Notes on McFarland, Tillman, Jones, injuries, Joseph's RBI and more

BRADENTON, Fla. - Left-hander T.J. McFarland signed a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks this morning that included an invitation to spring training. He won't be returning to the Orioles, who designated him for assignment on Feb. 19 and released him after he passed through two sets of waivers.

McFarland is out of options and coming off a poor 2016 that included time spent on the disabled list with a knee injury. The former Rule 5 pick was 12-7 with a 4.27 ERA in parts of four seasons with the Orioles, who attempted to bring him back on a minor league deal for less than the $685,000 he would have received after avoiding arbitration.

Chris Tillman will throw off a half mound today and progress to a regular mound on Monday. He threw off a flat mound on Wednesday and didn't report any discomfort in his right shoulder.

Adam Jones isn't on today's trip to Bradenton, but he's fine. He leaves Monday for the World Baseball Classic and manager Buck Showalter said, "He's ready to go."

Minor league infielder Garabez Rosa was on the travel roster for today's game against the Pirates, but he stayed back in Sarasota after being hit on the left hand last night.

Infielder Chris Johnson is scheduled to play in Port Charlotte Saturday against the Rays after being hit on the right thumb yesterday. X-rays were negative.

Kevin Gausman is scheduled to start Tuesday against the Dominican Republic team that's playing in the World Baseball Classic. It's an exhibition exhibition, with the result not counting in the Grapefruit League standings.

The Orioles are starting Wade Miley today and they also brought Logan Ondrusek, Mychal Givens, Chris Lee, Jesús Liranzo, Jimmy Yacabonis, John Means, David Hess and Garrett Cleavinger. Ondrusek was sidelined with an ankle injury.

Ubaldo Jiménez starts Saturday against the Rays and Mike Wright starts Sunday against the Phillies in Sarasota.

Caleb Joseph hit a home run last night against the Yankees for his first RBI since spring training 2016 and 11 in the minors. To Joseph, it most certainly counted.

"It's in the box score, right?" he quipped. "I told you guys a while back I felt really good about stuff, I felt really good about my preparation. Nice to see the fruits of the labor come out."

Joseph didn't have an RBI last season in 141 plate appearances, so he enjoyed his trip around the bases, even if it came in an exhibition game in Tampa.

"Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah," he said. "That poor kid behind me, though, for the Yankees, he thought he hit one, too, and he had a major Korean-style bat flip and his barely got to the warning track. Poor guy.

"Honestly, when I hit them like that, I literally don't even feel the ball on the bat, but I knew right away. My first thought was, 'OK, what's the proper jogging speed because it's been so long. You don't want to go too fast, but you also don't want to go too slow.' That really was honestly what was going through my mind. I knew it was out and I was like, 'Hold on, how do I do this? How do I jog? What's the proper miles-per-hour on this?' "

Joseph's in no position to quibble, but he much prefers that the elusive RBI came on a home run.

"Yeah, I mean, come on, who wants a sacrifice fly or a jam job to second base with a guy at third?" he said. "I had a couple opportunities in (Clearwater) and I was like, 'Nah, I don't want a jam job to second base. I'm just going to go for a big fly here.' It's the Oriole Way."

Joseph, whose last RBI in a regular season game occurred on Sept. 11, 2015 versus the Royals, said he didn't receive the silent treatment last night in the dugout.

"Thankfully, it was a bunch of younger guys and they were pretty nice to me," he said. "I was just elated. I mean, it just feels good to finally ... You know you can do it, you've done it before. It's just like, let's just do it. Come on, this is ridiculous. And just finally be like, 'Finally. See? I can do it.' "

Asked for manager Buck Showalter's reaction, Joseph said, "He just slapped me five and told me 'Good job.' The normal stuff. And that's good. I would be worried if he went out of his way to ... like maybe he lost faith in me, but he hasn't. He acted like nothing had ever happened and it was normal."

Joseph drove in 49 runs in 355 plate appearances in 2015. He's known more for his work behind the plate - the reverse of his minor league reputation - but he's capable of offering more production than what he offered last summer.

"Like I've been telling Scott (Coolbaugh) and Brady (Anderson) and Howie (Clark) and anybody that's swung a bat before, a lot of stuff that I was really working on last year is just kind of falling into place when I couldn't put it together," Joseph said.

"I had the pieces of the puzzle and that by no means is to say you're going to hit a home run every game, but confidence is really high right now because those pieces of the puzzle are starting to fit together. They may not fit every time, but I've got 80 percent of the puzzle now and feeling really good about it."

For the Pirates
Starling Marté CF
Phil Gosselin SS
Gregory Polanco LF
David Freese 3B
John Jaso RF
Kevin Newman DH
Joey Terdoslavich 1B
Elias Díaz C
Max Moroff 2B

Gerrit Cole RHP