Clevenger looking to get back up as the backup

SARASOTA, Fla. - The Orioles are back on their normal schedule today with physicals no longer eating up valuable hours in the morning.

They won't be taking the field at noon for the pre-workout stretch.

We'll find out whether outfielder Alejandro De Aza won his arbitration hearing and will be paid $5.65 million this season or if he must settle for $5 million. He made $4.25 million last season.

It's not the sexiest competition in camp, but the Orioles must settle on a backup to catcher Matt Wieters. Or they must choose two catchers if he's left behind at the minor league complex on opening day.

Steve Clevenger broke camp last spring as Wieters' backup and was 5-for-20 with three doubles, a triple, four RBIs, three walks and three runs scored in eight games in April. Manager Buck Showalter preferred the defense provided by Caleb Joseph and Nick Hundley, and the Orioles optioned Clevenger on May 27 after first baseman Chris Davis came off the paternity list.

Clevenger appeared in two games in July and one in August, and he received only 12 at-bats in September. He threw out only three of 20 runners attempting to steal.

The message sent to Clevenger was crystal clear.

How is his approaching this camp? The only way that he should.

"I'm just coming in to play good defense," said Clevenger, a graduate of Mount St. Joseph's who came to the Orioles in a July 2013 trade with the Cubs. "I'm really not going to concentrate too much on my hitting. I'm just going to try to do the best that I can to work well with the pitching staff and do what I can do out there, work on throwing a little bit better and like I said, playing better defense."

Clevenger said it's not a drastically different mindset to the one he brought into last spring. He knew that Showalter placed the greatest emphasis on how the catchers worked behind the plate, not beside it.

"I kind of took that approach last year," he said. "I got the feel from them that it was more based on defense and I think I took pride in my defense last spring training. I think I'm going to come in with the same mindset.

"Last year, I really didn't worry too much about my offense. I just kind of worried about working with the staff and trying to get comfortable with those guys, and this year I'm going to take the same approach. I'm going to work a little bit harder on my defense and not worry too much about my offense and hopefully I play good enough to make the team."

Clevenger said he never heard directly from the Orioles last season that his defense wasn't good enough to keep him in the majors.

"It was never really brought up," he said. "It was kind of brought up but not brought up right to me. All I heard was throwing and I've got to get better throwing, obviously, but it wasn't really relayed to me that I really need to work much more on my defense. Just mainly throwing."

It's understandable that Clevenger has mixed feelings about the 2015 season. He made the club out of spring training but didn't last the entire ride.

"It was good," he said. "It kind of keeps you honest a little bit and it makes you work harder, and I feel that I gained a lot of things last year going back to Triple-A. Everybody wants to be in the big leagues, but at the same time, everybody can't be in the big leagues. I went down and worked hard and I played really well down there and I got back up in September, but the goal this year is to make the team and stay up all year."

The Orioles reduced the number of catchers on their 40-man roster from five to three. Clevenger has survived the cuts after wondering whether he still had a future in the organization.

"Definitely," he said. "Anytime they start bringing in other guys, especially when they bring them in on the roster, it just puts a question mark in the player's head who's still on the roster. Am I not doing a good enough job to keep my job? What's going on? It's just a line of communication that needs to be open from the team to the player."

Note: Zion Lutheran Church will hold its fifth annual baseball talk at 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 23 in the church's sanctuary, 2215 Brandywine Lane, York, Pa.

This year's event features Fred Manfra, radio play-by-play broadcaster for the Orioles; Mel Antonen, baseball writer for SI.Com and MASNsports.com, and Sirius/XM talk show host; and Dan Connolly, Orioles/national baseball writer for The Sun. The panelists will discuss the upcoming baseball season - including their thoughts on the Orioles and Phillies - and will answer questions from the audience.

There's no admission fee, but a freewill offering will be accepted to benefit the church's youth attending the National Youth Gathering this July in Detroit. In addition, signed copies of Connolly's soon-to-be-released book, "100 Things Orioles Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die," will be available for purchase for $15 following the event.

For more information, contact the church at 717-767-4673.