Hyde on roster moves and more

The Orioles transferred pitcher John Means to the 60-day injured list this morning, clarifying his physical issue as a left elbow sprain rather than strain. Reliever Marcos Diplán had his contract selected from Triple-A Norfolk to leave a full 40-man roster.

The active roster was adjusted with left-hander Alexander Wells optioned to Norfolk.

Means went on the 10-day injured list Friday afternoon, retroactive to the previous day, but his absence was expected to be lengthy and he’s getting second opinions on the elbow.

Manager Brandon Hyde said yesterday that Means pitching again in 2022 was a “question mark.”

A Google search reveals that a sprain injures the bands of tissue that connect two bones together, while a strain involves an injury to a muscle or to the band of tissue that attaches a muscle to a bone.

“They’re going to look further in his elbow,” Hyde said today, “and he’s going to be out a while.”

Wells tossed two scoreless innings last night, removing him from consideration for Tuesday night’s start in Oakland. Spenser Watkins is expected to start the opening game.

Hyde is keeping the identity of Tuesday’s starter as TBA. He didn’t confirm whether the decision comes down to pitchers in Triple-A.

“Alex Wells won’t be available to pitch for a few days, so to get an extra arm, bring Diplán here,” Hyde said. “A guy who did a really nice job the end of the year last year for us, filling a variety of roles and giving us multiple innings. He had a good spring training, so we added him to help us out in the bullpen.”

Diplán appeared in 23 games with the Orioles as a rookie last year and registered a 4.50 ERA and 1.233 WHIP in 30 innings. He walked 15 batters. He’s pitched in five games with Norfolk this month and allowed three unearned runs and three hits with three walks in 4 2/3 innings.

Pitchers from last season, including Diplán, Watkins and Travis Lakins Sr., are getting another round of evaluations. Lakins was charged with four runs and five hits last night in one inning, and he let an inherited runner score.

“All three are a little different,” Hyde said, “but Diplán for me, I pitched him with a lead, I pitched him when we were down, he ate innings for us. Just want him to do what he did last year, which was be durable and cover innings for us.

“Same with Lake. Lake was put in a really tough situation last night. It wasn’t real fun. But I think both guys can do that for us and fill a variety of roles. Spenser, while he’s in the rotation as of right now, just be able to give us a quality start and be able to keep us in the game is the most important thing.”

Cedric Mullins and Ramón Urías are getting the day off.

“I’m trying to give guys rest when I feel like they need it,” Hyde said. “Hitters had a shortened spring training, also, and they didn’t have the normal five-, six-week kind of slow ramp up and then play a lot toward the end. Our guys played kind of early.

“I think you’re seeing around the league there’s a ton of injuries, so I think keeping our guys as healthy and fresh as possible is really important right now. You see the Yankees are rotating guys every day and we’ll be doing things similar to that.”

Hyde said he hopes first base coach Anthony Sanders and third base coach Tony Mansolino rejoin the team on the West Coast.

Kyle Bradish is starting today for Norfolk.

For the Yankees

Aaron Hicks CF
Aaron Judge RF
Josh Donaldson 3B
Giancarlo Stanton DH
DJ LeMahieu1B
Gleyber Torres 2B
Kyle Higashioka C
Isiah Kiner-Falefa SS
Tim Locastro LF 

Nestor Cortes Jr. LHP