Hyde on Mancini and injuries, Santander on his return

CHICAGO - The Orioles decided to use an outfielder as the 26th man in today's doubleheader, with Anthony Santander ticketed for a start in Game 2.

Santander has joined the club from Durham, where Triple-A Norfolk is playing.

"With the rainout yesterday, the off-day tomorrow, we feel good about our pitching situation," said manager Brandon Hyde. "A little bit beat up from the position-player standpoint. There are a couple guys I don't want to go both games, so Tony's going to be in there.

"Looking forward to watching him play. He's been swinging the bat good the last week at Norfolk and obviously had a really good spring training, so happy to have him."

Santander is batting .277/.306/.404 with six doubles, two home runs and 15 RBIs in 23 games. He's 9-for-25 in his last five games and has multiple hits in five of the last eight.

"Very excited to be here and, hopefully, can help the team," Santander said via interpreter Ramón Alarcón. "The main thing was to work hard every single day so I can help the team whenever the opportunity comes."

The bat certainly has heated up.

"I think it's been going very well," Santander said. "Making solid contact, hard contact, working hard down there so when the opportunity comes to be called up, hopefully I can help the team."

Santander was optioned in camp after batting .333/.389/.697 in 18 games with six doubles, two home runs and seven RBIs. He didn't pout or vent over it.

"It's a positive thing to keep improving, to keep improving, to keep working on the development aspect of my career," he said. "So when that opportunity comes, when that call comes, I can be ready to help the team."

Trey Mancini returned to the lineup today after missing most of the last three games with a bruised right index finger. He'll be in right field this afternoon and probably will sit out Game 2.

"We're going to re-evaluate him after the first game, but it looks like probably just one game," Hyde said. "We'll see. I think he wants to, probably, play both, but it might not be the smartest decision. It's still a little bit sore. He's a tough guy, obviously. So he's going to face the left-hander (Carlos Rodón) and we're going to re-evaluate him."

Hyde said he's glad catcher Jesús Sucre stayed in the organization after clearing waivers. Sucre accepted an outright assignment to Norfolk.

"Very happy," Hyde said. "I was hoping he was going to get a big league job. If that didn't happen, then I was really hoping that he would stay with us, and he did in Norfolk. So yeah, glad to see that."

Alex Cobb is in Baltimore to have his back examined. He's still feeling some discomfort in the lower region and is undergoing therapy.

Reliever Nate Karns was removed from his injury rehab assignment at Double-A Bowie and will begin a throwing progression later this week or early next week.

Outfielder Mark Trumbo is going through running progressions and continues to throw, but he hasn't been cleared for full baseball activities.

"He's still just trying to let it rest and build strength around the knee," Hyde said.

As I wrote this morning, outfielder Austin Hays is taking batting practice in Sarasota and will start playing in extended spring training games this week.

For the White Sox
Leury García CF
Yoán Moncada 3B
José Abreu 1B
Yonder Alonso DH
Tim Anderson SS
Nicky Delmonico LF
James McCann C
Yolmer Sánchez 2B
Ryan Cordell RF

Carlos Rodón LHP