Notes on Bradish's upcoming rehab assignment, lineup construction, Santander's and Mullins' slow starts, Gillaspie and more

Orioles starter Kyle Bradish is expected to begin an injury rehab assignment later this week.

Manager Brandon Hyde said this afternoon that Bradish should be joining an affiliate within the next couple days. Double-A Bowie is home and seems like a logical spot.

Bradish is on the 15-day injured list after being hit on the right foot by a line drive last Monday in Texas. He’s eligible to return on April 19.

A bullpen session on Saturday left Bradish and the team encouraged. The bruise remains but his discomfort has subsided.

This is pretty much the extent of today’s news. The roster is unchanged since yesterday, and Hyde said Gunnar Henderson is just getting a day off against Oakland left-hander JP Sears.

Left-handed-hitting Adam Frazier is starting at second base, with Ramón Urías playing third. The Orioles will face at least two more southpaws in the series, with Thursday afternoon’s starter TBA.

“I’m just going to continue to match up and give guys days off when they need it,” Hyde said. “This is a little bit unusual, where we could possibly have five starters in a row, going back to yesterday, who are left-handed. Just wanted to give Gunnar a day today and then we’ll go from there.”

Anthony Santander had a run-scoring double yesterday but is batting .194/.250/.306 with no home runs in 40 plate appearances. Cedric Mullins is batting .189/.268/.378 in 41 plate appearances. Both players left spring training to join their respective teams in the World Baseball Classic, but Hyde isn’t blaming the camp disruption for the slow starts.

“I think it was an unusual spring training for that reason, but I don’t think it’s affected the way they’ve played,” Hyde said. “They both played in high-pressure games and got ready to play in a playoff-type atmosphere in the middle of March.

“Maybe Cedric didn’t have as many at-bats as he would have, but I think that he was ready to go when the season started.”

Santander had a strike called against him yesterday in the first inning as he lowered his hands in the box and alerted plate umpire Bill Miller to an apparent rule violation. Nestor Cortes already was set before Santander felt that he was ready to hit.

The pitch was allowed, and Santander struck out swinging on the next one, tossing his bat and helmet in frustration.

“The pitcher needs to wait for the hitter to be set, to be ready, and we felt like Nestor on that pitch … and I didn’t go back and look at it, but just my eyes watching, it (clock) wasn’t down to nine, Anthony wasn’t quite ready and it looked like Nestor was ready to go,” Hyde said.

“Same thing happened with (Anthony) Rizzo later in the game. And I think next time we’ll be a little bit more … I think Anthony, just speak up a little bit instead of just waiting to see what’s going to happen. Like, Anthony spoke up and said, ‘Hey, I need to get set,’ and they stopped it, and I think that’s just learning with the new rules.”

Reliever Logan Gillaspie is tied with Keegan Akin for the team lead in appearances with five. He’s allowed two runs and three hits with three walks, three strikeouts and a hit batter in 3 1/3 innings.

Aaron Judge homered off Gillaspie yesterday in the eighth inning.

“Logan had a great spring training,” Hyde said. “He’s had some good appearances and some not-so-good, but we really believe in his arm and he’s only got a couple months in the big leagues. I think from a stuff standpoint it’s going to really play here. There’s just some learning that goes along with it.

“You can’t make that pitch to Judge yesterday. Even though he walked (Gleyber) Torres when he came in the game a few days ago, for me that was strike three. That changes the inning if that’s called a strike. He’s going to continue to get the ball in big spots. We like his stuff a lot and I think he’ll do well.”

I wrote earlier today that the Orioles’ 15 stolen bases is their highest total in nine games, topping the 13 they accumulated in 2000, according to STATS. They had 10 in 1974 and 1970.

The speed gives Hyde more ways to manufacture runs.

“I like to run,” he said. “We’re athletic and we like to put pressure on the defense. We like to take advantage of opportunities and be aggressive. Adam Frazier, that was on his own yesterday. Smart baserunner. But we’ll continue to run when we get the opportunity.”

For the Athletics
Tony Kemp 2B
Ryan Noda 1B
Aledmys Díaz DH
Ramón Laureano RF
Jace Peterson 3B
Kevin Smith SS
Conner Capel LF
Shea Langeliers C
Esteury Ruiz CF

JP Sears LHP