Hunter Harvey seeing specialist after latest setback

Former first-round pick Hunter Harvey will be examined by a specialist next week after experiencing more discomfort in his groin. The latest setback occurred after he pitched Thursday in an extended spring training game.

Harvey has been shut down for the third time because of the injury, which first surfaced late in spring training while pitching at Twin Lakes Park.

Manager Buck Showalter didn't say much about the club's concerns, but it's apparent that Harvey will be checked for a sports hernia. Surgery would sideline him for at least a month.

Showalter said reports on Harvey, 21, indicated that he was "showing symptoms of the groin again the next day."

"They're sending him to a specialist to see what's going on there, see if there's something more than groin," Showalter said.

"I know a little bit more than I'm talking about here. The groin's just not healing like it should. He's had plenty of time.

"I always look at it as, 'Here's the final piece.' He'll get going, depending on what they'll have to do to correct it. What we think they're going to find."

Asked whether he's optimistic that Harvey will pitch in 2016, Showalter replied, "I think so. There are a lot of leagues that go on in the year 2016."

The Orioles made Harvey the 22nd-overall pick in the 2013 draft out of Bandys (N.C.) High School. He hasn't pitched since July 2014 at Single-A Delmarva due to a strained right flexor mass and a fractured fibula.

The good news for the Orioles relates to Harvey's arm, which appears to be sound.

Harvey is 7-6 with a 2.87 ERA in 25 starts with the Gulf Coast League team, short-season Single-A Aberdeen and Delmarva.

For the White Sox
Adam Eaton RF
Tyler Saladino SS
Jose Abreu 1B
Todd Frazier 3B
Melky Cabrera LF
Brett Lawrie 2B
Jerry Sands DH
Dioner Navarro C
Austin Jackson CF

Mat Latos RHP