Notes on reliever innings and more with Mike Elias

When bullpen lefty Paul Fry struggled on Friday against the Philadelphia Phillies, it was a rare outing this spring for an Orioles reliever. Not in the results, but in the fact Fry pitched 1 2/3 innings. Most of the relief outings this year by pitchers who are not being stretched out have been one inning.

Fernando Abad has four outings of an inning or less each, Shawn Armstrong has two of those among three games. Eric Hanhold, whose good spring got wrecked yesterday, has thrown five outings of an inning. Tanner Scott has not thrown more than an inning, and neither have Cole Sulser nor Dillon Tate.

Earlier in camp, manager Brandon Hyde said he was looking to push relievers to two-inning outings - and perhaps even more - this season. The O's will need several multi-inning relievers behind the starters this year. Especially when pitchers go from 60 games one season to 162 the next.

Hyde said that process of extending relievers has happened in this camp.

"We are starting to do that. Guys are starting to go multiple innings," he said. "You're going to see some back-to-backs (pitching two straight days) starting next week. Just prepare guys for the season. But a lot of these bullpen guys, if they're not throwing multiple innings during the game, in their back fields stuff, they have been throwing multiple innings. So we're trying to build up, you know, whoever is in our 'pen to have the option to be able to go two-plus innings."

On another topic, Hyde talked about the process of paring down his roster to the final 26 that will start the season in Boston.

"When it comes to setting our roster, it's a collaborative effort with how we are going to set our roster," Hyde said. "And the front office, Mike, etc. is heavily involved, as well as our pitching guys. We talk about it on a daily basis. We talk about different scenarios, we talk about our starters, we talk about our relievers and how are roster looks right now and how it could look April 1.

"With two weeks to go, there are so many things that can happen. We just lost Hunter (Harvey). Injuries happen, things happen throughout the course of spring training. So I don't want to jump the gun on making quick decisions. Just because there is a lot of time."

The birthday boy: Right-hander César Valdez, the veteran Orioles pitcher from the Dominican Republic, is celebrating his 36th birthday today. In about two weeks or so, he wants to celebrate making a major league opening day roster for the first time.

"It would be a great achievement for me," Valdez said through team interpreter Ramón Alarcón. "I've had the opportunity to be invited before (to spring training), but never really made the roster on opening day. So hopefully that happens and hopefully I can achieve that this year. I'll be thankful to God, thankful to the organization for providing such opportunity."

Picking up where he left off last year, Valdez has thrown two scoreless innings with five strikeouts in spring games. That does not count however many innings he has pitched in simulated games or on the back fields at camp.

Before he pitched in the majors late last year for the Orioles, Valdez had not thrown in a big league game since Aug. 4, 2017 for Toronto at Houston. Hyde calls Valdez "a quiet voice" in the Baltimore clubhouse that commands respect for his time and experience in the game, which includes several seasons in Mexico and time in winter ball in the Dominican Republic.

Is Valdez ready to provide some veteran leadership when and where it's needed?

"I'm always able to help," he said. "I think there is always an opportunity to learn. I can learn from them and they can learn from me. And, I'm looking forward to playing games with my teammates. Whatever role, anything I can do to help out I'm willing to do it. I don't talk a lot, but I'm always open to help out my teammates."

Elias speaks: After yesterday's game and active day of roster news and moves, we heard from O's executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias. Here are a few of his notable quotes.

Elias on the addition of Maikel Franco: "I just think it makes our whole team stronger and our mix stronger. We're hopeful that he'll make the most of this opportunity. He wanted to play for the Orioles. He wants to be a part of this group. He's got a good relationship with Freddy Galvis already and it seemed like a good fit. It's definitely more competition for the guys that are on the roster, but there is still a lot of opportunity for all these guys."

Elias on whether Rio Ruiz and Franco can both make the opening day roster: "I think it's definitely a possibility to have any of these guys in an opening day mix together. It's going to depend on some other decisions that we make. And so it's hard to address that as a one-off on March 16. But certainly seems very possible to me that both those guys are on the team at the same time the whole year if that is what happens. So that is kind of why we like the signing. We see an avenue for a lot of these guys to blend together and create some options for Brandon and some competition. And we'll see where it goes."

Elias on how he rates Franco on defense: "He's got a very strong arm. He's played his entire career at third base and our scouts like what they see from him. He made a big step forward last year. He's got the tools to play a real strong, average major league third base. And he really did that last year for the Royals. So still a young guy. I think he's going to be coming in here in great shape and we've seen that already. And we'll see what we get. We're excited to get him out on the field. But he's got a tremendous arm and that's a good place to start for a third baseman."

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