How Jason Garcia impressed the Orioles, plus Harvey invited to spring training

Well, that must have been some instructional league pitching performance. It was good enough to convince the Orioles brass that a young pitcher that has never pitched about low Single-A should be considered by them for the Rule 5 draft. A few months ago, then 21-year-old Jason Garcia, pitching for Boston, faced 18 O's batters in an instructional league game and struck out 14 of them. His hit list included Chance Sisco, Christian Walker and Chris Davis. When Boston did not protect Garcia on its 40-man roster, the Orioles put him on their short list of players to be potential Rule 5 picks. Concerned that he would not be around when they selected, the Orioles worked out a pre-draft trade with Houston, which picked fourth. Take our guy and we'll trade you cash considerations for him. The Astros did and the O's then added Garcia. Garcia had Tommy John surgery in May 2013 and by last June 13, he was back on the mound in a minor league game. In that instructional league game, he was sitting at 95 mph with his fastball and touching 98. His slider was in the high-80s. The arm strength is there. In his writeup on Rule 5 picks, Baseball America's J.J. Cooper wrote this on the right-hander: "Garcia was a relatively nondescript starting pitching prospect toiling in low Class A for the Red Sox this season when late in the year, they moved him to the 'pen. All of a sudden, his average fastball turned into a plus-plus heater and he touched 100 mph." Orioles national scouting supervisor Danny Haas has a history with Garcia. He was a top scout with Boston when the Red Sox drafted him in round 17 out of a Florida high school in 2010. Why didn't Boston protect Garcia? They must have figured he was so far from the majors that no other team would take him, or that even if a team did, there was no way he could stick with them all year. And the odds are long against Garcia being an Oriole for the entire 2015 season. But the Orioles took a flier on a kid with big arm strength and a nice slider that needs improved command. Whether he even makes it out of spring training with the Orioles we'll see. But the club was impressed enough that he's now on the O's 40-man roster and he'll report to Sarasota in February. Meanwhile, the Orioles are planning to bring their 2013 first-round pick Hunter Harvey to spring training as a non-roster invitee. That should be a great experience for Harvey, a right-hander who turned 20 last Tuesday. Harvey went 7-5 with a 3.18 ERA for Single-A Delmarva before his season ended in late July due to a flexor mass muscle strain. But Harvey is doing fine now and will not need surgery, just rest and rehab. Brian Graham, the O's director of player development, said Harvey is doing great when I interviewed him at the Winter Meetings. "Absolutely," Graham said. "He is 20 years old. He logged a lot of innings. It was his first full season. We were being very cautious. He's in a great position. He's healthy, he feels good, he is going to begin a throwing program and he'll be ready to go." Final word: I guess I can understand the frustration of some fans that the Orioles have been pretty quiet in terms of roster moves and additions this winter. What I don't get is the reactions that some have that because the O's haven't added much yet, they won't. There is plenty of time folks. And while Dan Duquette indicated they won't be spending big, that doesn't mean he can't or won't. It is a mistake, I say, to take Duquette at his every word. He also once said that Jim Johnson was a key part of the O's future at the end of the 2013 season and then traded him for Jemile Weeks a few months later. Do you trade core players for Weeks? There always seems to be a rush to judgement by some fans. They won't do this, they won't do that. Matt Wieters will be gone, so will Chris Davis. Maybe they will be gone, but over the years the club has retained some key players with big contracts at times, like Nick Markakis when he got his six-year deal previously, along with Brian Roberts and Adam Jones. Mike Mussina got away, but that was a long time ago. Since then, how many long-term O's or players they developed that were truly that good got away? The final judgement on this offseason and the 2015 Orioles season is not determined before Christmas.