Duquette and Showalter discuss roster decisions

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Orioles submitted their 25-man roster this afternoon, which should be viewed the same as any day during the regular season. It's subject to change.

They won't carry 14 pitchers for long. In fact, they could get down to 13 before the first batter steps into the box Monday at Tropicana Field. Trades and other moves still are possible despite today's 3 p.m. deadline.

The Orioles held onto reliever Ryan Webb, who's earning $2.7 million this season and was put on waivers last week. He wasn't expected to accompany the team to St. Petersburg, but he's currently on the roster.

Executive vice president Dan Duquette confirmed today in a conference call with reporters and various media types that one pitcher will be removed from the roster on Tuesday to create a spot for first baseman Chris Davis.

Here's more from the conference call, starting with Duquette:

"We're looking forward to another great season. This year, we have the opportunity to raise the banner for being East Division champions and after tomorrow we'll start out and try to win the last game of the season this year. Look forward to having a team that fans can be proud of. A lot of players will be returning from last year's club and I think we've got the foundation to have a good season. We've got a lot of pitchers returning, good defense and some good power hitters at just about every position."

More on roster: "We submitted our roster to the league and we sent the release. So we're getting ready to start the season. We did keep the Rule 5 pitcher from the Red Sox, Jason Garcia. He's on the roster. Steve Clevenger also is on our opening day roster. And we have probably more pitching than we want to carry, so we've got some more work to do with our pitching, but I think we have some pitching depth and we'll be able to weed through that as we get into the season. It's a long season. And we try to put together enough depth to get us through to October."

On carrying 14 pitchers: "That's not ideal and we have more work to do to get our team in shape. We won't stay at 14 pitchers for very long."

On tough roster decisions: "It's always tough at the end of spring because we had a number of players who had good springs and we had limited spots. A lot of that has to do with the flexibility you need on the roster. We tried to take the view that it's a long season. We tried to get as much depth as we can. Nolan Reimold had a good spring. The last few cuts are always tough, but again, it's a long season and the roster expands well into the farm system. You're talking about 45 or 50 players who will help us before the year is done."

On whether Webb is on roster due to contract: "All the players who are on the roster are expected to contribute to the team. Ryan's established himself as a quality relief pitcher with a sinker that gets out righties and lefties."

On whether current roster will stay the same for opening day: "We submitted our roster. Once you submit your roster, it's like the regular season. You can make moves anytime after you get your roster submitted."

Manager Buck Showalter, also part of the conference call before today's workout, explained Kevin Gausman's current role.

"We're going to have some people who have the potential to start for us. Gaus will be in the bullpen tomorrow and we'll see where the season takes us. We've got some people who won't start until obviously Friday or Saturday. With all the off-days, we'll make use of them if needed."

On choosing Clevenger over Ryan Lavarnway: "Obviously, with some of the people that we have on the DL that will be coming back very shortly, we hope, and with the Chris Davis situation, we've got some adjustments we can make and keep the flexibility of our roster, try to keep all the pieces we might use during the season. I think a lot of the things in the next day or two will probably give you a better idea of why we started this way at 3 o'clock today."

On whether Chris Tillman could start again Saturday if bullpen is overused: "I'm telling you, if we overuse our bullpen with 14, the manager should go look for work elsewhere, huh? We're going to be fine. We know who's pitching Game 4, that's (Bud) Norris, and we know who's pitching Game 5, so I feel like ... (Ubaldo) Jimenez is going to pitch Game 5 on Saturday, but we could conceivably use him if we have to. I don't think we will. I'd rather keep the ball in his hand. And Chris Tillman has shown early in the year the benefit of an extra day. There's been a lot of thought going in with the matchups.

"We play a lot of games in the American League East very early and it's a rare opportunity to kind of semi-set things up. You never know what's going to happen, but if we look at all the variables involved, we feel like this keeps people who are throwing the ball well on schedule and keeps our bullpen intact because everybody tries to protect the health of their bullpen and we're always going to make sure we protect the assets. And the biggest difference we had last year and the reason why we won our division was our pitching was better and our pitching was healthy and we're always going to lean that way."

On keeping Rule 5 pick Jason Garcia: "Going back through the background of why he had limited experience, that was a Red Sox decision. It probably had to do with the fact that he was Rule 5 eligible. There's not much doubt he could have pitched successfully in Double-A. We trust what we've seen and we're at the point now where we're going to find out. These things aren't set in stone all year long, but we think Jason's got a chance to be a good pitcher at the major league level at some point. If he stays in attack mode and throws it over like he's capable of, then it's kind of like (T.J.) McFarland and (Ryan) Flaherty and some other guys. You can't keep them all, but we'd rather find out about them ourselves.

"Some people have tough decisions to make at Rule 5 time as far as protecting them. Obviously, Boston did and we made a decision that we're going to find out at this level because we think there's an upside and the potential for him to be impactful and there's only one way to find out. The other part of it is we feel like we have a real good support group and core group around him who can give him some shortcuts. We've already seen that in the spring. They have a very receiving group. It's a 36-man pitching staff between here and Bowie and Norfolk, and they embrace each other because they know they can help us try to play that last game in October. We think Jason has the potential for that. We'll see what the season and the opposition have in store for him, but there's only one way to find out."

On Ubaldo Jimenez and his work with Ramon Martinez: "I think the credit for what's going on with Ubaldo so far should go to Ubaldo. He came in here with something to reestablish. I don't think there's anybody who has a richer track record as a starting pitcher on our staff than Ubaldo. I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the first start or two, but each one got better and better.

"With (Dave Wallace) and Dom (Chiti), and Wally brought in Ramon with ownership's blessing to try to help not only Ubaldo but all our pitchers, and not just the Latin pitchers. He is not Ubaldo's personal pitching coach. That's Dave and that's Dom and that's Ubaldo. But I think he's done everything possible to present himself and get an opportunity to see if he can take it to a level he's capable of. And it makes our bullpen better. It's the right thing to do at this point. I don't want to go too long in the season without keeping the ball in his hand and losing the feel for what he's got going on right now.

"Spring training's one thing, offseason's one thing. It's all going to be revealed to us once we start playing regular season games, so I'm just as curious as you all are to find out how it's going to play out."

On tough roster decisions: "I think T.J. McFarland is a good example of that. We all know T.J.'s going to impact us at some point this year, but to be able to give him some experience as a starter down there, which he was when he came to us ... I know he'd rather be here in the big leagues, but he's excited about getting a chance to start every fifth day. He'll be able to go 60-65 pitches first time out. I'm excited about our Double-A and Triple-A rotations down there because that's something we haven't had, that type of depth in the past."