O's long relief depth includes two Rule 5 pitchers

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

April 03, 2021, 2:21pm

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If it's a long reliever you seek, check out the Orioles bullpen. They have several there, waiting their chance.

They include newcomer Adam Plutko and former starter Wade LeBlanc, along with the club's two Rule 5 draft picks - right-handers Tyler Wells and Mac Sceroler.

Plutko made his O's debut on Saturday and pitched very well in his long relief outing. He threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings and got the win against Boston.

Wells, drafted out of the Minnesota Twins organization, has not pitched in a minor league regular season game since Aug. 31, 2018 with Double-A Chattanooga. He missed 2019 after Tommy John surgery and 2020 because the minor league season was canceled. But over nine spring innings, he flashed a mid-90s fastball and gave up one run with 12 strikeouts over nine innings.

Sceroler, drafted from the Cincinnati Reds organization, is the nephew of O's broadcaster Ben McDonald. He has not pitched above high Single-A ball.

The Rule 5 pitchers await a chance. Their first outings will be their major league debuts.

During an appearance this week on the "Inside the Yard" podcast with O's broadcasters Geoff Arnold and Brett Hollander, executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias discussed the Rule 5 pitchers.

"It's nice they are both making the opening day roster. It's a great achievement for both of those guys. A great opportunity and very hard as a Rule 5 pick," he said.

"This is going to be a very difficult year to navigate, from a pitcher health and innings standpoint. So when we went into the draft, we targeted guys that we thought could provide length and be long relievers, maybe spot starters or fifth starters if things really go well. And so we identified both of these guys. They are both very big. They have a lot of pitches and they've thrown strikes and had success in the minor leagues. Obviously, they didn't get to play last year and missed out on some upper minors experience. And Wells, in particular, was coming off Tommy John surgery at the end of '18, so he hasn't played organized baseball in a long time."

O's skipper Brandon Hyde would like to see the Rule 5 pitchers get their feet wet sooner rather than later. He'd also love to be able to use them in a blowout game, whether the Orioles are way ahead or behind.

But the game situations they encounter might not allow it.

"I think in an ideal world, I would love to get both of them in a low-leverage situation," Hyde said via Zoom. "Sometimes the game doesn't work out that way. I remember last year, I was trying to do the same thing with (Keegan) Akin and threw Akin in the fire out of the 'pen and he did a nice job. You kind of try to set it up how you want, but sometimes the game doesn't always work out that way. We'll see, but I would prefer to put them in low-leverage situations to start out."

Elias said the youngsters showed their stuff this spring and earned their way on the roster. Now we find out if they can stay.

"They both showed up here with really good stuff," he said. "Their velocities were on the high end of what we were expecting, which is great. And Wells, in particular, has had an excellent camp statistically. Sceroler has been performing better of late, looking more comfortable. The stuff's been great the whole time. So we are kind of banking on the stuff and we'll see how it goes during the season.

"But I think if we are able to keep these guys throughout the year, they are good upper level starting pitching options for us going forward."

Going for a sweep: The Orioles have posted 3-0 and 4-2 wins in Boston. Now they go for a sweep this afternoon behind left-hander Bruce Zimmermann.

O's pitchers have allowed just nine hits and two runs in this series with four walks to 16 strikeouts. Their starters have allowed two runs in 11 2/3 innings while the bullpen has thrown 6 1/3 scoreless frames thus far.

Boston batters have gone 9-for-62 (.145) with two extra-base hits (two doubles) and are 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position,

Center fielder Cedric Mullins and catcher Pedro Severino have had a pair of two-hit games to start the year and both are 4-for-8. Maikel Franco, Ryan Mountcastle and Anthony Santander have two RBIs each.