Elias on bullpen changes, pitching plans and the draft

Trey Mancini hopped on a Zoom call after a recent loss and spoke about the frustrating nature of a team that can't get "synced up." His words coming after the Orioles scored six runs and allowed 13. Plenty of offense and no pitching to support it.

It also works in reverse.

Starter Jorge López completed six innings yesterday for the first time since Sept. 19, 2020. A quality start produced by someone besides John Means.

Relievers Shawn Armstrong and Tanner Scott combined to retire all six batters, the bullpen suddenly reliable again rather than a liability.

The Orioles were hitless from the second through the eighth innings. Mancini's solo home run in the first stood alone until he doubled in the ninth and scored on Maikel Franco's two-out double.

The final result was a ninth loss in a row and 16th in 18 games. Mancini said nothing about the club sinking.

Next up are four games in Chicago for a team that's 15 below .500. With a roster that's changing again.

Outfielder Austin Hays returned to the 10-day injured list yesterday with a strained left hamstring. Ryan McKenna arrived and was used as a pinch-runner in the ninth.

Starter Dean Kremer has been optioned again to Triple-A Norfolk, with reliever Dillon Tate coming off the injured list later today and Keegan Akin moving into the rotation.

The most immediate changes to the bullpen appear to be linked to health. Tate's hamstring healed. Hunter Harvey's oblique healed and he's on a rehab assignment. Mac Sceroler's right shoulder healed and he's facing hitters at the Sarasota, Fla. complex.

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias mentioned the trio yesterday when discussing ways to swap out relievers while having a full 40-man roster and limited choices at Triple-A - especially if the Orioles want to keep Norfolk starters in their current roles.

The team is tracking the non-roster pitchers who are impressing with the Tides, led by Konner Wade, who's allowed two earned runs in 19 1/3 innings after signing a minor league deal in February. Marcos Diplán, Dusten Knight, Manny Barreda, Mickey Jannis, Spenser Watkins and Fernando Abad also have the numbers.

"A lot of our 40-man players in Triple-A are a little beat up right now, and it's a short number of optionable options that we would like to have, but that happens to every team. We may even be above-average in that regard right now," Elias said.

"I think that will improve, but we see guys get banged up every night and so this is just all about depth and navigating the season. I would like to get the entire group healthy all at once, it would make things easier. We all knew this was going to be a very difficult season to navigate, especially with us having to worry about the health of these young pitchers, first and foremost, and continue to do so. But I think we have the 40-man roster flexibility and enough interesting performances and interesting arms off the 40-man roster here where we've got some depth there.

"I'm sure as we told all those guys in spring training, they're going to be needed to a man. I think it's going to happen at some point in time for a lot of them, so they've just got to keep putting their work in and pitching well at Triple-A and wait for the confluence of opportunity and timing, and I think we'll see some of that group. While we're not in perfect shape right now, I do feel like we've got an adequate amount of pitching depth in Triple-A and below."

Pitching prospects in the minors are pushed but not rushed. There's already been movement in less than two full months.

Expect to see more of it throughout the summer.

"I think we already are talking and we've seen Kyle Bradish promoted already, and we may be doing more big-name moves in the next week or two," Elias said. "But very, very unique circumstance this year having the (minor league) season cancelled. First and foremost, we wanted to make sure that we weren't missing anything. We just hadn't seen these guys play real games for a while. So despite the incredible talent that some of these players have, we on the whole erred toward lower assignments with the idea that, if we felt that they were ready, we would start challenging them.

"That's what we did with Kyle Bradish, who really missed the year that he normally would have been in Double-A, although he was at our alt site. So we're continuing to look at that. We've seen some really encouraging stuff so far. We've got an incredibly talented group of young pitchers. Keeping them healthy during this two-year coronavirus calendar is going to be a challenge, and it's something that's at the forefront of all our minds.

"I think that normally a month of minor league play you take with a grain of salt, but in a lot of ways this is the first data that we've gotten on some of these guys in well over a year and we've got to react to it, probably, a little more aggressively than we might otherwise."

Akin was optioned at the end of spring training to start for Norfolk, made four relief appearances with the Orioles and now is getting Kremer's assignment on Sunday afternoon against the White Sox.

"We very much view him as a starter," Elias said, shortly before the team announced that Kremer was optioned. "I think that the last couple weeks that he's been in the bullpen have been because we've had other pitchers that we wanted to maintain in the rotation. And frankly, we just need length, period. Whether that's coming out of the 'pen or the starting rotation is not that important in this case.

"There's going to be shared starting duties. We're trying to be mindful of innings totals, we're also trying to be mindful of development. We're juggling a lot here with this young group. And again, we're committed to youth and developing these players and seeing what we have, and we're going to be taking our licks as a result of that. But there's a reason that we're doing it and I remain responsible for and committed to executing the broad organizational strategy to get us back to the playoffs."

Of upmost importance is nailing the draft, and the prep work has started with less than two months remaining before the first name is called. The Orioles have the fifth pick.

"We're still in kind of the field scouting phase," Elias said. "The conference tournaments are happening this week. I'm going to one (today). The high school seasons are starting to wrap up. We're starting our small pre-draft workouts in the next few weeks in different regions. A lot of these plans were put on ice with the pandemic and not knowing what would be allowed by the league, but we will be able to have some small workouts.

"But we're far from getting all of our scouts and analysts in the same room and starting to debate players and line up the board and look at data and all those things that you do in the draft room. But a big part of that is the draft is so much later than usual, it's a full month later than it normally is, so we have a lot of time. So right now we're still in the process of gathering as much eyeball footage, so to speak, as we can of these players before they stop playing games."