Injury updates on Britton and Bourn

SARASOTA, Fla. - Zach Britton is nearing a return to the mound.

The Orioles closer no longer is experiencing discomfort in his left side and will play catch this morning. He appears to have dodged a serious oblique injury

"I feel pretty good," he said. "I think it's pretty much all the way gone. I think the plan is to play catch and then see how it feels and kind of goes from there. So, nothing beyond today. But I'm going to go out there, team stretch and then play some catch."

Britton said he wouldn't have been pitching this early in camp, no matter how he felt.

"Last year I think my first game was March 2nd or 3rd, so no," he said. "When we came to camp, we had about a week before we were in games, so that's a little bit quicker than normal. There wasn't any plan to throw before the 2nd or 3rd, maybe a little later."

The cautious approach proved to be the right approach.

"We had time and based on the innings I need now, we had all the time in the world to an extent," said Britton, who hasn't thrown since Monday's bullpen session. "Obviously, if this was the middle of March, then I think you're a little bit more worried about it, but I didn't think it was anything serious and it's gone away in about, what, four or five days? Just kind of reassures it wasn't anything really serious. Just some soreness that needed to get out of there."

Michael Bourn's injury is a greater concern. His broke the ring finger on his right hand Friday while attempting to catch a football as part of his workout in Sarasota. The Orioles were in Lakeland to play the Tigers.

Less than a week after signing a minor league deal, Bourn has been shelved for approximately a month and removed from the outfield competition.

"It wasn't football for fun, first off," Bourn said this morning while standing at his locker with a splint on his finger. "I was doing it for conditioning. It was just a conditioning drill that you do and the ball just hit be in the wrong spot. I thought it was a jam at first, but I kind of knew. It hurt kind of bad, more than a jam. And they showed me a little spot where there's like a little crack. Not a crack, but a little space where it broke a little bit, so I have to let it heal and I'll see what happens

"Of course it's frustrating. You think about it and all the stuff you were doing to get prepared, and I was ready to go and pretty much ready to get into games the next couple days and now I've got to wait a little bit longer. I've got to wait about four weeks to heal. I want it to heal correctly, but I want to push it, too.

"There's really nothing I can do about it. I wish I had a time clock so I could turn back the hands of time, but I know time rolls forward, so you can't look at it like that. Just push forward and we'll see what happens and we'll see what they want to do and go on from there."

Bourn's contract includes a March 27 opt-out clause, and it's less likely that a major league job will be waiting for him. He may not be cleared to play in games on that date.

"We'll see. I can't tell you right now," Bourn said. "We've still got four weeks until it heals. Once that happens, I'll let it heal and we'll see. If it heals quicker, I might play in a couple games. If it doesn't, I have to wait until it's healed to where I can tolerate it with the bat and I'll take it from there."

The fracture is located on the inside of the knuckle and Bourn has to keep the finger stationary and then regain the flexibility after removing the splint. In the meantime, he can continue with his conditioning exercises.

"Oh, yeah, I'll be in shape," he said. "That's not a question about that part. That part is no question, but just about getting into baseball shape. Seeing pitching in spring training is a big thing. That's how you get ready for the season, so with that being said, you want to see some pitching before you go into the season in a real big league game when it counts. Let's see what happens."

Being unable to swing a bat or throw a ball certainly is a glitch in Bourn's preparation. Conditioning only does so much.

"I'll see how much pain I can tolerate as time goes on," he said. "We'll see what happens. At first, I was a little frustrated when it first happened, but as time went on throughout the day, I can't turn it back. I know I wasn't doing nothing to where I was like messing around and joking around. Continue to work, and it happens."

The injury is flukish in nature. Bourn, 34, is no stranger to catching footballs. He's never sustained an injury from it.

"Thousands of times," he said. "Never had it happen to me, but it happened this time. That's the risk you take, so you have to live with it. I made this bed, so I have to lay in it."

Players routinely run pass patterns and catch footballs on the field as part of their workout.

"It's about like first-step quickness, it's about breaks out of a route, it's about little things you do when playing baseball, but you're just doing it in a different style," Bourn said. "Kind of keep your athleticism, and I'm a big person who likes to keep my athleticism because I think it helps me on the field a lot. Just moving around in different kinds of ways helps me be athletic when I'm in the outfield and I think that's a big thing. Especially as you get older.

"The things you have to do as you get older, you have to work a little bit harder and keep your body in athletic shape, because if you don't you're going to lose that first-step quickness. And I don't ever want to lose my first-step quickness. I think that helps me.

"I look at it, of course you wish you wouldn't have done it, but I wasn't thinking of it at the time. I wasn't thinking of getting injured at the time, either. I was thinking about doing conditioning. I actually finished the day off. After I did that I kept going and finished everything off and then I came back in and it was hurting, so I got it checked out."

Manager Buck Showalter never learned the identity of the player who threw the pass and he respected how teammates were so protective of their "quarterback." Bourn didn't offer up the name this morning.

"I'm not telling you that," he said.

Bourn played high school football in Houston, so he's no stranger to the sport.

"I did everything," he said. "I was like Reggie Bush. I was a receiver, I played a little bit of running back, a little bit of cornerback, a little bit of safety. So I played a lot of different positions."

Bourn stopped too soon to receive scholarship offers.

"I think I would have been able to get some if I had kept going," he said, "but I think I chose the right route."

No pun intended.