How do injuries keep hounding Hunter Harvey?

The Orioles avoided a roster move with Maikel Franco, finishing their road trip today with the veteran third baseman still available to play. Having a four-man bench enabled the club to be a little more patient with him.

"We got lucky there," said manager Brandon Hyde via Zoom.

Franco could have been trampled in the stampede to the injured list.

Reliever Travis Lakins Sr. moved from the 10-day to 60-day injured list yesterday, joining first baseman Chris Davis and infielder Richie Martin. Shortstop Freddy Galvis has stayed on the 10-day with his strained right quadriceps muscle.

Reliever Hunter Harvey is projected to miss at least a month in his latest setback. Not the elbow or oblique this time. He strained his right latissimus dorsi while warming up Wednesday night in Houston.

The Orioles have tried everything to keep Harvey on the mound. He couldn't be handled more carefully. But what's a club to do when a pitch thrown in an exhibition game strains an oblique muscle and a warm-up toss in the bullpen strains a lat?

What can be done is silencing any and all talk of Harvey as a potential closer. The Orioles just want to be able to call upon him, whether in high or low leverage situations, and trust that he can get outs and won't break down.

"A lot of us were expecting worse, to be honest with you, just kind of the way it happened," Hyde said. "It was the last pitch of his warm-ups to go in the game and he felt something in his armpit, kind of underneath in the labrum area. He came in and got checked out and saw another team of doctors yesterday."

Harvey threw down the ball, his actions caught by a MASN camera, and Paul Fry rushed into the game. Who knows when he'll pick up another?

"We're hoping he's going to miss right around a month," Hyde said. "For me, that would probably be best-case scenario."

The Orioles drafted Harvey in the first round in 2013 out of Bandys High School in Catawba, N.C., and thought he'd be the ace of their rotation. Tommy John surgery and other injuries lowered their expectations, but still led them to believe he could be a closer or dominant setup man. A weapon coming out of the bullpen. Worth the investment, which included a $1.95 million signing bonus.

Some of the stuff happening to him is just flukish and inexplicable. A line drive headed toward him in Double-A Bowie's dugout in 2018, an attempt to avoid the ball and a shoulder popping out of socket. A comebacker three years earlier in a March minor league exhibition game and a slight fracture of his right fibula.

He was 20 and ranked as the No. 2 prospect in the organization behind Dylan Bundy, who has his own injury history. Harvey already was shut down the previous summer with a strained right flexor mass while pitching for low Single-A Delmarva. And then came a liner off his leg and the media's digging to get confirmation.

So much more would happen to Harvey, the son of former major league closer Bryan Harvey. And here we are again, writing and talking about an injury and a timetable for his return.

Harvey is down to his last minor league option. He isn't eligible for arbitration until after the 2022 season or free agency until 2026, but he turns 27 in December. The math is as weird as some of the injuries.

Closer, setup or middle innings. The role isn't important anymore. Can he give the Orioles a full season? Can he give them most of one?