Bradish on rotation competition: "I'm not really thinking about that too much"

SARASOTA, Fla. - The 12 pitchers on the Orioles’ 40-man roster competing for starting jobs remain in camp. The first cuts aren’t happening anytime soon. The first exhibition game isn’t until Saturday afternoon against the Twins in Sarasota.

Don’t rush it.

Kyle Bradish isn’t checking the calendar or crunching the numbers. He isn’t worried about his spot in the rotation. What good would that do?

“I’m not really thinking about that too much,” he said. “All the guys in the rotation, they’re all my friends, so just going out there and compete and whatever happens happens. I trust the work I put in this offseason and going off what I did the second half.”

He did plenty after the break, posting a 3.28 ERA and 1.164 WHIP in 13 starts. He had a 2.76 ERA in his last eight games and became the fourth rookie in club history to toss at least seven scoreless innings in back-to-back starts.

So, why is his status even in question?

It isn’t in my mock Opening Day roster, but I don’t get a vote. Kyle Gibson and Cole Irvin are locks, of course, and Grayson Rodriguez isn’t far behind. Bradish and Dean Kremer could round out the rotation quite easily, but Tyler Wells and DL Hall also might factor into it.

Wells absolutely should after making the transition from Rule 5 reliever and impressing as he did in the first half, before the first of his two injuries. The Orioles really want to keep Hall in a starting role rather than sending him to the bullpen, where he flourished down the stretch.

Austin Voth also is in the mix and he was mowing down hitters yesterday on the stadium field.

How is the math going to work?  

“I proved what I can do,” Bradish said. “I don’t know if I fully proved myself. There’s still stuff I need to work on. But definitely improved a lot from that first half.”

Bradish didn’t retool his offseason routine. Nothing different, he said. Just know what’s necessary to prepare his body for a full season, to stay healthy.

“On the pitching side,” he said, “I have a better idea how to attack hitters and what I need to do to get ready for that.”

None of it involves stressing over the competition. Over guys he now considers friends.

“It was fun to watch our rotation last year compete with each other while being very, very close,” said manager Brandon Hyde.

“If you watched our rotation guys, they were always around each other all the time. But also, they didn’t want to get left behind. Our starting pitching was so much better last year, I think our guys fed off each other, and that is important.”

* Hyde spoke yesterday about the impression 19-year-old Jackson Holliday has made at the complex. Holliday arrived early in Sarasota because he participated in the development camp that ran from Feb. 6-14.

Outfielders Colton Cowser and Heston Kjerstad and infielders Coby Mayo and Connor Norby also attended. All of them are in the clubhouse as non-roster invites to spring training.

Hyde referred to the development camp as “eye-opening, how talented these kids are.” He’s reminded of it every day.

“They’re strong, they’re physical, they hit the ball really hard, they can run,” he said.

“It’s like this collective group of position players who all had good years the year before, too, and are putting up really good minor league numbers. I had never seen Norby play before. I still haven’t seen him play, but I’ve seen him hit and watched him take ground balls. But how impressive these guys are, how hard they hit the baseball. It was fun for me to watch these guys for that week.”

* Kjerstad is doing his work in the outfield. The Orioles don’t have any plans to give him reps at first base.

They have plenty of candidates to back up Ryan Mountcastle. They don’t want to disrupt Kjerstad’s development by tinkering with his position.