Hearing from Wallace, Navarro and Joseph

Orioles manager Buck Showalter has stated on multiple occasions this winter that right-hander Dylan Bundy will be treated like everyone else at spring training. The top pitching prospect in the system won't be brought along slowly or placed in a separate group. He's completely healthy.

The governor is off, as Showalter likes to say.

Pitching coach Dave Wallace is eager to get a better look at Bundy, 22, who underwent ligament-reconstructive surgery on his right elbow on June 27, 2013.

"I never got a chance to see him healthy, so I'm looking forward to it," Wallace said. "You certainly know what he's made of because you look in his eye and he gives you those answers. He's a tough cookie, man. You can't wait to see him get going. He's full-go now and there are no restrictions, so we'll see what happens.

"The thing you've got to be careful of a little bit is how are you going to use him and how many innings he's going to pitch, and that's something that's going to be a topic of discussion with Dan (Duquette) and Buck (Showalter) and Brady (Anderson), all of us. When we get to spring training you just see how we want to move this thing along because we want to make sure he has a good, healthy year and he's healthy at the end of the year, more importantly. And he certainly could help us do what we want to do."

Here's my interview with Bundy that ran in December.

Infielder Rey Navarro is on a 40-man roster for the first time in his professional career. The Orioles signed him to a major league contract in December while other teams, including the Yankees, were offering only minor league deals.

"It's something great that happened to me this year," Navarro said at FanFest. "It's my first time getting a big league deal and I feel excited about that.

"I'm feeling happy to be part of the Baltimore Orioles and I'll just go into spring training to play hard and to open some eyes."

The Orioles prefer Navarro, 25, at second base instead of shortstop, where he's played most of his games in the minors.

"I started out playing shortstop, I signed as a shortstop, but they moved me to second base," said Navarro, a switch-hitter who batted a combined .282/.343/.435 last year with 34 doubles, two triples, 12 home runs and 57 RBIs in 132 games at Double-A Pensacola and Triple-A Louisville in the Reds organization.

"I love to play defense. I feel great at second base, too. For me, I don't have a problem because in winter ball I just played second base. I feel great playing both."

The 40-man roster is down to only three catchers, including Caleb Joseph, who batted .207/.264/.354 with nine doubles, nine home runs and 28 RBIs in 82 games as a rookie last season and threw out 40 percent of runners attempting to steal, according to baseball-reference.com

Nick Hundley is gone, having signed a two-year deal with the Rockies, but Joseph isn't assured of backing up Matt Wieters. Steve Clevenger also is on the 40-man roster and the Orioles will bring J.P. Arencibia, Ryan Lavarnway and Brian Ward to camp.

Joseph won't arrive in Sarasota with a sense of entitlement, not with only half of a major league season under his belt and his 29th birthday coming up in June.

"I think I don't change a thing," Joseph said at FanFest. "I come to spring training trying to earn a job. Whether Matt's ready or not, I'm not taking anything for granted. I'm not assuming anything. I'm trying to get ready, prepared, get strong, bigger, faster and come to spring training and do as well as I can and as fast as I can. That's going to be the goal and will probably be the goal for a long time now.

"It's going to be a different feel. I'll be in the main clubhouse for the first time in a long time. That'll be cool. It'll be different just knowing I've kind of been there and made it at least, so there's not that real anxiousness of having zero experience. And being familiar with the guys - not just in a spring training setting but in an everyday season setting - will make things smoother as well."

Joseph had trouble landing a spot on the 40-man roster because of his deficiencies behind the plate. The Orioles began to move him around in the minors, playing him in 24 games at first base, 20 in left field and three in right. Vice president of baseball operations Brady Anderson wanted Joseph to focus on his catching at Double-A Bowie, rather than transition into a possible utility-type role, and the rest is history.

Showalter stresses defense first from his backup catchers, and that's how Joseph stayed in the majors despite flirting with the Mendoza Line.

Joseph changed the organization's perception of him.

"I hope so. Absolutely," he said. "I felt like I played pretty well. I tried my best to control the running game the best that I can and work well with the pitchers. We had a great staff to work with. They pitched their rears off all year and it was easy to catch them and it was fun to work with them.

"Now I'm trying to fight the 'I don't know if he can hit in the major leagues.' It's always one or the other. I feel like defensively there are a few things I'd like to work on, and I think everybody has stuff they want to work on, whether it's me or Adam Jones or anybody. Everybody's constantly trying to get better at something. But I feel good about what I was able to accomplish last year behind the plate."

Joseph batted .317/.348/.603 with three doubles, five home runs and 12 RBIs in 18 games in August, and .080/.132/.140 with one home run and four RBIs in 17 games in September.

Did fatigue become a factor as his season dragged on longer than he's accustomed to in the minors?

"I didn't feel tired. I wasn't tired personally," said Joseph, who was 2-for-9 in the playoffs. "I just had mechanical flaws offensively that were just hounding me really bad and I just could not get out of it. I worked really hard this offseason to get back to how I hit in 2013.

"It wasn't like I made a huge drastic change. When you have a small mechanical flaw, sometimes those pitchers find it and they'll just eat you up and eat you up, and I just couldn't make the adjustment. But looking forward to this year and hopefully be able to do that."