More on Hardy's shoulder and Paredes' opportunity

SARASOTA, Fla.- The Orioles will try to make it through today without another player being pointed toward the disabled list.

Outfielder David Lough and shortstop J.J. Hardy have been crossed off the projected 25-man roster over the past two days. Catcher Matt Wieters already was bumped from it.

These subtractions won't destroy the Orioles, but it's not an ideal way to begin defending their American League East title. Alejandro De Aza looked perfectly fine in center field yesterday and can back up Adam Jones. Everth Cabrera also can handle center and he's more than capable of replacing Hardy at shortstop.

My first reaction when the Orioles reached agreement with Cabrera was, "They already have Hardy at shortstop." Little did I know ...

I don't know how many teams could lose their starting shortstop and replace him with a former All-Star and stolen base leader, assuming that Cabrera is the guy.

I'm not trying to draw a happy face on Hardy's injured shoulder. He's the leader of the infield and he's going to be missed. But he doesn't need surgery and the Orioles think he could return before May. It's just a matter of how quickly he can get ready once he's cleared for baseball activities.

"It sounds like he's got a strain to his shoulder and he needs a couple days for it to calm down and then do some strength exercises," said executive vice president Dan Duquette. "After that, he'll do some baseball activities, so I don't know how long that will be. It's going to be a few days, and fortunately we have some other players with us who can play the position. And we do have some depth in the infield with players we already have in camp."

Could Hardy return in April?

"We'll see how he comes along," Duquette said. "I understand he felt better the second day than he did the first day, so that's a good thing."

Remember when we wondered how the Orioles would make room for Jimmy Paredes? That's not an issue anymore. He's out of options, but not opportunities.

Subtract Lough and Hardy from the roster and the door opens wider for Paredes, who had another hit yesterday.

Paredes is batting .373 and leads the club with 12 RBIs, one more than Chris Davis and two more than Jonathan Schoop. He owns a career .242/.279/.330 slash line in 145 major league games.

"You've got to ask, is this guy morphing into the guy he's capable of being or is it spring training?" said manager Buck Showalter. "It's like fall baseball and spring baseball. You better be careful. But what else do you have to go by? And it's not like some guy we just claimed off waivers and don't know very well yet. We had him through a pretty good firing line in August, September, October and he's carried it from there.

"I feel a little bit better about that, but there's always that, when the sun comes up in April, there's some different things. Your experience tells you that. But Jimmy's worked hard on what are perceived as his weaknesses, but you still don't know. I don't care what happens, until they get some time under their belt in the big leagues, you don't know. He's a guy that we've got to make a decision on here."

The decision became easier with Lough and Hardy headed to the disabled list.

Paredes, 26, never has received more than 168 at-bats in a season, and that happened back in 2011 with the Astros. Since then, he's been selected off waivers by the Marlins, Orioles and Royals, and had his contract purchased by the Orioles.

"It's been real choppy," Showalter said. "That's why a lot of times at his age and experience level ... Jimmy's been exposed to a lot of stuff. If you could ever let the water level out.

"You can tell he's very comfortable here and not in a bad way. I think that's why he wants to stay here, because he knows what it looks like on the other side of the pasture, jumping around from organization to organization."