Hyde explains plan for Wells (plus other notes)

The Orioles are building up Tyler Wells to be a starter again.

But they’re doing it in the majors.

The decision was made late last night to activate Wells from the 15-day injured list and start him tonight against the Blue Jays. The alternative was to keep him on a rehab assignment in the minors.

A few more important points:

* Dean Kremer is pitching in relief tonight, but it’s a one-and-done. He goes back into the rotation. This isn’t a piggyback situation because Wells isn’t stretched out to do it, and the club wants Kremer starting again.

* Wells won’t be allowed to go much further than the 31 pitches he threw Friday night at High-A Aberdeen on his lone rehab assignment.

* The Orioles have off-days on Thursday, Monday and Sept. 15. They can manipulate the rotation with more freedom.

“It was just the way our bullpen is right now,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “We discussed it in here, what to do with Tyler, just because he’s not built up and how long it’s going to take him to be built up to be a starter. Do we put him in our bullpen? Do we continue to build him up as a starter? We’ve been kind of juggling that for the last week or two, just because he’s been feeling good and pitched really well in his rehab appearance.

“So, we decided to build him up as a starter, but build him up as a starter here. And with the doubleheader, the amount I used the bullpen yesterday, to be able to have him pitch out of the bullpen today or to start the game was the decision we made late last night or early morning. Whenever we left here. But we decided to start him and then have Dean come in at some point. We’ll build up Tyler in the rotation from there.”

Kremer has posted a 3.22 ERA and 1.209 WHIP in 16 starts, averaging only 1.9 walks per nine innings, compared to 4.2 last season. He was scheduled to start tonight, and his routine is jostled with tonight’s maneuvering.

“Maybe a little bit,” Hyde said. “But I talked with Dean late, late last night about it. And it’s not like Dean’s leaving the rotation. He’s staying in the rotation. It’s more about possibly filling some innings for us today, having Tyler available, Tyler coming off injury. So, I talked to Dean about it.

“He handled it like a pro. He’s going to be just fine. It’s going to benefit us going forward having both of those guys in our rotation.”

Spenser Watkins left it today, along with the roster. He was optioned to make room for Wells.

“Unfortunately, you have to make a roster move in this kind of situation. Sometimes you option guys, like we’ve done recently, guys you don’t want to option, guys that have pitched well for you. The better teams have tough roster decisions, and Spenser’s done a great job for us this year. He’s done everything we could ask for and more, and I hope to see him back soon. But we’re going to continue having him start down there to continue to build up in case … a lot of things can happen in the next month.”

Hyde told Wells a few days ago that he wanted to be transparent with him. Wells was perhaps the most reliable starter this summer, and the club wrestled with the decision on how to use him with 26 games remaining.

“I laid out all different sorts of scenarios for him,” Hyde said. “Last night, late, late, I talked to him about what we were going to do, and he was great with it.”

Wells can’t offer much length tonight after working 2 1/3 innings at Aberdeen and being held to 31 pitches.

“It would be irresponsible of me to push him much further,” Hyde said.

Hyde wants to give Kremer a clean inning if possible.

“That would be best-case scenario,” he said. “The best-case scenario would be for Tyler to finish an inning. If I have to bring somebody in, I will. Dean was super-pro and I explained all that to him. Offered and asked to go in in that situation. I probably won’t do that, but we’ll see how the game goes.

“This is a little bit of a unique situation. Once I knew Dean was OK with this, then I felt good about it, because Dean’s pitched extremely well in the rotation. I’m not bumping him from the rotation in any means. This is more of shortening the game a little bit from the amount of bullpen usage we’ve had, and what to do with Tyler at the time. The guy coming off injury that hasn’t pitched in the ‘pen all year, to be able to get him up and get him hot and get him going, go into a game, we felt like was more beneficial to have a starter routine. And Dean, be able to get some time, too.

“I’ll have Dean do a starter routine, as well. But he’s not coming off injury, and Tyler is.”

Hyde is hopeful that Jordan Lyles will start this weekend against the Red Sox. Lyles returned to the clubhouse this afternoon and is scheduled to undergo more testing for a stomach virus.

“He does feel better, cleared to be in the building,” Hyde said. “He’s out there playing catch right now. We’re hoping for a side tomorrow if things go well today. And then we’ll take it day-to-day. But we're hopeful this weekend if possible.”

Lyles also had a stomach virus in June. The club is gathering more information.

“But today I felt better,” he said. “Hopefully, I’ll be out there shortly.”

There’s an opening on Saturday with Watkins gone.

“That’s a Hyder question,” he said. “I’m not sure. I would like to.”

Lyles warmed before Game 2 on Monday and headed back inside.

“Not good,” Lyles said. “We had a doubleheader, I was just trying to push through it, trying to get a couple innings. Just wasn’t myself and that was visible, so they shut it down.

“It wasn’t possible. I tried. Hopefully that situation doesn’t come back up, and more importantly, hopefully we can split a series today.”

The Blue Jays placed Teoscar Hernández on the paternity list this afternoon and optioned starter Mitch White. Reliever Zach Pop and catcher Gabriel Moreno were recalled.

Hernández was at the center of last night’s bench-clearing incident, with reliever Bryan Baker gesturing to him in the dugout and both teams rushing onto the field. The Jays were angry afterward about Baker’s antics, which they speculated could be caused by the Blue Jays putting him on waivers in November. Hernández homered off him Monday.

Hyde went to the dugout phone to get Félix Bautista warming and missed the exchange. He watched the replay later.

“Listen, Bake pitches with a ton of passion, a ton of emotion,” Hyde said. “He’s done that all year long, so, I don’t know what words were exchanged, I haven’t even talked to Bake about it. I just read what they’ve said. If they feel like he crossed the line, maybe he did. I don’t know that. But I do know the guy pitches with a ton of passion, and he’s done that against everybody.

“This team DFA’d him, too, over the winter, and so there’s maybe some extra there, as well. But I like our guys to show emotion. I’m not trying to show anybody up ever. I don’t believe in that. If they took it that way, I don’t think Bake was trying to do that. I don’t know.”

For the Blue Jays
George Springer DH
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 1B
Bo Bichette SS
Alejandro Kirk C
Matt Chapman 3B
Raimel Tapia RF
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. LF
Santiago Espinal 2B
Jackie Bradley Jr. CF

Alek Manoah RHP