Decision pending on Orioles reliever Dillon Tate (and other notes)

NEW YORK – The Orioles aren’t ready to announce their plans for reliever Dillon Tate, whose 30-day injury rehab assignment has reached its conclusion.

The choices are clear: Reinstate Tate and put him on the active roster, with a corresponding move necessary, or reinstate and option him to Triple-A Norfolk.

“We’re making decisions on that right now,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “I don’t really have anything to report right this minute, but it will be soon.”

Tate didn’t pitch in spring training due to a right elbow flexor strain. He’s made 10 appearances on his injury rehab assignment, the last five with Norfolk, and allowed 13 earned runs (15 total) and 19 hits with five walks in 8 1/3 innings.

The entire weight of the decision doesn’t come just from statistics. A balance exists.

Eyes have been on Tate, including Norfolk pitching coach Justin Ramsey.

“I think you evaluate everything,” Hyde said. “How the guy’s feeling, what the stuff looks like, conversations with him and the medical team and Ramsey down there in Triple-A with our pitching guys up here.

“D-Tate’s big for us. Love to have the D-Tate we had last year. He was lights out for us in the back end of games. So, we’re deciding all that right now.”

The bullpen won’t have Yennier Cano available after he covered the seventh and eighth innings last night, escaping jams to maintain a 5-4 lead.

“That was more of, who was coming up in the seventh inning and who I wanted on those guys,” Hyde said. “We had the lead and there were a couple guys honestly that I wanted to give an extra day to in the bullpen. Cano tried to get six outs for us and he did. He’s done an amazing job.

“At some point during the year, everybody’s going to have to get extended a little bit, and a lot of these guys already have. And that’s just with the games that we play. We haven’t had many 9-1 leads in the sixth or seventh inning, and so certain things happen, a lot of high-leverage spots come about. Like Cano pitched two innings last night, we need other guys to step up. That’s what good teams do.”

Hyde knew that using Cano for two innings last night would impact tonight’s bullpen activity.

“He had two days off prior. That’s the major factor,” Hyde said.

“With that seventh inning pocket there with the guys that were coming up, I wanted to use him in that spot. If he had a good inning, I was going to send him back out for the eighth. If it was a long, extended inning, I probably wouldn’t have, and I would have had to figure something else out, but just trying to get nine outs there with Cano and (Félix) Bautista.

“Hopefully, I was going to get six out of Cano. He is able to bounce back. He usually has quicker innings than Félix, too, kind of being a ground ball guy. I just kind of weigh it every single day.”

Cole Irvin started for Norfolk today in Memphis and allowed two runs and two hits with no walks, two strikeouts and two Moisés Gómez solo home runs over five innings. Spenser Watkins followed and allowed four runs and six hits in 2 1/3 innings. Eduard Bazardo let two inherited runners score.

Lewin Díaz doubled, hit his seventh home run and drove in three runs. Connor Norby went 2-for-4 with two RBIs.

Catcher Mark Kolozsvary has a locker at Yankee Stadium but he was in Norfolk’s lineup and went 2-for-5 with an RBI.

For the Yankees
Gleyber Torres 2B
Aaron Judge RF
Anthony Rizzo 1B
DJ LeMahieu 3B
Harrison Bader CF
Jake Bauers DH
Anthony Volpe SS
Isiah Kiner-Falefa LF
Kyle Higashioka C

Nestor Cortes LHP

Here are the starters for the Rangers series at Camden Yards:

Friday: RHP Grayson Rodriguez (2-1, 6.21 ERA) vs. RHP Jon Gray (4-1, 3.02 ERA)
Saturday: RHP Dean Kremer (5-1, 4.61 ERA) vs. LHP Andrew Heaney (3-3, 4.13 ERA)
Sunday: RHP Kyle Bradish (2-1, 4.34 ERA) vs. RHP Dane Dunning (4-0, 1.67 ERA)