Injury updates on Tillman, Britton and Ondrusek

SARASOTA, Fla. - A quick tour of the injury ward in the Orioles' spring clubhouse this morning didn't reveal any setbacks. The news was encouraging.

Chris Tillman will play catch again today, extending the distance on his throws, to further test the condition of his right shoulder.

"It feels good," he said. "Another work day today. Catch, a lot of exercise, shoulder stuff."

Tillman was shut down in December and administered a platelet-rich plasma injection in his shoulder.

"The problem early on was the recovery part," he said. "It felt kind of cranky after I threw, and the last two or three times it's been really good. So, yeah, made some big strides."

Zach Britton won't pitch in today's intrasquad game due to some lingering soreness in his left side. The Orioles are being careful with their closer to make sure he doesn't miss significant time with an oblique injury.

"Feeling better," he said. "We'll treat it again today and come back tomorrow hopefully feeling even better. Really good progress this morning."

Britton doesn't know when he'll be cleared to throw. There's no rush.

"We all agreed there's no reason to go out there and go through the motions and possibly do any damage," he said. "We have time right now on our side, so kind of just stay in here and treat it today and come in in the morning and see how I feel."

If Britton doesn't know when he'll play catch, he certainly has no idea when he'll be cleared to throw off a mound.

"I think they want it to be completely gone before we do that, so hopefully it's just a couple more days," he said.

"It's still there a little bit, but not as severe as it was, so we'll just kind of take it each morning and see how I feel and when it comes down to throwing off a mound. Once it's completely gone, we'll do that. So hopefully not too many more games."

Britton wouldn't have traveled to Lakeland or Bradenton for the first two exhibition games.

"Me and Roger (McDowell) kind of talked about the schedule, but it's kind of up in the air right now," Britton said. "It just depends how it feels. He wants it to be completely gone before we ever get in a game. And we have an extra week of games because of the WBC, and it's not like I'm a starter any more. I don't need 20 innings, so I think we have time on our side.

"Just kind of take it easy as games get started and then as I start feeling 100 percent again just kind of ramp it up toward the end of camp, which I think is fine for everybody."

Reliever Logan Ondrusek walked to his locker this morning without his right ankle heavily taped, but he remains shut down. He rolled the ankle on Feb. 18 during a fielding drill.

"It's feeling a lot better than it was," he said. "Every day making a little bit of progress toward being back and ready to go. I still have some soreness and obviously a little swelling and discoloration, but they said I'm progressing well and hopefully in a few days be able to get back on the mound. We're just kind of playing it by ear and seeing how each day is."