Mychal Givens on rejoining O's roster and Hyde on Givens

TORONTO – Reliever Mychal Givens rejoined the O’s roster today, activated off the 15-day injured list. He pitched recently in the minors on a rehab assignment. Before that, his last outing was March 16 in spring training.

On March 30 he was placed on the IL with left knee inflammation.

Givens said his knee responded fine during his six rehab games with Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Norfolk.

“It was an adjustment, but each time going out there it was getting better and that was the progress with help of the training staff. It is good now,” he said.

He pitched in five Bowie games and one for Norfolk, going 0-1 with a 4.76 ERA. In 5 2/3 he allowed two hits and four runs (three earned) with three walks and five strikeouts. He recorded a 0.88 WHIP and .105 batting average against.

“Happy to be back and activated and see how this team is doing. Will just try to fit in and join them in how well they are playing.

 “I always bleed black and orange since I was drafted in ’09. Been very happy to again put on an Orioles uniform,” he said.

Givens said he has not had to deal with much in his career on the injury front and is hoping that holds up moving forward.

“Knock on wood, thank God that I haven’t been injured. This is my first time in nine years. Now try stay healthy again and do some good things for this team,” he said.

“This has been an awesome team to watch from afar and going to be awesome to be part of the bullpen. When I was coming up in this organization the bullpen was a strength, so seeing how well they’ve done it’s exciting.”

So Givens is about to make his season debut, but he said so far just being back in the organization has been great for him. The Orioles signed him to a one-year free agent deal in December with a mutual option for 2024.

“Been happy to be back in an Orioles uniform and see the fans. They’ve always backed me up on everything I’ve done in my career and always supported me and my family,” he said.

Manager Brandon Hyde talked about Givens return during his pregame media session.

“Well a fresh arm is nice to have right now,” he said. “Nice to have another right-hander that right-on-right, can get some good hitters out. But it’s hard to know what to expect. He hasn’t pitched in a while and pitching rehab games is not the same as pitching for the big leaue club, but hopefully he can come in and impact us right away.”

Hyde said if needed he could go “one plus” with Givens and ask him to get more than three outs but said not much more than that.

Hyde confirmed that he is very unlikey to use either Yennier Cano or Felix Bautista today after they pitched in both games of this series.

"We've got eight guys in the pen, not just gonna be the same couple of guys every night. Other guys have to fill those roles. There are 162 of these and hopefully other guys step up on nights they are not available," he said.