Hyde happy with camp talent, Bradish excels in two innings

BRADENTON, Fla. – The chore of posting a daily spring training lineup and creating a travel roster has become a joyous exercise for Orioles manager Brandon Hyde. The number of prospects is unprecedented. All the concerns about the quality of play nosediving after the starters leave are beginning to wane.

Hyde talks about how the Orioles have the most talent in any camp since his hiring in December 2018. Now, he’s got to arrange it.

The outcomes never disappoint. Not when Hyde starts Gunnar Henderson at third base today, Joey Ortiz at shortstop and Jordan Westburg at second base, and when Adley Rutschman catches and hot-hitting infielder Terrin Vavra moves to left field for an afternoon.

And when the Orioles can put infielders Jackson Holliday, Connor Norby, Coby Mayo and César Prieto, and outfielders Colton Cowser and Heston Kjerstad on the bus to Bradenton for reserve work.

“It’s pretty fun every day right now, to be honest with you,” Hyde said this morning. “Yesterday, we had a lot of our guys who started last year, and today a lot of guys that are trying to make the club, and young prospects, as well as, nice to see Adley back there and Gunnar in. It’s been a fun spring to put lineups together.”

Henderson’s first spring at-bat ended with a ground ball single to center field. Kyle Stowers, serving as the designated hitter, followed with a single to right.

Rutschman walked twice and was removed for a pinch-runner in the fifth. Westburg led off the inning with a single and was picked off. Ortiz reached on an error and Vavra singled for his fifth hit in three games.

Westburg had an RBI double in the sixth, followed by Franchy Cordero’s two-run homer. Ortiz coaxed a walk.

“It’s a bunch of great guys, pretty plain and simple,” Henderson said. “We’re all really fierce competitors, but we all love each other and we want to see the best out of each and every person here, so we all try to do whatever we can to help and that’s ultimately going to win us a championship one day.

“It feels weird to say ‘younger guys’ here because I’m still pretty young, but it’s cool to see all the guys that got drafted and get in games, and just knowing I was in that position not too long ago.”

Henderson’s uniform was covered in dirt as he stood outside the clubhouse and met with the media. Exactly how he likes it.

“I always want to leave the field dirty. It means you did something,” he said.

“It was pretty fun getting back out there. It was really awesome being able to spend it with those guys.”

Henderson was held back due to some soreness in his wrist. He was cleared to play today.

“It was just a little bit of, kind of taking too many swings at the beginning,” he said. “Coming from the offseason, I took a good amount of swings, but getting down here in the heat, and your body wearing down, and keep swinging a lot, just kind of wore down a little bit and got a little sore. Wasn’t really worth keep doing that and going into the season not healthy. So, got over it now and I’m ready to roll.”

On the pitching side, Hyde is beginning to incorporate starters and relievers who had an upper hand in making the opening day roster. Bryan Baker and Mike Baumann came out of the bullpen today behind Kyle Bradish, and lefty Cionel Pérez will make his first appearance Wednesday behind starter Cole Irvin.

Grayson Rodriguez starts Thursday in Lakeland, with Spenser Watkins relieving him. Kyle Gibson starts Friday night against the Pirates.

Left-hander Drew Rom, who started Saturday’s opener, will pitch Thursday on the Camden Yards replica field. He’s scheduled to go three innings. Chris Vallimont will be the opposing pitcher.

Tyler Wells said this morning that he hasn’t heard when he’ll debut.

“You’re going to start seeing guys start trickling in there now,” Hyde said. “I think we wanted to look at a lot of the NRI (non-roster invite) guys and some of the guys early, the first couple games, and now, once these guys start getting a couple live at-bats or sim games under their belt, now you’ll start seeing those guys in games.

“I think as our starters start to get more innings, guys start going two, three, four innings on the mound, then it becomes a little bit of, you might have to get creative with some backfield games and things like that, just to get the amount of innings. But right now starters are only throwing two innings, so we can piggyback a starter behind a starter and be OK.”

Baker allowed three runs in the third inning, with three hits and two walks. Henderson made a diving stop to his left and threw out Jared Triolo to strand two.

The first five batters reached against Baker but he avoided further damage, striking out Miguel Andújar and getting a big assist from Henderson.

Henderson made another impactful play in the fourth after the first two batters reached against Wandisson Charles. He fielded a sharp ground ball, stepped on third base and fired to second for the unconventional double play.

Shortstop can wait. Henderson also is a difference-maker at the corner.

“I pretty much had an even split through my whole professional career,” he said, “so really enjoy it and wherever they want me to play, I’ll play.”

"It was nice to see Gunnar out there," Hyde said. "Good at-bat his first at-bat, also. Played really well at third base and got two at-bats and four innings of defense, and we'll continue to build him up."

Bradish was superb today, with the only two hard-hit balls in two innings finding Vavra. He disposed of all six batters on 26 pitches, 18 for strikes.

"I thought Bradish was outstanding," Hyde said. "Great to see, his first time out there, the stuff he showed. The velocity was there with his fastball. Secondary stuff was kind of hit and miss, but overpowering stuff."

Bradish struck out Canaan Smith-Njigba and Joe Connor back-to-back on sliders in the first, and his four-seam fastball was 95-96 mph.

Mixing in everything today, Bradish needed only eight pitches in the second to complete his afternoon. Ground balls to Westburg and Ortiz, a liner to Vavra, and 13 pitches thrown in the bullpen to build up is count.

“Felt really good,” he said. “It’s obviously great taking the mound for the first time in spring training, and had some success. Got to work every pitch. Threw a lot of good sliders, a lot of good sinkers. Had really good curveballs, too.

"Anytime you go out there and you have five weapons that are working, it makes pitching easier, but it is still early. There's still stuff to work on, so not gonna look too much into this, but it's nice to have some success early."

Bradish is trying to hold onto his rotation spot after a strong second half. Maybe in any other camp. This one is going to leave at least one deserving pitcher on the outside.

“I had a long shot at making the team out of camp (last spring),” he said. “My mindset was coming in and trying to make a name for myself and put it in the coaches' hands. I didn’t want to do anything to mess that up. And then, kind of the same thing this year. I’m going to do what I do and then it’s up to them.”

The Pirates scored twice off Charles in two-thirds of an inning for a 5-0 lead. Charles, a non-roster invite, allowed three hits, walked two batters and was removed after hitting Joe.

Baumann and Eduard Bazardo each surrendered a solo home run. Baumann struck out three batters in two innings.

The teams played the bottom of the ninth with the Pirates leading 7-4. The Orioles wanted to give Ofreidy Gómez an inning. The umpires left anyway, so catcher Maverick Handley called balls and strikes.

"We were told by the league that we could clear it by the umpires and pitch the bottom half of the ninth inning," Hyde said, "and I guess Chad Fairchild felt like we couldn't."