the other two, Araujo is viewed only as a reliever in camp. He hasn't been lumped with the starters. He isn't going to work a first inning unless something goes terribly wrong.

Showalter watched Araujo pitch in the Arizona Fall League, after the Cubs kept the right-hander with Myrtle Beach for 44 of his 45 appearances - maybe to steer teams away from targeting him in the Rule 5.

There are no secrets in the AFL. The place is crawling with scouts and the Orioles were represented.

"I was reading Dave Engle's report on him before I came over today," Showalter said. "As advertised. Good split-change."

I texted a club official recently about left-hander Joely Rodriguez after a dominant inning and received the following response:

"He looked good. How about Araujo?"

Also good. Real good. And he won't be ignored.