Showalter on Hardy: "Nothing's in jeopardy"

SARASOTA, Fla. - The Orioles held their first full-squad workout today and received more attention for the one player who wasn't on the field.

Shortstop J.J. Hardy's absence, at first believed to be caused by an illness, was due to lower back spasms that he said began on Jan. 27. He's undergone an MRI and CT scan and has a bone scan pending.

"The first one came back, it was good," said manager Buck Showalter.

There's cautious optimism in camp regarding Hardy's condition. He's experienced back spasms in the past, the most serious in 2014.

"Usually with J.J. and most players, especially when you've had them a while, you can kind of tell from their body language and their face and he's got a pretty good face about it," Showalter said.

"He was reaching for something at a little awkward angle right at the end of one of his workouts in the offseason and he felt it grab a little bit. The muscles kind of do things to keep you from doing something you shouldn't do. We've got an idea what we're dealing with and it's nothing that we haven't managed in the past. He wouldn't have played before March 5 anyway.

"I told Richie (Bancells) if everything checked out well, when can I expect him to be on the field playing and it's not that long after that, so nothing's in jeopardy. As soon as we get this last test in ... The one they had to inject dye on, that one came back pretty good. I'm not going to say I'm not that concerned, but when we get this other test back, I'll have a pretty good feel for what we're looking at. I don't want to jinx us by getting ahead, but so far so good.

"It's just something we want to take care of and not slow play and then a week from now, we start doing these tests. Let's just get it done now so we know what we're dealing with."

Hardy said earlier today that he wants to begin baseball activities in early March. The Orioles are hoping he can play no later than March 10.

"I got a date from Richie and the doctors that if everything checks out with the second test, when we could expect him to be playing in a game," Showalter said. "Let me get this last test before I start putting dates on it, but there's plenty of time, plenty of time."

Spring training is extended because of the World Baseball Classic, which mostly has brought complaints but actually is beneficially under these injury circumstances.

"Those are the good parts of it," Showalter said. "That's why I think Richie and those guys, not that they're always proactive, but they want to move quick and say, 'OK, here's what we're dealing with, here's the timeframe.'

"If something like this cropped up in the middle of March, we'd have a little bit different issue. Right now, barring the third test coming back something negative we're not foreseeing, then it's when and not if."

In the meantime, Manny Machado worked out at shortstop this morning and will stay at the position until leaving March 5 for the WBC. Ryan Flaherty and Robert Andino can play shortstop. The club hasn't reached out to veteran Paul Janish, who remains a minor league free agent.

"I just went over Manny's schedule down here," Showalter said. "Ryan and Robert and we've got some guys over (minor league camp). We're in good shape."

Machado is supposed to play shortstop in the WBC, but it's possible that he could slide over to third base after Adrian Beltre strained his left calf muscle. The Dominican Republic roster includes Jose Reyes and Hanley Ramirez.

The Orioles have their own health issues, but no one left today's workout with an injury. It seemed to run smoothly.

"Everybody left the building last night in good spirits and it carried over today," Showalter said. "If we didn't have the facility we had today, we wouldn't have been able to get some things in with the pitchers because it overlapped. We need five days to cover team defense with the pitchers before the position players get here, which usually happens, but now it's three and we're not going to turn them loose until we cover everything, so we had to use the small diamond and rotate the fields. But we used every field today and the half field and the cages, and we were able to kind of camouflage ...

"We got everything covered we needed to cover. Not many facilities could have withstood our needs today."